5 ms·

The Torenberg Effect: How ProductHunt Blew Up LinkTexting.com

10 points by kumarski 12y ago

minimaxir 12y ago
Ok, I am getting genuinely sick of the "We got onto Product Hunt and became a success, and you can too!" submissions that keep popping onto Hacker News. Your time horizon is 18 days; that's not enough to assert causality of Product Hunt exposure on your business. And of course signups would increase when you first get publicity; that's the nature of publicity. Additonally, naming an "effect" after yourself is very egotistical and not cute. > I asked my friends to take a look and if they liked it, to upvote it. Asking for upvotes is against HN rules and doesn't work, and I believe you did the same for this article, as 7 votes but no front page presence means that it was hit with a penalty.
- kumarski 12y ago
  :/ We didn't become a success, but it did help blow up our traffic. PH got us high fidelity users in the sense that 100% of them were mobile app shops that needed our product. As per a voting ring, who knows.
  - minimaxir 12y ago
    We didn't become a success, but it did help blow up our traffic. That's the fallacy: "blow up" is a relative term. 1 user is infinity% larger than 0 users.
    - kumarski 12y ago
      That's actually a good point. I guess I'm mistaken. Well at the very least, PH allowed us to focus on product and customers entering the funnel rather than think about PR etc...
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
justinsb 12y ago
Congratulations on the traction. As an Android user though, I don't really get the problem. From a desktop browser, I expect a link to the Play Store, where I can then have the app installed to any of my devices. Is this really for iOS users? (and is there no equivalent functionality there?)
- kumarski 12y ago
  Thank you. Yes. You are correct. The killer functionality that we offer today is for people on iOS. We solve a very explicit problem for them. Today we're integrating with BranchMetrics, which will offer additionaly utility to Android and iOS Developers. There is an equivalent functionality. You can install from the desktop browser to iOS, it's just a bit more friction because it requires a cable. The only other alternative to LinkTexting as an SMS form creator is Gravity forms, but it's a bit awkward unless you plan on using Wordpress for your mobile app landing page.
  - justinsb 12y ago
    Thanks for explaining - makes a lot of sense. One cool feature (which might be what BranchMetrics does) would be to add a one-time-use token to the URL so I don't have to log in again on the app, if I already have a desktop login. It is annoying to try to type in a complicated login on a small mobile device (first world problems, I know). Not sure if this is actually feasible though!
gk1 12y ago
> This was frustrating for the simple fact that we spent more than an hour writing the blog post. You are way too hopeful if you think that an hour of writing will result in tons of traffic. Take the time to write substantive, polished articles. Most of them will not be hits, but once in a while your work will pay off. One hour is nothing.
- minimaxir 12y ago
  I wish I could finish a blog post in only one hour. My last few have taken 8+ hours. :)
  - kumarski 12y ago
    Some of my hour long blog posts got a ton of traffic. What's your blog? Here's one of my posts that I did in 15 minutes that got a ton of traffic. I'm not even sure why. http://www.kumar.vc/i-sat-in-a-bank-on-friday-2/ http://www.kumar.vc/i-sat-in-a-bank-on-friday-2/ What's your blog?
    - minimaxir 12y ago
      Here's an example of such a post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8425385 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8425385
      - kumarski 12y ago
        Well done. That's a great post. You might find the data from this interesting: http://linktally.com http://linktally.com It was shared a total of 83 times according to http://linktally.com http://linktally.com
        minimaxir 12y ago
        Yes, I can sum up the 3 numbers at the top of the blog post. :P
      - 12y ago

10 points by kumarski 12y ago

Ok, I am getting genuinely sick of the "We got onto Product Hunt and became a success, and you can too!" submissions that keep popping onto Hacker News. Your time horizon is 18 days; that's not enough to assert causality of Product Hunt exposure on your business. And of course signups would increase when you first get publicity; that's the nature of publicity. Additonally, naming an "effect" after yourself is very egotistical and not cute. > I asked my friends to take a look and if they liked it, to upvote it. Asking for upvotes is against HN rules and doesn't work, and I believe you did the same for this article, as 7 votes but no front page presence means that it was hit with a penalty.

kumarski 12y ago
:/ We didn't become a success, but it did help blow up our traffic. PH got us high fidelity users in the sense that 100% of them were mobile app shops that needed our product. As per a voting ring, who knows.
- minimaxir 12y ago
  We didn't become a success, but it did help blow up our traffic. That's the fallacy: "blow up" is a relative term. 1 user is infinity% larger than 0 users.
  - kumarski 12y ago
    That's actually a good point. I guess I'm mistaken. Well at the very least, PH allowed us to focus on product and customers entering the funnel rather than think about PR etc...
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]

justinsb 12y ago

Congratulations on the traction. As an Android user though, I don't really get the problem. From a desktop browser, I expect a link to the Play Store, where I can then have the app installed to any of my devices. Is this really for iOS users? (and is there no equivalent functionality there?)

kumarski 12y ago
Thank you. Yes. You are correct. The killer functionality that we offer today is for people on iOS. We solve a very explicit problem for them. Today we're integrating with BranchMetrics, which will offer additionaly utility to Android and iOS Developers. There is an equivalent functionality. You can install from the desktop browser to iOS, it's just a bit more friction because it requires a cable. The only other alternative to LinkTexting as an SMS form creator is Gravity forms, but it's a bit awkward unless you plan on using Wordpress for your mobile app landing page.
- justinsb 12y ago
  Thanks for explaining - makes a lot of sense. One cool feature (which might be what BranchMetrics does) would be to add a one-time-use token to the URL so I don't have to log in again on the app, if I already have a desktop login. It is annoying to try to type in a complicated login on a small mobile device (first world problems, I know). Not sure if this is actually feasible though!

gk1 12y ago

> This was frustrating for the simple fact that we spent more than an hour writing the blog post. You are way too hopeful if you think that an hour of writing will result in tons of traffic. Take the time to write substantive, polished articles. Most of them will not be hits, but once in a while your work will pay off. One hour is nothing.

minimaxir 12y ago
I wish I could finish a blog post in only one hour. My last few have taken 8+ hours. :)
- kumarski 12y ago
  Some of my hour long blog posts got a ton of traffic. What's your blog? Here's one of my posts that I did in 15 minutes that got a ton of traffic. I'm not even sure why. http://www.kumar.vc/i-sat-in-a-bank-on-friday-2/ http://www.kumar.vc/i-sat-in-a-bank-on-friday-2/ What's your blog?
  - minimaxir 12y ago
    Here's an example of such a post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8425385 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8425385
    - kumarski 12y ago
      Well done. That's a great post. You might find the data from this interesting: http://linktally.com http://linktally.com It was shared a total of 83 times according to http://linktally.com http://linktally.com
      - minimaxir 12y ago
        Yes, I can sum up the 3 numbers at the top of the blog post. :P
    - 12y ago