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The worst users come from referral programs, free trials, coupons

andrewchen.com

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Re: The worst users come from referral programs, free trials, coupons

#41

Post by TheCaptain4815 »

steveBK123 wrote: post #36

Thinking more on this, I have a group of friends who partake in these types of deals. They are arguably a leading indicator of business models that are going to fail. Why? Because they will cycle through every single deal and never sign up. Every single one of them cycled through all the meal kit trial discounts during the ZIRP era, without ever signing up for one (it's free food dude). If you think I am kidding, go…

I did the same with the free money those gambling sites were all giving away. Stayed disciplined and made around $800

Re: The worst users come from referral programs, free trials, coupons

#42

Post by vdaea »

IG_Semmelweiss wrote: post #37
red_admiral wrote: post #29

The kind of people who ran coupon schemes in the pre-internet days could have told you this. Back in the day, coupon schemes were things like you had to physically cut out and mail in vouchers from newspapers or magazines, and you got a discount on something like groceries in return. The point of this was market segmentation: you want to get people who (1) otherwise wouldn't buy your product, or at least not as much…

Actually , the one answer you gave, is a common myth[1] https://www.investmentzen.com/news/the-surprising-identity-o...

Which makes sense to me - more educated people are those who know how to save.

Re: The worst users come from referral programs, free trials, coupons

#43

Post by wcunning »

JoshTriplett wrote: post #12

How well do invite systems perform, of the style that gmail and other services famously used, where you need an invite to sign up and users get a certain number of invites to hand out? (They do a great job of rate-limiting user acquisition, such as if you want to ramp up slowly for resource reasons. The question is, how's the quality of users obtained through invite systems?)

So it famously worked really well to create desire around Gmail, but it also famously didn't actually get anyone to use Google Plus or Google Wave. I was desperate for invites to both and then... never found a reason to use them? So it probably does better in terms of rate limiting than anything else. Maybe the right modern comparison would be Threads to BlueSky?

Re: The worst users come from referral programs, free trials, coupons

#44

Post by RicoElectrico »

IG_Semmelweiss wrote: post #37
red_admiral wrote: post #29

The kind of people who ran coupon schemes in the pre-internet days could have told you this. Back in the day, coupon schemes were things like you had to physically cut out and mail in vouchers from newspapers or magazines, and you got a discount on something like groceries in return. The point of this was market segmentation: you want to get people who (1) otherwise wouldn't buy your product, or at least not as much…

Actually , the one answer you gave, is a common myth[1] https://www.investmentzen.com/news/the-surprising-identity-o...

Polish HN readers laughing at the domain ATM ;)

Re: The worst users come from referral programs, free trials, coupons

#45

Post by steveBK123 »

warner25 wrote: post #35
AlexandrB wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's really weird to frame this as a question of "mindset". I certainly had a "scarcity mindset" when I was younger and had no money. Now that I'm older and have some money I have a "growth mindset". But really the main difference is my access to resources.

I agree with you. I've seen other people write about this before and it seems that the people talking about it are people who happen to make a lot more money than the average person. Good for them, but that doesn't mean that people who make less money just have the wrong mindset or some kind of moral failing. I apparently have gone from an extreme "scarcity mindset," when I was in my 20s with questionable job securit…

There's nothing wrong with either mindset, most people are incapable of doing both at once. You can have "scarcity mindset" and be rich. Of course someone with scarcity mindset grows savings over time because they have scarcity mindset! They are good at saving your money!

But this part: > It's still moderate because I'm a government employee with a relatively low ceiling on what I can make; not much room for growth.

Pretty firmly puts you in one bucket. You might have more money, but you are asserting that in your 30s your growth is limited. Someone with a growth mindset would not settle into that job & accept that life path. They'd be job hopping, running a side gig for extra income, squirreling away every last dime into investments so that they can immediately flip into private business at early retirement, etc.

Getty is an example of a really rich guy with scarcity mindset. My parents & in-laws were scarcity mindset.. which is how they retired at 59! People think it's a slur, it is not!

Re: The worst users come from referral programs, free trials, coupons

#46

Post by FredPret »

red_admiral wrote: post #29

The kind of people who ran coupon schemes in the pre-internet days could have told you this. Back in the day, coupon schemes were things like you had to physically cut out and mail in vouchers from newspapers or magazines, and you got a discount on something like groceries in return. The point of this was market segmentation: you want to get people who (1) otherwise wouldn't buy your product, or at least not as much…

Another answer is “someone who would slog through some effort to get a tiny bit of a better deal” and these people are definitely worse customers, rich or poor.

Re: The worst users come from referral programs, free trials, coupons

#47

Post by Retric »

IG_Semmelweiss wrote: post #37
red_admiral wrote: post #29

The kind of people who ran coupon schemes in the pre-internet days could have told you this. Back in the day, coupon schemes were things like you had to physically cut out and mail in vouchers from newspapers or magazines, and you got a discount on something like groceries in return. The point of this was market segmentation: you want to get people who (1) otherwise wouldn't buy your product, or at least not as much…

Actually , the one answer you gave, is a common myth[1] https://www.investmentzen.com/news/the-surprising-identity-o...

It fits my experience, the people I knew used coupons frequently where are all low income. One ended up having quite a large savings from compound interest and another got a healthy inheritance, but their jobs paid little.

Re: The worst users come from referral programs, free trials, coupons

#48

Post by almostnormal »

red_admiral wrote: post #29

The kind of people who ran coupon schemes in the pre-internet days could have told you this. Back in the day, coupon schemes were things like you had to physically cut out and mail in vouchers from newspapers or magazines, and you got a discount on something like groceries in return. The point of this was market segmentation: you want to get people who (1) otherwise wouldn't buy your product, or at least not as much…

Lured into a physical shop by a voucher they are likely to by things they would have bought elsewhere, the effort to visit another shop not being justified.

Re: The worst users come from referral programs, free trials, coupons

#49

Post by ghaff »

steveBK123 wrote: post #36

Thinking more on this, I have a group of friends who partake in these types of deals. They are arguably a leading indicator of business models that are going to fail. Why? Because they will cycle through every single deal and never sign up. Every single one of them cycled through all the meal kit trial discounts during the ZIRP era, without ever signing up for one (it's free food dude). If you think I am kidding, go…

They still mostly were neither free nor a particularly good deal.

I tried Blue Apron once (probably with a discount). In addition to the dark pattern of we'll send you meals next week by default they pretty much all used, they all seemed to have a really narrow use case.

Basically, you had to be fine with cooking sometimes fairly time-consuming recipes for 2+ people three days a week, but didn't have a well-stocked pantry or interest in doing a grocery shopping.

Re: The worst users come from referral programs, free trials, coupons

#50

Post by szundi »

Retric wrote: post #47
IG_Semmelweiss wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually , the one answer you gave, is a common myth[1] https://www.investmentzen.com/news/the-surprising-identity-o...

It fits my experience, the people I knew used coupons frequently where are all low income. One ended up having quite a large savings from compound interest and another got a healthy inheritance, but their jobs paid little.

I am a multimillionaire and love coupons and good value
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