Looking to increase the quality of our backlinks with a press release: Business wire or Prweb?

[unitedfitness]

Hello all!

We are looking to increase the quality of backlinks to our new website www.unitedfitnessmarketing.com  and wondering which service would be more beneficial.  Care to share any preferences or advice?  We have been live for about 3 1/2 months now.  We are in a tough niche to find related backlinking websites.  We are in the health club marketing consulting field.  I just paid for a business.com listing but was thinking a quality press release would give me more juice.  My competitors have used free press release services so I'm thinking I could easily one-up them and gain some ground in the rankings. Leaning more towards business wire b/c it's a berkshire hathaway company but would like more input.

Thanks!

[unitedfitness]

Thanks Chad,

We are learning with the backlinks.  I made some misteps with manual directory submissions at the beginning but I think we are building a good mix now.  I'll take a look at vocus but unless I'm doing pr's on recent marketing campiagn results, I doubt the it would make sense for us.  Was hoping for more input on the trust flow that would be associated from a BRKA company like Business Wire.

Thanks for the input!

Mike

[unitedfitness]

Thanks Daniel,

Always nice to make new connections in our field and great website btw!   I'll send you an email on the prweb but I was really hoping to get more feed back on Business Wire.  There is another who targets some of my keywords and has used prweb but his market is more like yours.  Marketing to personal trainers... I'm targeting club owners.  The main purpose of the press release is to obtain quailty backlinks from trusted sites to increase my trust flow metric and all the perks that come with it.  My email is [email protected]

Thanks!!

Mike

[DanielFreedman]

Hi, Mike:

This is very much my niche. I am the former editor-in-chief of the CrossFit Journal and have acted as a web consultant to CrossFit gyms, the Personal Trainer Development Center at www.theptdc.com.,  several fitness authors and experts, and some equipment manufacturers.

My Llinkedin profile is here.

I agree that press releases can be be an effective strategy -- but only as part of a diversified link portfolio. I have used both PR Web and Marketwire, and think PR Web has the edge in the fitness space due to a superior distribution list in this niche.  I currently have a bulk subscription to PR Web and could offer you a very attractive price on a per release basis.

But first things first. I would suggest you consider your overall link-building strategy before jumping into press releases. There is probably low-hanging fruit -- including niche directories and guest blogging opportunities --  that could be plucked first.

Feel free to email me at [email protected] to discuss fuirther.

[CHADHARRIS]

Mike,

Our company uses Vocus( which owns PRweb) about 2-3 times per week.  In the past we have used other PR release services but have found this has been the best.  Vocus is a annual paid service ( a bit pricey 5K) but considering it allows you to send out 1 press release a day which I would not recommend, the largest benefit is that the service allows you to send your press release directly to new editors emails, magazine etc.  This service has gotten out products in Southern Living and a few other magazines- which is priceless.

Make sure you goal is to create awareness rather than quality backlinks- make sure your press release are something people actually want to know about- then the natural process of high quality backlinks will come.

Good luck.

Chad

[unitedfitness]

Thanks Any on the blog and catagory recommendations!  This is helpful.  We do offer blog on our site but never considered different sources other than health club blogs or fitness marketing related blogs.  Not many health club blogs I could write on as many of our clients have just a basic website.  My business.com listing will be live in 24-48 hours and its under gym equipment.  I wasn't to pleased with the subcatagory at first but if your suggestion holds weight with google, it opens up more possibilities for us as far as catagories go.  As far as the business.com listing I've done my homework and I just can't see how it would hurt me after analyzing my competitors backlinks.  But still your business.com comment scares me.

Thanks!!

Mike

[Andy.Drinkwater]

First, tread carefully with Business.com as I know of companies that pulled out of there after Panda hit them and reports that they had seen a drop in terms of rank. Basically, if you are going for generic directories, try and find ones in your niche.

As for which service to use, I don't actually use PR services myself so can't offer any real input here, but do hear good things about PRWeb.

One thing to also remember, if you are looking to build backlinks, you need to diversify, but not to the point where the site has no meaning to your industry. For example, you could quite happily look for blogs and sites that sell fitness equipment, fitness food, bikes, climbing equipment and even diet websites - it is all related at some level and Google will know this.

You might be surprised just what you can turn up.

Andy