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Ask HN: 99 Designs for PR. Interested?
We're building 99 Designs for PR (a PR marketplace).
We think PR firms charge way too much, with very little accountability and transparency. It's also difficult to figure out which PR firms are good, and which suck.
We are building a marketplace that will help you get PR help quickly, reliably and cheaply.
Interested? What do you think?
Want to join our beta?
prmarketplace@gmail.com
- bglenn09 15y agoIf executed well, absolutely.
- frafdez 15y agoThe idea sounds great. Will your site break down PR needs into bite size pieces similar to 99? If so, how would I know which one to pick and will there be some way of measuring track record?
- prmarketplace 15y agoYes, and we're doing our best to make it as intuitive as possible (re: bite size pieces). What do you mean by measuring track record? Track record of the PR professional?
- frafdez 15y agoRight. How does one pick the right PR professional? Is their a way to measure their success rate? Just because you say you are a professional doesn't garauntee performance. And PR is not the same as design. You don't have an image to choose from.
- mindcrime 15y agoSounds mondo radical to me. This strikes me as something with the potential to be very useful. #makeitso
- prmarketplace 15y agoThanks!
- kposehn 15y ago99 Designs has succeeded so well because they were able to watch the entire concept evolve before actually turning it into a business. Now, it is a good ecosystem but there are a few aspects in my understanding that might make it hard for PR. Do you intend to go purely for the text of the release itself? As in, "here is my service/product/awesome-thing please write a press release for me to have distributed" or do you want to make that format for an entire end-to-end service? On the pure copy basis I could see it easily becoming a good venue as it quite frankly is a complete and utter mess overall. For the entire release-to-distribution, while I would certainly use it a lot, I'm not sure how you would go about it. I'm certainly interested in seeing what you have in mind :)
- prmarketplace 15y agoWe connect you with awesome PR professionals who will help get press coverage for your startup. While writing the text for your release is not our focus, we're open to adding it as an option.
- abbasmehdi 15y agoThis can be a slam dunk! If I can say "I want to see positive coverage of my product in NYT, WSJ, SF Chronicle etc and am willing to pay $500 for each positive piece", then that’s it! I'd pay $500 for each full review in a tier 1 publication (and half that for a simple mention), $300 for tier 2, and $200 for tier 3, and $100 for blogs etc. I'd define each tier by the number of impressions or circulation etc. I'd also like to say which demographics I want to focus on etc. You're an explosion waiting to happen, and will truly disrupt PR firms (I think you’ll be a hit even if you’re mildly idiotic ;)! A caveat, a PR person can ruin a product’s or a business’ reputation by being shortsighted and annoying the press too much (shortsighted PR people don’t care about the long term relationship between the client and the press, they just want one piece in the press, grab the $500 and move on, so you will have to put safety mechanisms in place, also mechanisms against 2 or more people pitching the same product to the same guy at the same time (the press will hate this and blacklist the product due to the companies over-aggressive PR tactics), then fighting over who got the coverage). These are all easily addressable, if you can’t figure them out then I can help you figure this out (free, I don't mind helping its fun). Anyway, big need, big market, do it already! :-)
- petervandijck 15y agoWhat kind of "PR" will you deliver? Ie. what do you define PR as? What would be the deliverable?
- prmarketplace 15y agoPR = Media Publicity. Deliverables will be coverage or mentions of your startup in media such as larger blogs, smaller blogs, national newspapers, local newspapers, magazines and niche publications.
- petervandijck 15y agoI have used 99designs, but I would never use this. Don't understand the value you would offer?
- prmarketplace 15y agoPR firms charge $5,000/month or more for "best efforts". They send out a handful emails to bloggers and reporters, may not get any bites, and pocket what amounts to $500-$1000 an hour for their time. That sucks. Our value proposition: (1) Spend 10-20% of what PR firms charge (2) Pay ONLY IF they deliver the type of coverage you want and agreed to
- petervandijck 15y agoI can send those emails myself. However, PayOnlyIf does make it much more interesting. It aligns incentives.
- suking 15y agoGood luck getting responses. Good PR places have relationships, which is the only thing that matters.
- Alex3917 15y agoI would use it to source PR ideas, but not to have people I don't know contact journalists. That's just asking for trouble, and the game theory is all wrong.
- prmarketplace 15y agoIf you hire a PR firm, you're having people you don't know contact journalists, no? The way it works is that PR professionals submit proposals and then you select only one of them to work on your behalf. No one will reach out to journalists without your consent. What makes you say the game theory is all wrong?
- Alex3917 15y ago"The way it works is that PR professionals submit proposals and then you select only one of them to work on your behalf. No one will reach out to journalists without your consent." That seems better than what I was envisioning. It still seems like a transitional technology, but I can see it possibly working.
- knes 15y agoWould this be only for available for the US? The thing is, you need to shows proof of the performance and the established relationships to the "press" of the PR people on your platform. I think it can be quite tricky. as for your "Pay Per Performance" it will be hard to verify I think...