8 things to do to get the first 1000 users on your web service



Even if you develop a web service, it takes time and effort before it can be actually picked up by users. Vinicius Vacanti, co-founder and CEO of dataset-selling company

YipitData , gives advice on how to get users to visit your site and how to retain them.

How To Get Your First 1,000 Users | Vinicius Vacanti
http://viniciusvacanti.com/2011/02/08/how-to-get-your-first-1000-users/

Vacanti says it's easier than it seems to get around 1000 people to a website. However, Vacanti said it would take a lot of work to turn those 1000 people into recurring users and have them create an account for the site. Vacanti actually had 1000 users connect to his site and examined what attracted them and how to build the site.

The first important thing in building a website is to have a domain name and a splash page right away. You can change the domain name later, but you should select the appropriate one from the beginning. After getting the domain name, use a service such as Unbounce to create a simple splash page. No programming knowledge is required to create a splash page.

The purpose of the splash page is to collect email addresses from users. Therefore, it is recommended to display a wording on the splash page that clearly conveys the outline of the site to the user so that the user can access the top page of the site only after sending the e-mail address. Facebook and Twitter also have this kind of structure.



The email address of the user sent will be the initial test user for the site. Once you have a prototype of your product, ask some of these users to try Early Access and repeat the test with more test users until the product works. So here are eight things Vacanti actually did to get users to the splash page.

◆ 1: Add a link to the signature line of the email
This seems to be a matter of course, and most people do not do it. When sending an email to a user, a link to the splash page is required in the signature line at the end of the text.

◆ 2: Add links for all your company's SNS accounts
Add links to all social media pages for which you have an account, such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn , to your splash page.



◆ 3: Create a demo movie
Create and publish a movie that shows how the product actually works, even if the prototype of the product is not complete. Adding this movie to the splash page has shown that more users may send their email addresses.

Dropbox , a well-known online storage service, once used this method, and as a result of being featured on a news site, more than 100,000 email addresses wanted to access the site.



◆ 4: Act as an entrepreneur
It is important to sell their products at technical events and meals with friends. It may be psychologically distressing, but in fact Vacanti says he has gained some users this way.

◆ 5: Sell to TechCrunch and IT media
Getting featured by IT media, including the news site

TechCrunch, which is an authority for entrepreneurs, will lead to the acquisition of a large number of users. If you have a prototype or demo movie of your product, you are more likely to be featured in these uses. Mr. Vacanti sent about his three products from TechCrunch's news form, and he said he had actually been picked up.

◆ 6: Post on Hacker News
Vacanti says that you can get a lot of advice by preparing a prototype of the product and posting it on Hacker News, a social news site that deals with computer science and venture news.



◆ 7: Facebook ads and Google ads
Advertising using SNS is a means that can be expected to have a great effect, but it is expensive and difficult to use, and Mr. Vacanti could not use it well.

◆ 8: Start a blog
Running a blog that focuses only on the cases where your product can solve the problems that consumers have is an effective way to increase the number of users. Vacanti also said that this technique requires a lot of work and should only be done if the product is really good and you are confident that it will be appreciated by users.



By implementing these techniques, Vacanti said he would be able to get the first 1000 people to become addicts to the site.

in Web Service, Posted by log1p_kr