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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

#81

Post by nmridul »

drum wrote: post #45
benp84 wrote: post #44

Congrats on the success! I'm curious: the condition of <1 mile proximity isn't transitive, so wouldn't users be seeing only one half of a lot of conversations? Like if A was close to B, B was close to C, but A wasn't close to C, then A would only see what B says to C but not what C says back. Or have you divided up space into fixed cells roughly one mile wide to prevent this?

This was probably my most embarrassing oversight. Your first point is the way it's working. I'm trying to figure out if there's a way to make that work without segmenting the map into fixed cells... any thoughts?

EDIT - dugmartin explained it better below ...

Maybe, something similar to hearing, a person who is closer is louder while the one far is faint.... So nearby people have a stronger font while the one who is far has a lighter font ? Note - I've not used this app, so don't know how it is working ...

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

#82

Post by jsnk »

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?

Many others might whether you believe in the product or not though. I guess I am looking for less intrusive and disruptive way to acquire user, but the downside to this is that it is way harder to gain users. But I think your facebook group selection was smart. A lot of freshmen would like this app.

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

#83

Post by nmridul »

meowface wrote: post #67
dugmartin wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should just make the text from 1 to 2 miles show at 50% alpha, and the 25% alpha from 2 to 3 miles.

Does this really solve the problem though? What happens if someone 3 miles away is talking to someone who's 1 mile away from themselves, but 4 miles away from you? Then you'd see the transparent text of them talking to some person you can't see messages from, yet also see transparent text of them responding to people you can see messages from. I personally don't see how you could completely avoid this without some ki…

That is how it is working in real life. You can hear the person closer to you speaking, but not the one farther

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

#84

Post by drum »

gridspy wrote: post #72
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.

Personally I was expecting a discussion on the viral nature of asking people near you to join up to popcorn in the app.

that was my original intent. and then I totally forgot to add it until I had already posted.

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

#85

Post by e12e »

algoshift wrote: post #49

I've learned Facebook and LinkedIn can produce really disappointing results. Over the last couple of weeks we've been pushing hard to develop awareness for a worthy cause (special needs education tools). Details here: http://www.tommyteaches.com/special-education.php (Yes, taking the opportunity to also get a little attention on HN. Sorry, this is important.) Analytics tells us that LinkedIn, in particular didn't hav…

> I've learned Facebook and LinkedIn can produce really disappointing results.

(...)

> The best results we got have been due to friends, family, neighbors and local teachers making a push to reach to their immediate connections (their friends, family and co-workers) to have them engage.

Do you mean facebook ads in your first use of Facebook? Because I would think "organic" use of Facebook would be a contributing factor to "reach ... immediate connections"?

I've never quite understood the idea of Facebook "ads". If you want to do "viral" marketing -- let your product/cause spread via social media via actual human connections. If you want to do advertising, do advertising.

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

#86

Post by coffeecheque »

It's an interesting app, and a really cool idea.

However, should you be displaying the location of your users on a Google Map via your publicly accessible backend website?

I'm happy for location to be sent to the server for working out where I am. I'm less happy for it to popup where everyone can access it.

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

#87

Post by [deleted] »

vineetch wrote: post #61

To get more users, have you tried approaching bloggers in different niches with different article ideas? The use cases for your app are different for different sets of people. Just write a one paragraph abstract about your app and email bloggers and editors to see if they'll cover your just released app. Some headline and abstract ideas when you approach bloggers: 1) Tech/Business -- Popcorn: The hot new app to netwo…

[deleted]

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

#88

Post by anton000 »

drum wrote: post #68
vineetch wrote: post #61

To get more users, have you tried approaching bloggers in different niches with different article ideas? The use cases for your app are different for different sets of people. Just write a one paragraph abstract about your app and email bloggers and editors to see if they'll cover your just released app. Some headline and abstract ideas when you approach bloggers: 1) Tech/Business -- Popcorn: The hot new app to netwo…

DUUUUDE! my mind just got blown. I haven't tried this. Great idea. And no way, you even wrote the headlines?! > 2) Student Websites/Newspapers -- The messaging app you need when a zombie apocalypse happens at SDSU (insert campus here) hahaha that would be a hit.

seems like you got your future head of marketing over here!

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

#89

Post by hobs »

drum wrote: post #68
vineetch wrote: post #61

To get more users, have you tried approaching bloggers in different niches with different article ideas? The use cases for your app are different for different sets of people. Just write a one paragraph abstract about your app and email bloggers and editors to see if they'll cover your just released app. Some headline and abstract ideas when you approach bloggers: 1) Tech/Business -- Popcorn: The hot new app to netwo…

DUUUUDE! my mind just got blown. I haven't tried this. Great idea. And no way, you even wrote the headlines?! > 2) Student Websites/Newspapers -- The messaging app you need when a zombie apocalypse happens at SDSU (insert campus here) hahaha that would be a hit.

This advice is posted to HN quite a bit, this is the same reason websites have press kits available. Long story short, journalists are lazy, just like the rest of us, and they have deadlines, just like the rest of us. Exploit them to your advantage and help them out at the same time, and if you are especially different, they will love to be the first to report.

Speaking of that, be careful about who you send what when, a lot of people will break your story before you officially release something just to say they were first, and then your site will be offline and all that traffic will be for naught.

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