LaunchRock
March 19, 2012 in 3 out of 5 stars, Free, Landing Pages, PR and PublicityWhat is it?
LaunchRock: A service that provides a pre-launch page for your startup (you know, the "signup to be notified when we launch" type of site).
Heres the one I created for a project I'm working on for startup founders (and those aspiring to be).
Who makes it?
LaunchRock
Why is it the killerest?
In addition to a nice pre-launch page, it has good social integration, encouraging those who sign up to share it with their friends via Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Tumblr or email.
There are also some modest stats telling you your conversion rate, which can be helpful.
It's fairly easy to use, and they've thought of a lot of details like a confirmation email, social integration where you can pre-seed what they say when they share, an ability to export all of your subscribers for easy loading into your favorite email sending system, and domain mapping (i.e. you can point your own URL to your page).
If you feel too constrained by their limited template, you can embed the form on your own site, where you have more latitude.
What could be improved?
They offer a very limited ability to customize the design and layout for the fully hosted version. They have custom CSS "coming soon" which should help immensely. I was able to work around some of these limitations by using inline HTML and inline styles - which seem to be supported. It's fairly amenable to a little lightweight "hacking."
How much does it cost?
Free
Rating?
Reviewed by Carson McComas
p.s. see also: Launch Effect which I liked a bit better. It's a WordPress theme with the same purpose.
Help a Reporter Out
January 14, 2009 in 5 out of 5 stars, PR and Publicity Peter Shankman It has great potential to help you get press, and establish yourself as a source, and authority in your area of expertise. Some queries are interested in products, services, or just expertise in a given area. Some of the queries come from large news organizations like MSNBC and FoxNews, magazines like Redbook Magazine and Popular Mechanics, newspapers like The New York Times, and bloggers and podcasters looking for content. If you’re serious about PR (and if you’re an entrepreneur, why wouldn't you be?) then this can be a great resource. This is not a list of the feint of heart. You get about three emails a day, packed full of queries, roughly organized. The potential upside is quite large, but it may take a good week of sifting through these before you find something you really can respond to with authority. With the growing popularity of the list, there’s no guarantee that responding will get you ink. Free for all parties (sources, and journalists). You just get a big ad at the top of the email to help Peter pay for it all. See a screenshot below from part of an email sent out this morning.What is it?
Help a Reporter Out: An email list you can join, which sends out several emails a day with notices of stories for which reporters need a source. You can then respond, and potentially be used, linked to, or otherwise publicized in the news piece.
Who makes it?
Why is it the killerest?
What could be improved?
How much does it cost?
Rating?
