How the biggest consumer apps got their first 1k users
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How the biggest consumer apps got their first 1k users
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Re: How the biggest consumer apps got their first 1k users
#2Surprised the Reddit 'solution' to this (fake accounts and activity until real people decide to join) isn't on the list. Fake it til you make it is definitely a strategy that a fair few successful products, services and communities used to kick things off.
Re: How the biggest consumer apps got their first 1k users
#3> Corey's plan was to infiltrate these communities. He wouldn't announce himself as a Netflix employee. ... and slowly, over time, alert the most respected commenters, moderators, and website owners about this great new site called Netflix.
Strikes me as unethical. Unless their alerts disclosed the relationship.
Re: How the biggest consumer apps got their first 1k users
#4[deleted]
Re: How the biggest consumer apps got their first 1k users
#5> Corey's plan was to infiltrate these communities. He wouldn't announce himself as a Netflix employee. ... and slowly, over time, alert the most respected commenters, moderators, and website owners about this great new site called Netflix. Strikes me as unethical. Unless their alerts disclosed the relationship.
What's unethical about it ?
He talk about something that might be of interest for these people.
It doesn't sound like he was spamming or doing anything annoying.
It sounds to me like a more human way of doing advertisement. The only difference is that he is actually there to have an actual conversation about it.
Re: How the biggest consumer apps got their first 1k users
#6> Get Press
Always wondered about this - do I just email an news outlet and tell them "my story" and see if they roll with it?
I'm starting to advertise my business around with the idea of growing a userbase before the official release. Ironically enough mentioning a link to it on my previous HN comment lead to more visitors than either of the Facebook or Reddit ads that I put up.
With that said, if you're into 3D printing, see https://makely.me
Re: How the biggest consumer apps got their first 1k users
#7Surprised the Reddit 'solution' to this (fake accounts and activity until real people decide to join) isn't on the list. Fake it til you make it is definitely a strategy that a fair few successful products, services and communities used to kick things off.
Surely things like that end up backfiring? People on reddit have a strangely good eye when it comes to spotting "shills" in the comment sections. Then again it could just be paranoia.
Re: How the biggest consumer apps got their first 1k users
#8> Corey's plan was to infiltrate these communities. He wouldn't announce himself as a Netflix employee. ... and slowly, over time, alert the most respected commenters, moderators, and website owners about this great new site called Netflix. Strikes me as unethical. Unless their alerts disclosed the relationship.
What's unethical about it ? He talk about something that might be of interest for these people. It doesn't sound like he was spamming or doing anything annoying. It sounds to me like a more human way of doing advertisement. The only difference is that he is actually there to have an actual conversation about it.
Generally advertising regulations require you to disclose any relationship with the company.
That's why youtuber put #ad on their videos
Re: How the biggest consumer apps got their first 1k users
#9> Corey's plan was to infiltrate these communities. He wouldn't announce himself as a Netflix employee. ... and slowly, over time, alert the most respected commenters, moderators, and website owners about this great new site called Netflix. Strikes me as unethical. Unless their alerts disclosed the relationship.
Unethical would be being asked about your relationship with the company and lying about it.
Re: How the biggest consumer apps got their first 1k users
#10Surprised the Reddit 'solution' to this (fake accounts and activity until real people decide to join) isn't on the list. Fake it til you make it is definitely a strategy that a fair few successful products, services and communities used to kick things off.
Surely things like that end up backfiring? People on reddit have a strangely good eye when it comes to spotting "shills" in the comment sections. Then again it could just be paranoia.
Parent isn't saying you should create Reddit accounts to shill for your new thing.
They are referencing the sock puppet accounts the Reddit founders used to make Reddit look like less of a ghost town in the early days[1].
> Huffman reveals that, “In the beginning Alexis and I submitted all the content.” When they submitted content they created new fake user names so that it would look like the site was populated with a large user base, while, at least in the beginning, it was just the two of them submitting the content.
> Huffman explains that this did two things. For starters, it helped set the tone of the site. “Websites have this kind of inertia, and we submitted content that we would be interested in seeing. That meant the content on Reddit, at least for our peer group, was good, interesting stuff. We wanted a site with the most interesting content online, and so we did our best to find it and then we submitted it ourselves.”
> Creating fake users and submitting content through them also made the site feel alive. Huffman says, “Users like to feel a part of something. If they showed up to the website and the front page was blank, it just looks like a ghost town.” He says, “At the time I think we were just embarrassed to have an empty website so we submitted the content, and it worked.” After a few months they had grown their real user base to the point that they didn’t have to submit content anymore.