Ask HN: How to bring traffic to my product

[kgzuul]

Two months ago I was laid off, and after losing my job, I started my career as a freelancer. I created a web product, but after it went online for some time, there weren't many users visiting.I have submitted my product to many navigation sites, which initially brought some traffic and also some paid customers, but now the traffic is slowly disappearing. Here I would like to ask everyone how can I bring traffic to my product?

[mariocesar]

Here are some strategies that have worked for me:

Experiment and Focus: Try various channels (blogs, social media, SEO, referrals) and double down on the top 20% that perform best every three months.

Content: Write blog posts and other content to improve search engine visibility. Discuss competitors, alternatives, your customers' challenges, industry advice, collect resource links, etc.

Directories: Most software directories aren't worth it, but some do. For example Zapier (if you have an API), can help. Publish your own integration there, it'll get a dedicated page for your product.

Community: Engage in relevant online communities, answer questions, and participate in discussions. be an expert or be shameless, but you have to exist where your customers are. For example, here in HN, search for relevant posts and reply and add "Shameless plug: I own a Saas Cat Service that sends you meows to your mail..., and this is what I think about AI and Mail" You had the opportunity to share a link here :D

These methods are primarily free but require effort. Be cautious with paid promotions and focus on organic growth. It’s a cycle of trying, waiting, adjusting, and trying again. Start now, be patient, and you’ll see results. Then, when you are sure what works, start exploring paying for traffic.

[kgzuul → mariocesar]

Thank you, after reading your reply I have some direction now. I will first try to write an article and post it on various channels to see the effect.

[james_chu → mariocesar]

Thank you for your sharing. Can you explain in detail what are the common ways of promotion and publicity that have been used all along? I'm looking forward to it!

[pedalpete]

Why not tell us about the product in the process.

Lots of the advice here is very general, but it's important to know what your product is before being able to supply advice.

Are there natural networks that would spread your product better than others? Tough to know without knowing what the product is.

As far as blogs, etc. That only works if your customers are reading blogs. Need to know what the product is.

Just because it's a "web product" doesn't make it b2b, so we need more info.

But I think the biggest thing I'm seeing from that you didn't write about what you've built is, to always be telling people about your product, always be learning.

I know it can come of as being a shill sometimes, and I've been accused of that, but if you have a mission of the way you want the world to work, so what if some people don't like that you told them about what you do.

Of course, the best way to do that is to make them curious, not just dump on them every chance you get.

You'll see a very common (though also somewhat annoying) process many people here on HN use, which I'm assuming is recommended to YC companies, it's very formulaic.

"Hey HN, I'm X and I have Y credentials. I had this problem, someone I know had this problem, have you ever had this, my co-founder Z , met when we were doing K (maybe not the drug), and we'd love to ..."

you get the point.

[kgzuul → pedalpete]

Yes,I get your point.My product is an AI Rap generator, website: rapgenerator.net, which can generate Rap lyrics through AI, and can also generate Rap music through lyrics. My goal is to enable every Rap enthusiast to easily create their own music without needing to learn very specialized knowledge.

[noashavit]

You said you have a couple paying customers- invest in turning them into raving fans. Step 1 for generating word of mouth demand.

[kgzuul → noashavit]

How to generate word-of-mouth demand？

[bruce511 → kgzuul]

Ideally they tell their friends. But it may not be that kind of product.

So don't be shy to get some testimonials from them. You can be pretty blunt;

"As you know xxx is a new product and I'm trying to spread the word. I'm looking for customer quotes for my web site, so if you have anything nice yo say I can publish there, please let me know."

[kgzuul → bruce511]

get it, thanks

[skilled]

The same way everyone else does it, through marketing.

Write blogs, make videos, and of course - solve problems for people.

If there was a magic pill to pop that would take care of all this on our behalf, we would all be taking it.

[cirdhu → skilled]

I will try it according to your method, thank you.

[james_chu]

Thank you for the topic, I am very interested. "How to bring traffic to my product", I believe many people are interested in this topic. To learn more, can someone introduce all the possible ways?

[alexander2002]

Hire some freelancer who can do seo/marketing for you.

[alexander2002 → alexander2002]

I did some work for findcity.io as a freelancer(marketing stuff)and it is steadily growing.

[johnea]

Tits and ass have always worked...

[re-thc]

By posting on HN!

(nicely done)

[cirdhu → re-thc]

I will try it

[cranberryturkey]

word of mouth is best.

[cirdhu → cranberryturkey]

How to achieve it?

[theGeatZhopa → cirdhu]

Not as easy, as said. Mainly because it's not you talking about your productsy but others. So to start spreading word about your product, the others need a reason for this.

If your product safe a ton of pain, or resolving something which is a pain in some eyes, then it will spread by itself.

You can also act like a 'customer' and wherever possible just write a short sentence about it. Think of how a customer would talk about it. It's not meant like presenting the top features while you're writing how it helped you. Think of changing the roles with a customer.. what would the customer write/say.

So, by that you can do 'adverts' without actually doing it.

Search for communities, forums, groups.. that are on topic. Who would use your product? Go there, where such are gathering.

For example, doing grill accessories, you would tend to place your message into grill forums, not into football group. Except you see that someone is having a problem or asking for an advice for something... You could answer 'im using xxx. That helps me. Bye.'

Something in this sort of.

[kgzuul → theGeatZhopa]

Maybe I should think about the problem from the perspective of customers and speak more where customers gather.Thank you for your suggestion.

[bruce511 → kgzuul]

Exactly. You go to the customer, they don't come to you.

It can take time, and consistency, but persistence in a good way) builds up trust.

Equally it acts as a view into you. Are uou generally helpful when interacting, or just pushing you product. I became an "industry expert" - helping whoever and however I can. Regardless of whether it pushed my product or not. Equally where I had a product that solved an issue I didn't hesitate to mention that as a solution.

[Lionga → cirdhu]

Have a product good enough that users want to talk about, nothing more nothing less.