

Ask YC: Just quit my day job to work on NewsCred fulltime. Looking for marketing inspiration. - shafqat

I finally did it! Yesterday was my first full day of 100% entrepreneurship. Things were taking off and I'm excited to finally be able to give full attention to my real passion. Quite daunting, but exciting.<p>So now that I'm full time, my few weeks will be spent on marketing and user acquision. Any pearls of wisdom or inspiration for interesting marketing campaigns?
======
vaksel
I found a bug, you have FOX News listed as a credible news source.
Nonetheless, congratulations on cutting the umbilical cord.

~~~
shafqat
Haha. You'll notice that FOX is actually the lowest rated source on our site.
That's the community deciding, not us. ;-)

------
tstegart
I don't place much value in web 2.0 marketing strategies. There is a
difference between the user who would come to your site and stay and use it
and the user who would just come in response to a campaign. You need to make
sure your groundwork is done first before you start thinking about campaigns.

What value do you provide to users? Figure that out, then figure out what
people would find that valuable. Then figure out where you can find a lot of
those people, then think up marketing campaign ideas.

There is also a difference between marketing to your current users, and
marketing to potential users. Separate the two. The contest idea for the top 5
commenters is really valuable to existing users. and it creates value
(content) for you, which helps entice other users. But if you direct it at
potential users, you're wasting your time, because they're not likely to join
just to comment on something and hope to win something. Most people would
assume an existing user would just beat them out for the prize, and they'd
probably be right.

So my advice is to do a lot of groundwork first, then come up with an
interesting idea that fits who you want to target. Not come with an
interesting idea, and then try to fit it into what your research says.

And congratulations by the way, its a big step, so good luck. :)

------
PStamatiou
How can I (tech blogger) get my content on NewsCred?

"2 Cups - We combined that list with the top 100 blogs ranked by Technorati."

I am on the top 100 but can't find my blog on NewsCred.

As for increasing signups.. lower the barriers to entry. Add OpenID (look at
clickpass too) and advertise that on the homepage. The quicker your users know
registration is as easy as supplying a user name and openid url, they will not
hesistate, in theory.

~~~
shafqat
I'll take a look and add you soon. How bout a quick review of our site in
return ;-)

------
rms
Congratulations!

Perhaps you've read this, but this is great advice from Alexis of reddit.

[http://www.scribd.com/doc/24126/How-to-market-your-
website-o...](http://www.scribd.com/doc/24126/How-to-market-your-website-on-
the-cheap-by-cofounder-of-redditcom)

Contests are a good way to increase activity on your site... free t-shirts for
the top5 commenters? Or flash drives or anything really.

------
snewe
I am confused by the credibility ranking. Here is Instapundit:

<http://www.newscred.com/source/show/name/instapundit>

This guy is a _pundit_ with an agenda (conservative hawk that calls himself
libertarian). Allowing users to give him cred simply validates the fact that
they agree with him. His resulting credibility score doesn't help the newcomer
to your site that has never heard of Instapundit. Based on his NewsCred score,
he is one of the most credible authors in all the media. Seriously?

~~~
vaksel
from looking at that ranking table, it looks like all of them started out with
1000 positives

~~~
shafqat
Yes, we did that so the initial users dont see the CredRank fluctuate wildly
every time someone votes (i.e. go from 0 to 100 to 50). We also felt it was
important that everyone starts off as credible (100). We shouldn't be able to
decide at the start, because then the entire idea is tainted!

BTW, by looking at data and trends from our Alpha, we realized we have to
tweak some of our algorithms. So I'll post separately about that for the geeks
out there who want to chip in.

------
babul
Firstly, congratulations. Leaving paid employment is often a big step to take
for people used to getting a wage and usually a vital one in being a
entrepreneur.

The most effective form of marketing is word of mouth. Try to do things to get
people passionate about your site and talking about it. Find out what draws
people to you and run competitions/events/campaigns around those areas.

------
dhotson
I thought the 37signals affiliate program was a pretty clever piece of
marketing: <https://affiliate.37signals.com/>

I'm not sure if you could replicate it without having the reputation that they
do.

------
nailer
> Any pearls of wisdom or inspiration for interesting marketing campaigns?

Lurzer's Archive, a quarterly ((IRC) global magazine of award winning print,
video and online ads.

------
ca98am79
Check out the book "Buzzmarketing" - it's great. By Mark Hughes, who renamed
Halfway, Oregon to Half.com, Oregon

------
maxniederhofer
congrats, dude. see you in london soon.

