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How the biggest consumer apps got their first 1k users

lennyrachitsky.com

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Re: How the biggest consumer apps got their first 1k users

#81

Post by numlock86 »

StavrosK wrote: post #46
alixanderwang wrote: post #25

I bet the companies using inventive ways to get their first users like the ones listed in the article are in the minority (but certainly make for more interesting stories to read/write about). I launched a SaaS product recently, and after a pretty successful HN launch, I've been trying different ways of marketing. What I learned, and this may be obvious to many, is that the boring path of getting users by gamifying S…

Can you very quickly summarize the basics here? How do you find which keywords to target, how do you include them in your content, what's good SEO hygiene, what wordcount do you need, etc? Basically, I'm not really aware of how you do SEO marketing, and would like to learn.

> Can you very quickly summarize the basics here?

Once you found out, make a post with the title "10 keywords to get you up in SEO and how to use them". That's basically how the meta of SEO marketing works these days. Errr, I meant "this guy uses one simple trick and SEO marketers hate him [read more]" ...

Re: How the biggest consumer apps got their first 1k users

#82

Post by Cthulhu_ »

hoorayimhelping wrote: post #55

> Below, you’ll find first-hand accounts of how essentially every major consumer app acquired their earliest users Did anyone follow through on the links? Some of these "first-hand accounts" just redirect back to this guy's blog, some of them are just blurbs from other media. I looked at the Etsy one and it's a story by an economist with no first hand accounts by anyone at Etsy.

Is the author actually using some of the tricks described in other comments here to gain traction?

Re: How the biggest consumer apps got their first 1k users

#83

Post by petargyurov »

Monroe13 wrote: post #39
petargyurov wrote: post #6

> Get Press Always wondered about this - do I just email an news outlet and tell them "my story" and see if they roll with it? I'm starting to advertise my business around with the idea of growing a userbase before the official release. Ironically enough mentioning a link to it on my previous HN comment lead to more visitors than either of the Facebook or Reddit ads that I put up. With that said, if you're into 3D pr…

Yes, absolutely. Do your homework and find a reporter/ blogger that, based on past reporting, you think would be interested in your company. Email them and keep it short, make it timely (what have you accomplished recently, how is it relevant to a current event or trend) and offer to provide other pieces of the story (e.g. do you have a customer or investor who’d be willing to speak to the reporter? Do you have photo…

> One mistake I’ve seen founders make is they treat the reporters as a marketing channel

This is what I am afraid of doing and why I've been a bit apprehensive about it. Thanks you for your advice, it actually really helped.

Re: How the biggest consumer apps got their first 1k users

#84

Post by godzillabrennus »

StavrosK wrote: post #46
alixanderwang wrote: post #25

I bet the companies using inventive ways to get their first users like the ones listed in the article are in the minority (but certainly make for more interesting stories to read/write about). I launched a SaaS product recently, and after a pretty successful HN launch, I've been trying different ways of marketing. What I learned, and this may be obvious to many, is that the boring path of getting users by gamifying S…

Can you very quickly summarize the basics here? How do you find which keywords to target, how do you include them in your content, what's good SEO hygiene, what wordcount do you need, etc? Basically, I'm not really aware of how you do SEO marketing, and would like to learn.

When you want to master the art you can follow the Northcutt guide: https://northcutt.com/seo-checklist/

Re: How the biggest consumer apps got their first 1k users

#85

Post by fxtentacle »

petargyurov wrote: post #14
fxtentacle wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's what I did with my audio app. After we got featured in the first magazine, I just sent that link to other magazines and offered interviews and giveaways.

Interesting. I am curious, did the giveaways yield any significant rise in users when compared to not doing a giveaway?

They put us on the cover of their print issue in exchange for us doing a giveaway for their users. We got an amazing traffic boost from that, but I wouldn't know how to measure the impact in sales.

Re: How the biggest consumer apps got their first 1k users

#86

Post by TeMPOraL »

petargyurov wrote: post #13
chucksmash wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Parent isn't saying you should create Reddit accounts to shill for your new thing. They are referencing the sock puppet accounts the Reddit founders used to make Reddit look like less of a ghost town in the early days[1]. > Huffman reveals that, “In the beginning Alexis and I submitted all the content.” When they submitted content they created new fake user names so that it would look like the site was populated with…

Ah now that I re-read their comment I can see that I misinterpreted it. For some reason I was thinking along the lines of buying upvotes to get your post to the frontpage, which is of course pretty shitty.

Astroturfing is pretty shitty too. It's literally lying to your users.

Re: How the biggest consumer apps got their first 1k users

#87

Post by dunkelheit »

alixanderwang wrote: post #25

I bet the companies using inventive ways to get their first users like the ones listed in the article are in the minority (but certainly make for more interesting stories to read/write about). I launched a SaaS product recently, and after a pretty successful HN launch, I've been trying different ways of marketing. What I learned, and this may be obvious to many, is that the boring path of getting users by gamifying S…

Your product is already useful for a single isolated user. In contrast, apps such as tinder are essentially useless without a sizable existing user base. I'd imagine getting first users for a product that relies on network effects is on a completely different difficulty level.

Re: How the biggest consumer apps got their first 1k users

#88

Post by TeMPOraL »

alain_gilbert wrote: post #5
paulryanrogers wrote: post #3

> Corey's plan was to infiltrate these communities. He wouldn't announce himself as a Netflix employee. ... and slowly, over time, alert the most respected commenters, moderators, and website owners about this great new site called Netflix. Strikes me as unethical. Unless their alerts disclosed the relationship.

What's unethical about it ? He talk about something that might be of interest for these people. It doesn't sound like he was spamming or doing anything annoying. It sounds to me like a more human way of doing advertisement. The only difference is that he is actually there to have an actual conversation about it.

It's not a "more human" way of doing advertising, it's using deception to avoid getting kicked out from places and contexts where advertising isn't welcomed. It's trying to catch people with their guard down.

Ethical advertising is honest and up-front. If you need to be clandestine about it, you're doing something unethical pretty much by definition.

Re: How the biggest consumer apps got their first 1k users

#89

Post by sweeneyrod »

dunkelheit wrote: post #87
alixanderwang wrote: post #25

I bet the companies using inventive ways to get their first users like the ones listed in the article are in the minority (but certainly make for more interesting stories to read/write about). I launched a SaaS product recently, and after a pretty successful HN launch, I've been trying different ways of marketing. What I learned, and this may be obvious to many, is that the boring path of getting users by gamifying S…

Your product is already useful for a single isolated user. In contrast, apps such as tinder are essentially useless without a sizable existing user base. I'd imagine getting first users for a product that relies on network effects is on a completely different difficulty level.

My experience is that it's easier than you might expect if you're doing things right (you have an interesting product and low-friction signup process). I recently started a university-specific dating app and had no trouble getting the first few hundred users, even with the actual matching functionality turned off.
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