I’ve been sent many press releases from domain-related entities lately, and I haven’t published more than a couple of them. Although some of the companies are operated and/or managed by companies with whom I do business, I didn’t publish them as I saw them posted elsewhere. As much as I am always connected to the Internet via Blackberry, I am not always by my laptop or able to write a blog post.
Unless there is something unique I can add to the story – such as my own personal analysis of a situation, I don’t see a reason to post repetitive things. With RSS readers, email news feeds, sites like Domaining.com, I think most people who choose to read my blog read many other blogs, and I personally think it’s annoying to read the exact same thing in several places. As my friend Francois told me back in November (which I have taken to heart because he is right):
“Sorry to be rude but these posts are ANNOYING!
Simply because it’s annoying to read again the SAME post you have previously read in Sahar, Frank, Ricks, … blogs without any additional information or a different point of view developed.”
The purpose of this post is to say why I haven’t published many press releases. Some people have taken that personally, and I wanted to make sure they know it isn’t anything personal.
I agree Elliot. If I am not the first one to write it, I won’t. I do from time to time take a press release and add some points to it, but that’ it. I try to stay Unique as I can. It helps keeping those returning visitors and making the site Unique.
I couldn’t agree more. I see news posts that don’t do much more than provide a link to the original story. No additional info! People read blogs to find out the blogger’s personal point of view or touch!
That’s one of the reasons why I’ve made a conscious effort to not report news on my blog. I don’t want anyone going to my site and thinking “Thats it?” or “oh, not this again.”
It’s what annoys me the most in this industry that I love. Using the word “Exclusive” when it’s obviously not would be a close second 😛
From an SEO perspective, press releases are golden. It makes no difference if you are not adding anything to the sum total of human knowledge, you still get some nice backlinks. Frankly, you should be releasing press releases every week or two weeks with new updates to your lowell site.
***UPDATED BY ELLIOT***
I am talking about posting press releases made by others on my blog.
Thank you so much for NOT publishing the plethora of worthless PR press releases out there. Elliot, your blog is unique, informative and original. I hope you keep it that way.
We try to do the same in almost every case. If we put in the release it’s along with our comments. Some press releases aren’t really worth publishing and some I just don’t have any input on . . . The real purpose of a press release is to provide “media” outlets with the information to write an informed story, if they want. They aren’t for copy/pasting. You don’t see newspapers doing a copy and paste of a press release and you don’t see them writing a story on every thing that crosses their desks. Good post. Whoever is whining about you not publishing their PR has no clue what they are doing.