Tell HN: The guys behind Forkly are geniuses

#1

Post by dougludlow » Wed, Jan 12, 2011, 3:28 PM UTC

This is me giving credit where credit is CERTAINLY due.

Yesterday, my company Hipster (useHipster.com) put up a "coming soon" page. We wanted it to be more than just a regular coming soon page, so we incorporated the principles behind Fork.ly's recent "viral launching soon" form. (http://blog.forkly.com/post/2341870004/a-viral-launching-soon-form)

Boy are they smart. The process behind this has given useHipster.com a 0.8 viral rate - basically, for every 10 people who sign up directly, 8 come in through the viral referrals.

I've known Brady and Martin since we were together at TechStars Boulder 2007 (them BrightKite, me madKast), and I've always been super impressed with their work. Fork.ly will be huge, and now thanks to their invite process, Hipster has a good chance of that, too.

Thanks Martin and Brady! You guys are geniuses!

Re: Tell HN: The guys behind Forkly are geniuses

#2

Post by runjake » Wed, Jan 12, 2011, 4:24 PM UTC

Clickable link: http://blog.forkly.com/post/2341870004/a-viral-launching-soo...

Re: Tell HN: The guys behind Forkly are geniuses

#3

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Jan 12, 2011, 4:48 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Tell HN: The guys behind Forkly are geniuses

#4

Post by ehsanul » Wed, Jan 12, 2011, 8:37 PM UTC

Interesting, wouldn't have expected the viral coefficient to go so high with such a minimal change. Did you just say that if you invite your friends, you'll get in sooner?

Care to share the exact copy you used? When I check your website, it redirects to http://sanfrancisco.usehipster.com/ and just says "Enter your email and we'll put you on our invite list." A/B test?

Also, I wonder how one might inch that viral coefficient up and above 1.0, making it a truly viral feedback loop.

Re: Tell HN: The guys behind Forkly are geniuses

#5

Post by damncabbage » Fri, Jan 14, 2011, 5:03 AM UTC

runjake wrote: post #2

Clickable link: http://blog.forkly.com/post/2341870004/a-viral-launching-soo...

Thank you. :)

Unrelated to the OP:

This has surely come up before, but I haven't seen it while I'm here: why does HN not auto-link URLs in the submission (with rel="nofollow" if there are SEO concerns), instead of relying on people making "clickable" posts?