There is such a thing as deserved attention and it doesn't come by itself to the rest of us. PR is not smoke and mirror, it is plain work. Still, it's the part of 'launching' that few have worked out how to do just because they don't take the time to do it.
If web development could be reduced to 'just sit down and write a program and put it on the web' then PR could be reduced to 'just find out what journalists and bloggers have readers that would be interested in your stuff and ask them to write about it'.
It is as simple as that and as with programming, it only takes a couple of years to get a good grasp of.
(addition in response to your addition: so make sure I get to know when you post something you'd like me to upvote. See, then you're doing PR work. If you think attention will come by itself, then you could sit in front of your TV and expect your software write itself as well)
If web development could be reduced to 'just sit down and write a program and put it on the web' then PR could be reduced to 'just find out what journalists and bloggers have readers that would be interested in your stuff and ask them to write about it'.
It is as simple as that and as with programming, it only takes a couple of years to get a good grasp of.
(addition in response to your addition: so make sure I get to know when you post something you'd like me to upvote. See, then you're doing PR work. If you think attention will come by itself, then you could sit in front of your TV and expect your software write itself as well)