What being on the front page of Hacker News does for our bottom line • Hacker News Board

Re: What being on the front page of Hacker News does for our bottom line

#71

Post by ahoyhere » Thu, Mar 08, 2012, 9:05 PM UTC

ryan_f wrote: post #13

This is the first time a post on 37signals has me a little put off. It seems unnecessary and slightly childish. It wasn't meant to show how posts on HN can contribute to their business but to shove it in people's faces. You would hope that smart people like them can figure out that a few people do not speak for an entire community.

How is it "shoving" anything into "people's faces"? It says "We're not getting revenue value out of it." Are you offended to find out that being on the front page is nearly economically valueless?

37s is attacked all the time by a tiny, but very loud minority. I'm sure that they wrote this not because they personally care, but because if nobody demonstrates that this loud, tiny minority is wrong, that loud, tiny minority has the only voice that people will hear.

It's valuable for the quiet majority to understand that A) traffic may be nice, but B) that doesn't mean being on the front page of HN is a good plan for revenue growth.

Re: What being on the front page of Hacker News does for our bottom line

#72

Post by pg » Thu, Mar 08, 2012, 10:46 PM UTC

ahoyhere wrote: post #70

pg wrote: post #50

It's misleading to focus only on the direct benefits. The benefits of PR are always mostly indirect. For example, Y Combinator makes zero direct revenue from hosting HN. But I would feel pretty dishonest if I were to claim on that account that it has no effect on our bottom line.

It's not misleading, but the comparison to HN and Y Combinator is. HN isn't a product which is for sale. There is no way to pay for HN.

That's not important to the argument. If we made $300/month directly from HN, it still wouldn't be worth it financially.

Re: What being on the front page of Hacker News does for our bottom line

#73

Post by ryan_f » Thu, Mar 08, 2012, 11:23 PM UTC

ahoyhere wrote: post #71

ryan_f wrote: post #13

This is the first time a post on 37signals has me a little put off. It seems unnecessary and slightly childish. It wasn't meant to show how posts on HN can contribute to their business but to shove it in people's faces. You would hope that smart people like them can figure out that a few people do not speak for an entire community.

How is it "shoving" anything into "people's faces"? It says "We're not getting revenue value out of it." Are you offended to find out that being on the front page is nearly economically valueless? 37s is attacked all the time by a tiny, but very loud minority. I'm sure that they wrote this not because they personally care, but because if nobody demonstrates that this loud, tiny minority is wrong, that loud, tiny mino…

I would have no problem with the post if it was informational and demonstrated exactly what you said above. I felt it was a little flamatory toward the HN community as a whole when in fact it is just a small minority that was complaining. Just an opinion.

Re: What being on the front page of Hacker News does for our bottom line

#74

Post by batista » Thu, Mar 08, 2012, 11:29 PM UTC

inkaudio wrote: post #58

pg wrote: post #50

It's misleading to focus only on the direct benefits. The benefits of PR are always mostly indirect. For example, Y Combinator makes zero direct revenue from hosting HN. But I would feel pretty dishonest if I were to claim on that account that it has no effect on our bottom line.

Exactly , his post is not objective. Front page of hackers news is essentially word of mouth marketing, which the author(Noah) says matters. Based on the data provided Noah does not know if the HN readers who signed up for the free accounts are recommending the paid services to others. So the value is at the very least $300 a month, it could be significantly more than that. Moreover what effect does the HN traffic ha…

Front page of hackers news is essentially word of mouth marketing, which the author(Noah) says matters.

Not every kind of word of mouth matters. HN is not that big of community, and is comprised mostly of certain types of users that either don't care about 37's products, or know about them already anyway.

Based on the data provided Noah does not know if the HN readers who signed up for the free accounts are recommending the paid services to others.

Why, can't he check for affiliate links?

So the value is at the very least $300 a month, it could be significantly more than that.

Like a whooping $1000 a month?

Re: What being on the front page of Hacker News does for our bottom line

#75

Post by chc » Fri, Mar 09, 2012, 8:12 PM UTC

ahoyhere wrote: post #70

pg wrote: post #50

It's misleading to focus only on the direct benefits. The benefits of PR are always mostly indirect. For example, Y Combinator makes zero direct revenue from hosting HN. But I would feel pretty dishonest if I were to claim on that account that it has no effect on our bottom line.

It's not misleading, but the comparison to HN and Y Combinator is. HN isn't a product which is for sale. There is no way to pay for HN.

I think you've misunderstood what PG was saying. In this analogy, Y Combinator and Basecamp are the products for sale and HN is a promotional channel. PG's point is that Y Combinator benefits from Hacker News in ways other than the direct "I clicked on the link from Hacker News and then immediately took an action that made money for Y Combinator."