[philbarr]

Whilst this is pretty handy, I balked at the "let us submit for you for $89". Like - eek! Really?!

Also - the "get the pdf version" is really a dark pattern since you're not allowed to download it without first paying some non-zero amount that you laughably get to choose. Might be a bit nicer to say, "buy the pdf version".

[canterburry]

Interesting, I actually found the $89 a bargain given how long it will take to just create accounts on all these services before I can submit anything. That alone will take hours.

My worry is just that this service will quickly get marked as a spammer and probably blocked or downvoted as a poster in many places.

[gus_massa]

Just to be clear, something like this will 99% get marked as a spammer and probably blocked or downvoted in HN.

Also, I HN it's very useful that the owner/submitter can answer the questions that appear in the comments of the post. The problem with mass submission / spam is that the owner can't mass answer all the comments in all the sites.

[goatherders]

Agreed. $89 is basically 89 cents per submission. My time is worth a lot more than that. I would be glad to pay for this service (and probably will) just for the backlink juice.

[onion2k]

I would be glad to pay for this service (and probably will) just for the backlink juice.

You should be very wary about doing that. Some of the link in the list are news sites (eg Mashable). If someone at a news site sees you're spamming them they'll be a lot less likely to cover your startup favourably in the future. While you might get some 'backlink juice' out of it, you could also be burning some very valuable bridges.

[goatherders]

I don't think the chance is high that someone is going to NOT cover my company because they remember that some months prior I submitted a link to their site.

[onion2k]

You didn't submit the link though. When a journalist does a quick search of their email to see what correspondence there's been before they won't see you. They'll see Eggradients, and whatever Eggradients put in that initial submission. That might be something great. Equally it might be terrible. Imagine if it said "Eggradients client ACME STARTUP is really good. Please contact Eggradients if you would like to know more!" Do you really want that to be the first contact your startup has with the media?

[goatherders]

And that would be different from a standard PR company submitting me...how?

[swaggyBoatswain]

Not all backlinks are rated equally just FYI, same with reddit as well, if you linkspam it neither reddit nor its users like that and might be received poorly.

[NeedMoreTea]

Great deal. Until you get a Google Penguin penalty and have to spend $10k+ in employee time getting it corrected, disowning backlinks and so on.

[rainbowmverse]

Some types of company see penalties (or cleanup cost) as a cost of doing business. If they make > $10k to incur $10k in costs, then it works out.

It's a faulty way of seeing things, but businesses like that tend to have a fog around them. They don't see the icebergs coming.

[bdcravens]

First failed assumption of course being that they'll automatically make > $10k

[goatherders]

Why is it faulty?

[rainbowmverse]

Those fines usually exist for a reason. Just because you can pay your way out of consequences for the negative externalities doesn't mean it's good for anyone but your shareholders.

[craftoman]

I will do the job for 50 bucks if you want...

[yial]

It looks like “$0” as an amount works to get the PDF.

[philbarr]

not when I try it it doesn't

[yial]

As in type in “0” not leave it empty.

[sulam]

And now they have your email?

[yial]

I guess the email becomes the price you pay.

[chuckgreenman]

The UX is kind of confusing but it will accept $0 and email you the pdf, just tried it!

[philbarr]

ah ok I see - you actually have to type "0". doh

[mgiannopoulos]

It’s not a dark pattern(1) if you enter the amount yourself (and you can enter 0.01$ I assume).

(1) “Dark Patterns are tricks used in websites and apps that make you buy or sign up for things that you didn't mean to.” https://darkpatterns.org/

[philbarr]

ok, maybe dark pattern is a bit strong, but I clearly clicked the button thinking I could just download it, and instead was presented with a form to buy it. It's a least a little disingenuous.

[mgiannopoulos]

You don’t need to buy it, you can enter zero in the form and get it for free. It’s basically donationware