Why is it that something seems to be much appreciated by the community, but no journalist seems interested?
Hard to say. Bloggers are usually always hungry for content, but the popular blogs are harder to crack, as they get enough eyeballs that people compete to get on their sites. Remember that they're ultimately eyeing everything through a lens of "What is going to get me the most ad impressions and generate me the most revenue"?
Getting press coverage isn't necessarily as simple as "get on the front page of HN, get mentioned by $FOO publication". The field of PR is a big area, with a lot of accumulated idioms, patterns, experts, relationships, etc.
Should I continue writing emails to these people until they either block me or reply?
I would. What do you have to lose? Don't be annoying or whiny or turn into a stalker, of course. But there's a lot to be said for persistence.
Or should I skip tech journalists and try to find another way to make service visible to more people?
One thing I'm a big fan of, is the work of Ryan Holiday, author of Trust Me, I'm Lying: Confessions of A Media Manipulator[1]. You might also find some value in a fairly basic book on PR like The New Rules of Marketing and PR[2] or some of the "Guerilla Marketing" stuff by Jay Conrad Levinson[3].
Also, if it's really important to you to get coverage, hiring a PR person isn't always a bad idea. I know there's been a lot of negative stuff said on HN lately about PR agencies and startups, but part of the "secret sauce" is the pre-existing relationships these guys have with journalists. It may or may not be fair, but a good PR person can help you get coverage that would be hard to generate organically. If you're even slightly interested, I know a good PR guy who might be able/willing to help. Shoot me an email and I can arrange an introduction.
One final thought, is to try using a press release submission service like PRWeb[4] or PRNewsWire[5]. It will cost you a little bit of money, but it's an option to get some attention. Note that you won't get TechCrunch / Gizmodo type coverage out of this (well, probably not anyway), but your thing should at least wind up listed in Google News.
There's also a lot of interesting PR related advice on Quora. Check out this question[6] and some of the "similar questions" links around it.
Hard to say. Bloggers are usually always hungry for content, but the popular blogs are harder to crack, as they get enough eyeballs that people compete to get on their sites. Remember that they're ultimately eyeing everything through a lens of "What is going to get me the most ad impressions and generate me the most revenue"?
Getting press coverage isn't necessarily as simple as "get on the front page of HN, get mentioned by $FOO publication". The field of PR is a big area, with a lot of accumulated idioms, patterns, experts, relationships, etc.
Should I continue writing emails to these people until they either block me or reply?
I would. What do you have to lose? Don't be annoying or whiny or turn into a stalker, of course. But there's a lot to be said for persistence.
Or should I skip tech journalists and try to find another way to make service visible to more people?
One thing I'm a big fan of, is the work of Ryan Holiday, author of Trust Me, I'm Lying: Confessions of A Media Manipulator[1]. You might also find some value in a fairly basic book on PR like The New Rules of Marketing and PR[2] or some of the "Guerilla Marketing" stuff by Jay Conrad Levinson[3].
Also, if it's really important to you to get coverage, hiring a PR person isn't always a bad idea. I know there's been a lot of negative stuff said on HN lately about PR agencies and startups, but part of the "secret sauce" is the pre-existing relationships these guys have with journalists. It may or may not be fair, but a good PR person can help you get coverage that would be hard to generate organically. If you're even slightly interested, I know a good PR guy who might be able/willing to help. Shoot me an email and I can arrange an introduction.
One final thought, is to try using a press release submission service like PRWeb[4] or PRNewsWire[5]. It will cost you a little bit of money, but it's an option to get some attention. Note that you won't get TechCrunch / Gizmodo type coverage out of this (well, probably not anyway), but your thing should at least wind up listed in Google News.
There's also a lot of interesting PR related advice on Quora. Check out this question[6] and some of the "similar questions" links around it.
[1]: http://www.amazon.com/Trust-Me-Lying-Confessions-Manipulator...
[2]: http://www.amazon.com/New-Rules-Marketing-PR-Applications/dp...
[3]: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3D...
[4]: http://www.prweb.com/
[5]: http://www.prnewswire.com/
[6]: http://www.quora.com/What-are-some-blogs-and-sites-a-new-sta...