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We (unexpectedly) got 60K users in 60 hours - What we learned

patrickambron.me

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Re: We (unexpectedly) got 60K users in 60 hours - What we learned

#61

Post by jmonegro »

eps wrote: post #56

Patrick, can I ask if you get any actual calls in response to "call and talk to the real person" offer on your website? I'm sure many on HN recognize the importance of having a phone number on the site, but it'd be very helpful to know what it translates to in real world.

I remember hearing on a mixergy interview that one founder pointed the importance of having a phone number on her website. She said 100% of the people who called ended up converting it, but just having the number there increased the conversion rates.

Re: We (unexpectedly) got 60K users in 60 hours - What we learned

#62

Post by patrickambron »

eps wrote: post #56

Patrick, can I ask if you get any actual calls in response to "call and talk to the real person" offer on your website? I'm sure many on HN recognize the importance of having a phone number on the site, but it'd be very helpful to know what it translates to in real world.

Yea, we actually WANT to talk to to as many users as possible. We get at least half a dozen calls a day. Trevor, our "customer happiness officer" spends all day talking to customer, answering people's email, etc. It does a few things

1) People get so excited to talk to a real person, even if they've just experienced a bug. These people become huge fans

2) It's the best way to learn about who's using your product. It's much easier to design and develop when you're thinking of specific people

I'd recommend everybody do it

Re: We (unexpectedly) got 60K users in 60 hours - What we learned

#63

Post by wmacura »

shootthemoon wrote: post #42

There 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…

I thought that's a feature of HTTPS, not sending referral headers to non-HTTPS links. (and so not an explicit move by Google but a necessary consequence of providing secure connections for logged-in users)

Re: We (unexpectedly) got 60K users in 60 hours - What we learned

#64

Post by patrickambron »

nickler wrote: post #57

I remember telling people about this when it first launched, citing it as a vanity metrics booster. As a startup founder, however, it's invaluable. I'm a converted fan, and the process even taught this rookie a bunch about link building and SEO. Great work, keep it up, and loved the blog post.

Thanks Nickler. Glad we were able to convert you :) We've actually found that startup founders/entrepreneurs are great, great users for us. If you're interested I'd love to talk to you on the phone, and get an idea of how you approached the product, and what changed your mind.

If you're interested, just shoot me an email (pambron [at] brandyourself [dot] com)

Re: We (unexpectedly) got 60K users in 60 hours - What we learned

#65

Post by timmipetit »

patrickambron wrote: post #15
kevinholesh wrote: post #12

Were these high quality users in the sense that they converted to paid from a free account? What source lead to the highest quality users?

Yes, users can pay for premium features (free users can submit, track and boost up to 3 links, paying members can boost unlimited) With our model we hope 2% convert to paid at some point in their Lifetime as a user. In terms of this push, most of the major US press has been a phenomenal source (which was the bulk of this surge). 2-3% converted in the first 24 hours, and by 8 weeks that number was closer to 5%. Mashab…

What kind of payments do you allow? Perhaps this could have something to do with it.

Re: We (unexpectedly) got 60K users in 60 hours - What we learned

#66

Post by patrickambron »

engtech wrote: post #60

Have you any thoughts of handling the edge case of users with ridiculously common names? In the top ten for my firstname lastname I have: a famous chef, a life coach who is doing branding SEO, someone else who is a programmer, a professional photographer In the top three firstname middlename lastname various high school kids, a registered sex offender

Sometimes a name is just too competetive to realistically expect to own the first page. That said, using our service, you are very likely to get some stuff about you up there. That visibility is important. If your name is Brad Pitt, people know you aren't the actor, but at least they found what they were looking for on result 6.

You are thinking the right way by trying to add an initial or middle name to your name. I'd be very surprised if you're name was too competitive to get some results.

Shoot me an email, I'd be happy to take a look and give somem advice pambron [at] brandyourself [dot] com

Re: We (unexpectedly) got 60K users in 60 hours - What we learned

#67

Post by GrantCov »

patrickambron wrote: post #48
GrantCov wrote: post #43

Very 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…

Thanks for taking the time to respond! Guess I better create an account so I can get a leg up on the other Grant Covingtons out there :).

Re: We (unexpectedly) got 60K users in 60 hours - What we learned

#69

Post by monfresh »

patrickambron wrote: post #53
jordanmessina wrote: post #50

Any 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.

Nothing in the direct roadmap, but that's a great idea. Right now we're focusing on being more directly integrated w sites so we can you improve them right from us. But again, that's a very good idea

I would be interested in such a plugin as well. Given that I have a very unique name (Moncef Belyamani) and that I've had an online presence for quite some time, I've owned the first page of search results for both my name and my "monfresh" nickname for years. I don't have a need for a BrandYourself profile, but the "associate an IP address to a company" feature is intriguing, and the analytics service I use for my sites (getclicky) doesn't seem to offer that. Are there any analytics companies that do?

Re: We (unexpectedly) got 60K users in 60 hours - What we learned

#70

Post by glanch »

engtech wrote: post #58
patrickambron wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yea that's a good point. The nice part is, we don't create any profiles or links on behalf of the user. They need authenticate things like twitter, fb, etc on their own, so they actually need to have or create these profiles. They need to go through the work of creating all the relevant content, and linking it to eachother, we simply let you know if they are optimized/filled out enough, and track their ranking Intere…

You could have a one-time pay service to get a "verified" badge on the profile, like what Twitter has for celebrities.

I'm curious, how does Twitter actually verify those accounts? Do they make a personal phone call? Do they require you to email them a copy of your driver's license?
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