People read a press release with their guard down and a classified advertisement with it up, and that difference is the whole argument for free publicity. Paul Alden makes it plainly in a numbered series on traffic that is better thought through than most paid courses.
His search posts refuse the usual promise. He argues the field never stops moving, that today's best practice becomes next year's embarrassment, and that what you do now sets where you will stand later. That is a harder message than a checklist and a more honest one.
On email he says the quiet part: building a list takes sacrifice and attention to detail, which is exactly why most marketers never do it properly.
Then the blog turns, and there is Christian hip-hop, arguments about drug law, and a piece whose whole point is that being interesting starts with being interested.
Read the traffic series in order. It was written to be read that way and it holds up.