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Ask HN: How did you find your early adopters?

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Re: Ask HN: How did you find your early adopters?

#21

Post by boyter »

Show HN for original project, then iterate on the idea with new one (http://searchco.de/) and just keep going.

I got a lot of initial traction by being one of the first people to work on DuckDuckGo's ZeroClick info (donated a lot of the programming documentation) which provided some initial back-links and referral traffic. Kept this going by adding more things through DuckDuckHack.

Everything from there has been posting on comments (where relevant), posting in StackOverflow, building relationships with those using it and improving things. There is quite a bit of SEO mixed in there but mostly I just keep pushing and making something I want to use.

A few larger blog posts seemed to work too. Some of the more in depth ones that took quite a while to write helped quite a bit. This was more about adding discover ability and SEO value though.

EDIT - Also a lot of directly targeting people complaining about lack of code search over twitter. This was especially effective when Google Code Search shut down and Koders.com hadn't got its act together. I had planned for this, but it was not as effective as I would have expected.

Re: Ask HN: How did you find your early adopters?

#22

Post by caublestone »

Currently building something that allows startups to automate their twitter accounts to try and get the lead gen going early. Right now we allow you to find and add topics that relate to your business, generate stories for you, and automate the tweets to a schedule. Tomorrow we will begin showing you experts for your topics on Twitter and incorporating their tweets into your feed.

Check it out at gobirdfeeder.com. It doesn't say this on the site, but we have a 30 day free trial going on right now for all new accounts. Would love for you to use it and provide input. You can reach me at matthew.cauble at googles email service.

Re: Ask HN: How did you find your early adopters?

#23

Post by mgkimsal »

chewxy wrote: post #2

I tried a Show HN for one of my projects. It's now dead. For my latest, Fork the Cookbook ( http://forkthecookbook.com ) I actually approached bloggers and talked to them, one by one. It's a tedious task, but I absolutely refuse to buy ads except for quick tests.

What's dead? The project, or the Show HN post?

Re: Ask HN: How did you find your early adopters?

#24

Post by obilgic »

moot wrote: post #20
chewxy wrote: post #2

I tried a Show HN for one of my projects. It's now dead. For my latest, Fork the Cookbook ( http://forkthecookbook.com ) I actually approached bloggers and talked to them, one by one. It's a tedious task, but I absolutely refuse to buy ads except for quick tests.

I'm sorry, but reading "I tried a Show HN for one of my projects. It's now dead." made me laugh so hard I spit out my tea. You owe me new boxers, sir. And some burn cream.

I wish people(hackers) would spend same amount of time building and marketing/selling their idea. Unfortunately, i think its human nature, it is always easy to start with the fun part, and give up when the steps need to be taken become uninteresting/difficult.

Hackers love creating stuff, but when it comes to the selling that idea to their potential users, they dont have enough energy.

Hackers vs entrepreneurs?

Re: Ask HN: How did you find your early adopters?

#25

Post by guptaneil »

chewxy wrote: post #9
MatthewB wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious as well as to why you don't want to buy ads. It's a great way to quickly get data without wasting your time on "a tedious task."

It is a great way to get data, which is why I mentioned "except for quick tests". For actual growth, it's actually a pretty poor channel. A lot of time and energy will need to be spent optimizing ads, LP, CTA, etc. Time spent on funnel optimization can be better spent running tests elsewhere. I have personally found it to be far easier to pop a few emails and reply over the course of the day. People who are genuinely…

I think it really depends on the kind of product and your target market. Certain types of ads might not be worth the time and effort due to various factors.

To provide a counterexample though, I'm working on a student planner (tabuleapp.com). Homework management is a surprisingly big pain point for students, and we've found that Facebook ads are an excellent way to reach our audience. Near the beginning of the semester, when the need for a new organizational tool is highest, we had a lot of success from our first ad with no time spent on optimizing it. I can't think of a better way to reach thousands of college students that's scalable and affordable for a startup.

Re: Ask HN: How did you find your early adopters?

#26

Post by chewxy »

obilgic wrote: post #24
moot wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sorry, but reading "I tried a Show HN for one of my projects. It's now dead." made me laugh so hard I spit out my tea. You owe me new boxers, sir. And some burn cream.

I wish people(hackers) would spend same amount of time building and marketing/selling their idea. Unfortunately, i think its human nature, it is always easy to start with the fun part, and give up when the steps need to be taken become uninteresting/difficult. Hackers love creating stuff, but when it comes to the selling that idea to their potential users, they dont have enough energy. Hackers vs entrepreneurs?

I absolutely agree. I have fallen into that trap a number of times. The latest was indeed with Fork the Cookbook. Some bloggers filed a DMCA request (fun fact, recipes cannot be copyrighted, so they essentially were perjuring themselves). It sapped so much energy from our marketing and coding efforts, that 3-4 weeks later we're still recovering - took ages to convince ourselves that it was still worth doing.

There's always a first time I guess

Re: Ask HN: How did you find your early adopters?

#27

Post by boyter »

obilgic wrote: post #24
moot wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sorry, but reading "I tried a Show HN for one of my projects. It's now dead." made me laugh so hard I spit out my tea. You owe me new boxers, sir. And some burn cream.

I wish people(hackers) would spend same amount of time building and marketing/selling their idea. Unfortunately, i think its human nature, it is always easy to start with the fun part, and give up when the steps need to be taken become uninteresting/difficult. Hackers love creating stuff, but when it comes to the selling that idea to their potential users, they dont have enough energy. Hackers vs entrepreneurs?

Possible. Its also part of the trough of sorrow. Its hard to remain motivated when nobody is paying attention to you.

A lot of websites I liked using that launched at the same time I did on HN are now dead despite my asking to pay to use them. slowcop.com is one that springs to mind. I used that damn near every day and still miss it.

I wonder just how much success (small and large) can be attributed to just continuing for years till it actually works.

Maybe people just underestimate how long it takes to actually get traction.

Re: Ask HN: How did you find your early adopters?

#28

Post by chewxy »

guptaneil wrote: post #25
chewxy wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is a great way to get data, which is why I mentioned "except for quick tests". For actual growth, it's actually a pretty poor channel. A lot of time and energy will need to be spent optimizing ads, LP, CTA, etc. Time spent on funnel optimization can be better spent running tests elsewhere. I have personally found it to be far easier to pop a few emails and reply over the course of the day. People who are genuinely…

I think it really depends on the kind of product and your target market. Certain types of ads might not be worth the time and effort due to various factors. To provide a counterexample though, I'm working on a student planner (tabuleapp.com). Homework management is a surprisingly big pain point for students, and we've found that Facebook ads are an excellent way to reach our audience. Near the beginning of the semest…

I absolutely agree. If your startup/project etc is the kind that falls into the long tail, you will stand to benefit from advertising a lot.

For Fork the Cookbook, we had at one point contemplated targeting "recipe management app" and related keywords. I did a quick estimation of effort (I work in online advertising as my day job), and decided that effort was better spent blogging and looking for bloggers.

Re: Ask HN: How did you find your early adopters?

#29

Post by sideproject »

I also tried "Show HN" and Betali.st for my project - sideprojectors (http://www.sideprojectors.com).

They are good starting points. I think Reddit also has a sub-reddit regarding startups.

As a shameless plug, would you like to post your project on SideProjectors? :) I'm doing a private beta testing at the moment with a handful of users. It's a showcase/discovery too for side projects.

Re: Ask HN: How did you find your early adopters?

#30

Post by boyter »

sideproject wrote: post #29

I also tried "Show HN" and Betali.st for my project - sideprojectors ( http://www.sideprojectors.com ). They are good starting points. I think Reddit also has a sub-reddit regarding startups. As a shameless plug, would you like to post your project on SideProjectors? :) I'm doing a private beta testing at the moment with a handful of users. It's a showcase/discovery too for side projects.

I would love to. Have submitted and waiting for you to be in touch :)
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