

Ask HN: Just launched. Zero users. No clue how to market. Resource suggestions? - m52go

I&#x27;m individually messaging folks on reddit who&#x27;ve indicated interest, or who are very likely to be interested. I&#x27;m following and interacting with relevant industry folks on Twitter. I&#x27;m going to begin reaching out to bloggers soon.<p>But I&#x27;m not getting anywhere and I feel clueless. To the point it feels more productive just going back to developing app features for my non-existent user-base.<p>Any courses, books, or resources with practical, idiot-level advice?<p>It&#x27;s a consumer-focused app related to books.
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i336_
I'll throw this out there because you might consider it relevant.

I recently learned that Abe HomeBase is pretty much the de facto standard book
inventory software out there. It seems there's little motivation to search for
other platforms because you have to use HomeBase to get listed in Abe (as I
understand).

I learned all of this when a friend was showing me HomeBase at the bookshop he
worked at... and in particular its mind-numbingly slow live search system.

Take Google autocomplete, make it blocking/non-asynchronous (it freezes while
it gets your result), and slow it down so EACH KEYPRESS takes FIVE SECONDS to
acknowledge. That's HomeBase search.

I have no idea how you would go about fixing this, but I thought I might
mention it in case this direction sounds interesting. I'm not sure, but I get
the impression this is one of those areas with no movement or competition, and
it just needs someone with a bit of motivation to come along and turn it
upside down.

If you like I can put you in touch with my friend; he's very technically
minded, so you could very likely get a lot of in-depth info about how the
program works and what needs to be done to replace it.

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bopf
You should check out the Growth Hacking class at onemonth.com - I have taken
the class and totally love it. It walks you through a full product launch from
building a landing page, writing perfect copy to selling. Lots of great advice
in there but it does cost $49 per month (and one month is honestly all you
need). Also check out this startup community:
[https://startups.blnkk.com](https://startups.blnkk.com) Lots of fellow
founders sharing new products and getting feedback from the community.

~~~
m52go
Thanks! This is precisely the sort of thing I'm looking for.

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andersthue
Ideas besides the already mentioned forums and other online places:

Go to a bookstore and talk to the owner to see if they would promote your
software (if it adds value to the bookstore)

Go to a library and talk to potential users about the idea, get some to test
the app and give feedback (buy them coffee/donuts as a thank)

Talk to the librarians, they probably know your user base, ask them how to
promote the sw.

Go to a coffee shop and talk to those sitting and reading books - tell them
about the app and get feedback.

Submit as show HN Submit to product hunt Submit to all the beta lists out
there if it is in beta

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reach_kapil
In order to get through traction, you have to pass few tests on product/market
fit Do you have 1 customer? Is she happy with your product? If not, iterate Do
you have 10 customers? Are they happy? if not, iterate Do you have 100, 1000
customers? Are they happy? Iterate anyway

How to get to 1 customer? Go out of your online world into real world and talk
to real people. Do user studies, focus groups, stand on streets or coffee
shops to show your product. This will bring you to P/M fit

~~~
avalaunch
I would advise not to iterate based off a single customer. Despite being a
customer, I think there is still too great a chance that she isn't in the
startup's target market. This goes 10x if the customer isn't a paying
customer.

Otherwise, great advice.

~~~
reach_kapil
Sure, but single customer idea is mostly to give an idea of how to approach
this problem. You are right about subjectively 1 customer should not determine
the direction of product. Mostly don't ask for feedback to your closest
friends and family

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nmela
Do as much bottom-up research as you can at this point. Go to every single
bookstore in your area and talk to the potential customers. If you can get an
owner to let you have a stand at a bookstore for a couple days - the personal
interaction will help a lot. Definitely use the feedback to iterate (not only
based on 1 user, but try to identify trends in what they tell you). Go out
there and set a goal to have 30users by next week.

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joshmn
Would this be Bookshop Crawl?

Edit: Looks like it is. You could go asking for feedback on one of the popular
indie book forums (assuming there is such a thing).

Marketing, at its most fundamental level, is simply placing yourself where
your target demographic is, and then socializing with them.

Don't think too much about it.

Where do they hang out, and why do they hang out there - what brings them
there other than like-minded individuals?

Remember: simple questions often are best answered with simple answers.

Good luck! :D

~~~
m52go
Thank you sir. I'll also be visiting/engaging B&M bookshops. It's online
marketing that seems less straightforward.

~~~
joshmn
I'm assuming you have an interest in indie bookshops. Where do you go online
to talk about them? Where do your likeminded friends go online?

~~~
m52go
It's more about the books one finds at bookshops. Reddit and YouTube are
destinations for some.

Personally I don't really contribute to either...visiting a bookshop for me is
more of an independent, spiritual type of activity similar to the way many
people think of gardening.

Still, the passion expressed for browsing independent bookshops through
articles, social media, and other projects is immense.

I know I'm hitting an area dear to many...question is if I have the right
angle.

Anyway, not trying to make this a personal consulting session, but it's an
interesting niche that I expect will have its own unique pitfalls and
challenges in reaching customers...just like any other!

~~~
nitam
First, check your core hypotheses.

> Still, the passion expressed for browsing independent bookshops through
> articles, social media, and other projects is immense. > I know I'm hitting
> an area dear to many...question is if I have the right angle.

1\. How do you know that? For example. I love custom made chess pieces. I'd
never buy (or use) an app to browse different chess boards/pieces etc. I need
to touch them, talk to a person that made them, etc.

2\. Can you find 3 people who want this (i.e. give you money) ?

If yes: What do they say? Why do they want(love?) this app? Where did you find
them? How many others like them are out there?

If no: Ask them why they don't like it.

Anyway, if you want to talk more about it contact me. I'd love to help.

------
phantom_oracle
If you can't handle rejection, then building a startup is not for you.

Imagine you are the guy someone is trying to peddle something onto you that
you seem vaguely interested in and then imagine telling that guy "thanks but
not now". This is what you'll hear/get a lot, so you must deal with that
first.

Secondly, you need to make sure that what you are building is out there and
reaching the people who really need it.

Social media is great to get things going, but the person you want to target
is the one who goes to a search engine and types:

 _I need XYZ to do something_ and your result should pop up somewhere there.

~~~
m52go
I'm not scared of rejection. I've worked in sales. I expect it. I need it. But
I'm not getting any now. So in a sense, I'm wondering how to get more.

------
reilly3000
If you have a mobile app I would highly suggest a small Facebook ad budget for
cost per install ads. Make a list of all of the potential interests your
prospects have them target them individually. Think of it as an investment in
market research rather than pure acquisition. Treat those customers great, ask
for referrals and testimonies. Find what they love about your app and focus
your landing page on that.

Spend some time reading Moz.org blogs.

And treat it like a job. These things don't just happen, they take consistent
input with often limited feedback. Good luck!

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JSeymourATL
> idiot-level advice?

Check how Tim Ferriss marketed his book. You'll likely find some applications
for your situation. [http://fourhourworkweek.com/2011/03/10/12-lessons-
learned-wh...](http://fourhourworkweek.com/2011/03/10/12-lessons-learned-
while-marketing-the-4-hour-body/)

------
mahringer_a
Go to a book store. Find your first customer. Buy him/her some coffee and
learn from his/her experience. Improve your product based on their feedback.
Go to a book store...

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a_lifters_life
Customer development. Why are you doing product development, without any
customer development first? Google: Steve Blank

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siquick
Posting a link in this thread would be a good start :-)

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tallerholler
why don't you post a link to check it out??

~~~
m52go
That will happen soon. I just want some more real feedback from real people
first.

Which I guess sounds paradoxical but it seems all the product posts on here
are already so refined.

------
vishalzone2002
why not share your app as Show HN?

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MichaelCrawford
How to Promote Your Business on the Internet

[http://www.warplife.com/tips/webmaster/website-
promotion.htm...](http://www.warplife.com/tips/webmaster/website-
promotion.html)

White Hat Search Engine Optimization

[http://www.warplife.com/tips/webmaster/search-engine-
optimiz...](http://www.warplife.com/tips/webmaster/search-engine-
optimization/)

Painless Serch Engine Site Submission

[http://www.warplife.com/tips/webmaster/site-
submission.html](http://www.warplife.com/tips/webmaster/site-submission.html)

Analyze your webserver log files. I use analog but it has not been maintained
in years, doubtlessly there are better tools by now.

Avail yourself of Bing and Google Webmaster Tools, also Alexa. Use
[http://www.google.com/trends/](http://www.google.com/trends/) to find
keywords to target. Note the geographic distribution.

I havent written anything yet about pay per click ads like AdWords but I
intend to. The key is to bid on keywords that only a paying customer is
likelely to search for. I paid $300.00 per month for "software consultant" and
"software consulting" with nary an inquiry, but got a signed contract for
$30,000.00 after paying ten cents apiece for but two clicks by bidding on a
keyword that I will never tell anyone because I might need to use it again.

~~~
MichaelCrawford
You might at first expect that its best to write articles on the general topic
of books. While there is some benefit to that my experience is that its best
to diversify your topics.

The public's interest in the topic of the day varies widely. For example just
before Thanksgiving Americans search the web for "turkey stuffing recipe". I
expect Canadians do so as well but in early October.

In inlink from a book-related site will be the most relevant, but some other
topic may produce more inlinks.

~~~
nitam
This is a good idea for a little bit later. First you need to understand what
to write about. What are the keywords, what are they looking for, etc.

~~~
MichaelCrawford
While I mostly agree it is hard to determine what to write about until you
have written something and it has been posted long enough that it yields some
search engine referrals.

To take a wild guess is better than not posting anything at all.

