Ask HN: How to get first 1,000 users?

[Paskulin]

We recently build a small platform for coupons and deals, so that every user can create a coupon or a deal and can share it on their or someone else’s website.

We are now in a process of getting users, so we want to know:

What was your strategy for getting first 1,000 users?

BTW you can find our platform at www.smart-ad.com

[tbgvi]

I think strategy/tactics for getting initial users depends on what you're selling and who you're selling to.

Best advice I can give would be to figure out who needs this the most, find someone like that in your area, and start a dialogue with them. 1-on-1 selling definitely isn't scalable, but you can ask them things like 'how do you find out about new services you can use for your business', 'what blogs/news sources do you read', 'who's an influential person in your line of business' etc... Once you have this info it will be obvious (hopefully) where you should be focusing your attention.

Reading up on lean startup methodology (if you haven't already) would help get you up to speed on this sort of process. Good luck!

[debacle]

Make it easy to sign up, post on reddit, whore it out on facebook, drop it on pinterest.

If what you have is good, bam, 10k users.

If what you have is not appealing, you still get 500 users and plenty of good feedback.

[Mz]

I have no idea if it will help, but there ar some links on chicken and egg problems and community building here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2126209

[SuperChihuahua]

Look through these: http://www.ideaoverload.com/Find-ideas/Finished-ideas/Media-...

[PonyGumbo]

One suggestion - I'd have a native English speaker polish up the content for you to make it seem a little less halting.

[Paskulin → PonyGumbo]

Are there any volunteers out here?

[rodw → Paskulin]

OK. I took a stab at this. Happy Friday.

I'm not an expert at English grammar or at ad copy (and I don't know anything about your product beyond the copy on the homepage) but sticking more or less to your original positioning, I'd re-write the copy on the homepage as below. I've added some additional thoughts that are in curly braces {like this}. In case it isn't obvious, those aren't intended to be part of the actual copy, but are comments for you.

Also, for what it is worth, I'd brand this product as "Smart Ad" rather than "Smart AD". In my head, I hear "Smart AD" as three "words": "Smart A D" (i.e., pronouncing the letter A and the letter D) and "Smart Ad" as two words "smart" "ad[vertisement]". I assume that's the connotation you are going for.

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{ THE BANNER HEADLINE: }

GROW YOUR CUSTOMER LIST BY ADDING COUPONS TO YOUR WEBSITE. Create your own coupons for your website and start building your customer database.

{ Words like "database" and maybe "email" may not seem relevant to your customers. I used "customer list" but I bet you could test or tweak the headline and find some wordings are dramatically more effective than others. When you talk to your customers, try to pick up on the words they use to talk about this. Is it "mailing list"? "customer list"? "email list"? just "customers"? I'd guess that "customer database" isn't something they'd say, but I don't really know that for sure.}

{ Also, I'm not terribly happy with the second line of that banner, but I couldn't come up with anything better off the top of my head. Grammatically, it reads fine to this native English speaker. Maybe "Create coupons for your website and..." would be snappier than using the word "your" twice in quick succession. }

{ THE LEFT COLUMN: }

FEATURED COUPONS { note the "d" at the end of "featured" }

{ THE CENTER COLUMN: }

EASY TO USE

Create your own coupons in just a few clicks using a custom template or one of our professional designs.

{I'll bet so few of your customers will care about the "custom design" option that you could strike that part entirely, or add it as an afterthought. Maybe something like: "Create your own coupons in just a few clicks using one of our professionally designed templates. Prefer to use your own design? You can do that too."}

MOBILE FRIENDLY

Reach your customers anywhere and everywhere. Smart AD coupons work on-line and with the latest tablets, smart-phones and mobile devices.

MEASURABLE RESULTS

Watch your mailing list grow as customers sign up for coupons. Measure the effectiveness of campaigns and perfect your pitch using our on-line marketing toolkit.

{I wrote "our marketing toolkit" because I'd guess the thought of a "statistical tool" would either intimidate or bore many of your customers. I haven't looked at your product itself, so I'm not sure what features the "tool" provides, but if I were you I'd focus the positioning on (a) what it does to help your customers do things they want to do, not _how_, but _what_ and (b) making it look easy/fun/engaging, but still powerful. You want this to feel like an iPad/iPhone: technically impressive, even slightly magical, but easy and intuitive to use. You want your customers to think "I don't know how they do this--all that technical mumbo jumbo confuses me--but they really know what they are doing. It's easy to use, and it works."}

----------------------------------------------------------------------

So there you go. Maybe someone else on the thread can improve this, or explain to me the parts I'm doing wrong. Above all you're going to want to refine this copy and more broadly, your positioning, based on the language your customers use and the problems they identify. "Best practice" copy might be a good start, but you really can't do this well without talking to your customers or potential customers. (And then probably A/B testing once you have enough traffic to do that.)

PS: One more thing I just noticed while closing the tab I'd opened to your homepage. I'd highly recommend dropping the version number "bullet" from logo area. It doesn't help you reach or communicate with your customers at all, and it probably hurts your attempt to communicate with them. If you must have a version number visible on the page, I'd put it on the footer (or better still, in an HTML comment so users don't see it at all).

[Paskulin → rodw]

Hey, thx for writing this down! We are going to do a A/B test and will see the efect.

Thx again. :)

[alex_g]

Your site is too wide. Fix that before you show it to any users.

[toemetoch]

content. original content.