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> We’ve found that hitting the front page results in a giant, ego-boosting traffic boost, with a noticeable but small signup boost. I know people who've paid a

> We’ve found that hitting the front page results in a giant, ego-boosting traffic boost, with a noticeable but small signup boost. I know people who've paid agents £10k's to get an advert disguised as an article written in some UK Sunday broadsheet newspapers, generated a massive number of leads but ultimately never recouped the outlay. > Paid ads can be a useful tool for learning quickly if you are building a consumer app I know plenty of people who had signed up to online targeted advertising, generated minimal leads but no business. In my experience, advertising has never worked, always costing more money, never recouping the expenditure, but it is a very nuanced way to buy the media's silence if you can afford it. > Events are 10x more work All the events & exhibitions I've been to, never bought or signed up to anything. > SEO articles are not exempt from this rule I've found SEO to be both a waste a time and money and highly manipulative. Just look at the number of youtube video's uploaded by individuals who are lucky to get a handful of views. SEO is no different, in fact Search Engine spider's generated more traffic for the websites I know of.

adamckay 4y ago
> In my experience, advertising has never worked, always costing more money, never recouping the expenditure As the old saying goes:- “Half my advertising spend is wasted; the trouble is, I don’t know which half.”
eastbound 4y ago
So according to you, no solution works? None at all. Advertising doesn’t work, marketing doesn’t work, SEO doesn’t work. So how do you get a startup from zero to 10k customers?
- Varqu 4y ago
  It's the marketing / sales equivalent of the HN-developer-type who would "build Dropbox / Docker over a weekend"
- moremetadata 4y ago
  > So how do you get a startup from zero to 10k customers? I dont know! I've used the latest tech as it became available, and I'm left thinking, either no one is seeing things like the fax mailshots, postal campaigns, advertising campaigns which I've done in the past, or its the culture of the UK to be reserved, cautious adopting the if its not broke dont fix it attitude. Little short of the marketing and advertising material not reaching the people, I don't have an explanation, but when considering other events in my life, it would not surprise me to learn no one received any of my marketing and advertising material!

adamckay 4y ago

> In my experience, advertising has never worked, always costing more money, never recouping the expenditure As the old saying goes:- “Half my advertising spend is wasted; the trouble is, I don’t know which half.”

eastbound 4y ago

So according to you, no solution works? None at all. Advertising doesn’t work, marketing doesn’t work, SEO doesn’t work. So how do you get a startup from zero to 10k customers?

Varqu 4y ago
It's the marketing / sales equivalent of the HN-developer-type who would "build Dropbox / Docker over a weekend"
moremetadata 4y ago
> So how do you get a startup from zero to 10k customers? I dont know! I've used the latest tech as it became available, and I'm left thinking, either no one is seeing things like the fax mailshots, postal campaigns, advertising campaigns which I've done in the past, or its the culture of the UK to be reserved, cautious adopting the if its not broke dont fix it attitude. Little short of the marketing and advertising material not reaching the people, I don't have an explanation, but when considering other events in my life, it would not surprise me to learn no one received any of my marketing and advertising material!