Google's getting into email newsletters – how it affects you
On August 6th 2003, Google launched a beta-test of a brand new service — emailed news alerts.
You can bet that in the past month loads of people have signed up (although Google as usual can’t confirm any exact numbers.) I called over there this morning to get some info on how this will affect you:
– Nope, Google is currently not planning on running ads in the email. Knowing the cost of email publishing, I can tell you that’s bound to change sooner or later. But for now, the alerts have no ads.
– Yes, the newsfeed does include press releases that you send via PR Newswire and BusinessWire. In fact, my newsfeed email this morning for an email-related keyword had five items in it and the top four were press releases.
So, this makes your press releases in wire services much valuable.
One thing to note: you don’t have to buy full national distribution from the wire services to get your feed into Google News. It’s my understanding that both main wire services toss in Internet distribution as a bonus even if you only buy a local or regional distribution.
So, you can pay less and just tell them to distribute your news to one city, and it will still show up online. (I’ve been saving money on MarketingSherpa press releases for years now this way.)
Or try out PRWeb’s service for just $20.
Also, be sure to add a hotlink in the first paragraph of your press release instead of just at the very bottom. Assume that many more online readers will click through if you stick that link higher up.
And, obviously, make it trackable.
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