

Ask HN: What's the best way to approach blogs to write about your startup? - ryanb

As a developer, "selling" people on my projects is something I often struggle with.<p>I'm sure a lot of others on here would also find advice on this topic to be helpful.
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brk
I usually sneak up from behind and hit them over the head...

Think about what YOU would want to read in a blog. Blatant, shameless product
pitches rarely have much value. Talking about how or why you added a
particular feature is usually more interesting. Realistic use-case examples,
either from your own dog-food eating (I hate that term), or even better from
real customers gives people something they can relate to.

Basically, talk about anything but "selling", instead aim for something a
little more conversational and along the lines of cool story you might tell a
friend or colleague.

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myoung8
Write a guest post about a topic of interest to that blog's readership that
doesn't directly pitch you product. Then insert a shameless plug (and label it
as such) at the end of the post.

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pclark
Zee of The Next Web is awesome approachable. @zee on twitter. Reach out to
him, TNW is a big name (I think it goes TC -> RWW -> VB -> TNW)

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Travis
Involve the blogs with the product during its feature-spec stage. Not only
will you get better press from them once you need it (people like to write
about their influence...), but you should also get some good feedback from the
blog authors and users.

I'd contact blog owners during dev, tell them, "hey i've found this pain, and
I'm building MyProduct to solve X, Y, Z. Do you think these are the biggest
problems, as you see it?"

This way you can get press, you can network, you can get good feedback from
potential customers... And the blog owner gets to feel special, and look
special, to their readers. Win win.

