THE PR HELP! Newsletter for August 17, 2009 - From BigNews.biz

A little help getting more people to pay attention
to your press releases.

In this issue:
1. 8-17-09 UPDATE - List of Top Free Press Release distribution sites
2. SPAM on press release sites - Why you should be concerned
3. Sending your Bignews.biz press release to Twitter.
4. Just 200 words is all it takes to get published
5. Watch the dates on your press releases
6. Need some help with your online PR strategy?
7. More good Stuff!!
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1. 8/17/09 UPDATE - List of Top Free Press Release distribution sites
More big changes to the list. We’ve gone from 18 sites previously listed, d own to 15. See: http://www.bignews.biz/blog/?p=6 . This latest evaluation of the list included posting several releases over tha pst week as well as reviewing past performance of releases that have been posted over the past month. As a result, I pulled 3 sites from the list that claimed to post free releases, but never do. They use the “free press release” claim to drive customers to their paid releases.
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2. SPAM on press release sites - Why you should be concerned
Another huge problem that I’m seeing on the BigNews.biz site as well as the other press release distribution sites, is the huge amount of SPAM that is being submitted. Hundreds of articles and advertisements that are not press releases are being submitted. Some contain content that has been stolen from other sites. As this SPAM has proliferated, publishers are becoming much more strict about what is acceptable and many are no longer offering to publish releases for free. I’m getting swamped by this unacceptable content.

If you are not sure that your content qualifies as a press release, please review: http://www.bignews.biz/blog/?p=13

On BigNews.biz we’ve started to become much more strict about what content we will accept. Please review our latest terms of service page at: http://www.bignews.biz/?go=terms . If you have any questions, drop me an email at phil@tias.com

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3. Sending your Bignews.biz press release to Twitter.

As I had mentioned in the last newsletter, you need to get a twitter account if you don’t have one already. To get an account, go to http://www.twitter.com and get one. It’s free.

After you have your account, note that on BigNews.biz there is a big blue button above every press release that we publish that allows you to post that release directly to your twitter account. Every reader on BigNews can also send releases from bignews to their twitter account as well.

Even if you don’t have anyone following your twitter account, people can still find the releases you have posted to twitter on twitter search at http://search.twitter.com . With 20,000,000 registered users, this site can drive alot of readers to your press releases and it’s growing fast.

Here are three things you can do NOW to drive traffic from twitter to your press releases.
1. If you don’t have a twitter account, get one here http://www.twitter.com it’s free.
2. Login to your BigNews.biz account and scroll down to the bottom of your account page where all of your published releases are listed. Click on the “preview” link. When the page reloads with your release, click on the blue “Send to Twitter” button that appears at the top of your release. Repeat this process for each release that you would like to send to twitter.
3. If you don’t have any releases, submit one and I’ll check them in the morning. After they are approved, login to your account and repeat step #2 above.

Here is more info on the new BigNews twitter service http://www.bignews.biz/?id=798640
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4. Just 200 words is all it takes to get published
The shortest press release we will accept at BigNews.biz must contain a minimum of 200 words in the body of the release. This is the minimum number of words that Google news will accept, so it’s also the minimum that we will accept.
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5. Watch the dates on your press releases
I’ve noticed that sometimes Google News will reject press releases that start with a date that is not current. This makes sense since they are interested in publishing current news, not old news or future news. So make sure that when you submit a press release that starts with a date, that the date is correct or Google news may not accept your release for publication.
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6. Need some help with your online PR strategy?
You may have noticed that this online PR stuff is changing from day to day. We specialize in quality, affordable, online press release distribution and marketing. If you want some help sending your press releases online, drop me an email at phil@BigNews.biz or give me a call at 516-578-1386
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7. More good Stuff!!

Google news only runs press releases for 30 days, so if you have not published a release in the last month, your old release has been deleted from Google news. So, login to your account today at: http://www.bignews.biz/?go=login