In typical 37signals fashion, the wisdom in these pages is edgy yet

Forget about the Wall Street Journal
Forget about Time, Forbes, Newsweek, Business Week, the New York Times,
and the Wall Street Journal. Pitching a reporter at one of these places is
practically impossible. Good luck even getting ahold of that guy. And even
if you do, he probably won't care anyway. You're not big enough to matter.
You're better off focusing on getting your story into a trade publication or
picked up by a niche blogger. With these outlets, the barrier is much lower.
You can send an e-mail and get a response (and maybe even a post) the
same day. There's no editorial board or PR person involved. There's no
pipeline your message has to go through.
These guys are actually hungry for fresh meat. They thrive on being
tastemakers, finding the new thing, and getting the ball rolling. That's why
many big-time reporters now use these smaller sites to find new stories.
Stories that start on the fringe can go mainstream quickly.
We've been written up in big mainstream publications like Wired and
Time, but we've found that we actually get more hits when we're profiled on
sites like Daring Fireball, a site for Mac nerds, or Lifehacker, a productivity
site. Links from these places result in notable spikes in our traffic and sales.
Articles in big-time publications are nice, but they don't result in the same
level of direct, instant activity.

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Drug dealers get it right
Drug dealers are astute businesspeople. They know their product is so good
they're willing to give a little away for free upfront. They know you'll be
back for more--with money.
Emulate drug dealers. Make your product so good, so addictive, so "can't
miss" that giving customers a small, free taste makes them come back with
cash in hand.
This will force you to make something about your product bite-size. You
want an easily digestible introduction to what you sell. This gives people a
way to try it without investing any money or a lot of time.
Bakeries, restaurants, and ice cream shops have done this successfully for
years. Car dealers let you test-drive cars before buying them. Software
firms are also getting on board, with free trials or limited-use versions. How
many other industries could benefit from the drug-dealer model?
Don't be afraid to give a little away for free--as long as you've got
something else to sell. Be confident in what you're offering. You should
know that people will come back for more. If you're not confident about
that, you haven't created a strong enough product.

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