Congratulations, but there's no way to say who a "user" is in 60 hours. What you got was 60k signups in 60 hours.
We (unexpectedly) got 60K users in 60 hours - What we learned
41–50 of 118 posts
Re: We (unexpectedly) got 60K users in 60 hours - What we learned
#42There is one problem with the "find who is googling you" feature. For about a year now, google has started hiding the search results from the referral when someone uses google while logged in to google services.
You may have seen "not provided" in google analytics for searches that found your site... This is users logged in to google. And with more people using google services such as gmail and g+, more and more results will be hidden. On my corporate, tech web site, I'm seeing 40-50% of results from google as "not provided" nowadays, and its increasing every month.
Re: We (unexpectedly) got 60K users in 60 hours - What we learned
#43Very interesting product. I haven't yet had a chance to fully explore the site, but I will certainly be creating an account in the future.
I have two concerns:
1) What happens when two people with the same name sign up? Couldn't that lead to issues where they're both trying to promote their own stuff while burying the others?
2) Is there any way that someone could pose as someone they're not in order to sabotage that persons google results, or I could see the possibility of a friend doing that in order to pull a prank on you?
As I said I haven't fully explored to site, so if these concerns are addressed on there, apologies. Great article!
Re: We (unexpectedly) got 60K users in 60 hours - What we learned
#44I really like how you guys built a viral mechanism into the product. You incentivize the user to share their BrandYourself with their existing profiles/networks to receive a "boost", which helps spread word of your product. Pretty ingenious if you ask me. Good job guys!
Thanks. The trick is to figure out how a viral mechanism that aligns with your actual value prop. People want their links to show up higher in google, and sharing them on social networks will actually help in that process. It fits :)
Re: We (unexpectedly) got 60K users in 60 hours - What we learned
#45You might want to take the quote from Fox news off your front page. First thing I noticed...
Re: We (unexpectedly) got 60K users in 60 hours - What we learned
#46There is one problem with the "find who is googling you" feature. For about a year now, google has started hiding the search results from the referral when someone uses google while logged in to google services. You may have seen "not provided" in google analytics for searches that found your site... This is users logged in to google. And with more people using google services such as gmail and g+, more and more resu…
(not provided) is lame, but I don't think that will hurt how this service tracks who's Googling you. It looks like they look up the IP address to see who is searching for you.
BTW - I run notprovided.com and have had 100% days of (not provided) keywords referrals....at least I have a good idea of what they were searching for : )
Re: We (unexpectedly) got 60K users in 60 hours - What we learned
#47Thanks for sharing the lessons
Re: We (unexpectedly) got 60K users in 60 hours - What we learned
#48Very interesting product. I haven't yet had a chance to fully explore the site, but I will certainly be creating an account in the future. I have two concerns: 1) What happens when two people with the same name sign up? Couldn't that lead to issues where they're both trying to promote their own stuff while burying the others? 2) Is there any way that someone could pose as someone they're not in order to sabotage that…
Hey these are really good questions
1) In terms of duplicate names, the product also helps you optimize for specific relevant terms like "Patrick Ambron, developer" or "Patrick Ambron, BrandYourself" "patrick ambron, NYC" etc. So people looking for you will be able to find you. That said, if two people are competing for the first page of Patrick Ambron using our service, the person more actively updating and creating content will edge the other out (google loves new, relevant content). But, at least they'll be a leg up on all the other Patrick Ambron's of the world
2) This is definately a possibility--in the same way, I can go and create a wordpress site using your name. It's hard to detect, but there are warning flags we look for. If you create an account for Patrick Ambron, but don't have the authentication for any of the other profiles (FB, twitter, LI) it looks suspicious and we check it out. We also have a policy where if you email us because somebody is using your information in an account, we will suspend the account for you, until the user can verify that they are who they say they are.
Re: We (unexpectedly) got 60K users in 60 hours - What we learned
#49Awesome piece. It's rare that a startup dives this deep into the details. You deserve the 1000+ signups you'll score from a HackerNews front page ;-)
Hey thanks man! I just happen to really enjoy data--and it's paid off. I've also been getting some great feedback from the HN crowd, so these are great signups :)
Rochester guy here who has enjoyed watching a non-NYC startup gain some traction. Nice job!
Also, will there be a "post HN front page" report?
Re: We (unexpectedly) got 60K users in 60 hours - What we learned
#50Any chance you will release a plugin for a non-brandyourself site? I'd love to put the "find out who's googling you" feature on my blog or even my startups website.