Hot answers tagged users
12
A year ago launched my first product - it's a downloadable utility for the Windows platform. What I did to get beta testers is:
Found tech (and semi-tech) discussion forums.
Contact the owners of the forums telling them that you are new and looking for beta testers and ask them for permission to post something on their forums to get beta testers. In my ...
5
New applications use the "invite based" sign ups model for a number of different reasons. Creating marketing buzz is just one of these reasons. You need to understand why firms do this before you can decide whether or not it is a good idea for your firm. These reasons include:
Limited web resources. Letting an unlimited number of people sign up for a web ...
5
Well I think this is a range of issues not just facebook, more the social engineering problem.
I wouldn't want the bulk of my friends knowing I was on a dating site.
I might want to let a subset / group know.
I would instantly opt out of a dating site that forced me to do anything. There are lots of them and I would just jump to the next
If your using ...
4
Personally I would say to avoid any type of ad hoc reward system. It's a slippery slope and can get complicated to track. I'm not sure it really will get you more and better bug reporting than if you thank people sincerely. Just treat them well, give them a little inside info once in awhile to make them feel special, communicate with how you're handling ...
4
Typically you would provide a little more direction. I don't think you could send someone a URL and then just ask them those questions. What you would normally do is give them a URL and ask them to perform a particular task.
Find a particular sweater and purchase it...
Post a comment on your favorite article...
Contact us through our website...
Then ask ...
3
It is a tough one Herr, because in my opinion, Datings sites are very close to being a "natural monopoly" - the industry is controlled by a half dozen big players.
I like your site though, and your concept also. Just thinking out loud, have you by any chance thought of approaching one of the big coffee chains and offering a discount coupon as part of the ...
3
I don't know about the rest of the people here, but I think you are looking at the trees and not the forest.
How is your dating website different from match.com, chemistry.com, eharmony.com,...? Exactly.
The question here is not how to attract users using the Like button or facebook or OpenId. The question is how to attract users. Period.
"I want that ...
3
I asked a similar question on the Programmers site, without much luck. You can, however, take a look at Joel Spolsky's Top Twelve Tips for Running a Beta Test for advice on how to actually run the beta. Also, I found this article mentioning several sites that might be useful in getting feedback for your project.
3
Lack of funding is a crippling problem for any business (or any person!) and so that's the most important concern to take care of first. You may choose to take care of it by personally funding the initial operations or by some other means, but remember that "Happiness is net positive cash flow, all else will come later."
3
The types of people who report bugs are motivated by their involvement in improving a product that they use and value. In doing this over a decade we've experimented a lot. In the end we've found that cultivating personal relationships with bug reporters to be the most valued reward. For instance:
We follow up reports with appreciation and a bug ID for ...
3
I think we might be unusual, but we guarantee to fix any bug reported to us within 30 days or the customer gets their money back. (It has to be a current version of the product and they have to be within their 1 year warranty period.) If someone reports a bug in an older version, and that bug still exists in the current version- they get a free upgrade to ...
3
I don't think it's really viable to delete their information. Even if you remove it from your application, you aren't going to go back to every back up that contains them and remove them from those as well. With that in mind, claiming you have deleted them would be somewhat dishonest.
You can delete them from your database if you like (it is probably a ...
3
You should be very aware of the rules on data retention and data privacy for the legal jurisdiction(s) you operate in. Some places will give you a lot of legal trouble if you retain the information of a user who has 'deleted' their account.
For example the Privacy Commisioner of Canada conducted an investigation into Facebook and found them to be in ...
3
When problems arise, many companies practice "full disclosure" rather than attempt to cover it up.
A good example would be how PHPfogs epic hack was handled.
Others try to hide problems - and fail big time. Airbnb's fiasco is a good example.
Both are still in business.
3
Obviously, admit your mistake, apologize, and include the steps they need to take. I'd recommend including enough information that they understand why it happened, in addition to what steps you are taking to ensure it doesn't happen again. For your situation, that would say that critical data was accidentally deleted and that you are putting in place a DR ...
2
If you're a first-time entrepreneur and have no traction, it will be hard to raise money. Not impossible, just hard.
If you have traction, you also have options. Maybe you're starting to get enough revenue that raising a lot of money isn't necessary. (e.g. Maybe raise nothing or a smaller angel round). Or if you do need to raise money, real paying ...
2
In early stages, it's lack of traction. Like Jason said, get a MVP out there quickly and start the iterative process. In later stages, lack of funding can hinder growth or eventually lead to a complete shutdown.
Since I'm a proponent of Lean startups, I'm going to get some type of MVP out there quickly while doing a bit of customer development to validate ...
2
One idea I heard which struck me as pretty good was to give them the ability to give away a license to someone else.
I would only do this (or anything else you contemplate) for customers who show repeated value to your product/company. A single defect report or suggestion here and there is not sufficient - they have to add real value.
2
"What I believe differentiates me is that I do not have to charge these businesses a fee to use my service."
You didn't say what the others pay. If it's very small then I'm not going to switch... would you change cable or phone provider to save $5 a month? (or even $10 if it only costs $10?).
If it's significant and they're willing to pay it then why be ...
2
As a rule of thumb, if you can get about 50% of your recipients to reply to the unsolicited emails, then it's probably OK. Any less than that, and it's spam. That means you better be super careful about who you target and make sure you're really targeting people that genuinely interested in what you have to offer.
For example, if I were hosting a party, and ...
2
Join an online group for the kind of business you are targeting. There are many on LinkedIn. Contribute something to the group - your ideas, helpful hints, etc. Only then, after people know and trust you, should you gently mention your service and put a link to it. Get comments from people who sign up about what you can improve.
2
Hiya, I worked for WhiteLabelDating, so have a bit of experience, but take my views with the usual grain of salt.
1 - The dating industry is an interesting one. While nominally you are helping people find the person they will be with for the rest of their life... this doesn't help you for repeat sales... it also doesn't really match the usual reality.
So, ...
2
If by "case studies" you mean formal, written analyses this answer probably won't be of much help. If you're just looking for examples, the mobile / location-based social networking space is proving to be an interesting proving ground for game tactics. In particular, compare & contrast:
Google Latitude: no discernible game
Foursquare: lightweight game ...
2
If they are looking at your website but not signing up, then I would look for problems with your website. It may not have a clear conversion channel, or may not instill enough confidence in the visitors.
If you are actually speaking with them in person, and they think its cool but don't sign up. Are you sure you have articulated the value to them? There is ...
2
The decisions you make regarding review quality will set the tone of your site. You can do absolutely no verification, e-mail verification, Facebook verification, you could even require a scanned license if you wanted.
Which one you choose depends on your target audience. For example, a website for doctor reviews might be able to justify more verification ...
2
There two main options depending what platforms the mobile app is on and if you want to use one company or are happy to spread it.
iAds http://advertising.apple.com/
Google mobile ads http://www.google.com/ads/mobile/
Both of the solutions utilise details about the apps they apear on and the users of the hand set.
If you already advertise with google ad ...
2
We actually did that once with a very high profile user. Be honest about what happened but there's no need to dwell too much on the details unless they specifically ask for more. That person continued to use our software despite the mistake. If they like your software, they'll continue to use it. If they don't, well you haven't lost much.
State laws legally ...
1
I'm not sure if Google+ and Spotify are the best cases for whether or not the invite system created value--they were both already benefiting from a ton of coverage and widespread awareness before they launched.
Personally, for the website I'm currently working on I plan to implement some form of the "viral invite system". I see it as being beneficial in two ...
1
I suspect your best chances of success will be to do a little research. Take a look at your competitors sites, sign up to a few to see what works and what doesn't.
Then, try your ideas out by doing mockups in a tool such at the excellent Balsamiq Mockups.
Finally, you could do some user testing using some paper prototyping.
This is a very inexpensive way ...
1
I like the idea of single landing page. But I think you should excite atleast few 1000s of users to sign-up, create profiles and upload pictures before even you go live. The way to do that would be
excite them to the core: make them feel its the next awesome thing - maybe offer incentives for being the first ones
make registration, profile creation and ...
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