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Getting our first thousand users in one day

francescodilorenzo.com

41–50 of 57 posts

Re: Getting our first thousand users in one day

#41
post #21

Just because people signed up, it doesn't mean they will stick around. I would be curious how much will stick around.

Isn't that a different problem though? It's marketing to get them to sign up in the first place, it's product to get them to come back.

It's definitely a product problem to get them back, but I think in the context of the post, we should be careful how we use the term "user".

It sounds like a user in this case is simply one who viewed the page and clicked "sign in via twitter", which is a nice metric for engagement, but just one in many. It makes for a great secondary blog post for additional engagement though. :)

Re: Getting our first thousand users in one day

#42

We almost had a similar experience with our front-page HN post here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25314170 Except we were not prepared for the traffic, and it took the site down for over 24 hours! Lesson learned...

On my bucket list is using the "Referer" header to aggressively redirect traffic from hug-of-death websites toward cached pages.

It's been a long time since I've worked somewhere that would benefit from that trick, so I haven't had a chance to use it.

Re: Getting our first thousand users in one day

#43

Not related to your achievement, but... If you want “users” - post a well-paid but fake job on Upwork and ask applicants to first check out your site/app. I don’t suggest this but I’ve noticed it from a couple real jobs I’ve posted. Of course, these “users” will be beyond meaningless for any useful metric. I guess if your app/site was geared toward Upwork freelancers, it could work as a strategy.

lol, nice

Re: Getting our first thousand users in one day

#44
post #30

> Yesterday we launched Typefully, a write-only interface for Twitter, after weeks of work and refinement. I told the whole story on Twitter @frankdilo. The idea of a write-only interface is interesting in itself. I was expecting to see something about it on the Typefully page but didn't.

this will blow your mind... write-once, modify three times.. and read only once on Mondays between 5:30 and 6:30.

Re: Getting our first thousand users in one day

#45
post #21

Just because people signed up, it doesn't mean they will stick around. I would be curious how much will stick around.

Isn't that a different problem though? It's marketing to get them to sign up in the first place, it's product to get them to come back.

I've bought stuff from two companies I like but seldom patronize this year, and in both cases they started sending me ads every day (usually I say no thanks, so either they didn't ask or they used dark patterns to get me to miss it).

Normally that's okay (it's not okay, but I roll my eyes and unsubscribe), but I've discovered that when my order is delayed, due to out of stock in one case, or Black Friday queuing in the other, I'm really not happy having them prompt me to buy more stuff when they haven't given me the stuff I've already paid for. Each email title gives me a jolt of excitement thinking oh, they've finally shipped it! Nope, they want me to buy more stuff.

And with large departments running multiple campaigns at once, it's not uncommon to get 5 emails in a week, all for different things, which to them makes sense but to me is the titular company acting like a hyperkinetic, needy friend. It is very much the same dynamic that results in every department of a company insisting that they are listed on the company home page, preferably at the top, a common trope for beleaguered UI designers to relate over beers. Not just because of Conway's Law, but because of an internal perverse incentive structure to constantly draw attention to your part of the organization. Lookatmelookatmelookatme.

I find this whole pattern of behavior exceptionally unattractive in luxury brands, which I expect to be more cool and collected than this. Marketing in these cases is jeopardizing the 'get them to come back' part of the equation.

Re: Getting our first thousand users in one day

#47
post #33

To even go to Typefully.app, it is asking me to signin with Twitter. Is that how you are getting new users?

You can click "Or try it instead." under the Twitter sign in.

yeh, but trying is just read & understand. For posting I need to signup anyways - which is fine, at least it tempts me to do that.

Feedback:

0. This is similar to https://getchirrapp.com/ but UI is much better here.

1. Though it lets me to do the writing, I want to also

a. Read my posts

b. Read posts by other writers (may be by the root tweet link) Similar to

c. Delete my published article (if not edit)

Re: Getting our first thousand users in one day

#48
post #6

8% conversion rate is pretty good for a PH/HN audience. Three things I'm sure helped the signup rates, which others should copy: - Low-friction registration using SSO. - Glimpse of the product in the background. - Let guests see and click on gated features. (Even if visitor clicks "Or try it instead" they still see "+ New Draft" button, which leads to the signup prompt again.) I've tested these in other apps and foun…

Uh, what's PH?

Not PornHub.

Re: Getting our first thousand users in one day

#49
post #37
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Almost... I've been sitting on a draft for months. Will publish it on my site when ready. Some quick ones: - Make value proposition clear. Just because they reached the signup screen doesn't mean they're already convinced to sign up. - Show social proof on signup screen, such as customer logos or approximate number of users. Same reason as above. - Offer SSO options. Google is especially popular - Have an Obvious Nex…

> - Make value proposition clear. Just because they reached the signup screen doesn't mean they're already convinced to sign up. I've sat at the signup/register/purchase screen so many times and muttered to my computer, "but I don't know what this thing does , why would I sign up?" Playing coy was maybe cute in high school. Grownups communicate with each other, and nobody wants to do your job for you and pay you for…

I often find myself in the same situation. A few years ago I started just putting in "whywouldisignupidontevenknowwhatimlookingat@notcomingback.com" or somesuch tailored comment. My hope is that it some human in the chain gets the message and can bring it to the exec that demanded agressive sign up tactics.

Re: Getting our first thousand users in one day

#50
post #35

We almost had a similar experience with our front-page HN post here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25314170 Except we were not prepared for the traffic, and it took the site down for over 24 hours! Lesson learned...

That post got just over 100 points - very curious to know roughly what kind of traffic you say from it?

Perhaps it was a slow day if 100 points isn't considered that many - I think the high traffic was from being on the front page!

I wish I could quantify the traffic, but it really did wipe out the server, preventing everyone (including myself) from accessing it! I couldn't even remote in to shutdown/reboot.

The last number I had was just as things were grinding to a halt. It was just over 350 "realtime" users according to google analytics!

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