Marketing hacks to boost your startup
slideshare.net
slideshare.net
Get to #1 spot on HN & you'll get tons of page views.
In all seriousness, Point 7: Share Buttons - are these actually effective? It's a genuine question as I've seen such a mixed response to them. We've chosen not to include any obvious share buttons on hackerjobs.co.uk as I figured no-one would want to share a job on their facebook account so lets not ruin the minimalism of the page. Thoughts?
Judging by its usage rate in previous projects I've been a part of, many other people operate the same way or simply ignore any sort of sharing aspect.
That's off the top of my head, so take it with a grain of salt. :)
I've had about 30 clicks on the links included in the twitter posts, from about 2 or 3 twitter posts. Not a bad number of clicks per posting, but the app itself still gets over a hundred downloads a week from App Store searches.
Share buttons - yes they're effective, I've measured the conversion rate on different sites and it's proved worthy to have them. Here's a good article about share buttons - http://socialmouths.com/blog/2012/05/08/social-media-buttons...
Then I feel that you are contributing to the dilution of the value of the site.
I imagine there are plenty of brilliant and interesting people on the internet that are not aware of HN, but could contribute nicely if they became members here.
This "age elitism" issue is wearying. It happens in other places too (SomethingAwful, for example, went through a hilariously horrible period where the year you registered was the most important part of your post).
But this is supposedly an intellectual forum, not a comedy forum. Grow up and stop thinking the number of days since joining makes you better than someone else.
(Yes, I joined after you. I am also diluting this forum. Get off my lawn.)
What does mean something is intent, and telling people how to exploit HN brings in people intending to ... exploit HN!
It's a shitty trend and it's why we get so much generic-startup-story garbage from startups who've decided to make us their studio audience.
My problem is not the new guy. It's that he says he found non-HN readers and, in so many words, said "fill up their page with stuff".
He didn't say "join HN and hang around for a while".
He said: "Get your page on the top of HN".
Those aren't the same things.
> He said: "Get your page on the top of HN".
Fair enough, I see what you are saying. Sorry for the rant, it's early and the coffee is still settling in. =)
On the flip side, bringing hacker news to the attention of the mass could have also a positive effect especially if these people can contribute relevant and good content.
Additionally I feel that HN has a good algorithm to stop most of the people who wouldn't be a good fit anyway. Posting a post on HN and then getting people to vote won't get you to the front page (and if it does, getting dropped off it is pretty easy if the content you posted is not relevant).
> Posting a post on HN and then getting people to vote won't get you to the front page (and if it does, getting dropped off it is pretty easy if the content you posted is not relevant).
If there's too much spam, those brave netizens who patrol the windswept frontier of /newest don't get time to look at what is actually good.
They start upvoting on headlines.
I don't know how they feel about it, but I sometimes feel that visiting /newest to vote / flag stuff is a kind of civic duty. For the good of all of us (except the ones who are dead).
Because the answer for your question is easy: Posting useful things.
And as far as I know, that's the only way to get enough upvotes to appear even on the first page.
Judging by the comments at the bottom of this discussion, I think I see a growing trend.
Cheers for the insight.
Hack 1: Choose major that interests you
Hack 2: Read and memorize all the course literature ..."
Hear about a horse.
Flog horse to death.
Continue flogging.
Can you think of another word that has the same effect?
It is people like this that have taken this word, changed its meaning to be something devious sounding, and then using it inappropriately (even with the new devious meaning) that is the source of the contention. It is for me at least.
The funny part to me is that in using the word "hack" in this way that suggests "beating the system" also suggests that his whole thought process is to offer suggestions that are inherently wrong. Hacking is cheating, so do these things to cheat. What a wonderful suggestion for long-term business growth.
If someone like this needs another word for what is being attempted then I think "cheating", "gaming", or even "spamming" fits quite nicely.
Finally, I cannot possibly take anyone that uses the term "growth hacking" seriously in a business context. It's like those job posts that use "ninja" or "rockstar"; just an attempt to appear hip or cool in a strange way.
Linkbaiting is starting to piss me off soooo much.
Here are the 10 hacks
1. Guest post (send editor email with post and short intro)
2. Offer premium giveaways
3. Use Rapportive to find and connect with anyone
4. Use Hacker News (~10k to 50k visitors for #1)
5. Drop the app to free after a regular pricing
6. Create one day viral projects to promote your brand
7. Use share buttons
8. Distribute on AppSumo (+730k subscribers)
9. Reach out bloggers (provide value before asking for something)
10. Use Dropbox style to incentive and gamify signups
Accessible on this link http://tldr.io/tldrs/50c74e31babbb5f813000b32
for example Guest blogging: The tip is "Guest blogging is great, write stuff and send a small email to important people so they publish it on their blog". Social proof inside, " Look how i wrote an article for TC" ... Woopidioh!
Everybody know it is important to do guest posts. That is not rocket science. What would have been great is actually tips on how to write awesome guest blog post? The process, the research, etc .
Leo Widrich of Buffer wrote a great "Guest Post" on Guest blogging ( I know, so meta ^^ ) somewhere but I can't find it anymore.
The only thing I agree with the slide is the last comment.
"In the end none of this matters if you have a crappy product."
Guess what, this is a presentation not a blog post. Maybe in your presentation you write blog posts but I don't. When I talked about guest posts I went over mostly how to write a good guest post and how to get it to the editor of the blog.
Same for every other slide....
Honestly, I'm a little tired of these marketing posts that have no new information and only serve to market the author's product.
How are they getting upvoted?
Funny that notification control's goal is to prevent web services from spamming you, but all of this advise is about how to spam other people on the internet.
The focus of all these things seem to be entirely self-serving, without any focus on really providing value to people. Instead, figure out how to help others so they actually want to share your content. If you can't do that, the work you are doing is not worth doing — and indeed harmful.
I'm sorry, but I just cannot possibly take someone who uses the term "growth hacking" serious. Much like job postings using "ninja" or "rockstar"; it's just a blatant attempt to appear cool or hip in a strange way.
This is what he was talking about.
Your favorite deity of choice forbid HN turns into a marketing gimmick that plagued Digg.
What I pointed out was that there were a few fairly new accounts with little or no history here at all with positive responses to your article. This is a known marketing gimmick to, I shall use your word, "hack" a site in an attempt to game the system. Considering the subject of your "hacking" article then I don't find it wrong to consider that possibility.
If this is not the case and it is as you say, then I will gladly apologize and say good for you. But you are the one that suggested spamming sites in an effort to boost visitation numbers.