The effectiveness of a PR Web press release depends upon a lot of factors, most notably the package you choose and the newsworthiness of the event or issue you're publicizing. But yes, it can do very well. I've used it and had my pieces run, sometimes almost verbatim, in many media outlets, from LA Times and USA today down to more localized coverage for localized events.

The package you choose depends on what you need. If you're simply looking for links and a few eyeballs, you can take one of the lower packages. For serious press in offline media, you might be better off springing for the highest level package for Associated Press distribution, or even the enhanced option if your topic is business specific.

Of course, the higher you go, the more you're going to spend, so don't go for the big kid package if you're really looking for backlinks.

Press release tips:

PR Web will reject your release if you don't conform to their formatting standards. (Sentence case vs. capitals in the headline, for example.) Their standards are posted on the site, so pay extra attention to them.

They'll also reject you if your piece isn't what they consider to be timely. Make it urgent. Not like BUY RIGHT NOW urgent, but if it's brand new, say it's brand new.

If you're quoting somebody, make sure to put complete statements in the quotes. A lot of press release scrapers will put anything between quotes in big pull quotes on their sites at random. (A human doesn't decide.) That means if you say "Basically," says Corbett, "PR Web is the shiznit" they could pull a quote that only says "Basically," which looks really lame.

Don't sell. If it's good news, it should sell itself.

To figure out how to write the release, read the newspaper. The ideal press release is one that could run in the New York Times without editing.

Good luck!!