Ask HN: How did you hack the press when you launched your startup(s)?
It's not just about hacking the press.  Sometimes it's plain just learning to interface with people and having a unique angle on a story.Most press I've seen from friends being TC'ed is minimal.  Unless your customers are people who read TC, the effect is minimal to converted customers.  They had a ton of visitors which might have increased mindshare. TC can be a vanity metric if you're not careful, especially if TC's audience is not your paying customers.  It helps be legit in having  (some) press coverage, but it doesn't last if you can't back it up and delight people.If you're doing what everyone else is doing to get coverage in the same places, the chances are greater you'll end up like everyone else (a startup that doesn't get where it needs to).Focus on learning who your customers are, where they truly hang out, get their attention in those places, be it through story placement or advertising since not all sites use adsense, and some very successful sites have their own advertising engines.Quality of eyeballs on your site is a far better metric to pursue than quantity.