In recent months, I’ve been writing and pitching a lot of news in press releases. I’ve also been experimenting with press release sites.

As a journalist, the only wire I ever monitored was PR Newswire. As a marketer, all I have to say is…that service is really expensive. When it’s all said and done, you can spend nearly a grand just putting out a release. The company, which provides great service, even requires you to be a member.

Is it worth it?

And what about PR Newswire’s premium competitors, Business Wire, PR Web and Marketwire?

And then there’s the wasteland of lower-cost and free press release sites:

• 1888PressReleases
• FreePressReleases
• PRLog
• PR.com
• 24-7PressRelease
• PRLeap
• CityBizList
• Pitchengine, a “social media” release site

This is a partial list, I assure you. How frustrating. There are actually too many options.

In order to answer whether a PR site is worth it, you have to answer why you’re using a service like this in the first place. This is how I see it:

• You want to increase the likelihood of someone finding your release.
• With a premium site, you want to increase the liklihood that your release will end up in the hands of a journalist or editor.

That’s it! Unless I’m missing something.

In the coming months, I’m going to be testing these services. Things I’ll be checking include:

• Formatting. Do these sites publish your releases in a format that looks professional? I’m talking bolded text, nice-looking headlines, places for contact information, subheads, bullets and such.
• Hyperlinks. These make it easy for readers to find your site. They also increase SEO for your site.
• Page rank. I’ll discuss this later.
• Distribution capability.
• Archiving. If the release is deleted in a day, what’s the purpose?
• Website design.
• Submission to search engines AND Google News. Otherwise, your release is just sitting in space.

In a nutshell, I’m dubious about the benefits of free press release sites. Promoting your brand on something called “rockbottompricespressreleasesite” doesn’t really scream “We’re a player.” At least to me it doesn’t.

I’m also annoyed at the lack of clear messaging on these services’ websites. I want to know “how they’re different,” “why they’re better,” and “why I should use their services at all.” I don’t get any of that, except for Pitchengine, which touts that “the press release is a dinosaur.” I’m not quite buying that…but I do appreciate the emphasis on differentiation and the bold way the company markets itself.

Further, no service will ever replace the good, old-fashioned phone call and e-mail. Developing a relationship with a reporter will always be better than having your release automatically sent out on the AP wire.

So…if you have something to say, please chime in.

And please stay tuned.

I have a lot of testing to do.

-Justin