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How the biggest consumer apps got their first 1k users

lennyrachitsky.com

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Re: How the biggest consumer apps got their first 1k users

#51

Post by threeseed »

StavrosK wrote: post #46
alixanderwang wrote: post #25

I bet the companies using inventive ways to get their first users like the ones listed in the article are in the minority (but certainly make for more interesting stories to read/write about). I launched a SaaS product recently, and after a pretty successful HN launch, I've been trying different ways of marketing. What I learned, and this may be obvious to many, is that the boring path of getting users by gamifying S…

Can you very quickly summarize the basics here? How do you find which keywords to target, how do you include them in your content, what's good SEO hygiene, what wordcount do you need, etc? Basically, I'm not really aware of how you do SEO marketing, and would like to learn.

Would recommend the Ahrefs videos:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWquNQV8Y0_defMKnGKrFOQ

Obviously they will push their product but it is very good and popular within the SEO space.

My suggestion is just to write good content that strengthens your brand and can be shared across multiple channels e.g. SEO, WhitePaper, Linkedin etc.

Re: How the biggest consumer apps got their first 1k users

#52

Post by redis_mlc »

I've been following these techniques for decades:

1) PG and Viaweb had no traction until they hired a PR firm. Back in the day, those were $5k to $15k/month.

"It took a painfully long time for word of mouth to get going, and we did not start to get a lot of press coverage until we hired a PR firm (admittedly the best in the business) for $16,000 per month."

https://www.you-books.com/book/P-Graham/Essays

YC now has "BookFace", so I suppose you could just promote to other YC'ers if you have an account.

2) Hotmail used a footer on every email for viral mindshare.

3) At Yahoo, new properties were announced on internal employee lists and it was requested that say 500 employees would seed the new service so it didn't look like a ghost town.

4) Most of the social networks spammed your contact list to go viral. Or just changed preferences underneath what you set, like Linkedin and Facebook.

5) Most of the dating sites early on send emails from women, even when you don't have an account on those sites!

Re: How the biggest consumer apps got their first 1k users

#53

Post by StavrosK »

threeseed wrote: post #51
StavrosK wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you very quickly summarize the basics here? How do you find which keywords to target, how do you include them in your content, what's good SEO hygiene, what wordcount do you need, etc? Basically, I'm not really aware of how you do SEO marketing, and would like to learn.

Would recommend the Ahrefs videos: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWquNQV8Y0_defMKnGKrFOQ Obviously they will push their product but it is very good and popular within the SEO space. My suggestion is just to write good content that strengthens your brand and can be shared across multiple channels e.g. SEO, WhitePaper, Linkedin etc.

That's very helpful, thank you!

Re: How the biggest consumer apps got their first 1k users

#54

Post by tedmcory77 »

alixanderwang wrote: post #25

I bet the companies using inventive ways to get their first users like the ones listed in the article are in the minority (but certainly make for more interesting stories to read/write about). I launched a SaaS product recently, and after a pretty successful HN launch, I've been trying different ways of marketing. What I learned, and this may be obvious to many, is that the boring path of getting users by gamifying S…

Have you read “Traction” by the founder of DuckDuckGo? It’s perfect for startups such as yourself.

Re: How the biggest consumer apps got their first 1k users

#55

Post by hoorayimhelping »

>Below, you’ll find first-hand accounts of how essentially every major consumer app acquired their earliest users

Did anyone follow through on the links? Some of these "first-hand accounts" just redirect back to this guy's blog, some of them are just blurbs from other media. I looked at the Etsy one and it's a story by an economist with no first hand accounts by anyone at Etsy.

Re: How the biggest consumer apps got their first 1k users

#56

Post by alixanderwang »

gauravphoenix wrote: post #41
alixanderwang wrote: post #25

I bet the companies using inventive ways to get their first users like the ones listed in the article are in the minority (but certainly make for more interesting stories to read/write about). I launched a SaaS product recently, and after a pretty successful HN launch, I've been trying different ways of marketing. What I learned, and this may be obvious to many, is that the boring path of getting users by gamifying S…

Thank you for posting the comment, now that I know about your service, I am going to sign-up. So not just blog post, a mere (but meaningful) comment can get you paid users.

Hah thanks. Despite my self-deprecation at my blog posts, the product itself I'm extremely proud of. Hope you find it useful.

Re: How the biggest consumer apps got their first 1k users

#57

Post by mandelbrotwurst »

nickbauman wrote: post #27
julianeon wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Heh, this is the first time I've heard this. Before I was only familiar with the up-from-bootstraps "we just became so popular through a pay button everyone loved" success story.

But some many online payment companies had already tried and failed at "traditional" growth. PayPal crossed the chasm by essentially bad faith gamesmanship. Nothing illegal, mind you; but I would consider it highly unethical. Not to mention difficult to stop if you're EBay.

Why would it have been difficult to stop for eBay, couldn't they have simply removed the PayPal button from their site if they didn't like it?

Re: How the biggest consumer apps got their first 1k users

#58

Post by bigtones »

tomcam wrote: post #32
nickbauman wrote: post #22

What about the PayPal way? They took a certain amount of VC money and used it to buy and sell on EBay and demand to pay/sell using only PayPal. It basically acted as a parasite on EBay until they reached critical mass. I call it "gamification of established platform". Diabolical but effective. PayPal's company mascot should be the Sea Lamprey.

I believe the primary way they succeeded was giving away money. When you signed up they'd give you $10. Later it was reduced to $5. You could also get that amount by signing up friends

This is the same way Square's cash app has grown very fast to 50 million users, buy giving away $5 to each new user referred.

Re: How the biggest consumer apps got their first 1k users

#60

Post by bigtones »

gdhbcc wrote: post #8
alain_gilbert wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

No, under US law you're required to disclose if you have been paid specifically by a third party to promote their product or service. You don't have to disclose a mear 'relationship'.
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