Can someone explain to me what is meant by "Optimize for the back button?"
Rule #1 for beta invites: remind me what you do
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Re: Rule #1 for beta invites: remind me what you do
#12And rule #2: don't ask me to spam with friends for an earlier invite.
I don't understand why you'd think this is annoying. They're asking you to spread the word if it's a service you're interested in, and in return they'll give you a higher place in line. Seems very reasonable to me.
I agree with untog and snowtiger. On top of that, it seems that the "queue" is completely artificial most of the time, which makes it feel doubly scummy.
(There was a service advertised here a while back during the first wave of the social-queue-jumping fad - it said you could either get in immediately, or wait seven days. There was no way in heck the queue was that long; I ditched it and found something else.)
Re: Rule #1 for beta invites: remind me what you do
#13I'd also recommend asking people for their FIRST name only, and emailing people with a personal email right after they sign up for the beta. Start a conversation, ask them what their problems are, what features they want, etc. Make them feel special, and tell them "Nice idea, why didn't I think of that! I'll try to include that."
They're sure to remember you if you do this. You can even do automated email segmentation. If their reply has "Sent from my iPhone", you know you can send launch emails for the iPhone version to these guys. If their reply has "Sent from Droid", send the Android launch emails to them.
Starting a conversation also lessens the probability your launch email gets put in spam as well... I'm sure Gmail, Yahoo, etc all have algorithms where if you respond to an email address, any future emails from that email doesn't get marked as spam.
Re: Rule #1 for beta invites: remind me what you do
#14I'd also recommend asking people for their FIRST name only, and emailing people with a personal email right after they sign up for the beta. Start a conversation, ask them what their problems are, what features they want, etc. Make them feel special, and tell them "Nice idea, why didn't I think of that! I'll try to include that." They're sure to remember you if you do this. You can even do automated email segmentatio…
I disagree. Most of the time that I sign up for a beta service (at least for a free beta), I am doing it out of curiosity more than anything. I'm not about to start a long conversation with every beta I sign up for.
Re: Rule #1 for beta invites: remind me what you do
#15Can someone explain to me what is meant by "Optimize for the back button?"
From Paul Graham:
"The median visitor will arrive with their finger poised on the Back button. Think about your own experience: most links you follow lead to something lame. Anyone who has used the web for more than a couple weeks has been trained to click on Back after following a link. So your site has to say "Wait! Don't click on Back. This site isn't lame. Look at this, for example."
You can read the full article at: http://www.paulgraham.com/startuplessons.html
Re: Rule #1 for beta invites: remind me what you do
#16I'd also recommend asking people for their FIRST name only, and emailing people with a personal email right after they sign up for the beta. Start a conversation, ask them what their problems are, what features they want, etc. Make them feel special, and tell them "Nice idea, why didn't I think of that! I'll try to include that." They're sure to remember you if you do this. You can even do automated email segmentatio…
I disagree. Most of the time that I sign up for a beta service (at least for a free beta), I am doing it out of curiosity more than anything. I'm not about to start a long conversation with every beta I sign up for.
Yep, then you're not a valued user. Those who are willing to have a conversation are the users you want to keep because their interest level in your product is high. They're the ones most likely to buy, as well as spread the word.
Re: Rule #1 for beta invites: remind me what you do
#17[deleted]
Re: Rule #1 for beta invites: remind me what you do
#18And rule #2: don't ask me to spam with friends for an earlier invite.
i've stopped spamming my friends with the "early invite" incentive bs. past experience with two sites: inviting 5+ friends to a service (who signed-up) i got given access at the same time as everyone else. never seen evidence showing otherwise.
Re: Rule #1 for beta invites: remind me what you do
#19 I agree that its a good idea to remind people what you do, especially if it takes a long time between the sign up and launch (or further communication between parties). I just put up a landing page for my startup and think I did a decent job conveying what the company does, but I'm curious, but how much is necessary to remind them (in future communications)?
Is a one-liner enough (i.e. "We're a crowd-sourced record label!"), or would people prefer the whole spiel (i.e. "We're a crowd-sourced record label that does this, this and this!")?
Re: Rule #1 for beta invites: remind me what you do
#20I'd also recommend asking people for their FIRST name only, and emailing people with a personal email right after they sign up for the beta. Start a conversation, ask them what their problems are, what features they want, etc. Make them feel special, and tell them "Nice idea, why didn't I think of that! I'll try to include that." They're sure to remember you if you do this. You can even do automated email segmentatio…
I disagree. Most of the time that I sign up for a beta service (at least for a free beta), I am doing it out of curiosity more than anything. I'm not about to start a long conversation with every beta I sign up for.
Same here. I tried to engage a conversation with my beta users when they registered, but I got 0 replies (out of 30 signups) and the 1 thing I got was more instant unsubscribes.
I guess it depends on the service offered (mine is file sharing for companies in french) but in that case interested users just don't seem to be willing to send an email after already taking the initiative to subscribe, confirming email etc.