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25 Comments

How founders can get more press coverage

  1. 4

    This advice is too broad for the average indie hacker, imo. I think a better bet is to tap into HARO to grow your brand and position yourself as an expert in the field. HARO (Help a Reporter Out) is an email list of 800,000 journalists and bloggers who're looking for experts/thought leaders to provide a statement for whatever article they're working on.

    Signing up gets you three emails a day where you'll see requests for industry expertise. If you're quick enough and able to give them the info they need, you'll get you the exposure you need in order to grow your business and become a thought leader. My advice is to be direct and concise in your pitches, and focus on the facts.

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      Yes to this! And, Newsjacking is another great way to begin to position yourself as an expert when you're still green. It can be exhausting in the beginning, but it can be a quick way to gain some momentum. Basically, just set up a bunch of google alerts within your industry and put together a calendar of upcoming events that might be worth commenting on. Once you're alerted, give yourself no more than 30 minutes to put a brief thought-piece /comment together and then send it off to different news outlets and see what happens.

      A friend of mine grew her organic traffic by 400% and organic conversions by 60% doing this for two months. Timing is key with this.

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        This was helpful! Thanks

    2. 2

      Thanks for sharing this 🙏

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      This is totally worth trying out! Signing up on HARO has been on my to-do list for ages.. Thanks for the breakdown

  2. 3

    What they write about getting in front of your audience regularly is true too - I have a tendency to shy away from video/anything involving a photo, and even podcasts, I'm much more comfortable getting in front of my audience via blogs, it feels a lot less daunting. But it's also a lot more time-consuming, and not necessarily the best way to reach your audience (depending on who they are). I have one friend in particular who bit the bullet a couple of years ago and did super well on Tiktok and Instagram by posting regular videos. It takes her a tenth of the time that it takes me to write a blog, to post a video, and it's reaped greater rewards so far. It's also just more daunting.

  3. 2

    The advice in here is true, but not super actionable. I would echo another commenter about joining HARO, it's can occasionally pay off in a big way. Many founders often have some outsized expectations though. Even in a major publication, one story will not drive a massive amount of traffic to your landing page. It's mainly useful for social proof, and SEO to a certain extent.

    This is a little meta, but the publication this article appears on is actually a little more interesting that the content itself. Forbes is a major content mill that leans into a sneaky but effective type of PR, where you can essentially buy social proof backed by the Forbes name. That largely comes in two forms.

    One is where you pay Forbes directly to contribute as part of an "advisory council." Many do this to establish themselves as thought leaders. Often there won't be much direct traffic to the Forbes piece, but it doesn't really matter because the real audience is their followers on LinkedIn, Twitter, Investors who Google them, etc.

    The second is buying mentions from Forbes contributors, who are a dime a dozen. They will let basically anyone become a contributor, so long as you supply them with content. Often the contributors do it primarily for the ability to put "Forbes Contributor" in their professional bios. Many of them will turn around and sell mentions to anyone who wants to be the next segment in the PR human centipede and get social proof from a "Forbes Mention."

    I'm currently working on a project in the same space, so this stuff is a little top of mind. Too fun to not share here. PR is a bizarre industry once you take a peek behind the curtain.

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      But does a Forbes "mention" actually add genuine value nowadays? Or do you consider such individuals as sleazy salespersons?

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        I would say that it certainly does from the perspective of the one being mentioned. Social proof is quite powerful, and a recognizable name magnifies that. Leads aren’t directly considering each “as seen in” logo on a landing page. However they do build a sense of significance and trust to the product and other claims on a landing page.

        I personally wouldn’t consider anyone sleazy for engaging in this type of PR. It’s all part of the game, and just because someone pays to publicize claims doesn’t mean they’re false. I may be a little biased though.

  4. 2

    From my experience, publications judge you by your perceived popularity. For example, if an actor, a singer, or a already known entrepreneur/businessman launch a new app, it will be features in many places. This is how publications judge which content to prioritize. They want readers, so an already popular person will get them new readers. Also, it works if you are former employee of a big company ( FaceBook, Google, Twitter, Paypal, etc ).

  5. 2

    I think this is the right approach, but increasingly I doubt it's worth the effort for most indie hackers. In theory it's great to get mainstream press but in practice, there's probably very little overlap between an average TV audience (for example) and the kinds of customers your product is built for.

    (To the article's credit, it does advise founders to first do the hard work of nailing your niche. But as far as I can tell, this is really just a clever way of getting people to grow the right way such that they naturally lose their appetite for flashy irrelevant press.)

  6. 2

    The advice is great, but it's so hard to apply in practice. Even if what you bring as a bootstrapped founder is a "unique, slightly controversial perspective and a new audience they can monetize," the chances of them choosing to feature you over a seasoned industry player are slim at best. You'd need to really sell why this fresh perspective or this new audience is valuable to them, and that's not an easy feat.

    1. 2

      Agreed. Networking can help a ton though - especially in-person I'd argue. Even when someone hears about you because you're a friend of a friend, or you're referred by someone, it can immediately boost your credibility. It's like a seal of social approval.

  7. 1

    Great stuff I really enjoyed your stuff, could you please have a look on my https://mspylite.com/ and let know how can i produce these kind of stuff thanks

  8. 1

    We sell to local markets. The strategy is similar to Uber. By targeting local press and making the spin being about releasing in that town/city/etc, this can work.

    I also found this article helpful in pitching the journalists: https://joshsteimle.com/marketing/how-to-get-me-to-write-an-article-about-your-company.html

  9. 1

    I definitely agree with HARO being a more practical method of easing your way into this type of PR. What you'll never read in Forbes is that the "Forbes" way of doing this stuff is generally not that practical, or comfortable for folks like us. The ROI is also highly questionable. At my prior startup we got a couple of Forbes puff pieces placed but only after paying for PR help, and with very questionable bottom line impact. In general, pieces in Forbes or TechCrunch are much more useful in fundraising exposure than they are in driving prospects to your website. Content that focusses on the latter, rather than the former, is generally time much better spent.

  10. 1

    Getting your business covered, or at least mentioned, in high-profile news articles or other publications can be a massive benefit for your brand:

    Brand visibility and reputation. First and foremost, you’ll get your brand recognized by a wider range of people, and you’ll start getting noticed as more of a major player or thought leader, especially if you’re covered consistently over time.
    User acquisition. The mere mention of your brand name can lead more people to your website and social media accounts, facilitating your user acquisition strategy immensely.
    Investor and partner interest. In your early stages, you may also attract partners, vendors and investors to your startup -- without having to hunt them down yourself.
    Talent and recruitment. Successful startups depend on successful teams, and your media exposure may help you naturally attract more talent to your business.

  11. 1

    This is a great article. In the WBE Space we were just discussing how Plausible was able to reach 1M ARR and it seemed that a lot came from SEO and great press

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      This comment was deleted a year ago.

  12. 1

    This strategy works, but you will kill months or even years to achieve a good result

  13. 1

    Here's an interesting piece recently published on this: Top social media sites used by US journalists.

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    This comment was deleted 2 years ago.

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