That's a nice view but it's the wrong one. Applications and websites gain users and popularity through sharing, whether that's individuals on Twitter and Facebook or on blogs. HN is a community of technology minded people, it's not a community of creators. There are a lot of creators here but they are not the majority.
Make a project -> launch it on hn with a Show HN (a free way to get traffic, as this post has proven) -> if the app/website is good people from HN will share it and it'll make it to blogs.
"Show HN" is absolutely an easy way to launch a product, HN has millions of users, this isn't a quaint little community any more. Yes "Show HN" should be about sharing creations and getting feedback and it does provide that, but it also provides a great launch. I'm not ashamed to admit that my personal launch plan for any "cool" website/app I launched is a "Show HN".
Make a project -> launch it on hn with a Show HN (a free way to get traffic, as this post has proven) -> if the app/website is good people from HN will share it and it'll make it to blogs.
"Show HN" is absolutely an easy way to launch a product, HN has millions of users, this isn't a quaint little community any more. Yes "Show HN" should be about sharing creations and getting feedback and it does provide that, but it also provides a great launch. I'm not ashamed to admit that my personal launch plan for any "cool" website/app I launched is a "Show HN".