a single source, nothing corroborates it
Plan the front page spike as reach, not signups
Three builders measured the same gap between visits and outcomes: thirteen thousand uniques in half a day producing two extra signups, five days of front page placement producing a double digit user count, and a sales page conversion rate falling by a point once cold traffic arrived. People on these sites are sampling whatever is new that day rather than shopping. Budget the launch as awareness and score it on revenue per visitor.
The method
- 01
Budget aggregator launches as awareness spend rather than a sales channel - big traffic spikes from these sites routinely convert to almost nothing immediately.
- 02
Do not expect launch-community visitors to become users: people browsing Product Hunt and Hacker News are there to sample whatever is new that day and then move on, not to adopt your tool.
- 03
A free browser extension posted across several sites, including as a Show HN submission, can hold a front page for days and still leave you with only a double-digit user count.
- 04
Front-page aggregator traffic converts far worse than email traffic, so judge a launch channel on revenue per visitor rather than raw visits
What it returned
- 13,000
Allan Branch of LessAccounting reported 13,000 unique visitors from Hacker News in 12 hours producing two extra signups.
- 50
Zue's Photos New Tab extension sat on the Show HN front page for roughly five days and produced somewhere between 50 and 100 users
- 12,662
12,662 visits on launch day and 17,238 over three days with Hacker News among the top referrers; he attributes the drop from 3.9% to 2.9% sales-page conversion to that traffic
Sources
- No marketing unicornsJustin Jackson · justinjackson.ca · What does this mean for you? · undated
- $26,679 in 24 hours: Stats from my latest book launchNathan Barry · nathanbarry.com · Traffic · 2012-12-21
- SEO for Developers: Reaching the Front Page of Google without being SpammyCory Zue · coryzue.com · 2017-10-10
- Week 11 RetrospectiveCory Zue · coryzue.com · Goal Report Card · 2017-06-05
the second source
Three plays a week, for the phase you are in
No roundup of links, no news. Three tactics more than one builder arrived at separately, with the numbers each one returned and the disagreements left in.
More in hacker news
- Bank the front page wave as reputation, not revenue2 unconnected
- Test the idea there, then distrust the verdict2 unconnected · contested
- Answer the question first, name the tool second2 unconnected
- Keep showing up long after your launch day2 unconnected
- Publish your own numbers in unglamorous detailsingle source
- Expect the throwaway post to travel furthestsingle source · contested