4 ms·

Ask HN: Offering Commissions to Marketers?

1 points by mstefff 18y ago

Hey, I've been thinking lately, since it's been increasingly hard to get writers to cover my webapp (especially in my target industry: finance, investing), whether or not it would be a good idea to offer people, such as the talented people here, a certain commission for any stories they can get on popular/related sites? I suppose some people are better at marketing than others, and I'm sure there are people with much better editorial connections than myself. Bad idea? Thanks

noodle 18y ago
this is the equivalent of hiring a "PR guy", is it not?
- zacharye 18y ago
  "Open PR" would definitely be a lot cheaper though.
  - mstefff 18y ago
    Press releases wouldn't do much good I think.
    - zacharye 18y ago
      Clarification - I was suggesting that the OP's idea of offering a commission to anyone who might be able to get him/her exposure would be much cheaper than hiring a "PR guy".
- mstefff 18y ago
  Thought it would be smarted and cheaper than hiring someone. Pay for performance - right?
  - noodle 18y ago
    hypothetically speaking, what if i had a startup that you could pay a small fee and then commissions to that helped get the word out about your startup/event/blog/whatever?
    - mstefff 18y ago
      Not sure what you mean. I was just thinking about saying something like "$100 for any coverage on a tech/finance site with an alexa > 100,000, to anyone who can"..something to that effect..
      - noodle 18y ago
        right, but i'm saying, if this were a more automated process or could guarantee better results, would you be willing to pony up more than $100?
        mstefff 18y ago
        How could you automate getting writers to cover a story?
        noodle 18y ago
        its simple, but thats the little idea i just had, how to do that :p
        mstefff 18y ago
        You mean like a web-based service that helps people get coverage for a fee? Automated as in, fill out a form of what you want..etc?