[Ash]

I launched a site 3 weeks ago and spent a whole Sunday submitting a press release to 20 free press release sites (a search will find more than 20 easily). A small lie there - I paid for the $80 PRWeb submission, and something trivial at two others - less than $10 IIRC. But 17 others were totally free (many had paid options, which I ignored).

The outcome?
Best Alexa ranking I have had for anything I have built for myself.
17,400 results in Google for the phrase "zune user group" (with quotes).
Hardly any new members - but early days, as the Zune won't be released for a month from now.

Press release sites don't generate a huge ranking improvement, if any (according to Matt Cutts), but this wasn't a primary motive here. Membership by Zune owners is the ultimate aim, creating unique content, stickiness, and so on.

Have press releases worked for you?

Ash