What are three solid tips to get mentioned into the news? Local would be great, but national coverage on TV or a magazine would be awesome.

Be interesting, have something new to say, and have credibility in the subject matter you are covering. Interesting and new on the local level is different than interesting and new on the national level. Keep in mind that the goal of just about every media relations consultant/employee is to do what you just outlined, so you have to stand out significantly to get attention.

Founders who are talking

you type:	you see:
italics	italics
* item 1 * item 2 * item 3	item 1 item 2 item 3
1. item 1 2. item 2 3. item 3	item 1 item 2 item 3
Paragraphs are separated by one or more blank lines: The first paragraph. Another paragraph.	The first paragraph. Another paragraph

Saul - I learned some great new presentation techniques from you and Fred Wilson (http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2010/06/six-slides.html) this year. What advice do you have about...

Answered by Saul Colt – WOM Expert Posted in Money

If I had a nickel for every time people said I and Fred Wilson taught them something I would have, well a nickel. Cold pitching something innovative isn't simple because ... (more)

Did you have problems at UserVoice with users signing up but not actually adding the code to their website? If so, what are some ways you increased conversion rates?

Answered by Scott Rutherford – Founder, UserVoice

Failure to get forums off the ground does account for a percentage of churn yes. We try to mitigate this by providing a wizard like sign up walking you through adding the w... (more)

Shahar, First, thank you in advance for awnsering my question. We are currently developing a web 2.0 tool that monitizes UGC for small to medium size business's. In data c...

Answered by Shahar Nechmad – Founder, NuConomy

There are many things to look at, but I always liked to look at engagement metrics such as: number of comments, number of raters and rating, number of inbound links and the... (more)

If you are a new startup and looking to get the prototype/alpha version build quickly and cheaply, how do you find the developers who would help you with it?

Answered by Hiten Shah – Founder, KISSmetrics

Any way you can. It's hard to find developers but at the same time there are so many options to get a early version of a product out. Lots of companies are out there that y... (more)

What are some ways to generate outside interest in your startup? I'm trying to drive traffic pre-launch but can't seem to get more than 50-60 visits a day.

Answered by Benjamin Yoskovitz – Partner, Year One Labs Posted in Marketing

You can pay for traffic (Google Adwords, Facebook, etc.) You can have a landing page that goes viral (see http://localmind.com and how they try to encourage people to push... (more)

Sign up for Sprouter