Establishing personal branding and marketing through BLOGHOLOGY
We can define an anthology asa collection of poems, stories, songs, articles, or other literary passages chosen by a compiler. Similar to an anthology, a new bloghology project is covering bloggers profiles, photos, and links to their best posts. It is a PDF e-book which can be easily circulated throughout the blogosphere for personal branding and marketing of selected good quality bloggers.
What is the logic behind Bloghology?
Not all bloggers are good at personal branding and marketing. Especially the small bloggers are subject of a lot of challenges at the first stages of their blogs operation. Many of them stop blogging, because it seems to them at the time almost impossible to overcome the multiple obstacleson the road to success.
Bloghology is a joint campaign by two well-known sites: Peopleized.com and Search For Bloggingand will help bloggers on marketing and personal branding completely for free.
More information about the project you can get from the featured article:
http://www.searchforblogging.com/index.php/2007/12/12/2007-bloghology-by-search-for-blogging-peopleizedcom/
And the first edition on the Bloghology eBook can be downloaded here:
Bringing more traffic to your blog - Blog Carnival - January 25, 2008
Welcome to the January 25, 2008 edition of bringing more traffic to your blog. This is the first Carnival that I am hosting on this Blog, and I am truly impressed by the amount and the quality of the submitted articles. I want to reveal my deep gratitude to all the authors. And my personal thanks to Mert Erkal, who offered me his assistance in promoting this project. So, lets start the party...
Mert Erkal presents How I Quadrupled My Blogs Traffic In 3 Months posted at www.searchforblogging.com, saying, "As 2007 goes by, it is the right time to inform you about the performance of Search For Blogging. My blogs traffic has increased significantly each month during Sep-Dec 2007 period and i am glad to share some of my traffic secrets with my fellow readers. Search For Blogging"
andrew784 presents 33 Reasons to Start a Blog posted at Personal Hack, saying, "Have you thought about starting a blog but never actually followed through? Or did you start your blog a long time ago but stopped posting to it, and are now wondering why you started it in the first place? This is a great post to get you motivated to start your own blog, or to regularly post on your current blog, check it out and let me know what you think, all comments are appreciated."
Robert Phillips presents Top 3 Reasons New Year?s Resolutions are for Losers posted at CYBERCA$HOLOGY.
Summer presents 5 Things You Should Be Doing Online In 2008 posted at Wired For Noise, saying, "Sites to add to your blogging arsenal to really beef up your blogging power."
Ward Tipton presents Traffic Tricks for Beginning Bloggers | The Write Page> posted at The Online Writing Resource Center, saying, "A little bit of help for new bloggers to learn how to utilize article marketing more effectively."
Lin Burress presents Social Networking Tips For All You Whiners posted at Telling It Like It Is.
Steve Osborne presents Commas Can Be Crucial posted at TheWritersBag.com, saying, "Steve Osborne, author of "Writing Tips for the Real World," is a professional freelance writer."
Susan Johnston presents Five Ways to Promote Your Blog posted at The Urban Muse.
Hill Robertson presents Sometimes External Links are Bad posted at Hill Robertson.
Christine presents Finding Your Special Talent posted at Me, My Kid and Life: An American Single Mom Living in France, saying, "Increasing traffic through personal knowledge and finding your niche."
Sagar presents >30 Google Apps You?ve Never Heard Of posted at Virtual Hosting.
Tiffany Colter presents Lesson Learned and How I got here posted at Writing Career Coach.
Tip Diva presents Top Ten Tips - Getting Out In The Blogosphere posted at Tip Diva, saying, "Congratulations, youve started a new blog. Whether personal, business or even an interest-based blog, youre now in a word filled with millions of other blogs. But how will you ever get noticed? Here are some tips to draw visitors to your blog."
Christine presents Monetizing Your Website Through Inspiration and Desire posted at Me, My Kid and Life: An American Single Mom Living in France.
Jim Sansi presents Onlywire The One You Need? posted at The Kaizen Business.
Jim Sansi presents 2007 A Year In Review posted at The Kaizen Business.
Tony H presents Use Blogcatalog to Drive Traffic to Your Site posted at Krunchable, saying, "Tony Howell gives secret tips on how to use blog networking sites to drive huge traffic to your blog."
Kingsley Tagbo presents How to Overcome Procrastination in 8 Easy Steps: The Fastest Way to Learn Technical Skills or Get a Job posted at HOW TO LEARN COMPUTER PROGRAMMING FAST OR GET A JOB EASILY.
Steve Osborne presents Are You Done Yet? posted at TheWritersBag.com, saying, "Steve Osborne, author of "Writing Tips for the Real World," is a professional freelance writer and writing instructor with over 20 years of experience."
Robert Phillips presents Why Create a DVD Information Product? posted at How to Create a DVD without Spending a Dime.
Elsom Eldridge presents From the Folks at Simpleology posted at International Guild of Professional Consultants and Coaches.
Marcus Hochstadt presents How To Increase Alexa Ranking posted at Marcus Hochstadt, saying, "Would you like to increase the Alexa Ranking of your Web site? Marcus Hochstadt did it a couple times already, and once again just recently. He shows you how in this article."
Jon Swift presents Swift Reactions 8 posted at >Jon Swift, saying, "Helping small blogs increase their traffic is not always easy."
Michael Bass presents Hints for writing great blog posts. posted at Debt Prison, saying, "Dont write junk, anything worth writing is worth writing correctly. Bad articles will leave readers with a negative impression of your site."
Joshua C. Karlin presents The Single Most Important Thing Your Business (or Charity) Needs posted at Marketing & Fundraising Ideas.
Sarah Paine presents Create Relevant Articles To Earn Cash Online Now posted at Sarah Paine.
Ed Rivis presents Beware of SEO experts. posted at Ed Rivis.
James D. Brausch presents Internet Business, 101 » Top Nine Internet Business Blogs posted at jamesbrausch.com.
Andrew Erickson presents Recommended: Targeted Blog Traffic Course posted at WebSite Werx.
Carol Bentley presents Does your business pass the "Charlie the Plumber" test. . . posted at Carol Bentley.
Ian Richardson presents Abbott & Costello - "Who's On First?" - A lesson to the Internet Marketing Crowd posted at Make Everything EzyAs123.
Woody Maxim presents Amazon S3 is simply amazing posted at Woody Maxim.
Kenton Newby presents Product Creation Perfectionism and at Least Four Things That Are More Important posted at KentonNewby.com.
Stephen Dean presents Tapping Michel Fortins Brain Volume 2 posted at Stephen Dean's Copywriting And Internet Advertising Blog - Copywriter.
Jones Hansen presents 0tutor.com: All the free RSS icons you will ever need posted at 0tutor.com tutorials blog.
Mark Riffey presents Can your site handle 12 people an hour? posted at Business is Personal
Richard Lee presents The One Thing You MUST Learn To Succeed In Any Business posted at Richard Lee.
Thomas D. Brownsword presents Integrity: I Should Have Known Better posted at Business Action Steps.
Ron Ruiz presents 22-Year-Old Trash into Successful Business posted at The Business Ideas-Making Money Blog.
Tim Gary presents >How to Make Time Out of Thin Air posted at How to Make Time Out of Thin Air.
Ward Tipton presents >Target Your Traffic | The Write Page posted at The Online Writing Resource Center, saying, "Link Campaigns, Overlooking the Obvious all too often. Are you generating backlinks for page rank or to get traffic?"
Fred Black presents Don't give a Hoot about Google Page Rank. posted at Fred Black: Internet Business Blog..
Steven Lohrenz presents Online Business ABCs Intern Program> posted at Steven Lohrenz.
Chas Masterson presents Finding the best URL for your Website.> posted at Chuck Masterson.
Steve Osborne presents The Well/Good Conundrum posted at TheWritersBag.com, saying, "Steve Osborne is a professional freelance writer and writing instructor with over 20 years experience. His blog teaches writing rules, strategies and techniques in a memorable, easy-to-understand way, spiced with a bit of humor."
aruntheace presents Make money online with automated Youtube niche video sites Made for Lazy people! posted at .
Ed Rivis presents Blog Policy #1: Honesty. posted at Ed Rivis.
Jim Sansi presents You Had It Coming posted at The Kaizen Business.
Jim Sansi presents Internet Business Redundancy posted at The Kaizen Business.
Warren Wong presents The Different Types Of Website Visitors And Their Value posted at Personal Development for INTJs, saying, "An article describing the different types of websites visitors such as search engine, direct, referring, and social bookmarking and the value they bring to your website."
Enrique presents Worry is a Useless Emotion posted at $5000 and Up.
Brent Diggs presents Writing Prompts for the Not-So-Prompt posted at The Ominous Comma, saying, "Humor for writers"
Sarah Paine presents Earn Money From Your Home posted at Sarah Paine.
Sarah Paine presents Making The Most Out Of An Article posted at Legitimate Telecommute Jobs.
Thomas D. Brownsword presents I Received A Reply From James posted at Business Action Steps.
Gley Yahyapresents How to Increase Profit Without Increasing Traffic posted at Work At Home Start Up Guide.
Carol Bentley presents Saying thanks. . . posted at Carol Bentley.
Moazzam Ahmed Chundriger presents 7 Steps To Running a Killer Link Exchanging Campaign posted at Get Huge Traffic - The M&M Online.
GWN Lifestyle presents Are You Dazed and Confused? posted at GWN Lifestyl.
Stephen Dean presents New Blog Milestone posted at Stephen Dean's Copywriting And Internet Advertising Blog - Copywriter.
Rebecca Suzanne Dean presents Heres A Swipe File For You. posted at Rebecca Dean.
Ian Richardson presents Would you like to pick my brain? posted at Make Everything EzyAs123.
Carol Bentley presents What do you think. . . print or PDF posted at Carol Bentley.
Steve Osborne presents E-Mail Etiquette posted at TheWritersBag.com.
Stephen Dean presents Deciphering Cosmopolitan Magazines posted at Stephen Dean's Copywriting And Internet Advertising Blog - Copywriter.
Rebecca Suzanne Dean presents Miss Copy Causes Car Crash In Japan! posted at Rebecca Dean.
Richard McLaughlinpresents Website Localization Which directories are you relying on to get your website visible in these two big countries. posted at Internet Marketing Tools and Tips.
Timothy Gary presents Are Your Customers Just Fresh Meat? posted at How to Make Time Out of Thin Air.
Aaron Anderson presents What A Tripod Can Teach You About Online Business... posted at Online Business Blog.
Brian Terry presents Here?s how you really use the web (and it?s not what you think!) posted at Big Selling Website Design.
Charles Masterson presents Themed Links Are Important - Busting the MythBusters posted at Chuck Masterson.
Sarah Painepresents Compose Your First Book with Articles posted at Legitimate Work At Home Options.
Terry Deanpresents What is Blogging? posted at Integrity Business Blog by Terry Dean.
Fred Blackpresents Unethical Polarization posted at Fred Black: Internet Business Blog..
Kitonepresents Warning: Easiest Ways To Make Money Online - Use Caution posted at Best Ways To Make Money Online.
Woody Maximpresents Lunch Partner is a Certified Publicity Genius posted at Woody Maxim.
Fred Blackpresents Search Engine Ranking Factors posted at Fred Black: Internet Business Blog..
That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition ofbringing more traffic to your blogusing ourcarnival submission form.Past posts and future hosts can be found on ourblog carnival index page.
Technorati tags:
bringing more traffic to your blog, blog carnival.
How to increase blog traffic (Closing Post)
After extended exploration of the topic for 10 publications, I decided to close it. For me, if I feel tired from the task, I was enjoying before, it is time to make a short break. That is why; please accept this post as unofficial closing for the series of articles on the topic “How to increase blog traffic without financial investments”. It does not mean that I am going to get away from the topic for long, as it has the priority importance in the Blogging monetizing business. I have several ideas to implement soon enhancing the topic review.
Other Promotion Techniques – Brief Overview
I will just list several items that were not reviewed in the series for different reasons. But, since other authors mention them in their reviews, I might just overlook their marketing potential. Among them:
Posting on UseNet. Usenet is one of the oldest computer network communications systems still in widespread use. Dropping the seeds of the announcement for your Blog might give a boost to the site exposure.
Applying for Web Site Awards. Getting Best Blog Award in the featured category is a good way to show on the site, how good your Blog is, and also expose your site in the new niche. There are multiple online sites giving away the awards, you can easily find them through the search. I will mention just three of the top related sites:
Bloggers Choice Awards: http://www.bloggerschoiceawards.com/
The Weblog Awards: http://weblogawards.org/
Webbie Awards: http://www.webbyawards.com/
Submitting Blog to Design Galleries. The biggest list of the Design Galleries I could find online has been offered by Web Design Blog (99 sites in the body of the post, and more in the comments).
Link: http://webdesigngalleries.wordpress.com/2007/05/05/a-complete-list-of-web-design-galleries/
Interview Well-known Person. Arrange interview with someone well known in your industry, your marketing niche, or your local community. This interview will bring acknowledgement of your abilities to bring the newsworthy original material and will generate additional traffic to your Blog through the link from the interviewed person Blogs or Websites, since people tend to link back to their interviews.
Offer Contests. Organized contests will improve your reputation in the Bloggers community and will enhance your readers’ participation in your Blog activities. As you do that, utilize its marketing potential in full. For example, interview the contest winners and nominees, get their testimonials for your site, post related Press Releases, etc.
Participate in Meme Games. A meme is an idea transferred from person to person, from Blog to Blog like a virus. How does meme work? One Blogger is proposing idea like "Hey, let's post three facts about yourself that nobody knows yet!" He is forwarding it to his fellows Bloggers, tabbing them, and the game start its online brief, but bright, life with many people involved in the chain, until it dies down by itself or replaced by the new memes.
Additional Reading
I am enclosing some of the Web Sites and Blogs, which were used for the series of 11 articles, as references for additional reading:
http://www.motherreader.com/2007/10/kid-lit-blogging-session-ii-blog.html
http://www.blog-maniac.com/build-blog-traffic.htm
http://bloghit.blogspot.com/2004/11/how-to-explode-blog-traffic.html
http://www.rss-specifications.com/promote-your-blog.htm
http://blogpromotion.blogspot.com/
http://www.bloggingplace.com/blog_promotion.htm
http://www.davidlouisedelman.com/blog/index.php/2006/12/14/blog-promotion-tips/
http://www.vandelaydesign.com/blog/blog-promotion/99-ways-to-promote-your-blog-for-free/
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2006/06/how_to_get_traf.html
http://www.v7n.com/forums/blog-promotion/49346-my-list-links-promote-blogs.html
http://impulseblogger.com/blog-promotion/
http://www.dewittsmedia.com/seo-blogs/blogs/13-blog-promotion-tips/
http://blog.sponsoredreviews.com/?p=47
http://topsecretblogger.com/bloggers-spykit-40-places-to-promote-your-blog-for-free/
http://www.successful-blog.com/1/20-blog-promotion-guides-to-inform-your-strategy/
http://www.blogsearchengine.com/2006/05/08/where-to-submit-your-rss/
http://www.thethinkingblog.com/2007/04/guide-to-blog-promotion.html
http://onlinepromotion.articlesarchive.net/10-ways-to-instantly-promote-your-blog-for-free.html
http://www.freeblogpromotion.com/articles/article-2.html
http://briansfreewebpromotion.blogspot.com/2007/09/promote-your-blog-free.html
http://youlkisblog.blogspot.com/2007/09/promotion-of-blogs-by-blogging-forums.html
http://www.canimakebigmoneyonline.com/index.php/20070517-101-free-ways-to-increase-your-blog-traffic/
http://synerjy.blogspot.com/2007/03/best-blog-promotion-techniques.html
http://www.webreference.com/authoring/blog_tips/
http://www.searchmarketinggurus.com/search_marketing_gurus/blogs/index.html
I want to thank all the readers that provided their feedback to the publications. Good luck to everyone. Internet is huge. There is place for everybody to get the share of success and profits!
Take Part in Blog Carnivals
How to increase blog traffic without financial investments
The set of the articles on the blog traffic increase started from my personal interest to the topic. I intended to cover briefly in one article all the main approaches for the newbie-blogger, as myself. Did not work this way! The topic appeared to be endless, and this article represents already part number 10. At the beginning, I decided to post only information on the promotion techniques that I have personally tried. I had to bend this rule as well, since this topic already drives me through without giving opportunity to stop and relax. When, I will finish the set, I will come back and pick up the promotion ways that seem easy to implement, and promise the best return on investments. I am sure, that Blog Carnivals participation will be than one of my favorites. I love carnivals! Just the name itself gives a taste of festivity and celebration.
What is a meaning of Blog Carnivals?
Blog Carnivals are collections of individual posts and articles, fitting provided topics of discussion, which are received from different blogs, with each author expressing his personal viewpoint and remarks on a subject. Usually, Blog Carnival is started by one hosting blog, which acts as a form of table of contents, posting the submitted articles or post to the topic of discussion. Such carnivals can be originated by popular and well-established blogs or bloggers’ groups, aligning the carnival topic with the blog usual content.
The central Web Site for this marketing niche is BlogCarnival.com. This site’s definition for Blog Carnivals is provided below:
“A Blog Carnival is a particular kind of blog community. There are many kinds of blogs, and they contain articles on many kinds of topics. Blog Carnivals typically collect together links pointing to blog articles on a particular topic. A Blog Carnival is like a magazine. It has a title, a topic, editors, contributors, and an audience. Editions of the carnival typically come out on a regular basis (e.g. every monday, or on the first of the month). Each edition is a special blog article that consists of links to all the contributions that have been submitted, often with the editors opinions or remarks.”
Why participate in Blog Carnivals?
Planning your blog promotion campaign, consider the following benefits of participation in Blog Carnivals:
Your posts submission at the Carnival gives external links to your blog from the sites within the area of your interests. These links will assist to establish blog reputation and improve its credibility in the bloggers’ community, and add to the blog ranking in the Search Engines.
You can be linked not just by the carnival hosting site through your posting, but also from other blogs as well. Another carnival participant, or just visitor, might find your story through the carnival post, and might choose linking to it.
You get additional instant high-quality traffic. Getting tons of visitors from carnivals is, probably, one more online myth, but if you take part in a popular carnival on a well-known Blog, and your post is interesting enough to attract visitors’ attention, you will see a definite boost of traffic count to your blog. And this is not a random traffic of the bystanders, but the visitation from the most active and interested members of the bloggers community.
You have a great opportunity to meet other people working in the same direction as you are. Participants for the blog carnival are easy to establish long-term relationship between them due to the common interests. Also, you have a good chance to read valuable posts and suggestions from other people, that you would not be able to find in any other way.
You have a chance to win valuable prices for your publication.
The participation in the Blog Carnivals does not require significant time investment, unless you are specifically preparing the post for the particular celebration from scratch. As you can choose the topic of discussion, in most cases, you can use the material for the submission, which is already available on your blog. To test the efficiency of the submission process, I was able to perform the procedure of finding the appropriate blog and submitting my own entry in no more than 10 minutes.
Where to Submit for Blog Carnivals
I did not find a big variety of the sites that centralize the Blog Carnivals search and establishment. In fact, there is just a single site that is dedicated to this mission:
Blog Carnival: http://blogcarnival.com/
In a way, it makes all the operations related to the blog carnivals much easier for the hosts and submitters. Hosting Blog Carnival is another great way to promote your site, but that requires from the host site to be already solid and established, the goal we are all working for.
Additional Reading:
http://www.problogger.net/archives/2006/11/30/participate-in-carnivals-reader-quick-tip/
http://www.mamablogga.com/blog-carnivals-start-to-finish/
http://www.searchenginejournal.com/link-building-by-hosting-blog-carnivals/4425/
Forums Participation
Participation in Forums and Message boards is another marketing approach to increase exposure to your blog. Many message boards and forums have a separate section of the discussion, collecting topics related to the blogs and blogging. But, even participation in non-related discussions on forums and message boards with leaving your blog link as your signature might bring you new customers. If I see a post on the message board, that is catching my attention by an interesting approach, I might want to learn more about the author and his virtual space. If the topic of the conversation is related to the blog theme, it is even better. User can discuss it, referring to his blog in a natural way as a source of additional information. People do not feel this conversation to be a part of the self-promotion campaign.
Also, it was noticed that the Search Engine are quite favorable to the forums content, so you might see the quality content, you posted on the forum discussion, at one of the first pages of the related keyword searches at the major Search Engines. Definitely, your blog address reference has a chance to catch public attention and increase your page ranking.
There are few good Forums, dedicated to blogging. If you are not only looking to promote your blog, but are also open for any new ideas and interactive communication with other fellows bloggers, the Blogging Forums will give you valuable assistance. It is useful for the Bloggers of all proficiency levels, but it is especially rewarding for newbies, as there they can find assistance with blog design, set-up and promotion. Based on the area of particular interests, user might focus on a certain area of the blogging forums, for example: blog promotion tips, template related issues, how to earn money from blog, Review my blog, RSS related, link exchange, Blog Add-Ons etc.
As usual, I am using RateItAll to prepare the Web List of the best online Forums, that are specializing on the Blog and Blogging related topics:
http://www.rateitall.com/t-24458-forums-for-bloggers.aspx
Bloggers Forum ScreenShot
Additional Reading:
http://toplisting.blogspot.com/2007/07/top-5-blogger-forums.html
http://newestonthenet.com/10-forums-to-make-you-a-better-blogger/
http://www.successful-blog.com/1/blogger-forums-as-promotion/
Writing and Submitting Articles
You blog promotion through your articles published at other blog sites or article directories is a great way to develop exposure to new readers. It allows you to express yourself on unusual for you promotion channels and to bring in new readers who would not have come to your official blog otherwise.
For the starter, you can base your article on your own blog posts, tweak them a little bit, add eye-catching caption and graphics, and you have your article ready. Or you can write the first article about your blog, its purpose, its milestones, and about yourself as a blog creator. When article is ready, it could be submitted to the bloggers’ communities, article directories, direct publishers, and other blogs. Each of these opportunities can present each own benefits and should be closely evaluated while designing the marketing strategy for your blog promotion.
We will highlight the articles submission to the free articles directories, representing the most popular source for the hosting of article publication. They offer multiple benefits by spreading a word about you and your points, and gaining back links to your blog from outside location. Also, if your article is of high quality, other webmasters might pick it up and run on their sites. As all article directories site require the publishers to retain the original links, planted inside the article, this can create the back links to your blog multiplication from each posted article.
Rated list of the top 40 free Articles Directories is posted on RateItAll. Feel free to raise your voice, rating the listed items and adding new:
http://www.rateitall.com/t-24434-free-articles-directories.aspx
For those, who prefer the automatic way for articles submission, there are multiple free software titles that can do that with minimum user assistance. As in all cases of the automatic submission, the effectiveness of the process is quite questionable. I personally did not test any of these programs, so I will just give you couple of links for software downloads on your own. Please, drop some comments on your impression from the automatic software performance.
Artemis Lite: http://www.artemislite.com/
Free Article Software: http://www.freearticlesoftware.com/
Article Submitter: http://articlesubmitter.imwishlist.com/
Article Manager: http://www.part-time-work-at-home-opportunities.com/downloads/
Additional Reading:
http://blogbusinessworld.blogspot.com/2003/12/blog-promotion-writing-articles.html
http://danemorgan.com/article-marketing-blog-promotion/19/
http://ezinearticles.com/?Free-Article-Submission-Software-For-Free-Traffic&id=597771
http://www.imnewswatch.com/archives/2007/02/free_article_su.html?visitFrom=1
Free Press Releases Distribution
"Press releases are no longer documents seen by just isolated editors and reporters. Anybody using press releases these days puts them online," noted Tracey Falbe in her book "Creating Publicity: Free Online Press Release Distribution". The book announces press release as a valuable component of each and every marketing campaign. So, we have obligation to review this method of the blog exposure increase as well.
Writing a press release, announcing the blog accomplishments to the media might be very helpful to spread a word about your site. Take time to prepare sharp and factual announcement that will briefly deliver the main information and will encourage the PR readers to visit your site to get details and just see, what else you got there. Spend additional time to proof read your posting, as PR announcement should look very professional to be posted and appreciated by readers.
Some of the PR sites are enjoying pretty high traffic. They are closely monitored by journalists, publishers, bloggers, looking for the killer content for their sites, and industry watchers. And, may be, you will be lucky enough to get a publication about you, your site, and your business on the highly-recognized media, where you never expected to see yourself. This doesn’t mean that you can prepare a press release that reminds a simple self-advertisement for your web site, blog, or business. The information in the press release has to be indeed newsworthy and objective.
The content of the press releases is also gets picked up by search engines, which makes your posts to be even more available to readers, and increases the chances for your site to be seen. And, finally, a side-benefit of the PR posting is increasing links popularity of your own site due to the linking from the PR site, which helps with search engine ranking. Link popularity is currently one of the top determining factors of where your website will rank on Major Search Engines listings.
There are a number PR sites that allow for press release to be posted free of charge. Definitely, the list of publishing options is limited for free members, but, since it is free, there is no point for complains. I have generated the list of such sites at RateItAll:
http://www.rateitall.com/t-24425-press-releases--free-online-services.aspx
Additional Reading:
http://www.ineedcopy.com/articlepressreleases.html
http://www.articlecafe.net/Article/Why-Press-Releases-Work---Website-Marketing/41510
http://mashable.com/2007/10/20/press-releases/
http://seo.magnetiks.com/2007/08/21/why-write-a-press-release/http://ezinearticles.com/?Actual-Facts---Reason-Why-Press-Releases-Work&id=774035