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Where and how to announce the launch of a website?

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Where and how to announce the launch of a website?

#11

Post by ed »

If you seriously want to launch this service you'll need to be ruthless about who you target. You're not going to get anywhere by playing nice and focusing on a handful of sites.

Target everyone and anyone. Then go back and do it again. Marketers typically try to make 3 impressions on a person for any given product or service.

And as others are mentioning press releases are pretty ineffective. I find it's always best to write a personalized email even if you're just changing some boiler-plate text. Personalized emails create a sense of obligation to respond.

Re: Where and how to announce the launch of a website?

#13

Post by rms »

adrianwaj wrote: post #12

http://www.buzzshout.com/ http://www.launchfeed.com/ Social networks on Ning with collaborative blogs - write posts Google Ad-words Put a link in your email footers Make some good comments on Techcrunch with a link to your site

I don't think I've gotten more than 50 hits from a TechCrunch comment, and that's when I get first post. It still won't hurt to make as many comments as you can on popular blogs with a link back to your site.

Re: Where and how to announce the launch of a website?

#16

Post by chmac »

I'd suggest you go focused rather than shotgun. Who are your target customers? What other sites are they using? Are you a cross between eBay and Facebook? Who are the biggest bloggers out there on those topics? Target those people, like a laser beam, you should be able to guarantee coverage on launch day.

Plus, you should be able to generate some hype beforehand. Start targetting these sites now. Tell them the launch is coming. Build the relationship. Make sure the authors know who you are and that you're coming.

Oh, and in 4-6 weeks means nothing, pick a date. Pick a date in 8 weeks so you can be sure you hit it, but a date, an actual date, a timeframe is always meaningless.

So you've targetted the top bloggers in the field, now offer them something. Tell them you're coming, then offer the top blogger a 4 hour exclusive if they'll guarantee coverage. Offer them all a sneak preview. Delay your launch by 3 days and run 3 days of "private, invite only beta testing". Tell all the bloggers you're targetting that they can invite people, on their blogs.

The people you're targetting (bloggers, not customers) have to feel like they're getting something real, something that's a scoop, not some generic, third hand, run of the mill announcement.

Second, target forums / user groups / fan sites / etc. Anything in the eBay / MySpace / Facebook / etc space, if there's a forum out there, find their news section, add them to your list above. Then get an account on the forum and start talking (try to keep it relevant, spam never helped anyone).

Scrap the "Coming soon" on your site and start a big, fat counter. LAUNCHING IN 45/44/43 DAYS, etc.

Generate some hype, get people excited, this thing is going to happen, it's going to be huge, and you want to get into it right now.

Most of all, good luck!

Re: Where and how to announce the launch of a website?

#17

Post by nextmoveone »

I've found the best thing to do it Press Release.

Why? 1. It's syndicated across hundreds of websites including forbes.com and yahoo news. 2. People read them constantly to find what's new 3. Writers read them to get new stories 4. People in your industry read them to bring new apps to the limelight with their small audience

and all other forms of promotion should compete with the press release, not supplement it.

Re: Where and how to announce the launch of a website?

#18

Post by tocomment »

nextmoveone wrote: post #17

I've found the best thing to do it Press Release. Why? 1. It's syndicated across hundreds of websites including forbes.com and yahoo news. 2. People read them constantly to find what's new 3. Writers read them to get new stories 4. People in your industry read them to bring new apps to the limelight with their small audience and all other forms of promotion should compete with the press release, not supplement it.

Can you explain a little more about how to do this? Is there a place you submit your press release to get it "syndicated across hundreds of websites"?

Re: Where and how to announce the launch of a website?

#19

Post by iamwil »

ed wrote: post #11

If you seriously want to launch this service you'll need to be ruthless about who you target. You're not going to get anywhere by playing nice and focusing on a handful of sites. Target everyone and anyone. Then go back and do it again. Marketers typically try to make 3 impressions on a person for any given product or service. And as others are mentioning press releases are pretty ineffective. I find it's always best…

While I'm not a marketer, targeting anyone and everyone isn't the way to go, imo. Despite all the greatness we think that we built, most people simply won't care. And spam is the evil that doesn't think it's evil because it thinks it's doing everyone else a service.

"And I'm not saying that television is vulgar and dumb because the people who compose the Audience are vulgar and dumb. Television is the way it is simply because people tend to be extremely similar in their vulgar and prurient and dumb interests and wildly different in their refined and aesthetic and noble interests." X David Foster Wallace

While the guy is a novelist, and not in television, he's done work in observing the effects of television on fiction. But, I think it makes sense.

Given that, unless your service is pretty basic, like water and sun of the internet, or pretty vulgar, like porn (also appeal to basic affinity towards sex), it will probably only first appeal to those that are interested in that particular niche.

This is why finding those people that are fans or first movers in that particular field/industry is important, and especially if they're obsessed enough to keep a blog on it, due to a need they have to tell other people. For a new market however, you'll need to find a cross-section that cuts across other groups--this, I have no idea how to do.

Anyway, that's why it's usually considered a good idea to pick problems that are your problems to work on for a startup, because in addition to scratching your own itch, you'll know where to find other complaining fools (besides yourself) that have the same problem. If you can do it well, they'll tell others.

Re: Where and how to announce the launch of a website?

#20

Post by steve »

natrius wrote: post #10
steve wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

news.yc is a "social networking" site... I'd try to lose that buzzword, but the concept of making sites that users can communicate over is still pretty solid.

But news.yc doesn't call itself a social networking site. There's a big difference between sites that happen to allow people to communicate and interact with each other, and sites that list "we're a social network" on their FAQ as a reason why they're different from the competition. The latter tend to be much lamer.

How is that not exactly what I said?
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