The next morning I got up and logged into my PRWeb account. They have a stat’s program that tells you how many pageviews your press released has received, and I was curious to see whether I’d gotten 5 or heaven forbid 20 clicks. (I’m such a pessimist at times!) Well you could have pushed me over with a calm summer breeze after I saw those numbers. At 7:30 am EST my press release already had 40,000+ pageviews. By the end of day, that number had surpassed 96,000.

PRWeb is the perfect tool for small businesses and one I recommend in my book. It’s a social media press release without the high price tag or monthly fees. They’ll get your press release into search engines and on top news sites like Google News. You’ll reach journalists and bloggers. Best of all you pay once and the link is maintained on PRWeb forever.

PRWeb shared a case study with us, involving a firm that typically sees a boost in search engine rankings and a 50% spike in web traffic after they issue a release. In fact, for one release in particular, the firm saw a spike of 400% on two different Web sites, and the firm doesn't believe they were from the same users. They also incorporate social media tools like Twitter to extend the "shelf life" of press releases, and say that drives additional traffic.

Every time I call PRWeb, someone awesome answers the phone right away. I really appreciate the gracious attitude and hard work of your employees as well as the fact that things get done while I'm on the phone...

If press releases have any potency now, it comes from showing up in Web searches and, hopefully in the process, raising a company’s profile online. Thanks to online distributors like PRWeb, your release can become virtually ubiquitous on the Web.