Ask HN: How can I get reviewed on TC/Gigaom/etc ?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=351010

by ruslan • 18 years ago

6 20 18 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

We recently started a new service (freeringer.biz). We flooded our press-release through a number of PR agencies, but it has zero effect (as it was expected). So, I'm desperately trying to contact bloggers and other startup press while the product is still hot, but all my attempts are futile. Any suggestion on how to get big guys' attention ? Thanks.

SingAlong3• 18 years ago

As the TechCrunch news tip page says, they'll feature you only if you are news worthy and if you break the news thru them. Its the same with Mashable.

But I suggest you get your first batch of users with just word-of-mouth marketing. These users would stay with you if they like the service. Those visitors who come by blog and advertising traffic give you no gurantee that theyll stay with you. Most will just be one-time visitors.

By the way, is Talkster your site? Coz when I clicked the link 30 countries I was led to Talkster. Incase this is your competitors's site, don't link to them. Just create your own page. You might lose users this way. Coz when users click the 30 countries link and then click the home link(they'll be on tlkster and signup for talkster).

I tried signing up my country isn't listed. Talkster also supports using Google Talk if I'm gonna call from a non-supported country. Thats what I noticed from their register form. Do you have any plans to support this feature?

Your service sounds cool. You don't need TechCrunch/GigaOm/Mashable/etc. All you need is a handful of friends to tell them about this. Free calls to 30 countries(!). Who wouldn't save phone bills?

Nice service! Good luck! :)

ruslan8• 18 years ago

Right. I read through their news-tip hints, but I still cannot get what it means to "breaking the news through them" ? I send them a couple of tips, a week before the launch, noone responded back. How do you make them responding to your emails at all ? I believe my emails were deleted before reaching the destination :-)

FreeRinger is a joint service made by us (GTalk2VoIP, Inc) and Talkster. We are developing the gateway and the flash app parts while Talkster runs their extensive voip network. That's why we refer to them on our site. The app currently allows to make calls to SIP phones as well, calling to Google Talk, MSN and Yahoo is coming soon. :-)

Thanks for reviewing.

SingAlong3• 18 years ago

"breaking news thru them" means that they wanna be the first one amomg the mass media to break the news.

Hint hint: make sure the PRs you released weren't being indexed by a search engine. A google search is the first thing they would do. :) make your emails short and not an essay about what you do. Let you service not be common. Atleast hav some different features. If these and 'more' conditions of theirs are satisfied. You should be lucky.

Also mashable has a separate category which features a startup every week. That category is sponsored by Sun.

SingAlong3• 18 years ago

"breaking news thru them" means that they wanna be the first one amomg the mass media to break the news.

Also mashable has a separate category which features a startup every week. That category is sponsored by Sun.

Also, can the method u use to make free calls be used to send free sms? I have a requirement in my startup to send sms. But there's only one carrier in my country which has a free email to sms gateway. The rest charge millions. If yes, then is the a way i can contact you?

matt13• 18 years ago

Few miscellaneous observations:

- Seeing the ".biz" domain immediately made me suspicious of the site. Right or wrong, ".com" still rules. I'd strongly recommend finding a better domain.

- Why does the registration ask for DOB, gender, profession, marital status, and children? Seems like a scam at first.

- I signed up with bogus info and made a call. The app asked me to grant it use of my microphone and camera. I declined, though my phone did ring and tell me to call back a #. I stopped there.

Overall, its just... eh. Doesn't seem legit. It may very well be, but the overall poor design really makes it seem shady. My 2c: Hire a designer to improve the interface and go from there. If it really does let you make free calls to all those places, you should have no problem getting your publicity.

ruslan8• 18 years ago

I appreciate your opinion, thank you.

The service is ad-supported, so we need to know about user as much as possible to target ads. The ads will be interactive flash applications shown while user is on call.

The problem with .com domain is known: there no more unregistered domains left and all decent names are taken by moro^H^H^H^Hclever guys, which they sell starting from $5000. We developed service on a very tight budged, so we could not afford such expense on domain name.

Adobe Flash player always asks user to permit access to microphone, there's no way to overcome this "issue".

By poor design do you mean design of the website or the app itself or both ? :-)

Thanks again.

matt13• 18 years ago

I'm no expert, but screw ad support for this app. You're not going to get enough page views and in order to get targeted information you have to ask a lot for a lot of intrusive information up front.

You can provide free long distance? A lot of people would love to use this. But don't make it free. Make it, I don't know, $4.99/mo. Makes the whole thing seem more legit and you solve the money issue. And you can hire a designer ;)

Good luck --

thwarted2• 18 years ago

Comeon. As of Sat Nov 1 23:56:56 PDT 2008, no match for domain "FREERINGR.COM".

pedalpete2• 18 years ago

After a few months of writing to TechCrunch personally, as well as sending them my press release I finally managed to get www.HearWhere.com covered by them this week.

This happened after TechRadar (http://www.techradar.com/news/internet/web/20-websites-you-n...) covered HearWhere. I don't know if having another site cover my site first had an effect, and TechCrunch never contacted me directly, they just wrote, and I found out about it after i saw a traffic spike.

I don't know if it is the current economic climate, but TechCrunch did not drive near the amount of traffic I was expecting. Good reviews and comments, but as far as traffic, I saw an increase of course, but it wasn't a great spike in traffic I expected.

With respect to your comment about 'no good .com domain names left', I have to call that a load of b.s. If I managed to get "HearWhere" as a domain name, as well as some of other good names for other businesses, you can find a good name. It takes time, and can be a pain in the ass (it took me about a week to find HearWhere and maybe it was the 30th domain name I tried, but take the time and find a '.com' name. At the least a '.net', but '.biz' just doesn't cut it. Plus, when freeringer takes off, you would be increasing the value of a .com or .net name, and making it a prime target for a competitor to get at your market.

Much safer to get a new name I think.

Your reasons for DOB and other data doesn't quite cut le moutard either in my opinion. Particularly if you aren't getting users because you are asking for too much information, then you aren't going to get the add revenue either.

ruslan8• 18 years ago

Maybe you are right and our domain name choice was a failure, but do you really believe that everything in this world depends on just a domain name ? If so, I'm a retard.

pedalpete2• 18 years ago

No, I never said 'everything...relies on a domain name'. It isn't even the name that is the problem, it's the extension and what that says about your company.

You can look at all of the successful domain names that have little or no real meaning, but they are all '.com' , or '.net'.

There are a few reasons for this. Firstly when users type your URL, they are gonna type COMPANYNAME.com - you are going to loose users instantly if by not having a .com name. Sometimes users will know to try .net, but not everybody will, and getting people all the way to .biz is a stretch.

I suspect the only companies who have been able to grab traction without a .com name are the ones who have used clever play on words to make the .EXTENSION work with their name, like Del.icio.us

Don't take my word for it, look around, make a list of how many companies you can think of use a non-.com/.net name.

The problem is that you are creating barriers for your potential customers to get to you, and as a start-up you already have enough challenges, no point getting in your own way.

wavesplash2• 18 years ago

Why do you care about TC/GigaOm? Neither of those sites will drive significant traffic. Concentrate on SEO, real/traditional press, and smaller blogs. If your site handles free calls internationally, hit the blogs that target large groups of overseas callers. If you're trying to compete with Jajah, you may wish to study their marketing.

ruslan8• 18 years ago

Traffic is not everything. It's much easier to pitch to investors once you are covered by TC or some other "press that matters".

wavesplash2• 18 years ago

The exact opposite of that statement is true. It's easier to pitch investors with an innovative service with a solid business plan that looks like 100x growth in 5 years. It's much easier to raise your valuation with real user/subscriber/customer growth and a well defined sales cycle. The A tier investors see the good deals long before they ever break on TC/Om/Cnet/etc.

Getting a meeting on Sand Hill Road isn't hard. If you're relying on a blog to get your investment, you're doing it wrong.

Ask HN: How can I get reviewed on TC/Gigaom/etc ?

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