Your question has now met my answer :-) .
Here's a list of tasks that you should convert into a doc, save on your computer and use until you're a mean PR machine.

1. COMMUNICATIONS SERVICES
Public Relations
• Facilitate drafting & distribution of all press releases, media announcements, etc.
• Coordinate media attendance and management at events
• Coordinate with media on child care legislative issues & literacy/learning topics
• Manage and act on all publicity opportunities such as community events, holidays, editorial calendars,
etc.
• Monitor all media coverage of the brand and related topics
• Potentially implement social media for specific campaigns or for specific events

2. MESSAGE CAMPAIGN STRATEGY
A. Goal
To make the general public understand what your brand/product is and why it’s so critical for the prospective customers and the economy as a whole.
B. Tactics
• Pitching – personally contacting editors & reporters for coverage based on their editorial
calendars or a specific event/topic
o News-Press Editorial Board – facilitate meeting with boards and relevant orgs /or
publishing editorial features in relevant publications, event attendance/coverage
• PSAs – draft 30 second PSAs and distribute to area radio stations, secure runs
• Ad Space – coordinate with publications for potential free ads/remnant space
• Press Release(s) - include selected messaging all of your material (branding)
• Tracking – Coordinate with IT department for Website and traffic tracking
• Coordinate with Outreach Committee & other board members as needed
• Offer consistent communications while pushing out a campaign on what makes your product so invaluable.
• Be the media liaison and keeping all relevant information organized. Meetings,
conference or phone calls, etc.

Emails and Direct Mail,usually difficult for most to believe. Bought every book I could on the subject of selling and embraced the gift. Over a period of time I've become rather good at the content creation, the email funnels, the service packaging and of course the customer experience improvement. I am an Experience Designer, I focus on Design of Utility Products, Customer Engagement, Growth Hacking and Customer Experience.
The Secret behind it all is a mind shift change. Focus on making your clients' money, that will get you paid very well especially when they make money.

Hey Shrikar,
Luckily, this question has a simple answer and it's two pronged. You've probably heard of User Research. In User Research we use 2 things to uncover peoples' pain points.
- 1. SHADOWING; following participants over a period of time and recording observations. It's a free-flow method and the researcher can probe where he/she feels they need more information. These session usually take between an hour to a full day and vary based on the complexity of the app and the research goals. The data collected is usually super reliable.
- 2. USER INTERVIEWS; this is basically conducting one-on-one question answer sessions whether directed or not is upto the needs of the projects, goals and context of user. So far I've conducted, Field Interviews, Phone Interviews, Skype Interviews, Street Interviews and done hundreds of hours in recordings. The data is usually very good especially for directed interviews. But the interview questions must be tried and tested but more importantly, designed for the target audience.
I am more than willing to introduce and coach you on the lean and "mean" variations of the two methods that uncover awesome insights.
Looking forward to hearing from you.

I am not exactly sure how Quora does it but I would guess that they use something like Google Analytics. It looks at what percentage of your visitors come back each day, every other day, each week, etc. It's a good metric system that is crucial for building a meaningful web product, and it's almost always positive. If someone comes back to your site regularly each week, or even better each day, it means you're becoming a regular and important part of their life. The problem with any other single metric system is they can be the result of positive or negatives changes to your product. You need to have a near-wholistic picture and Google Analytics can help with that.
Tools like Klout and Hubspot are good with the measurement of engagement on a brands different channels (website, facebook, twitter, gplus...) too.
Let's chat some more and get down to the heart of this problem. Hopefully I can help you resolve any internal discomfort around the matter.

Somehow I think there's an underlying question within this question. Anyway back to your question, the answer is yes and no. It's possible to build a billion dollar business with a lean management team if the products you are selling are of high value, high demand, if the market is at the highest level of sophistication concerning your products e.t.c , you probably know this. At the very least, you as the business owner will need to manage business process, product creation, customer experience, the business' evolution e.t.c
It is however possible to build a multi-million dollar online business with little supervision thanks to the power of automation.
I sense an underlying need in your question, what do you really want to know. I am here to help. Give me a shout !!!

Self doubt is about beliefs that have been programmed into our minds that promote limitation and self deprivation. The way to get rid of those is first to practice quietness in order to observe the patterns of your thinking and identify the underlying beliefs. Then you need to choose to change and then consciously re-program your mind with whatever beliefs make the most sense to you.
Would you like to know how I did that for myself in detail, give me a call. Got some minutes leftover.
Looking forward to hearing from you.

Your intuition and your knowledge about the guts behind the brand you are attempting to create are the tools you posses to make that decision. If you want to learn exactly how to go about it you could always give me a call, got some minutes left.
Good luck kind sir.

You've received a great deal of success from working on Elance, but as your question implies, it's time to get into the real world. Clients are all around, and they need your expertise. Take the plunge, you won't regret it.
Good luck.

If you have a freelance practice with a circulatory valuation north or upto 300k then it's time to turn into an Agency yourself. Don't join the Agency unless your gut says you should. You should realize that you've done really well so far, something is working. Identify what that something is and nurture it. It is the secret to your continued success.
As always, however, the decision is upto none but you.
All the very best.

Freemium all the way... but with a twist. First and foremost develop the product to the point where your workflow works and doesn't break in the middle. Then open the platform out to the public for a dollar, of course with the exception to try it out for 14days. When they sign up you are able to build an email list and if done right that's enough marketing. Make sure you optimize your product for the most useful keywords and request to contribute a guest blog or guest blogs in popular blogs or buy ad space on buysellads.com, create an animated ad and let that run.
Do the usual as well, create a twitter and facebook app. Release a Short ebook on your website on some important problem that your platform fixes, write a press release and reach out to your friends to share and re-share one of your blog posts on social media.
And by then you'll be quite famous and if your product is very useful you'll also be cashflow positive, resisting the temptation to say, "rich". Then you can do a update coupled with an email blast and you then release your finished version as an update, and monitor and learn from your users via intercom.io.
--> You are now Two years in the future and happy <--