A well-written press release is nothing without the distribution channels that “gets the word out”. In some cases, this can cost you a pretty penny if you don’t know where to source free methods.

Often, for home-based business owners it is a matter of “how much and for what you get in return” that drives how you spend your hard earned revenue or investment capital. For start-ups, established home-based, or even brick and mortar companies getting press exposure is at best a daunting task. Often, hiring a PR firm, writing press releases and having them distributed vis-à-vis various communicative methods is out of reach for many small businesses.

This is no longer the case if you know where to look. For home-based businesses with limited budgets, there are free press release sites that can be used to generate immediate leads that can be converted to sales.

Press releases are a great way to educate customers about your products and/or services, your methodology, and why potential customers should do business with you. A press release encourages a reader to respond to some type of offer and/or free information. Also, it promotes new start-ups, new offerings from your existing business opportunity, and various other topics.

Posting a press release once a month or even bi-monthly can yield tremendous benefits to generate awareness and leads. By linking paid advertisement (such as one you might have here on BusinessOpportunity.com) you can drive potential prospects straight to more information and have them fill out a lead form that will help build your budding prospect list. The business leads generated through free press release sites can add a thousand, tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of dollars to gross sales annually.

Press releases are truly a very cost effective marketing tool. If used correctly they can aid your lead generation in  ways you might not have thought of otherwise. Think about it this way: The cost to write 750-word press release, plus national newswire distribution can be as low as $1,800 and shorter releases can cost much less. However, unlike advertising, press releases show up everywhere, and if they actually lead to stories in newsprint and websites, their value can increase dramatically. One small press release has the potential to generate stories in thousands of print vehicles such as newspapers, trade publications, blogs and news portals globally! In some cases, if your press release is written well and distributed effectively you can receive up to a million page views per day. It is hard to beat that kind of exposure for under $2,000 if you pay for additional distribution.

To get started, you might try some free options and just use what these sites have to offer.

Here are a few URLs’ to get you started:

1888pressrelease.com
free-press-release.com
pr.com

All are great resources. A great press release freelance writer that we often use is Kathleen Lanza. She can be contacted via email at: [email protected] . Be sure to tell her that BusinessOpportunity.com sent you!

Have you gotten the word out yet?