Short intro:Press releases were originally designed as a communication tool between company PR staff or public relations firms and the media. But now that online news sites such as Yahoo News and Google News contain such an abundance of press release content and RSS makes it easy to syndicate news, press releases can be effectively used as a direct to consumer communication tool.I am not a professional marketing specialist - frankly speaking all my life I was very far from marketing at all, and most of "marketing" for me was the word MLM ;-) which I do not like. However, it's been my passion at the same time. Only now I am trying to figure out my own way out there, and here are am I sharing some results. I had few products to sell (they had Web sites, and they are online businesses) and the owners were incredible believed that PPC/PPA will work for them the best. They spend tons of money on AdSense and Yahoo's Overture tools, but well -- the success was not quite there. They tried dozens of different ads/copy/wording/etc. Still not there. So then they finally allowed me to "play". I am learning stuff by "playing" around. Hopefully it can help. Sometimes it does not, but finally it always works -- it's only about timing ;-)Well, so I did try PR (press releases). I do not have English degree, and I am far from being good speaker/writer (you can tell!). But still. I was able to release few PRs with the help of PRLeap, PR, PRWeb and PRBuzz which were related to release of new version of my friend's software (which he sells on the web), and he did get four times much more visitors (and 2.6999999... times more sales!!!) than he ever did before. And he spent the same amount of money which he usually spends with PPC/PPA stuff.But please be aware that press releases can result in nothing much at all! - I did get that too 10 or 15 times I tried them.Each day, news sites are inundated with press releases about everything and anything. There are avalanches of useless “news” stories designed to promote a product, service or view point, and most are destined for the trash. There’s an old joke: if you don’t want anybody to know about a scandal, issue a press release about it.However, a good press release can work wonders (see above!). If your press release is picked up by major news sites, it will obviously generate links and attention.Quick tips from me (I got 4 press releases declined before I wa able to make it work):- Be relevant to your target audience - just have your audience in mind as your write the release.- Don't issue old news.- Make it personal, but remember to follow PR rules (write from the third person, etc.)- If in doubt, replicate what "big guys" did. Who are they? Just take a look of ads/PRs of huge companies in your sector/industry.To crown it all, few words more -- with web PR you can get a lot of SEO benefits, among which is "sharing" their nice PageRank, and being likely picked up with other website replicating news wire's content. Don't think it's a panacea, still. If you are satisfied with PPC - you are fine. But you can also enjoy PR at the same time, why not?Will increasing gas prices keep you from going on vacation? Answer here Switching to DISH Network - the reason now.Miscellaneous deals on The best of hidden

Labels: affiliate marketing, online marketing, PPC, PR, press release, web business