Disregarding the actual contents of the article:
How is this article #1 on HN being up for 30min w/o any comments?
How is this article #1 on HN being up for 30min w/o any comments?
Because HN saves the list of things you've upvoted, I will at times upvote things that I know Patrick has written because I know it will be a good thing to read when I later get a chance.
Duplicate submissions count as an upvote to the original post.
If you have a source which is known is being popular by the community (i.e. stripe), then there is a race to submit that article to reap the karma of submitting that article.
That race causes duplicates which in turn increases the karma for posting that article first and pushes it to the front-page where it will get even more karma.
That causes a positive feedback loop which keeps that source popular as a source with which to "karma race", regardless of the post quality being sustained.
In this case I haven't read the post itself, so it may be of good quality, but it is a manner in which posts from certain sources quickly reach the front page seemingly without much community interaction.
I thought it was a well-written article at least. For me I'm more interested in prospecting from various travel-related forums, but much of the remainder sounds like things that I can try. I'm terrible at sales, so even the basics are interesting to me.
The Subject of the article is interesting.
The author is popular, and his audience is highly familiar with hacker news.
If you want a post to get upvotes, this one is "doing everything right"
patio11 + Stripe = Instant #1.
"Hey all, just posted the article. Please go upvote and don't follow links to vote"
Because the article is heavy on word count but light on details.
The author should provide details on the benefits of posting such an article in the first place (potential front page on HN, SEO, nurture customers), which could yield better results compared to what the author actually recommends in the article (spamming).
Did you actually read the article?
SEO won't get you customers. Selling will.
He's saying, sell manually at first so that you can get to know your customer (and also see if your product is valuable). I.e. put in the time. This is universal sales 101.
Spending time getting HN frontpage or months on SEO won't get you any customers.
Sell.
I read the article up until that point.
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Edit:
I'm just saying ... Google "how to get your first 10 customers"
https://www.google.ca/search?q=how+to+get+your+first+10+cust...
This article has hit the front page. I'm sure most businesses owners looking to get their first 10 customers research those keywords, and may be looking for a payment solution, to get incorporated etc. So the subtle SEO here helps Stripe / Stripe Atlas get more customers.
Furthermore, as a startup, content like this allows you to post and promote your brand on Quora, HN, Reddit etc., which can start conversations that lead to sales. These types of posts particularly work great on popular entrepreneur forums.
We got many of our first customers, and continue to get customers, by posting content. Combined with a free option. So far we haven't done any spamming via cold emails.
Certainly cold emails can work, but they may also come across as being "spammy".
Also, marketers ruin everything. That's just a part of the game.
And yes getting an email about something that I'm not interested in, i.e. 100k bulk email sucks.
Getting a personal email about something that I need is different. I.e. qualifying your leads.
Provide value first then take profit.
What's with the hyperbole? Of course SEO can get you customers. I got all my customers through SEO.