How did you get on TC, RWW etc? Did you know your journalist before pitching him/her? How many signups/users/downloads did the post refer? How did it affect the future of your startup?
Ask HN: How did you hack the press when you launched your startup(s)?
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Re: Ask HN: How did you hack the press when you launched your startup(s)?
#2[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: How did you hack the press when you launched your startup(s)?
#3Just honestly build these relationships. I use Twitter and events to do it, just speak to journalists honestly about what you're working on without full on pitches.
Roughly 25 useful tech journalists are following my progress via Twitter and I regularly reply offering my perspective on stories. With a few from time to time I'll ask for their advice when they can add value and eventually when I have something fit for a piece I'll get in touch having already validated my experience and progress.
It's much better than cold emailing asking for a story about your launch. They want to help you but you have to help them finding a story out of your launch. If they know a little about your history it will help this is why building a prior relationship helps.
Re: Ask HN: How did you hack the press when you launched your startup(s)?
#4The system I'm working on got press via the local news a few times (they love running scrappy tech startup stories, so it was one 30 second Channel 5 type interview and a news story). There wasn't a direct bump in sales because of it.
Everything I work on is B2B so 100% of sales are done via a conversation and not someone landing on the site and clicking "sign-up" so YMMV. The news articles was only important to solidify ourselves as a legit operation, and not really for the press it generated.
Re: Ask HN: How did you hack the press when you launched your startup(s)?
#5It's not just about hacking the press. Sometimes it's plain just learning to interface with people and having a unique angle on a story.
Most press I've seen from friends being TC'ed is minimal. Unless your customers are people who read TC, the effect is minimal to converted customers. They had a ton of visitors which might have increased mindshare. TC can be a vanity metric if you're not careful, especially if TC's audience is not your paying customers. It helps be legit in having (some) press coverage, but it doesn't last if you can't back it up and delight people.
If you're doing what everyone else is doing to get coverage in the same places, the chances are greater you'll end up like everyone else (a startup that doesn't get where it needs to).
Focus on learning who your customers are, where they truly hang out, get their attention in those places, be it through story placement or advertising since not all sites use adsense, and some very successful sites have their own advertising engines.
Quality of eyeballs on your site is a far better metric to pursue than quantity.
Re: Ask HN: How did you hack the press when you launched your startup(s)?
#6I launched a t shirt line a bit ago and got press in a decently hackerish way. The t shirts were geared toward gamers so I went to Alltop.com and scraped all of the blogs in the sections of gaming, t shirts, etc.. Used amazon turk to turk for the emails of those blogs, about 300 or so. Created a unique promo code for a percent off that was derived from the blogs name in the url. Used mailgun to construct and send the emails to all of the bloggers. Since the code was personalized, most thought they were receiving a personal email. The end result was about 15 blogs writing about the shirts, some of which were referred to me by the original bloggers, some of which held contests. One even interviewed me at a larger blog she does a column for.
Re: Ask HN: How did you hack the press when you launched your startup(s)?
#7bring them something they can use, like stats, insights, or an edge on a story that no one else has. they have pressures like everyone else from their bosses to produce and deliver, and they're competing for an editor's story approval. help them be your story's advocate by being their source for data and insights that's unique.
Re: Ask HN: How did you hack the press when you launched your startup(s)?
#8I've had some success with http://www.helpareporter.com/
Reporters post there looking for sources for their stories. If you match what they are looking for, you email the reporters.
I've gotten myself and my co-founder quoted in a bunch of publications this way. Hard to tell how much traffic they've generated though since it's been mostly print publications, so no link.
Re: Ask HN: How did you hack the press when you launched your startup(s)?
#9It's not just about hacking the press. Sometimes it's plain just learning to interface with people and having a unique angle on a story. Most press I've seen from friends being TC'ed is minimal. Unless your customers are people who read TC, the effect is minimal to converted customers. They had a ton of visitors which might have increased mindshare. TC can be a vanity metric if you're not careful, especially if TC's…
Couldn't have said it any better. Being TC'ed is cool to put on your websites homepage (I know, we did ;)), but appart from having a huge spike in your Google Analytics dashboard, the direct results/conversions are minimal(especially for B2B products).
On the other end, it might get you a little extra cred to prove your rising traction.
Better to go for more specialized blogs, they are better for overall conversion.
Re: Ask HN: How did you hack the press when you launched your startup(s)?
#10Step 1: Live in San Francisco (or at least have a remote office there). Physical, accessible presence is key.