Can anyone tell me their success or failure stories where they paid ICO websites for promotions of their ICO?  Places like ICOBench or Tokener, etc.?

It's usually a pretty hefty investment for people bootstrapping to pay upwards of a few thousand dollars to buy into a promotional package that may or may not work with the hopes of getting a return on that with a sucessful raise down the line.

That said, is there any place that statistically has done a good job of helping people with pulling off a successful ICO above others?  Are there are other grassroots alternatives I should do besides an ANN thread here, tweets, instagramming, reaching out to publications in the press, etc.?

Thanks!