it was 5 years ago, first startup, first launch...first fail :)
What we did :
We basicly made a press release with a pr agency and sent it to a bunch of various journalists.
and we wrote manualy to about 20 influential bloggers. contacted them by email to discuss about our project and eventualy make them write an article about us.
What happened :
We got cited in 2 national TV shows and in the #1 blog in france (I'm french ...)
What we got :
For each citation (tv or blog) we got around 5K visits but only one or two conversions...
What i learned :
-our subscription process was too complex (3 pages)
-we were not clear about our proposition
-we used some flash (long to load)
-our design was not good enough (too much amateur, didn't confort the visitor about the quality of our product)
and most importantly, don't rely only on press/blogs coverage