

You built it. How do you get users? - mcartyem

Say you built a web-based application that solves a problem. Practically, how do you get users?
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AznHisoka
1) Create Google alerts for relevant keywords and if it's a blogger, leave an
useful comment with a link to your blog at the end.

2) Create Twitter searches to find people with the problem your product
solves, and tweet them your solution.

3) Establish yourself as an expert in relevant forums and leave a link in your
forum signature. Connect with other forum members.

4) Do giveaways in relevant blogs. Tie the giveaway to your web app in a
creative way. You don't necessarily have to giveaway a premium plan of your
product - it could be another product, or an Amazon gift card.

Protip: I know from experience that doing a giveaway > $100 and posting in in
online-sweepstakes.com will yield over 100 0 visitors in a day.

Give more entries for retweets, facebook likes, etc.

5) Guest blog posting is easy low hanging fruit.

6) Do cross partnerships with another startup.

7) Find a similar new product in your space. Search Google news for stories on
that product. Pitch your product to those same writers. Make sure you develop
a relationship before that pitch.

8) Encourage existing users to share it through email. Give them call to
actions.

~~~
dholowiski
Regarding #3 - I've noticed that many forums now are either not allowing
signatures, or not allowing links in signatures. This seems to be a really
recent thing.

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mehulkar
If you haven't been spending time thinking about marketing and getting users
as part of the process of building your product, then you've already lost.

The people who care about what you've built and are going to evangelize it for
you aren't your friends and family or the people who see you on an ad
platform, it's the people who's problem you're solving. If you already know
who they are, and if they think you're as valuable as you think you are, then
add incentives to their sharing with their friends. that's why gamification is
the new big thing these days...

if you haven't found your customers, and i mean real people with names, not
just the demographic or psychographic that is in your business plan. If you've
found 2-3 people, then get them to use your product. then get feedback so you
can make their lives even easier. as part of that feedback, give them the
option of inviting others into the circle.

you can also go the easy route and get in touch with a mashable or TC writer.
Even a small blurb will get you a bunch of random signups, 80% of whom will
unsubscribe from your list and forget about you 5 minutes after they sign up.

~~~
sagacity
> If you haven't been spending time thinking about marketing and getting users
> as part of the process of building your product, then you've already lost.

How is this so? Care to elaborate upon this a bit?

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polyfractal
I wouldn't say "lost", but I would say "seriously far behind".

You should start marketing the product as soon as you start writing code.
Start collecting email addresses, writing blog posts, talking to people, etc
etc.

When you launch you should ideally have an email list which are already
interested in your product. These people are your lifeblood. They will tell
you what sucks about your product and what to change. They will tell you that
your product isn't what they need...but they will provide critical information
about what they _really_ need.

Code is only 20% of the battle. Marketing is the other 80%.

~~~
sagacity
Totally agree, polyfractal, and this is exactly the point I was trying to
prompt/cadge out of someone :)

I'd say the difference between "lost" and "seriously far behind" is comparable
to a "broken heart" and a "not-so-broken heart".

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andrewhillman
When you launch think small. Reach out to those who have the problem you are
solving. Don't pitch, ask for feedback when asking someone to try your
service. If pitching for press coverage, start with the smaller blogs first.
This way you will learn what not to do when reaching out to the bigger blogs.
Most importantly, have a good story. It's more compelling to write about
something that has a interesting back story. If you don't have a story, find
an angle to the problem you are solving.

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mcav
Advertising. Some services are hit-and-miss (Facebook Ads, Google Adsense...),
and you may have to play around to see if you can get any sort of reasonable
return. Unfortunately, depending on your market, ad spending at a small scale
may just be a waste of time.

Spend some time talking to your target market. Based on that audience, you may
be able to come up with a more creative (and less expensive) way to get users
in the door. It's a slow, steady trudge until you get traction.

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SuperChihuahua
You go here and watch how to do it: [http://www.ideaoverload.com/Find-
ideas/Finished-ideas/Media-...](http://www.ideaoverload.com/Find-
ideas/Finished-ideas/Media-about-sales-marketing/)

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known
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cost_per_action>

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webbruce
Talk to your target market...if you don't have those people already behind you
you've got a lot of makeup work to do

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NameNickHN
The usual, I guess. Search engine marketing, affiliate programs, advertising
in general.

