Big List of Free Press Release Distribution Sites

Hi,

You seemed to have over looked the Free Press Release Center: http://www.free-press-release-center.info

Thanks,

Gary

It was already in there. Look alphabetically. That’s actually one of the reasons I gave you a bit of hell regarding the blog issue… I don’t want to be promoting a site that does that. Do let me know what you ultimately decide on that one.

Great list. Thumbs up

Great! Thanks for the resources!

[…] startups don’t have the resources to hire a PR consultant, so how do you get the word out? Jason Falls’ post today is a great insider look at how publications and journalists like […]

Nice list. Would include some of this with analysis in my blog where i’m defining the step by step guide to making money online. and PR is one of definite strategies to be kept as part of overall plan.

Thanks.

[…] Free Press Release Distribution Sites […]

[…] reading this article on NakedPR blog about Free Press Release services, I decided to check some of these sites out a little more in depth. When I write an article, I […]

[…] just starting up and have some decent writing chops, Jenn Mattern of Naked PR assembled a Big List of Free Press Release Distribution Sites, as well as some warnings and guidelines for enlisting their services. Very useful. Share and […]

Hello, Thanks for this list. I have used this list to prepare a list of 55 free press release distribution websites. We also offer service for posting to all these websites for a modest fee. Please visit this page on www.pressreleasepoint.com and tell me if this service is useful or not. Thanks for your feedback in advance.

List of lists: free press release distribution website lists on the web…

PRWeb left a big hole when the free press release distribution website changed to paid model by starting to charge a double digit fee. This left many PR professionals sobbing. Nothing could fill the void left by PRWeb, but there are already many free p…

Glad I could be of help with my list, but it sounds like you actually missed the entire “lesson” behind the post if you’re offering a service to submit to all of them. That’s a pretty useless service, and definitely not targeting anyone who knows enough about PR to be using it.

Thank you for this list, and the original post. It was exactly the information I was looking for.

Jen,

I don’t entirely agree with your theory on listing with just 1 or 2 sites. Here is why…

Part of the algo for how Google news determines the rank of news stories on their site is based on the number of times a story is mentioned by sites that feed Stories to Google news. This seems to apply to press releases as well.

So if you feed your press release to PR sites that feed Google news, each of those releases helps push you up in the Google News search engine results for that story.

That’s an interesting thought Phil, but my experience doesn’t show that. As far as Google news goes, I only worry about submitting a free release to PR.com, and I’m always picked up very quickly and ranked very well for my targeted terms there (rarely not first, nonetheless the top three).

If people really are that concerned, they’re better off just paying for an upgraded package somewhere than committing more time to submissions themselves (or extra money anyway in hiring someone else to do it for them).

Mass submissions to free sites always makes a company look nothing but cheap to me. If they had faith in their news value, they’d submit the release manually to targeted members of the media or via a larger paid service if they’re worried about reach and rankings online.

Just my $.02.

Jen,

I guess we have each seen something different from Google news. My experience seems to be entirely different from yours. That does not mean either of us is wrong, it just may be that we are each looking at the results differently.

I run several press release distribution sites (One of the sites on your list uses my software) I’ve played around with this multiple submission technique quite a bit.

Most of the time when you do multiple submission of the exact same release to many press release distribution sites, Google news will default to showing only one of the releases. So the “cheap” appearance of multiple releases for the same topic should not deter you from submitting multiple submission and experimenting with this technique.

However, with that in mind, here is something for you to try. If you have a release that contains a highly competitive Google news keyword such as “eBay” submit it on a Monday and note the position it appears in. On Wednesday submit the same press release again to 7 or 8 of the sites on your list that feed their releases to Google news. When the releases all hit what I think you will see is only one of them will appear in Google news (it may even be the original release from Monday), but it will appear higher in the Google News serps than your original single release appeared on Monday. (Keep in mind this experiment is not going to work if some major eBay related news event occurs between Monday and Wednesday)

The other factor with submitting to multiple press release sites is that many of these sites (including mine) have large lists of unique subscribers who have signed up to be notified via email when press releases containing specific keywords or topics are submitted. These lists are unique to each site. Sometimes they are quite good and sometimes they are not, but if you don’t submit your release you’ll never know.

Just my $.01

So you’re saying you have a vested interest in wanting people to submit to multiple sites, to better the chances they’ll submit to yours?

When I say it makes someone look cheap, I’m just talking about to me personally. I always view all results, and never let them leave their otherwise omitted ones out. They’re all still in there; it’s how you view them. The fact that it even tells me there are omitted results is the first flag, b/c blogs picking it up usually won’t appear there at all. Also, I’ve found that specific sites pretty much always “overpower” others, regardless of the number used. For example, PRweb (while not free) has in every instance been listed before any other that I’ve had a client use (or emediawire through them). Just something on a similar note to consider….

Unfortunately, that’s not an experiment I’d try, simply because it’s bad practice to re-release something and call it “news” again like that. And since I usually get a #1-3 spot, that wouldn’t leave me much room for comparison, if any, beyond using a single site which I already know gets the job done.

I also wouldn’t let my clients worry much about those unique subscriber lists. Unless it’s a niche news distribution site, there would be little value in spending that much time posting to all of those sites just for that added benefit… the ROI just isn’t great enough to justify it compared to spending that time and/or money elsewhere, such as on manual distribution and pitches to specific outlets. Again, if they want major media on a subscriber list, they’ll be smart enough to pay for a larger site or service or to go directly through something like the Associated Press. If they’re primarily targeting bloggers, they’re better off worrying about just getting into the news engines and having the release submitted to social media services where bloggers are constantly going to look for news and things to talk about… better return and reach for the time spent.

You’re free to disagree obviously, and considering your business of owning distribution sites, it’s an understandable position. But as an online PR specialist who’s tried just about every distribution model in the book, I tell my clients and blog readers what works the most effective online from a lot of experience doing what I do.

Jenn,

Actually, I’m not saying I have a vested interest in people submitting to multiple press release sites. The last thing a free pr submission site wants is content that is not unique. It means the site has to share the traffic for that release with other sites. That is a bad thing when your revenue is based on traffic.

However, from the perspective of a person who drafts and submits a lot of release each month, I get more traffic for my clients if I distribute it over a wider number of distribution points. So as you can see, there is a bit of conflict between the two hats that I wear.

Anyway getting back to the original point of this thread. I did a pr campaign for a client in 2005. A pr firm that I am not affiliated with that seems to also represent one of my client’s competitors actually wrote up a review of the campaign. You can see it here: http://tinyurl.com/yvhcje

The review mentions seeing duplicate copies of the same release, but what it does not mention is that many of my client’s competitors were pushing out their releases at the same time that we were. In many cases using 1 or 2 of the same free press release distribution services that we were using. The only reason our releases consistently ranked higher for this news story in the Google news serps was that there were more versions of our releases hitting the Web than theirs which pushed ours to the front of the search results for this story.

So I’ve seen the multiple listing technique work and utilized it. Yes there were other factors involved in the success of this particular campaign, but a big factor in keeping our releases at the top of the Google news serps and infront of the media was blanketing the Web with our releases.

On a side note, that Martha Stewart poncho pattern has now been downloaded about 2.5 million times and is still the #1 pattern distributed by my client.

At this point I guess we have to agree to disagree on the benefits of using multiple free pr listing services. You have a formula that works for your clients and I have one that works for mine.

The thing is, after all this discussion and probably years of experimenting with optimization for Google news, they could change their algo tomorrow and none of this would matter

I’ve enjoyed our conversation. Thanks for an interesting Blog.

Kind Regards,
Phil

I found that most of the press release sites in the above given list are either not working or have error. Therefore they are of no use. Plz provide a good and updated list of press release sites which will be of great use.

Sujay,

Actually, the vast majority are working perfectly fine. I just checked them all individually again a few days back due to someone letting me know there were issues with two of them. One of them may be a temporary error, so I won’t be removing it from the list right away just to have to re-add it. The other is one I have to look into more when I have some free time, but it’s nothing error-related. If you’re getting errors on that many links, the problem is on your end and not with the sites I’m sorry to say. Hopefully you were just having a temporary connection issue, because things are still fine on this end (just checked a few again to be absolutely certain).

This is a free online press release distribution service: http://www.PressFlow.co.uk.

Nice List!

Please include http://www.freepressindex.com/ also in the list

The site has been added. Thanks for the suggestion Noman.

Thanks Jenn!

You seem to miss Free Press Release Submit - http://www.pressrelease.com.np/submit-release/ in the list.

Thanks for this superb list!

[…] Mashable, PressReleasePoint, DP, NakedPR 0 comments […]

Missed us, too.

http://www.MediaSyndicate.com

Nice list…

I usually use http://emeapr.com/en/

Excellent List!!!! Thank you!

Meredith Cummings
CEO
MASS Wholesalers

Is press releasing helpful to improve website ranking?

It can be, but not generally just because of a single release, unless it had extraordinary pickups. Long story short though… if improving your rankings is your primary motivation, you really don’t have any business using press releases. They’re about exposure and news dissemination. Other benefits are a nice side effect, but focusing on them exclusively contributes to press release spam on the Web, and it can damage a site’s reputation over time (people see so much “junk news” from you that when you have something important to say finally, they just naturally ignore you).

Hello Jen,

Thanks for the list and information. Generally speaking, I agree with your point of view on paying for press release distribution services. However, I tend to disagree with your stance on multiple submission and offering press release distribution services to others.

I have experimented with a method similar to that which Phil uses for his clients. I create 2 or 3 slighly different versions of a press release, and submit each to a variety of distribution sites and networks. The reason is because certain aspects are viewed differently (i.e. more important than others) according to which distribution network a person works with. I like to appeal to a wider readership, and also have the benefit of multiple listings in the serps.

As I’m sure you also know, some distribution networks and sites rank more highly than others, but what I’ve found is that this really depends on what keywords and industries are chosen for the press release. And also, with all of the new features being added for personalized search, universal search, Yahoo’s new “search assist” application and so on, serps may appear different to individual searchers (some sites or resources may appear to rank higher or lower per each individual. There are just so many factors to consider these days. This is why I personally choose to submit my releases to a variety of sites.

I think a person’s needs also depend on the use or rejection of these types of methods. Mine is a very competitive industry. If I could be satisfied with only one listing in the serps, and be assured that this one listing would rank highly across all search engines, applications, platforms and personalized searches, I’d be fine. Unfortunately, even with the best SEO efforts this can’t be guaranteed (especially not within the home business industry). I therefore like to represented as often as possible. That’s the simple equation - the more listings in the serps, the more exposure my release gains and the higher its chances of success.

Now, I don’t recommend submitting the same press release on different days if one can help it (in my most recent case, I began submitting very late in the evening, which carried over into today). If one must release on different days, I definitely do not recommend waiting several days. Like you, I feel that it is no longer news once it has been released. Then again, I digress. As I’ve said, my particular industry is very competitive. What I consider news at a particular time might have already been released by competitors 10 times over (not necessarily quality releases, but releases none the less).

On the topic of offering distribution services for a fee…I am, among other things, a ghostwriter. Part of what I do is creating and distributing press releases for other companies and entrepreneurs. Is it wrong or a rip=off to offer such services? Not if the customer finds them beneficial. I personally prefer to write and distribute my own articles and releases. But then, I work from home so I have ample time to do so. Many other professionals and entrepreneurs do not have the time, or are not as fluent in their writing style as effective press releases require. This is why I offer these services. Offering press release distribution services is, to me, just like offering any other kind of marketing services. Marketing is something we can all do ourselves, but many just don’t have the time, funds or experience to do a good job and make their releases effective (and if not careful, they can actually damage their company’s reputation with junk releases). What they pay for is the convenience and experience, just as with any other service. I don’t think that is idiotic. I could probably fix the kitchen sink’s leak myself, but how long would it take me to learn how to do it properly (and how high would my water bill be by the time I do learn), how much would it cost me for the necessary parts, how long would it take to actually do it (vs. someone who is trained and experienced), and what if I screw up and cause a worse problem? On the contrary, it is the same as hiring a professional SEO or marketing firm (which many of the largest and most successful corporations in this country do on a regular basis). People want the best for their releases and companies (or else they wouldn’t be creating a release). IF that means outsourcing to get the job done right, and experiencing better results from that professionally-written and mass-distributed release, then so be it. At the end of the day, we are all after better results. I’d rather look like an idiot by either paying for or offering such distribution services) but have exactly the results necessary to boost my business, than feel like an idiot without those results.

Just my $.02.

Jennifer,

The hidden gem of all these sites is Press Release 365. They have everything that all the other sites have, plus more.

Quick list of features others don’t have:

-within 1 hour release available
-geo-ip targeted stats (what CITY are my readers in?)
-best seo backlinks (yes, backlinks REALLY matter)
-rewards program
-permanent google sitemap inclusion
-sent to google news and the most popular blog networks

-Steve

I’m not sure if I’d call it a “hidden gem” among these sites. This is a listing of free press release distribution sites… not paid ones. Unless I’m missing something, I don’t see a free distribution option; especially one with the features you’re mentioning.

And honestly, I’m not seeing anything in the upgrade packages that a site like PR.com (the one I generally recommend) doesn’t already offer (also with upgrades).

Hey Jennifer,

You gotta see how the rewards program works. All users get signup bonuses. I’ve never had to pay. Not sure how PR.com works, but 365 is very user-friendly.

Cheers
Steve

very helpfull lists.

Really i was looking for same.

Great List!!!

James

Great list I would like to and one www.myfreepr.com It’s a great distribution site and they really post your press release fast.

I didn’t see prweb.com. I supposed that prweb.com got the WebAwards last year.

You don’t see PRweb, because they don’t belong on this list. Read the title again. PRweb is not a free press release distribution site.

Finally found your list after going through a few pages of googles listing free media/pr sites. Wish your list had been first! We have only used the free pr sites once with great results - amazingly, having never tried before. Had success with pr-inside.com and openpr.com. We will try a few others with a Valentine’s Day release. You don’t happen to have a list of blogs to start to use for ’social networking’ which seems to be one of the major keys to internet marketing these days. Our site is to help Singles Meet their Match, dating, using the SHI Symbol. (There is a .com and a .co.uk site too) Here’s hoping you can help - as you can gather we are very new at this!

Great find for some great exposure.
Thanks Jenn.

Hi Jenn: I found your site on a search through yahoo. I’m in the midst of my first book marketing campaign, so I was really glad to find your articles! I’ve posted your link on my blog so others can find you. Wonderful resources, thanks! http://www.ajourneywelltaken.blogspot.com
Elaine Williams

[…] of traditional PR release/publishing services is too high for your budget, there are many “tier-2” online services that are more cost-effective and can be valuable in achieving your SEO […]

[…] the company I formerly used for free press releases began charging for all releases this year.  Does anyone know of any other alternatives that are […]

[…] discusses the value of press releases (they do have value, you know) and how to use the impressive list of free press release distribution sites that she’s […]

This list is perfect for my growing press release blog. Thank you.

Great list of free press release. I have just noticed today that PRbuzz.com is not anymore free.
They start to charge $49 per submit release!

I just found your web site for the first time and I think it is marvelous — an extremely valuable, well written and well thoughout presentation. Your list is a very good tool also and the comments very enlightening. I learned a lot. I just added you to my favorites and will be back.

Please add PressMediaWire.com to the free press release distributions list.

Thanks!

I used some of the sites on your list to get PR for my new website http://guidetosellingabusiness.com and the list was great. However, I noticed that PRbuzz now charges $49 to submit a release and I think that it is worth noting that prfree rerquires that you sign and fax back an agreement at the end of the process.

Thanks,
David

Also, a couple of other free press release sites that I know of are:
http://www.pressmediawire.com/
http://prcompass.com

Thanks again,
David

Thanks for good pr website list.

It’s not big. This is big: londonwebdesignservices.com

David, please don’t leave comments on this blog just to promote your own links… especially when they’re entirely irrelevant to the post. As you’ll see, the links were disabled. The URL you provided wasn’t even to your own press release list. And when I looked at that press release list, it doesn’t even compare. This is a list of free press release distribution sites… targeted to an audience looking for something specific. Your list was just a general list of free and paid, and even included sites that weren’t actual press release distribution sites at all (but more like niche outlets that just happen to accept press releases). I applaud you for creating your own list. Just don’t try to spam it here.

[…] are many other online news wires, as well. On her Naked PR blog,  Jennifer Matten provides a Big List of Free Press Release Distribution Sites here. Steve Mullen gives his evaluations of some of the more popular online news services on his […]

[…] are many other online news wires, as well. On her Naked PR blog,  Jennifer Matten provides a Big List of Free Press Release Distribution Sites here. Steve Mullen gives his evaluations of some of the more popular online news services on his […]

Very useful. I’m a former pr/marketing/advertising professional, and always did things the “old school” way. Now in a position to submit press releases in a new and timely manner, and this has helped greatly. I had been looking up sites for submission, all of them requiring payment (but nowhere on the sites does it say how much), and this list will be a great starting point for us. Thank you for your help - can’t wait to give it a try. Think I’ll submit to all of them … just kidding.

[…] and news agencies. For this to work you really need to have something news worthy. Here is a list of press release distribution websites and here is how you should write a press […]

Hello Jeniffer, I found your information here very useful but there is just one question I have and that is why you find it silly to submit a press release to as many sites as possible. Personally I think the most important part of any good release is the content, it must be news worthy, and if it is then the whole world should know about, and the force of many is by far stronger than that of one, when I post to multiple sites I do this for several reasons, some of these sites I post to does not offer backlinks but they have a large distribution of lets say rss feeds, some as expected does give an anchor text backlink which is good for SEO, some also provide the possibility of getting the release into Google news which is quite good and the rest are out there somewhere. Before I conclude let me say that I agree one should not use software to post, and a noted reason is that many of those distribution sites have specific requirements for posting, so your auto submit is worthless if they do not meet the requirements. just to prove my point anyone can type in Travelrobe in your search box to see my press releases. Thanks Mark

Mark,

I’ve talked a bit about it in other posts here in the past, but what it all comes down to is the ROI. Additional sites beyond that first couple don’t add enough EXTRA benefit to justify the cost of the time you’ll spend. That time should be put towards more useful tasks, like manually targeting outlets.

Thanks, Jennifer for taking the time to assemble this list.But why wouldn’t you want to get your press release out to as many press release sites as possible? Doesn’t it give you a better chance of getting your products noticed?

No, it doesn’t. See my last comment. I just answered the same question from someone else.

Hi,

Here another set of PR sites
http://www.freshnews.com/
http://www.bizeurope.com/pressrelease.htm

You can also submit to the technology press release site http://www.techprspider.com

Hi Jennifer, Can you please explain why you deleted our last comment requesting inclusion of our site pressreleasepoint.com in your list of sites.

It wasn’t “deleted.” It was never approved. Why? Because I didn’t appreciate the obnoxious spam-like / sales pitch nature of how it was written. Your link is already added to the comments here (why I’m not allowing it in your own comment as well). It will get added to the list if and when I choose to next update the main list when I make time to fully evaluate it first… just like any other recent suggestion - not a high priority.

Hi,

Ok I understand. All I did is try to explain you why you should include our site and why it will help the readers who want to use your list. Ofcourse part of the reason is we want to promote our site but we did not make any false claims in that comment. Perhaps you did not like the fact that we offer service which is not in favor of your debatable opinion. We thought that you can help us grow by listing our site on this list. Anyway we will look at other avenues. Thanks for your time responding to my request/comment.

Webmaster,
PressReleasePoint

Be realistic… by that logic, I wouldn’t even have this list, now would I? All of these sites go against my “debatable” opinion equally. And yes, it’s obvious you were just about promoting your site. That’s precisely why I didn’t rush to give you link juice (there are also still others suggested before yours I believe that I haven’t had time to deal with). It wouldn’t be fair to visitors here (the only ones I care about) if I didn’t find time to look into the sites before adding them to the list - and priority #1 when I DO have time is to go through the existing list first to make sure none of the approved sites have changed.

Really a nice list. I am planning to publish computer security related Press Releases and Articles in my EZ Encrypt.com website. I would welcome your comments.

Thanks,

Yuvaraj
www.ezencrypt.com

Forgot to tell, it would be for free