

Ask HN: How to get traction? - jwegan

I'm wondering how you go from 0 users to your first 1,000 users, especially if it is for a service that is not really similar anything else. I've read the blog by the duck duck go guy, but I didn't feel like I had a satisfactory answer.
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JayNeely
Without knowing what kind of service you're providing, it will be hard for
many to offer any advice, or potentially good tactic ideas for you.

Some general advice I'd provide is:

\- Figure out the characteristics of your users. What kinds of people have the
problem you're solving? Be as specific as possible, and segment into multiple
groups. Think about age, gender, interests, activities, group memberships,
places.

\- What kind of tools and services do those people already use? How do those
services get their users?

\- Where can your different types of users already be found? What communities
are they part of? What types of sites do they frequent? <http://quantcast.com>
is a great tool for this. This list: <http://socialmediaanswers.com/niche-
social-networking-sites/> and lists like it are another good one.

\- What kind of things do your potential users talk about? Can you find them
using <http://search.twitter.com> and
<http://blogsearch.google.com/blogsearch> ?

Good luck!

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run4yourlives
>I'm wondering how you go from 0 users to your first 1,000 users, especially
if it is for a service that is not really similar anything else.

You don't approach the problem backwards, that's how.

A "product" without a need is like an answer without a question. You should
always have, at minimum, at least 1 user that finds the product _useful_
before you even develop anything.

Assuming you have a least one person who is having a problem solved by your
product, the issue then becomes to find other people with the same problem.
Your product should sell itself to them.

What problem does your service solve?

Who has that problem?

Go introduce your problem to them. If this model doesn't fit for whatever
"but, but" you can come up with, I would humbly suggest abandoning this
product and focusing on another.

~~~
jwegan
Well the product does have a need. It is a replacement for something I've been
doing in an ad-hoc way for a while now. I would use what I'm planning on
making even if it never took off, but I figured it would be pretty cool if I
could get other people to use it too.

It is a tool oriented toward programmers and from what people have been saying
it seems like you just have to get it out there and also combine it with a
little advertising for things programmers might search for.

~~~
trafficlight
Why don't you just show us what you've made? We seem to be your target market
anyway.

~~~
jwegan
I plan to :), but I just started working on it. I figured I would solicit
feedback from HN when I finish in a week or two once I have an initial
version.

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imp
If you're at zero, just try to get to 10 first. Then go for 100. Think small,
get feedback, and improve. I think Paul Buchheit said that a startup's first
goal is to reach 100 passionate users.

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braindead_in
In one word: Marketing.

Either Organic (SEO), Social media (Twitter, Facebook, Blog posts) or PPC
(AdWords, Ads on relevant blogs).

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percept
[Link removed, didn't realize was same as mentioned.]

If your service is truly unique you might find some good rates on keywords.

~~~
jwegan
Actually I found that link useful. I hadn't read that post. I was referring
more to his book on getting traction from which he has links to a bunch of
interviews.

Link I'm referring to so the original commenter doesn't have to re-edit:
[http://www.gabrielweinberg.com/blog/2010/04/ways-to-
get-100-...](http://www.gabrielweinberg.com/blog/2010/04/ways-to-
get-100-potential-customers-for-5-a-day.html)

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ddemchuk
-create something free to give away and reach out to popular bloggers to ask for reviews

-join niche forums and participate

