There are many companies available who will prepare and distribute your release but for a price. Fees vary considerably and start from $50 with no upper limit. Going the self-help route is far less costly and aside from building up your own database of media contacts for sending releases to, you may be in a market where you want a far wider audience for your news.

Online you will find a plethora of free distribution services who will at no cost, distribute your releases. To find them simply put the title of this article into your internet search engine and let Google and friends do the hard work finding them.

Well known free distribution outlets include the following:

• www.free-press-release.com
• www.i-newswire.com
• www.media-newswire.com
• www.prleap.com
• www.theopenpress.com
• www.presszoom.com

Depending on your business line, you will also find distribution outlets that specialize in your field. If you are a lawyer, your bar association will usually assist in distributing a release and the same holds true for virtually any trade or professional organization that you are licensed by. Make these bodies a first port of call with your release; indeed ask them for a quote to include.

Some online distribution outlets make their money by charging the media hounds to subscribe to their service, others will distribute your release online and have internet ads running alongside it which is something to consider. You may not want your release to be generating business for your competitors!

Press Release distribution is available not only for delivery direct to journalists but also through the internet search engines that drive the internet. This is good news for you as every time your product or service is searched for, your business name will become increasingly associated with that search term and you should also notice that your own internet ranking starts climbing higher. Search engines operate in part by cross-linking relevant terms and by how popular a search term is – in other words, if some people are searching for “Caroline Melberg” then even more people will want to know about her so let’s rank her higher.

Many of the free distribution outlets will not only distribute the release but offer fee based services as well. There are a lot of choices in fee based services, and distribution by this method will help your release gain wider exposure.

Some distribution outlets will be happy to have you registered as a business expert in your field. One that they can rely on for a quote when they are approached by the media - and this happens regularly.

Revisit how to write Press Releases in our article database, and think again about what you are trying to achieve with your “stealth publicity”. You should be aiming at accumulating credibility as a reliable, trusted and informative source of information, and being recognized as an “expert”.