5 ms·

I haven't tried this exact approach, but I have tried an approach I would describe as broadly similar, but a bit less automated. I run a small ambient backgrou

I haven't tried this exact approach, but I have tried an approach I would describe as broadly similar, but a bit less automated. I run a small ambient background noise app called A Soft Murmur [1]. It has been featured by some fairly high-profile outlets, including the Arts section of The Independent [2], Netted [3] and being tweeted by SXSW [4]. I made a large update to the app about a year ago and made a concerted effort to get some press. I compiled a list of people I thought would be interested, ranging from tiny bloggers to well-known tech journalists. In each case, I made sure that there was a personal connection between the person I was contacting and my application - either the person had written about finding it difficult to work in noisy environments, or they had written about scientific research on the effects of background noise on productivity, or they mentioned using background noise as a tool for meditation or relaxing, or they had written about a similar service before, etc. Each email was hand-written without using any templates, and each email referenced why I thought that specific person would be interested. I also experimented with different formats - more detail, less detail, more formal, more friendly, etc. I also tried lots of different angles, sharing different interesting tidbits about the app and how it came to be. None of those emails generated a single article or mention. I probably sent a couple of hundred over the course of a week, and the success rate was literally 0%. What's more, although I worked hard to make each email sound positive, I hated the whole process and it made me feel like scumbag. All of the positive press about my application has been generated by word of mouth. I've been very fortunate with happy users spreading the word on social media, and press outlets picking it up from there. It's possible that I just suck at writing pitches, but I tried a lot of different approaches and made a real, good-faith effort to only contact people who I genuinely thought would be interested in my app. I had no success whatsoever. Even trying as hard as possible to make each message personal and relevant, it still felt a bit spammy. It also sucked up a lot of time. It's not something I would do again. [1] http://asoftmurmur.com [2] http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/a-soft-murmur-this-website-of-ambient-sounds-will-wash-away-distractions-a6684306.html [3] http://netted.net/a-soft-murmur-white-noise-machine-site/ [4] https://twitter.com/sxsw/status/643805329013276673

6stringmerc 11y ago
Thanks for sharing your experience, and especially the details about your approach. As a writer, I'd like you to maybe consider that the effort you put forward at least was self-improvement exercise in communication - as in, through practice and time, you had some realizations about how you want to present yourself, your product, etc. I genuinely think time spent in your objective isn't a waste, per se, because you've got material that you created which can be used as a reference, template, or reminder in the future. > None of those emails generated a single article or mention. I probably sent a couple of hundred over the course of a week, and the success rate was literally 0%. What's more, although I worked hard to make each email sound positive, I hated doing it and it made me feel like scumbag. I occasionally participate in a Reddit forum for music production, and a frustrated member just went through the exact same experience trying to submit to music review / blog / coverage sites: More than 100 emails, targeted, using methods that the community had identified and cited as constructive. 0% response rate. In the course of telling the group about the experience, sure, several members chimed in saying they'd be willing to take a look...some might even be writers or editors relating to a music blog, but I think the lesson I learned was that "joining a community and sharing with it is much easier than attempting to solicit interest." In a past experience, working at an indie movie theater, the biggest "success stories" were almost always word-of-mouth buzz related (e.g. Big Fat Greek Wedding) versus the films which did a lot of advertising (About Schmidt being the biggest exception).
- gabemart 11y ago
  > As a writer, I'd like you to maybe consider that the effort you put forward at least was self-improvement exercise in communication - as in, through practice and time, you had some realizations about how you want to present yourself, your product, etc. I genuinely think time spent in your objective isn't a waste, per se, because you've got material that you created which can be used as a reference, template, or reminder in the future. I agree with this broadly, but I feel like I am too biased by how fortunate I have been to really appraise how useful the exercise was in the terms you describe. By "fortunate", I mean the application has been a success in my own modest terms, relative to the time I spent working on it. I think that success is attributable mainly to luck. Although the people who use the application like it based on its inherent qualities, I don't think those inherent qualities alone were enough to guarantee that my application would find users back in the critical early stage. I think it found users because when I submitted it to Reddit a couple of years ago, shortly after creating the first version, I was lucky that enough people happened to see it in the list of new submissions and happened to like it and happened to like it enough to upvote it. There are 5-10 people out there who I will never meet who are responsible for that submission getting on to the front page of that subreddit, which resulted in a flood of traffic, which resulted in a chain of events that eventually led to success (again, on my own terms). If you flip a couple of bits of background entropy, I build exactly the same thing and try to spread the word about it in exactly the same way and it never gets any traction and no one ever really finds out about it. So while the current version of me may agree that I value the self-knowledge "I'm not the kind of person who feels comfortable mass-emailing strangers in an attempt to promote myself", the version of me in that other, equally plausible reality where my application never got any users might not feel the same way, or might still be mass-emailing strangers, or what have you. I don't know, because I've been so fortunate with how things have turned out.

6stringmerc 11y ago

Thanks for sharing your experience, and especially the details about your approach. As a writer, I'd like you to maybe consider that the effort you put forward at least was self-improvement exercise in communication - as in, through practice and time, you had some realizations about how you want to present yourself, your product, etc. I genuinely think time spent in your objective isn't a waste, per se, because you've got material that you created which can be used as a reference, template, or reminder in the future. > None of those emails generated a single article or mention. I probably sent a couple of hundred over the course of a week, and the success rate was literally 0%. What's more, although I worked hard to make each email sound positive, I hated doing it and it made me feel like scumbag. I occasionally participate in a Reddit forum for music production, and a frustrated member just went through the exact same experience trying to submit to music review / blog / coverage sites: More than 100 emails, targeted, using methods that the community had identified and cited as constructive. 0% response rate. In the course of telling the group about the experience, sure, several members chimed in saying they'd be willing to take a look...some might even be writers or editors relating to a music blog, but I think the lesson I learned was that "joining a community and sharing with it is much easier than attempting to solicit interest." In a past experience, working at an indie movie theater, the biggest "success stories" were almost always word-of-mouth buzz related (e.g. Big Fat Greek Wedding) versus the films which did a lot of advertising (About Schmidt being the biggest exception).

gabemart 11y ago
> As a writer, I'd like you to maybe consider that the effort you put forward at least was self-improvement exercise in communication - as in, through practice and time, you had some realizations about how you want to present yourself, your product, etc. I genuinely think time spent in your objective isn't a waste, per se, because you've got material that you created which can be used as a reference, template, or reminder in the future. I agree with this broadly, but I feel like I am too biased by how fortunate I have been to really appraise how useful the exercise was in the terms you describe. By "fortunate", I mean the application has been a success in my own modest terms, relative to the time I spent working on it. I think that success is attributable mainly to luck. Although the people who use the application like it based on its inherent qualities, I don't think those inherent qualities alone were enough to guarantee that my application would find users back in the critical early stage. I think it found users because when I submitted it to Reddit a couple of years ago, shortly after creating the first version, I was lucky that enough people happened to see it in the list of new submissions and happened to like it and happened to like it enough to upvote it. There are 5-10 people out there who I will never meet who are responsible for that submission getting on to the front page of that subreddit, which resulted in a flood of traffic, which resulted in a chain of events that eventually led to success (again, on my own terms). If you flip a couple of bits of background entropy, I build exactly the same thing and try to spread the word about it in exactly the same way and it never gets any traction and no one ever really finds out about it. So while the current version of me may agree that I value the self-knowledge "I'm not the kind of person who feels comfortable mass-emailing strangers in an attempt to promote myself", the version of me in that other, equally plausible reality where my application never got any users might not feel the same way, or might still be mass-emailing strangers, or what have you. I don't know, because I've been so fortunate with how things have turned out.