Do you have a sense what kind of lasting user base comes back from the TC referrals?
I was pretty impressed that we got a 25% conversion rate for signups on textWeight.com from a TC write up. This was especially amazing, given that you have to give your personal phone number. I think we've had about 10% attrition in the past 2 weeks, but otherwise a very healthy user base.
-Actually the TC visitors returned less than the others.
-I got more Twitter followers during the TC-HN spike than in the others.
-The visitors who returned the most are from xatakafoto, it seems they really like the Flikr channel.
It's always inspiring to hear someone's launch narrative, but I don't agree with a couple of your conclusions.
Is Techcrunch that important to get traction? They sent a ~2 day traffic spike your way, but after that not much. Is it the sacred cow of launching?
I agree with your fix quickly mentality, but coming away with the conclusion that you should listen to the critic without context is a bit rash.
You changed your site for 1 blog post. I do agree with their advice, but what if you where told that the logo was terrible, or your navigation scheme was wrong? How much would you be willing to change for the coverage, and at that point who's site is it?
Wow this kinda turned into a rant. I don't want the groupthink to lend itself toward; bending to the will of a tech blog, because it's the only way to launch.
The TC spike doesn't matter. The important thing is that TC is The source for other blogs around the world. I can't submit my site to a Japanese blog for example (I don't write this language), but a Japanese blogger read the TC post and reposted it. Multiply that for 100 and you can see where do the 70K Google results come from.
I don't change the design to appear there. But 60% of the users at that moment ( my girlfriend and TC) didn't like the font and to be sincere I wasn't sure anyway.
Honestly I don't think that the font change made the site techcrunch worthy, I think the HN frontpage was most important.
We are always bending to others, everyone fixes the limit of tolerance according our goals and means.
I agree. One of the most important thing is that great PR means tons of valuable links. And in the SEO game, the formula is: "get the links, win the game".
This is similar to my experience when Glancely was on TC. The TC traffic was great, but the Lifehacker/Gizmodo traffic that came later were actually bigger. Beyond that, there's some credibility in saying your startup was on TechCrunch, Lifehacker, etc.
It's great to be written up in TC, but the real benefits come from more than just the article itself. A TC article is a great accomplishment for a startup and has benefits beyond the article. But it's just a step, so don't celebrate for too long.
You were pretty forward and quick in your intro emails. Not being a TC author but understanding that they get a ton of emails, I think you hit the nail on the head with how to get their attention.
I presume that the spike includes both TechCrunch and Hacker News. Based on 22 upvotes, I guess you got about 1-2'000 hits from HN, so that works out at about 7-8'000 hits from TC over 3 days?
