Look at success stories. What did Kickstarter do? What did TaskRabbit do? What did company XYZ who is similar to your business do?
Study your competitors.
Ask HN: I spent months building an app and now I don't know how to get users
41–50 of 75 posts
Re: Ask HN: I spent months building an app and now I don't know how to get users
#42I was in your position a few years ago. I believed that my idea was great and that that meant I will easily be able to grow organically. Couldn't be further from the truth. Sorry. You've already recognised this so I won't dwell on it too much. What are your options from here: IMO, "guerilla advertising", AKA promoting your work on Reddit and Twitter communities. Don't overdo it. But without cold hard cash for marketi…
The idea is to give people a place where they could offer their services like tutoring, babysitting, home repairs, etc, services that they can provide after their work, like a side jobs to raise some extra funds for their cause. Regarding example campaigns, yes, they are placeholder campaigns, just to show how they are supposed to look.
I would put a big prominent thing about yourself at the bottom that looks like a traditional recruit-me thing, then open source it all since it's Elixir and that's kind of niche.
Re: Ask HN: I spent months building an app and now I don't know how to get users
#43Great project, I've been looking for something like this many times, looks like I'm your user :)
1. Try using your platform to fund your marketing yourself. Create a ticket “Help with money for marketing” and issue your HN post as a separate article on different social platforms for indexing by Google and provide a link on social networks to this ticket.
2. Contact VCs and write to investors. This is a direct path to marketing. Do not be afraid :)
Re: Ask HN: I spent months building an app and now I don't know how to get users
#44Your design looks very professional.
As theoretical advice I would suggest to read the book 'The cold start problem'. It explains how two sided marketplaces work and how you can get them started.
As practical advice I would suggest finding people in proximity to you and asking them if they would like to try it.
The same can be done online, try searching for Reddit threads and other pieces where people who are your target audience might hang out.
Re: Ask HN: I spent months building an app and now I don't know how to get users
#45> there should be a way for people to raise funds quickly in those dark moments when they need it the most gofundme > an app that would enable people to raise funds by offering services to their community Taskrabbit? > creators can begin receiving orders from their supporters, discuss details, create customized offers, and more. On an agreed-upon date, creators would complete their tasks, the supporter would confirm…
> gofundme/Taskrabbit? Yes, Taskwer has elements of both. As I said in my previous comment, it's different from GoFundMe in a way that campaign creators don't have to ask for donations, instead, they can offer services to people in their community. Taskrabbit gives taskers the ability to offer various tasks and people go there in a search of someone who will perform those tasks. Rating system is very important there…
Building stuff is always impressive so well done on that. For me it feels a bit like you are saying the audience for this is 'people who want their friends to pay for them to do stuff'? My question would be if I know these people socially, why do I need a website to handle this?
As others have said, I think there are fairly clear mental models for exchanging money: charity or jobs. At the moment, what you seem to be describing is a jobs model, but with added complications such as a campaign and a set end date?. Its not clear me what value I get as a person paying things as a result of these added steps, so why would I use this over another market place?
Re: Ask HN: I spent months building an app and now I don't know how to get users
#46This is a really hard lesson to learn and it takes most people (myself included) many tries to learn it. From reading your post, it is super clear that you understand the lesson-- validate your idea early. But understanding the lesson and actually learning it are worlds apart.
You have put a lot of time into this project, and it is not going to go anywhere. This is a tough realization. One that you naturally want to argue against. It's easy to be stubborn. But the more time and effort you put into this, the more time and effort you are wasting.
The positives: you have built a foundation and undoubtedly learned some things along the way. Take that knowledge and pivot to something that people want/need. Good luck!
Re: Ask HN: I spent months building an app and now I don't know how to get users
#47I'm the creator of IndexGuru.
Let me tell you a story you might get some value from.
August 2022 - November 2022. Built the application.
November 2022 - January 2023. Tried to plug it on reddit wherever I could. Got maybe 6 users.
February 2023. Gave up, stopped working on it, but maintained it.
August 2023. I see a clone of my app on twitter. The guy making it is publicly broadcasting how much he's making: several thousand dollars per month! First, I was mad, but then got over it. Can't blame the guy - that's just the game. But, it inspired me to get back to work on the product. It's good enough, just wasn't marketing it as well as him, so I stepped it up.
August 2023 to now: - I have been marketing TF out of the product. I have grown to nearly $400 MRR in a matter of weeks. I know 400 MRR seems small, and it is, but if it continues at this, it will be pretty substantial in a few months.
My marketing channels:
1. I monitor subreddits related to my product. I try to give helpful responses. Every other response or so, I'll merely mention the name of the product without a link. (Kinda like I did here). If they're interested, they can find it on Google.
2. My product is very much for people that own websites. A huge niche of website owners is the #buildinpublic community on twitter. So - I've been responding to people on twitter, being heavily involved and sharing any info I know. People click on my profile, they see the link to my site, and click on it because they're curious. Then, the landing page either works or it does't.
- I worked on an idea that was good. Did bad marketing. Somebody did the same thing I made, but did good marketing. They made a ton of money. Don't be like me. Market.
- Plug your product on reddit. Don't be super egregious. Provide value. Don't plug it every single time you comment. Reddit is super unforgiving in this - mods love to ban self promo users.
- Get involved in the relevant community for your niche. I found it on twitter for mine, and it's been working great.
Hope that helps!
edit: formatting
Re: Ask HN: I spent months building an app and now I don't know how to get users
#48The page looks nicely designed. You could try seeding this first. There are many ways to do that, but one of the easiest would be for you to launch your own campaign using your own product, offering a service you can offer, to fund marketing budget for your site so you can help grow it and benefit more people. For example, you could help local businesses improve their landing pages or something that matches your skills. Your campaign could be to raise money to increase awareness of Taskwer. You can be the first successfully funded project in your own product. Then talk about that. I'd try to bring in one campaign at a time that are 100% funded. Good luck!
Re: Ask HN: I spent months building an app and now I don't know how to get users
#49I think the basic idea here is fundamentally flawed. You don't have to take my word for it. Plenty of businesses that I think are pointless shit succeed. But your hyper-local focus on people offering services to their pre-existing friends and friends of friends doesn't require software. Have you ever been part of a book club? A church? A family? Even just a private Facebook group where most of the people all know each other? When one person has a service to offer or just needs money, they say so and the community responds. That's how communities already work. They don't need a software intermediary to spread the word and take a cut. Hell, my neighborhood literally has an empty corner lot with a bulletin board on it, plus a local dive bar everyone frequents that also has a board like that. Apps to match providers with consumers are only needed when the providers and consumers are previously unknown and untrusted to each other, hence why they rely on reputation that takes time to build. You have the right idea that if you need money fast and don't have a reputation on any current platform, you ask your local community who either knows you or knows others who will vouch for you, but you don't need an app for that. The communication channels are already there.
Re: Ask HN: I spent months building an app and now I don't know how to get users
#50I hugely respect that you were able to bring this idea so far; it's something I've never been able to do. This is work that's 10x better than 95% of side projects or open source work people put on their resumes.
I'm always critical, so take that with a grain of salt.
Your origin story reminded me a lot of Airbnb's. Your motivation is slightly different, but not surprisingly, you're playing in the very, very crowded gig economy app space. Gofundme is pure charity. TaskRabbit is pure transactional odd-jobs. What you're doing is trying to blend the two. I have no idea how to market this.