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How I Got My First 1000 Users in 1 Day

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Re: How I Got My First 1000 Users in 1 Day

#31

Post by aalbertson »

Namrog84 wrote: post #21
drum wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

why?

It's promoting repeated posting of the same article in attempts to get lucky. It borders in the grey area of spam. Spam works. But it's still spam.

While I can see the argument in that direction, the point he made was to "delete" the other post before reposting. Think of it like first drafts of a story/article/blog post you're writing, you almost NEVER get it right the first time. Sometimes it takes a few iterations (just like software development hmmm?) before you find the right combination to trigger a general interest.

HN, Reddit, Slashdot, all of these share similar requirements of "finding the right combo of post/title/content/etc... to appease to the wider audience".

What he recommends, I think is a worthwhile endeavor. As long as it is not abused...

Re: How I Got My First 1000 Users in 1 Day

#33

Post by benologist »

drum wrote: post #8
nthitz wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

His second main takeaway: > If your post doesn’t gain traction on Hacker News initially, delete it and try posting another day. This probably holds true for sites like Reddit as well. Which makes me a little uneasy..

why?

Most of us aren't here to be the audience for whatever startups and sites that treat HN like a marketing tool. This morning when I checked HN there was 4 advertisements on the front page excluding the official yc hiring notices - exitround, envato, statuspage.io, aws.

42floors' the other week described HN's front page as part of their SEO campaign - we're literally being exploited just to boost their visibility on google.

It's making HN unattractive to me at least.

Note: I'm not talking about "Show HN" posts. Those I like because they generally tap HN for feedback.

Re: How I Got My First 1000 Users in 1 Day

#34

Post by jpittman »

james33 wrote: post #7

I think you need a 5th takeaway: write a follow-up blog post about how your HN post got you 1000 users, subsequently getting you another 1000 users that missed the post the day before.

how about a 6th takeaway in a follow up, in which he discusses retention of these initial 1000 users? I think it's great he was able to obtain those numbers early but I think those users are a bit ephemeral.

Re: How I Got My First 1000 Users in 1 Day

#35

Post by jff »

drum wrote: post #15
jsnk wrote: post #12

I have a side project (dmtri.com). It lacks active users right now. I don't mind not having too many registered users as the website doesn't require you to sign up. I just wish that people would visit more and write more. Obviously the problem is that there isn't much going on actively on the site. However, I detest the thought of spamming every facebook groups and such. I tried organically growing by writing really…

if you believe in your product and think there's a need than why would you consider it spam?

I would report your facebook posts as abuse if I saw them on my newsfeed, most likely. "I joined a bunch of groups so I could advertise to them." Scummy.

Re: How I Got My First 1000 Users in 1 Day

#36

Post by shawnreilly »

Great Article, thank you for sharing. It's interesting to follow a Product Launch and see what works / what doesn't work. I like how you've integrated a specific UX into the Product. Right now the Signup is probably one of the most important aspects to focus on (as you onboard Users). Choosing to skip E-mails (and E-mail verification) for a faster signup lowers the entry point barrier and makes the UX more enjoyable. This is something I'm currently working on with my App (the initial Signup Process). I've performed some customer validation and the results were in line with my assumptions. The preferred experience seems to be minimal time investment, and minimal effort. Following this train of thought, here are few basic options:

1. User manually inputs an E-mail Address and Password (commonly w/ E-mail Verification) 2. User manually inputs a Username/Password (less to type, no Verification needed) 3. User taps twice and uses Social Media Integration (example, Facebook Login)

Of course each of these has Pro's and Cons. I will follow Popcorn and see how it works with the second option. I'm leaning towards the third option (minimal time investment), but I'm concerned about perceptions of the associated Social Network(s) and how that might impact the User's desire to create an account. For example, if a certain Network is "not cool" with the younger generation, and you present the "not cool" Network as the Logon method, would that make the App also "not cool"?

Re: How I Got My First 1000 Users in 1 Day

#37

Post by jcutrell »

jff wrote: post #35
drum wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

if you believe in your product and think there's a need than why would you consider it spam?

I would report your facebook posts as abuse if I saw them on my newsfeed, most likely. "I joined a bunch of groups so I could advertise to them." Scummy.

Not all advertisement is scummy.

You could easily change the tone here. "I joined a bunch of very specific types of groups so I could manually write a post that tells them about a free app that I built for their demographic."

I felt the "scum" right away, but then I thought about the source of the feeling. Scummy is when you write bait. Telling people about your app - sometimes that requires a door to door cold call.

I think this app deserved to be shared with that group, and it's particularly un-scummy considering the fact that it's brand new, free, and isn't trying to mine for email addys.

Re: How I Got My First 1000 Users in 1 Day

#38

Post by qzervaas »

I like the app idea, but not a huge fan of your methods of attracting users. Because this is a highly localized app, I think the key takeaway is that you need to really push a single (or multiple) locations at once, rather than "everywhere" at once.

The app will do far better with 1000 users in one location than 1 user in each of 1000 locations.

Also, could you onboard users with no registration required to get them using it, then ask them to register if they want to use across multiple devices / retrieve their login?

Re: How I Got My First 1000 Users in 1 Day

#39

Post by prawn »

drum wrote: post #14
karangoeluw wrote: post #13

I feel like what you did might be considered spam - posting on FB groups, and reposting on HN. It's not adding any value to the community. But hey, what works, works.

there are ways of posting tactfully. i believe in the app thus i think it's useful for those students. i dont continuously post over and over, so far, only once per page. i have students liking and commenting, even friending me telling me they like the app.

What if there were 1,000 developers with similar apps, each who thought their offering could be useful for the students in question? Even just one post from each of them would likely flood a community.

If you post like that in a community of mine, I generally delete your post and blacklist your link preventing people from discussing it even if they discover it organically. There is just too much spam coming through to give benefit of the doubt.

If you want to announce something in someone else's community, I think fairer and more polite behaviour is to speak with an owner/moderator about what they think is fair - it might be that they allow such posts or they ask that you advertise, etc.

Re: How I Got My First 1000 Users in 1 Day

#40

Post by jcutrell »

benologist wrote: post #33
drum wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

why?

Most of us aren't here to be the audience for whatever startups and sites that treat HN like a marketing tool. This morning when I checked HN there was 4 advertisements on the front page excluding the official yc hiring notices - exitround, envato, statuspage.io, aws. 42floors' the other week described HN's front page as part of their SEO campaign - we're literally being exploited just to boost their visibility on go…

I agree with this.

At the same time, I'm quite glad the OP reposted a few times. I may not have seen this app otherwise. The hustle required to delete and repost doesn't feel spammy to me. And, furthermore, the original post made it to the front page and retained its location per the algorithm, which gives a lot of power to time.

I think the value prop for a lot of HN readers here isn't so much about whether or not this was an ad - I think it was more about "this is a cool idea that could spark other location-oriented ideas" in the thread, and quite a few folks did treat this as a Show HN.

It's a fine line, for sure, but it's also a gamble - will people look past the outer layer of "spammy" to the inner layers that can be learned from? I felt this way about the Envato article today too. Disclaimer, I write articles for their tuts sites periodically. But I knew when that article hit the front page, it would be received as spammy.

We need people like you (benologist and the clear-headed readers of this comment) to maintain a strict hold on what is considered valuable on HN, certainly while simultaneously appreciating and giving space to the efforts of other programmers in the space.

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