How do we announce the alpha launch?
August 3, 2008 at 9:22 pm | In Uncategorized | 9 CommentsTags: auction, ecommerce, launch, startup
Finally after lot of hard-work, now we are (seriously) 4-6 weeks away from our Alpha launch. Code is ready and we are testing it on our production instance and making sure we have scalable infrastructure setup. Writing help documents and creating helpful screencasts.
Is there a checklist somewhere that entrepreneurs usually follow before launch?
We want to find out about where and how should we announce the launch event so people know about onista
we are thinking of following,
1. Press Release (Using PRweb)
2. Announce on YC news
3. Announce on Reddit
4. Announce on Digg
5. Send emails to important technology blogs like TechCrunch, GigaOM, Venturebeat, and Mashable
6. Send emails to all of our friends and family
7. Send email to auctions, ecommerce blogs like,
- http://www.auctionbytes.com/index.html
- http://www.ecommercetimes.com/
- http://ebaystrategies.blogs.com/ebay_strategies/
- http://www.topix.com/business/auctions
- http://www.liveauctioneers.com/pr/
- http://bigblog.com/
- http://topauctionnews.com/
- http://theauctionboard.tblog.com/
- http://www.pheebay.com/
- http://www.sitepoint.com/
8 Create Wikipedia page for Onista
9. Upload our demo video on video sites like youtube, metacafe, vimeo.
10. Update everyone that we know on Orkut and Facebook, Twitter.
11. Update on forums like,
- http://www.powersellersunite.com/
- http://www.auctionforums.org/
- http://forum.ebizinsider.com/
- http://auctionhints.com/forum/index.php
- http://forums.ebay.com/db1/forum.jspa?forumID=102
- http://www.pheebay.com/forums/
- http://forums.tutorialized.com/ecommerce-103/
- http://www.auctionlotwatch.com/forum/
- http://www.generalforum.com/auctions.php
- http://www.generalforum.com/auctions.php
- http://www.ecommercearena.com/forum/
- http://www.auctionrhino.com/forums/index.php
- http://www.amazonsellercommunity.com/forums/index.jspa
- http://forums.smallbusinesscomputing.com/
- http://www.eshopforums.com/
- http://www.e-junkie.com/bb/
- http://www.webproworld.com/ecommerce-discussion-forum/
- http://www.dropshipforums.com/index.php
12. Contact Sellers on craigslist to update them about Onista availability
13. Send info to startup and web 2.0 news blogs
- http://startupmeme.com/
- http://www.readwriteweb.com/
- http://startupnewz.com/
- http://amarinalameda.com/
- http://www.startup-marketing.com/
- http://startupnewz.com/blog/
- http://blog.pmarca.com/2008/02/silicon-valley.html
- http://www.buzzshout.com/
- http://www.launchfeed.com/
- http://news.zdnet.com/
- http://news.cnet.com/newsblog/
- http://www.mapleleaftwo.com/
Are there any other ways to announce the initial release?
The site will be live at http://www.onista.com within next 4 to 6 weeks.
Please let us know if you know other ways to announce the availability of new website.
You can also get in touch with me at prashant@onista.com
Thanks in advance,
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TechCrunch will want an “Exclusive”… Or they won’t put you up.
Comment by jorge — August 3, 2008 #
@jorge that’s pure crap. They love to have an exclusive, but it’s not a dealbreaker. I’ve never once offered them an exclusive.
@OP – Wikipedia page won’t fly. Don’t bother with that. It’ll get deleted almost instantly– they are fairly particular. You need to be “notable”.
For an alpha, I’d keep the announcement VERY light. Post it to a few forums, do you best to hit your best pitch, and measure the traffic and the conversion (whatever your conversion event is). It’s better to hone your sales funnel a bit before you go crazy with PR. You’ll get smarter about the pitch you use to announce it, and you’ll get smarter about what words/images/layout you use to convert traffic.
Read: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/06/not-so-grand.html
Comment by Tony Wright — August 4, 2008 #
Build a great product and it will take care of itself.
Comment by BA — August 4, 2008 #
Don’t forget about traditional media. A lot of old fashioned media will still write about startups if you give them an appealing story. So make a good narrative and shop it around!
Comment by Charles Ju — August 4, 2008 #
“9. Upload our demo video on video sites like youtube, metacafe, vimeo.”
Use TubeMogul.com – We deliver your video to more than 15 video sharing sites (YouTube, MetaCafe, Yahoo, etc.) in one fell swoop. We also bring back your video viewership stats in a single dashboard.
I suggest also providing how-to tutorial videos of your software/service. This can help towards build ing a brand in the online video world.
-Eugene at TubeMogul.com
Comment by Eugene — August 4, 2008 #
Get the word out on FriendFeed & Twitter.
That’s it.
Plenty of exposure right there.
Comment by Charnita Fance — August 4, 2008 #
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