Online press releases can be an effective way of reaching journalists, bloggers and industry-related media sites. With online distribution your press release
may also end up on popular news aggregator sites like Google News and Yahoo News.

Still unclear about why you want to write an online press release?

1. To Drive Traffic to Your Site
A well-optimized press release can show up in organic search results as well as news results. And some services also distribute press releases as RSS feeds, which can get pulled as headlines into other subject-related websites. This means that someone searching for your type of products or services might discover you through organic listings, news listings or by RSS.

2. To Write the Stories You Want Told
As traditional print media struggles with cutbacks to funding, which means the loss of reporters and original, local news coverage, companies writing good press releases, with interesting and compelling stories, have an opportunity to attract online coverage as well as interest from journalists using online resources for story ideas and research.

Here are a couple of Online Distribution Services

PR Newswire: Big name, good reputation. Costs is $500+.

Business Wire: 8-10 percent less than PR Newswire. Also a big name with a good rep.

PRWeb.com: My favourite so far. This is an email-based service. Journalists and bloggers get a daily email with industry-specific or interest-specific headlines. Approx. $100+ depending on what type of features you want.

OpenPR.com: A free service. Ads are displayed beside your press release, which is okay unless your competitors advertise online.

Have a press release service to recommend? Post it here.