I remember my previous employer's www was mentioned in the same article with google with a back link in the first paragraph. We got less than 100 clicks due to

I remember my previous employer's www was mentioned in the same article with google with a back link in the first paragraph. We got less than 100 clicks due to google analytics. It was 2012. I was shocked that this number was so low. It was proably semi sponsored post but anyway... Now i know its not worth to pull my strings to be mentioned on TechCrunch so much if you are outside SV anyway, it wont provide too much value if this is a one shot event.