Remember how I tom-tommed the fact that we got a new domain from PR0 to a very healthy PR5 in under two months? Actually it was less than two months because we didn’t get started on the linking till a month after we bought it. But never mind that.
The fact is that we used very sound techniques to make that happen. And it was no fluke. We can keep doing it again and again and again… for all the clients who entrust their SEO to us.
Among the most effective techniques that helped us build QUALITY links to our website was the use of press releases. In fact, using an optimized press release is such a powerful method of building links that I now recommend it to all our clients.
Just a single press release helped us build links from not only high-PR press release sites, but also from competitor sites where our news was syndicated.
Competitor sites? How did we do that?
Well here’s the secret (if you want to call it that). One of the best sites to submit your press release is on PRweb. Using the $80 option, you can get your release syndicated through Yahoo! News so that it gets picked up and syndicated on a lot of competitor sites.
Imagine having your competitors working to build links to you. What better SEO tactic could there possibly be!! 
Of course, once your link on Yahoo! News vanishes, your link popularity (and PageRank) could drop. But that didn’t happen to us, because I always ensure that we build enough redundancy into our link campaigns, which is why we simultaneously carry out article marketing and directory submissions to build links.
I have people working for me who do the actual work of press release submission, but if you’re a solo entrepreneur and want a tool that can automate that task for you, take a look at Jeff Alderson’s Press Equalizer. I just got a copy for myself, because anything that helps me save time is worth the money. 
So are press releases really the new “blog and ping” alternative to getting indexed? I wouldn’t call them that. But if you want to build quality links, create publicity, and boost your reach and influence, press releases may be just the tool you need.
