The Top Free Press Release Distribution Sites
Note: Last list Update 1-4-10
First off, yes I do design and sell Web sites that distribute press releases online. I also use free press release distribution sites for my PR clients, so I’ve seen both sides of the online PR distribution business.
Based on this experience, I have a bit of a bias about what I am looking for in a press release distribution service. The number of Web sites in this space seems to change from day to day. Sites disappear, change policies and appear daily. So this list needs to be just as dynamic.
Before you post a complaint that I’m missing a site, keep in mind that this list is a work in progress. It had to start somewhere so consider this a first draft. PLEASE don’t hesitate to submit a site for consideration. We’ll probably include it, as long as your submission fits the 4 criteria outlined below.
There are quite a few free pr distribution sites on the Web. Many of them are not worth the time it takes you to submit a release. However, there are some that are quite good. Following are the 5 criteria that I used to create this list of the top free press release distribution sites.
1. Page Rank - What is the Google page rank of the site? I’m only listing free PR sites that have a page rank of 4 or higher. To determine the page rank of a site,
| Check Page Rank of any web site pages instantly: |
| This free page rank checking tool is powered by Page Rank Checker service |
2. Google News - Are most of the press releases that are published by the site picked up by Google news? To find out if a PR distribution site is getting their content indexed by Google news, go to Google News and do a search for “site:sitename.com”. This will show all of the stories by that site that have been indexed by Google News. As an example, a search for all press releases for the free PR site BigNews.biz, would look like this “site:BigNews.biz”
3. Traffic - Does the free press release site get any traffic? For this list we used Alexa.com to check traffic. You will have to set your own standard for what you feel is acceptable. For this list, I’m using any site that is ranked above or around 50,000 by Alexa.
4. Cost - For this list we are looking for sites that are primarily free. However, they may offer additional premium services for a fee.
5. Rejection - We found that some sites seem to reject or delay posting a release even though all of their rules have been followed. If a site accepts valid submissions but never posts them, we are going to remove it from our list.
Keeping in mind the 5 points listed above, here is my list. Feel free to send me additional suggestions, but they must fit the 5 criteria listed above. The order listed here is loosely based on the sites Alexa rank and can change from day to day.
Note: All of the following site statistics are updated daily and all of these sites feed their content to Google news.
1. PRLog.org -
2. PR-Inside.com -
3. Merinews.com -
4. PR.com -
5. BigNews.biz -
6. 24-7pressrelease.com -
7. ClickPress.com -
8. NewsWireToday.com -
9. OpenPR.com -
10. PR-USA.net -
11. free-press-release-center.info -
12. PowerHomeBiz.com -
13. TheOpenPress.com -
14. USPRWire.com -
Submit a site….
Again, this list is a work in progress. So if you have suggestions, please forward them to phil(at)BigNews.biz.
Other features you might want to have when selecting a free PR site…
a) Does the site also accept photos or other file types as part of the release?
b) Does this site give you reporting tools so that you can see your traffic?
c) Is the site fast and easy to use?
.:Phil:.
Tags: distribution, free, list, News Release, PR, Press release, Publicity, sites
July 6th, 2008 at 7:07 pm
Phil,
I think you are doing a great job on getting the word out on free Press Release sites. I most certainly plan on using your information. Keep up the great work!
Judy
July 6th, 2008 at 7:10 pm
Thanks Judy, I appreciate the feedback .:Phil:.
July 7th, 2008 at 9:01 am
great thank you !
it was a great post
July 7th, 2008 at 9:45 am
AGMON,
Glad to help. Thanks for the post.
July 11th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
[…] 1. start here: http://bignews.biz/blog/?p=6 […]
July 11th, 2008 at 6:41 pm
Phil,
Why don’t you use or list Businesswire and PR Newswire? They are certainly the two biggest of the bunch.
Also, what makes a news release really good from an SEO standpoint?
July 11th, 2008 at 7:28 pm
Dale,
One of the criteria for this list is that the PR distribution sites listed must be primarily free of charge. I believe that Businesswire and PR Newswire both charge fees for their services, so they were not included.
From an SEO standpoint you are trying to craft the release into a funnel that drives traffic from the release, back to your Web site.
Including keywords and phrases in the headline, summary, photo file name accompanying the release and making sure that the body of the release contains all the appropriate keywords and variations of keywords and phrases that pertain to the topic of the release is extremely important.
Also the Google page rank of sites that you submit the release to is going to affect how important that backlink from their site to yours is going to be interpreted by Google in their algo. The pagerank of each press release distribution site is also included as one of the criteria in the above list.
Hope this helps,
.:Phil:.
July 14th, 2008 at 4:29 pm
Thanks for the valuable list! What’s great is to have their page ranking and Alexa rating as well. That adds that confidence that it’s a great place to submit. I do a lot of press release submissions and I find that sending to the free places is extremely beneficial. It gets my keywords in there and also helps get that important name (expert) recognition.
BTW, I posted a release Friday with your site and it got Googled the next day. I love it when it works like that.
Thanks!
Diana Ennen
July 17th, 2008 at 11:47 am
You are welcome! Be sure to stop by at least once a month. I’m updating this list every week or two and the sites listed do change position and new sites are being added.
As this list changes, the impact these sites will have on your press releases will change as well.
July 20th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
[…] - 4, GN, 242991 16. USPRWire.com - 5, GN, 281139 I’m updating this list every week or two at: http://bignews.biz/blog/?p=6 Feel free to forward suggestions for sites to be included in the next update. […]
July 28th, 2008 at 3:42 pm
PRLog.org is PR5 not 6
http://www.prchecker.info/check_page_rank.php
July 28th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
The PR for PRLog has been updated.
July 29th, 2008 at 4:09 am
have you forgotten PRWeb.com. It is so invaluable. There are plenty of other sites include i-newswire.com, emailwire.com and webwire.com
July 29th, 2008 at 11:06 am
pbu,
Thanks for your suggestions. Remember, there are 4 criteria for inclusion in our monthly list.
1. The site must be free.
2. The site must have a Google pagerank of 4/10 or more
3. The site must be indexed by Google news
4. The site must have an Alexa rank greater than 300,000
With the above in mind,
a) PRWeb charges a fee. - See: http://www.prweb.com/service_features.php
b) I-newswire is not indexed by Google news. - See: http://tinyurl.com/6exrqh
c) emailwire charges a fee - See: http://www.emailwire.com/press_release_distribution_lists.php
d) webwire charges a fee - See: http://www.webwire.com/news-release-distribution.asp
These are all probably fine services, but the purpose of our list is to show free press release sites where users will get a benefit from the site’s traffic, pagerank and Google news.
August 17th, 2008 at 4:47 am
I confirm PRLOG is PR5 not 6. By the way, is that true PRLOG.org is a Romania-based operated site?. I do not wish my articles being originated outside US or UK or countries from former soviet-linked countries. Could someone confirm?
The pb with such sites, is we can find lots of prspam content.
Keep up the great work here
August 24th, 2008 at 2:26 pm
Personally we use NewswireToday.com since over 2 years now and I would say NewswireToday is more valuable for us than prweb. Only quality content is published on NewswireToday, do not send them crap they will not publish it. As for us we stopped using prnewswire or marketwire as those guys are way too expensive. NewswireToday brings us the visibility we are looking for our budget.
September 8th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
[…] distribution sites, which is updated several times each month. You can view the complete list here. If you want someone to write and distribute a press release for you, drop me an email at […]
September 10th, 2008 at 6:17 am
I use http://www.scoopasia.com. It’s Singapore based. Easy to use and it’s free!
November 4th, 2008 at 7:13 pm
radio publicity…
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November 7th, 2008 at 11:12 am
Thanks for taking the time to put such a great list together. When we submit press releases for our clients we submit to move than 170 sites. It is a great way to generate buzz about a company event or news. Press Release marketing also plays a huge role in online reputation management and driving 100s of links back to one’s site.
November 8th, 2008 at 8:40 am
Thanks for the info. I have used some of these sites and will now try to use them all. The benefits are great and best of all, FREE!
Check out our websites:
http://www.EuropeAntiqueTrip.com
http://www.antiquesNut.com
http://www.RhodeIslandEstateSales.com
November 8th, 2008 at 6:54 pm
Thank you for the valuable information. I have used most of these services. Keep up the good work.
November 8th, 2008 at 9:38 pm
[…] rockin’ list of free press release sites Here’s another list of free press release sites: BigNews.biz is an On-line Press Release and World News Distribution Center And it gives their page rank and Alexa rank and really good press release […]
November 8th, 2008 at 11:02 pm
Thanks for the great list! It’s always tough to keep an up-to-date account of these sites. This will prove very helpful in my services to submit my clients PRs.
November 9th, 2008 at 10:41 am
I think Only Tow words is enough for testimonials to your service of free PR & those tow words are SIMPLY GREAT.
It’s very helpful for me for personal site PR.
Best Wishes.
November 14th, 2008 at 11:58 am
A great post. We’ve written an article over at SubHub.com with a few more free and paid PR services:
http://www.subhub.com/articles/the-best-free-and-paid-press-release-websites-and-when-to-use-them
Kind Regards
Mark
November 14th, 2008 at 12:22 pm
[…] Retweeting @NewspaperGrl: Here’s the link to the list of free PR sites with PageRank. http://bignews.biz/blog/?p=6 2008-11-14 17:06:58 · Reply · View pagerankalert: http://www.inca.inf.utfsm.cl has […]
November 25th, 2008 at 4:56 pm
Hi,
You should also check this free ebook on public relations with lots of additional resources to consider in your PR campaign.
http://www.makeliterature.com/blog/what-is-public-relations
Salute.
November 29th, 2008 at 8:58 pm
Phil,
I’ve tried all the free sites you’ve listed. prlog.org and bignews.biz gave us the best results. What I didn’t get is inclusion in Google News, etc… i.e. widespread distribution from the press releases.
My question… can help me find the paid service that gives the best bang for your buck, i.e. the best SEO and distribution for the lowest price. I’m mostly interested in SEO.
PRWeb.com is $200… for good SEO and distribution. That’s crazy. We’re a small company. Would prefer not to pay more than $50 per release.
November 29th, 2008 at 10:34 pm
Scooter,
The BigNews.biz release was picked up by Google News, see: http://tinyurl.com/5ojmp8
You could not see them because Google News saw them as duplicate content, so they only listed one.
Also, notice that the BigNews.biz listing on Google News does not show an image. Make sure your image is is in jpeg format and has a maximum height or width of 300 pixels. You should include an image of the scooter that the release is about it will bring in more readers.
Regards,
Phil
November 29th, 2008 at 10:52 pm
Thanks Phil,
Ok, cool… I see all of the sites I submitted to in Google.
I don’t see the release getting published by other websites. How do I get the release picked up by other websites? I’m looking for a low cost way to get more backlinks.
Scooter
November 30th, 2008 at 12:21 am
Scooter,
What I usually see is Web sites owners set-up Google alerts for specific keywords. When your releases go out and are picked up by Google News, within a day or two the alerts go out and you might then get some backlinks from sites that pick-up your release. You increase your chances of geting your releases picked up, by posting more releases with unique content. Don’t post variations of the same release.
You might also want to take a look at publishing articles. There is a blog on how to write and post articles here: http://www.bignews.biz/blog/?p=15
Phil
December 22nd, 2008 at 10:50 pm
Hi Phil,
Few months back I submit a PR about my site with bignews.biz & forget (sorry), suddenly one day a mail hit inbox asking me to visit & submit more. I visited but fail to retrieve my login info & again leave it with frustration. After few days one day I got mail from you giving me my login info & now I’m ready with another PR with you.
Needless to say your list of PR site is great resource for webmasters looking for free environment.
Keep it up! will check again for add.
Take Care
Thanks
Take Care
March 7th, 2009 at 9:33 pm
[…] Bright Spots Amidst Troubled PR Biz, Says Comp Guru | PR Blog NewsBigNews.biz is an On-line Press Release and World News Distribution Center […]
July 8th, 2009 at 4:47 am
[…] some elements of this article found at bignews.biz […]
August 13th, 2009 at 2:01 pm
[…] I came across a great blog entry that ranks these “free” distribution services […]
August 16th, 2009 at 12:52 pm
[…] 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 […]
August 21st, 2009 at 3:33 am
Free Press Releases - Top 10 Free Submission Sites…
Free Press ReleasePress releases are one of my favorite subjects. When I find something new about it I’m just happy to talk about it here on these pages.
Here is an update of the top 10 free press……
October 13th, 2009 at 4:36 am
Hello pil,
Thank you very much, bignews.biz.
My site ( http://www.wow-gold-team.com/ ) benefit a lot from this site.
Best wishes to you and your team.
October 16th, 2009 at 2:05 pm
[…] How does this help you? Well, do some searches on Google for terms that people would use to find your business or event. Do any of these terms have news results lited as part of their page 1 search results? If they do, create a good quality press release WITH A PHOTO that include the term in the headline, the summary and the body of the release. Post the release to Bignews.biz or any of the other press release distribution sites on our list […]
October 16th, 2009 at 3:33 pm
[…] The updated list can be viewed here: http://www.bignews.biz/blog/?p=6 […]
November 27th, 2009 at 4:15 pm
This list is great! Thank you!
My question: Is it ok to distribute my press release with more then one free distributor? I heard of people who post their release with 50 or more distributors.
Thank you for your help!
Claudia
December 10th, 2009 at 2:33 pm
Great list, I was going to do the research myself to find out the best places to distribute, but you already have it here. Thanks for saving me that time.
December 20th, 2009 at 10:17 pm
There was a lot of useful information in there for us “newbies”! You seem to know what I need to hear just when I need to hear it :-).
January 3rd, 2010 at 12:29 am
! I hadn’t considered the ultimately simple ways the big G worked in. The truth of the affair is that Google crawls your page numerous times, it still takes a tonne of due effort on your part in order to get your page to become “relevent” to Google. This will add to my understanding of search engine optimization.