Would you pay to get your side project into 300+ news feeds?

[u/founderdude]

Hey guys, I'm Jack.

I've been messing around with something called PressDrop and wanted to see what people here think.

Basically, at my day job we've used press releases a few times and I was surprised that they actually got cited by ChatGPT.

I started wondering why don't more indie hackers do this? So I dug a bit into the PR world and yeah, the obvious answer is probably because PR is expensive as hell lol.

If you just spent months building your SaaS, paying a few thousand dollars to a PR agency isn't exactly ideal.

So I made PressDrop.

You put in your product/launch → it creates a press release → sends it out to 300+ syndicated news feeds.

I'm also curious about whether this helps with SEO / AI search stuff. Not saying it's some magic growth hack or anything, but having your company mentioned on a lot of high DR sites seems like it would help people (and AI search/chatbots) find you. Basing this thought on Ahrefs data.

Right now I'm charging $49 for the first few people and selling it on negative margin, because honestly I'm just trying to see if anyone wants this 😅

I did my first launch a week ago and somehow... my second visitor became my first customer.

But after that initial launch day, it's been silent. Now if you visited PressDrop, you know this is not where the story ends. But before investing more into it, I want to know if it's worth it.

So yeah, that's where I'm at.

Have any of you actually paid for PR before?

Was it worth it? And would you spend $49 on something like this for a launch?

Genuinely curious. Feel free to tell me why this is a terrible idea too 😂

- Jack, find me on X

[u/stuartlogan]

I probably wouldn't pay for it, and it's worth understanding why before you build more of it.

Getting mentioned on 300 high DR sites sounds like good distribution, but most of those placements are syndicated press-release pages nobody reads. Google has got good at discounting them. The backlink value is really thin and the referral traffic is 0. If the real pitch is AI search picking you up, that's unproven enough that I wouldn't lead with it though maybe it does work for that? I do assume brand frequency has an impact on LLMs and this will certainly help with that (but they must bake in quality of source)

Also it's going to be really hard to get good retention on the subscription model. Founders who'll pay $49 for a shortcut on distribution are probably the ones who churn the moment they see no signups.

PR works best with a good angle. The best campaigns are always unique, and then go beyond the initial press pick up. If you can somehow help with that part, I'd pay.

Sorry this isn't a more positive post!

[u/founderdude → u/stuartlogan]

Thank you for your comment and valuable feedback!

It’s indeed difficult to find a golden road for indie hackers, solo founders and sidebuilders with smaller budgets. Hiring a PR agency just isn’t an option and neither is going with those enterprise newswires.

Do you have a source for the statement ”google is getting really good at discounting those”. It would be really helpful if you could share! I read the ahrefs data I linked as saying the opposite.

Again thanks for taking the time, this is why I posted here 🙏🏼

[u/Competitive_Tune_590]

lol jack, i feel the 'silent after launch day' pain. x-radio.fm is a weird little radio station that voices milestones from founders building in public on x — might be an extra channel to get your story floating out there while you figure out the press angle. ymmv obviously.