Since 2006 I've had four separate sites and two separate companies covered by Tech Crunch, a couple of them with multiple stories. The effects of each crunch we

Since 2006 I've had four separate sites and two separate companies covered by Tech Crunch, a couple of them with multiple stories. The effects of each crunch were slightly different but I'd call almost all of them positive. The biggest thing Tech Crunch provides is not traffic or users, but awareness within the industry. In every instance the traffic that TC sent was fleeting at best and our sites, while technologically impressive, had nothing to do with a tech audience, so we never gained users from them. Over the years I've noticed that the actual traffic sent is less than before. This has very little to do with a change of influence with them, but in the fact that they now have more writers and more blog posts. The stories don't live as long as they used to. 3k uniques though is generally on the low side. The awareness that TC provides though is great. In the first years especially it helped provide some easy networking for a couple nerds that were very unlikely to leave their code dungeons. Don't discount the ego boost of attention which gives you the thought you're working on something that might actually be a success. Also don't forget the baffling amount of lazy biz-dev guys at VCs who have very little in the way of drumming up new companies other than calling up every company featured on TC with a decent design and idea. Never bet on these kinds of calls, it's just something that is part of the business. Concentrate on your product above all else.