Online press releases are a cheap yet effective tool for SEO and to generate publicity. Taking PRleap.com as an example, you can use anchor text (i.e. keywords) in your links and get syndicated on Google/Yahoo news for as little as $20.

Once your press release gets syndicated, it’s likely to be re-published on several other websites either through genuine interest, or automated bots. Either way, it’s an additional incoming link for you from an external website. And if your news is interesting enough, it may even attract the interest of a journalist so you end up getting exposure in big publications.

Here’s a real-life example of how it works…

I submited an online press release the other day about an event on my forum, and it was read 163 times so far and mentioned on over 30 other websites, e.g. on sites like Windows Vista Weblog (PR5).

It pays to know that online press release sites have strict guidelines and all submissions are reviewed by a real editor. Apart from submitting in the proper format, you have to pay attention to the language and that it doesn’t look like “hard-selling” or spam. Look at the other press releases and see how they’ve written theirs.

The mileage you get from a press release may differ depending on your niche, the angle you used, etc. but for $20, it’s definitely worth a shot.