

Ninite: How we got 18,000 beta users in 4 weeks - swies
http://runitback.tumblr.com/post/223371555/how-we-got-18-000-beta-users-in-4-weeks

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tibbon
I'm currently working on this problem right now with my company imVOX
(<http://imvox.com/trial.php>). We're trying to finish up our client and
slowly pull out of the real 'testing' phase of beta and more into an RC status
and have load tests, etc.

Yet getting good beta testers is hard. Many people sign up, use it once, hit a
bug and then never return. Understandable, but even emailing people
(personally) hasn't been all that effective in getting people back
consistently. I probably have 10 people that I can keep going to and know that
they will use it again and again and provide feedback.

I've yet to go on a strong blog push yet, but thats probably my next approach.

Other methods to find bloggers: YouTube and Twitter Search. I've also been
looking through friend's shared stuff on Google Reader occasionally to mark
off ones to contact.

One twist that I have as problematic is that I don't have and 'special codes'
to hand out to people currently. We had a system setup like that a while ago,
but I think it was slowing downloads a bit so now its just a download link and
you register for a (free) account in-client.

In addition for ideas of how to get more testers via blogging (commenting is
important I know too), anyone trying it out would be really appreciated. I'm
going to have them push the newest build to our download and auto-update
servers later today.

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dmix
The target market seems to be tech-savvy. Getting on blogs (with a relevant
audience) is much more challenging for b2b and most consumer apps.

~~~
access_denied
Getting them to read the blogs - yes. But getting on the blogs is easier, if
anything, because many b2b-writer need content. Consumer stuff is different,
but doable. What about giving a limited amount of accounts for free, to the
bloggers. Not the high-profile ones that get tons of stuff, but the "middle
class" so to speak.

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rykov
Can you give more details on how many blogs you've contacted? How many covered
you? How did you phrase your email to make it interesting to the bloggers?

Edit: Also, how you computed readership numbers for a blog?

~~~
swies
We contacted about 30, resulting in around 7 hits. Some of our biggest hits
were secondary though, larger blogs would see us on smaller ones and contact
us for a demo code.

Our pitch email subject line was a brief description of the product then "-
Free demo codes for your readers". The body had a similar format: what we do,
here's your code, contact us with any questions, thanks.

Lots of sites have feedburner badges to give subscriber counts. We found one
blog that was clearly faking that though. Their traffic to us was way lower
than an 80k subscriber blog would send.

The number of comments on posts is a good indicator too. Anything greater than
0 means they've got a fairly big audience.

~~~
bootload
_"... We contacted about 30, resulting in around 7 hits. Some of our biggest
hits were secondary though, larger blogs would see us on smaller ones and
contact us for a demo code. ..."_

Nice hack and something I appreciate because it's such a simple thing to do.

 _"... Lots of sites have feedburner badges to give subscriber counts. ..."_

Did you try to obtain the stats from each site?

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Batsu
Pardon the expression, but people are complete suckers for sort of thing.

Given two similar services, one with a limit on registration and one without,
you can bet that the one with the limit will garner some sort of popularity
just by virtue of being "exclusive."

This doesn't mean it's a bad marketing tactic. On the contrary, it's obviously
excellent for exposure... but if it ever becomes a popular service, saying "I
was there first" is a huge deal for people. For reference: Lines outside movie
theaters days in advance for the Star Wars movies, video game midnight release
parties, and 8 hour lines outside Apple stores for a phone.

~~~
kolya3
I'd guess that using signup codes is not about merely creating the illusion of
exclusivity. I think the real reason behind using signup codes is so you can
track your marketing efforts: where did I spend time/money and how effective
was it? Without it you are flying blind.

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fjabre
I think it's important to note that immediate media coverage and an immediate
surge in signups is not always desirable for something just released and it's
of course not always a prerequisite for success in the long run.

It's your trending over time that really counts.

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kyro
I'd just like to say that you guys couldn't have launched in a more perfect
time. I browsed your site when I saw it linked to on HN and didn't think much
of it. My mom came home the following day with a new laptop and asked me to
install a bunch of software. I quickly remembered Ninite and had most of her
stuff installed in no time. It was really great.

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schindyguy
I just have to say I would use your service...

Definitely going to use this strategy in the future, but hope the reach of
this post doesn't flood blogger's inboxes with similar schemes.

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joeythibault
The approach makes sense, but something about spamming tons of blog owners
turns me off.

I've used a similar approach, but only with the blogs that I had either made
personal contact with previously or that I frequented.

On another note, your blogroll/Reader subscriptions are a great place to start
if you follow other bloggers in your industry. Being an active member of the
blogosphere also helps give you some clout.

~~~
petercooper
As the owner of a blog that's #1 in its niche in the range of those described
(10k-50k subscribers), I'm not against getting unsolicited messages at all
_if_ they're relevant and my readers would find it interesting. Indeed, I
don't receive enough mail like that.. :)

~~~
joeythibault
fair enough. You've just given me the confidence to contact as many bloggers
as I can (as long as they specifically pertain to our market).

Thanks!!!

~~~
petercooper
Be careful though. It's not as simple as just contacting them all. You
_really, really, really, really_ need a story that's of the sort _they
actually publish_.

I get relevant press releases from time to time that are in my industry/field
but are so "corporatey" that there's little my readers would _really_ care
about. Twist whatever you have to say into a story that fits the mold of what
the blog already posts - it might take reading their entire front page to get
a feel for this ;-)

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codexon
Would you mind pasting the link of one of the blogs? I am interested to see
how they are framing the promotion.

~~~
swies
Here's one: [http://www.simplehelp.net/2009/10/08/how-to-install-the-
most...](http://www.simplehelp.net/2009/10/08/how-to-install-the-most-popular-
software-on-your-new-pc-all-at-once/)

The general pattern was mention the private code as a teaser, describe/review
the service, then give the details for signing up with the code.

~~~
tmiller
Have you given up on the Baseshield sandbox concept? I don't see it referenced
from Ninite (I'm guessing Baseshield isn't complete?)

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nazgulnarsil
good to see someone moving on this idea. I talked with a few people about this
exact service a year ago and the general consensus was that if it got big
you'd get slammed for violating EULA's. best of luck.

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shrikant
Getting featured on Lifehacker.com didn't hurt, I suppose..

~~~
swies
That's true, but Lifehacker didn't cover us until after we launched publicly.
We pitched them with a demo code towards the end of our beta and never heard
anything back. Judging from the traffic they've sent recently we probably
could have gotten 18k beta signups from them alone.

The biggest hits for our beta were sites we never heard of that found us on
smaller blogs and reached out to us. Sites like <http://www.dinside.no>
<http://www.genbeta.com> and <http://www.walla.co.il>.

I should write about our experience with non-english blogs later.

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aik
Congrats! That's great. Thanks for sharing your success!

