Newspapers Are Dead or Dying. A Different Way to Use the Internet

Public relations is an often overlooked tool for promoting business activity. The largest corporations spend a massive amount on public relations frequently creating imaginative and exciting events which the news will pick up on and report creating a significant media buzz. This is not paid for advertising, but news worthy reporting that results in significant readership.

Businesses without the massive budgets available also access the media through press releases. Newsy, public interest information that gets reported and also sends the word out, that this business entity is noteworthy.

This has been going on for many years and is a tried and true part of many marketing program for many business entities, large and small.

However since traditional media tools are both very expensive and old school, we can transfer the concept to new media tools and experience the same potential results without the expensive price tag...the Internet

Here is how.

There are some very sophisticated, well organized web site public relation companies that specialize in distributing press releases to search engines throughout the internet, resulting in masive communications to many potential readers all internet bound.

Same program, same results, but instead of with newspapers, tv, radio or magazines, its all internet loaded.

Here are a few of the leaders in this industry:

1. PRWeb is a low-cost news release submission and distribution service used by many small firms. News and press releases distributed via PRWeb raise your online visibility where millions of people are searching for information. When you submit your news releases to PRWeb, they will be indexed by search engines such as Google, sent to news sites such as Yahoo! News and placed into RSS feeds with more than 250,000 subscribers that include bloggers, journalists and consumers.

PRWeb also helps you build back links and inbound links from other premium sites, one of the most important assets to build your website's credibility in search engines. All of this helps drive traffic by helping people find you online and click through to your website.

One of the best parts about PRWeb is all of the free help available on the site. Look in the "Tools & Tips" section for advice on how to write a good press release, common press release mistakes, best practices for online news releases, how to format your news release and more.

2. Free Press Release lets you submit releases at no charge. The basic service provides free distribution to Google News and other popular search engines. If you register (still free) you have additional capabilities to log into your account, monitor your release, and delete it. A more expansive paid service is also available.

3. Another free press release distribution service called 1888PressRelease.com sends your releases to search engines, news wires and websites. For a modest fee, you can upgrade to wider distribution. You can also attach files, logos or images to your press release if you want.

4. PitchRate.com is a free service that connects journalists with topic experts - such as small business owners - for free media coverage. Basically, it's a place where you can get free media leads. PitchRate also offers helpful (free) information on how to get free publicity, PR tips, personal branding ideas and more. It sponsors regular free "PR Happy Hour" conference calls that let you talk live with marketing and PR experts, ask questions and get free advice.

5. Techrigy (www.techrigy.com) is a web-based service offering social media monitoring and analysis to help you see how your PR efforts are paying off online. Techrigy provides a "SM2? software solution designed to monitor and measure PR and marketing mentions that appear in social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, blogs and elsewhere. The free account includes up to five search words or phrases and can store up to 1,000 results. Paid "professional" accounts with more features are also available.

6. For a free list of local newspapers and other publications in any area of the country, as well as Canada and a few other countries check out a site called US Newspaper List at www.usnpl.com. For a fee you can purchase and download a spreadsheet or mailing address label file for all of the U.S. newspapers listed on the site - about 3,900. Information is updated quarterly.

7. PRnewswire.com and Businesswire.com are the two largest news release distribution services used by major companies and organizations. These services are more expensive than others, but even if you don't use their paid services you can learn a lot by seeing what kinds of releases other companies are issuing. You can view releases for free at the site, with hundreds issued daily.

The above information was collected and written by Daniel Kehrer from his blog, Business.com, What works for Business.