How to Distribute Your Fitness Press Release Once you have your personal trainer press release written and formatted, you will need to send it to all your local media contacts. Here are a few ways to get your press release out there:

• Your own list: You may have an in-house list of relevant publications that you've been gathering or keeping track of.
• Distribution service: you can use an online/offline distribution service to take care of the task of sending out your press release.
• In-person: This can include dropping off the fitness press release in person (not recommended!) or simply forwarding the release to the appropriate person for each of the media types that you are going after once you determine who the main contact is for your type of story.
• Your own website: This should be obvious, but put all of your press releases somewhere on your website or at the very least, links to them.
• More info: I found a great website that deals way more intimately with press releases than this post can cover, and in fact lists about 50 distribution websites that you can use to get your release out there. Here¡¦s the link.

Fees for the various distribution services range from free to several hundred dollars. Just bear in mind that distribution does not ensure a publication will run your story. However, having a newsworthy, interesting and correctly formatted fitness press release will help.

Quick Note: Be a persistent SOB! I can't tell you how many emails and follow up phone calls I did to get my press releases and stories about my business promoted in the local newspaper. You have to understand that these guys get bombarded by hundreds to thousands of press releases every single day!

In order to make it through the crowd -- aside from a catchy and relevant headline and ad copy -- is to be on their butts all the time! I mean you have to be relentless! If you aren't, then you might as well forget about getting real media exposure and just settle in a nice little comfort zone of getting the trickle of traffic you'll get from online sources and the potential backlinks from spiders finding your press release. But to really be effective, and give your personal training business the gift that keeps on giving, you must be relentless, persistent and patient all at the same time.

Quick Resources

Here are some resources that I have used and that you can use to submit your press release and get it out there, aside from just plain old persistence:

• http://www.free-press-release.com: This website allows you to create free press releases, but the paid options are way better because you get to choose your backlinks, have more control over the look and feel of the release and it is way more valuable. Prices range from $0 to $30 per release. But if you just want to dip your toes into the water, give it a try. It's easy, and quick and is done online so you'll get some search engine juice from it.
• http://www.prnewswire.com: PR Newswire is one of the largest and most well-known press release distributors. I will warn you though, a package with them can be expensive, BUT it will get your press release done right, and delivered into the correct hands. This is a higher end option, but the results could well be worth the added time and expense.
• http://www.prweb.com: This is a mid-level option, with a simple release starting at $80, going all the way to $360 per release with more options and html and backlinks to help your search engine optimization for your website. This is clean and simple way to get a higher end press release out there to the world that has more clout than the Free-Press-Release.com option.

There are many, many others out there, in fact you can get overwhelmed with all the choices, but I wanted to keep things pretty simple for you.

 If you want more choices, here's a great website for all things devoted to press releases and their entire list of press release distribution sites. Bear in mind that the above services do not guarantee that anyone of significance in the newsroom will see your release!

In fact some of the options are online-only, and never will cross the desks for important editors and reporters. For that you will need to manually submit your release to specific companies and news outlets in your local community where you want to ensure that they at least got your release, and then follow up with them like crazy.

Example Fitness Press Release:

Here' s a link to a press release I created using Free-Press-Release.com for this website when it went live not too long ago:

Fitness Marketing Blog Launches Aimed At Helping Personal Training Entrepreneurs Explode Their Business 

Chris Fernandez, B.S., CPT, has been a cutting edge author, speaker and celebrity personal trainer for over 12 years, as well as a natural for life bodybuilder, athlete and cross-trainer devoted to helping other personal trainers achieve lasting financial independence through his fitness marketing blog, System 5 and other products. View his full BIO here.

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