il

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301.
by il 16y ago
It's interesting how many upvotes this is getting in a very short time. However, I don't think the average Twitter user cares about performance and URL elegance, so I doubt Twitter will change anything.
302.
by il 16y ago
The traffic numbers are legit and not inflated, if that's what you're wondering about. Honestly, I don't know that many people who have built a community site of similar traffic level that quickly, especially without doing any SEO. If you c
303.
by il 16y ago
I agree. But isn't it considered de rigeur to end a case study with a trite, meaningless yet upbeat platitude? You know, "Here's how this guy is successful, now go forth and be successful like him, because YOU CAN DO IT!" In any case, I wel
304.
How ThatHigh solved the chicken and egg problem and grew to 1 million pageviews(insight.io)
110 points by il 16y ago|30 comments
305.
by il 16y ago
I like the list, but I wouldn't dismiss paid advertising so quickly. Set up a testing budget and keep testing until you make it work. Groupon, LivingSocial, etc are seeing tremendous growth from their AdWords campaigns. Investors and potent
306.
by il 16y ago
The question you should be asking is, why do you want Facebook fans? Is it to retarget visitors to your site through Facebook ads? In that case, a Like button on your site would work well. Is it because your app has a viral element that req
307.
by il 16y ago
Congratulations on your success Paras! It's really inspirational. You entered a competitive niche where most customers don't even know they need your product, took on huge players like Omniture and Google, and gained market share by buildin
308.
by il 16y ago
I think the numbers are the best part of the article, refreshingly candid. When a startup posts its revenue/traffic numbers it is lauded for honesty. The same should apply to this post. It seems that books are like startups- unless you hit
309.
by il 16y ago
I don't mean to come across as criticizing you for that comment in any way! Seriously, I think it's a fine and well placed comment! (Plus HN is always more mellow on Sundays). I'm just incredibly interested in crowd psychology and mass cont
310.
by il 16y ago
I'm probably going to get downvoted for saying this, but putting "vote however you like" or "I expect downvotes for this" or "I know this isn't going to get upvotes" in a comment almost guarantees your comment lots of upvotes. It's almost a
311.
by il 16y ago
$50K is not enough to get a dating site to critical mass for a broad demographic. Most dating sites spend over $50K every day driving traffic. So the question then becomes "How do we leverage this initial $50K to generate enough initial tra
312.
Free AppSumo Bundle for Hacker News Readers(appsumo.com)
5 points by il 16y ago|0 comments
313.
by il 16y ago
It really depends on the targeting and matching the right ads to the right users. For example, weather.com gets well over $10 CPM from performance advertisers, and they still make money on the traffic. If you have similar demographics, you
314.
Free Hacker Monthly Special Issue (Startup Marketing) Is Out(hackermonthly.com)
60 points by il 16y ago|2 comments
315.
by il 16y ago
Or it might backfire and just show that you don't have enough business sense to take the money.
316.
by il 16y ago
Doesn't matter, awesome Harry Potter fanfiction is where the real money is. You need to get a book deal.
317.
Poll HN: Are you more likely to apply to YC now that you could get $150K?
17 points by il 16y ago|23 comments
318.
by il 16y ago
Yes, I wasn't going to apply to YC before but the guaranteed extra funding changed my mind
319.
by il 16y ago
No, I was going to apply to YC anyway
320.
by il 16y ago
Other/I'm not applying to YC for another reason
321.
by il 16y ago
If I were a YC company suddenly getting $150K, I would set aside at least a small part of it for testing different user acquisition strategies and business models. Take as little as $15K and make that your testing budget, money you're not a
322.
by il 16y ago
Actually it's smart to take risks. The expected value of foundig a startup is sufficiently high to make it a rational decision in most cases. I recently read an article which stated that most successful entrepreneurs are actually highly ris
323.
by il 16y ago
The reason ATMs don't have fingerprint readers is that thieves would cut off fingers. A chip under the skin would lead to similar unpleasantness.
324.
Ask PG: Will the Yuri Milner deal affect which startups YC accepts?
55 points by il 16y ago|16 comments
325.
by il 16y ago
Maybe that's not the right word choice. But it's a journalist saying "I don't like this story because it changes the narrative/ starving founder myth we're trying to create" doesn't feel right.
326.
by il 16y ago
You know what else makes great stories? Successful companies. I think it's disingenuous to lament a change in funding models that appears to be a huge net gain for founders. Considering many YC startups have been raising additional funding
327.
by il 16y ago
As I understand it, recent YC graduates were already almost assured angel funding because of the YC brand. So, in effect, investors were already using YC as a proxy for evaluating startups. Now they're just making it official. I think the g
328.
by il 16y ago
I'll temper the cynicism by saying that, despite everything, if you want to have any chance at being successful in the movie industry, you come to Hollywood. Same thing with Silicon Valley, despite its flaws.
329.
by il 16y ago
I think past a certain point, each additional startup funded would decrease the value of YC to founders as more and more startups have to compete for a finite amount of pg's time and investor dollars. I suppose the solution is bringing on m
330.
by il 16y ago
Google,Facebook,Twitter are extremely atypical outliers. Statistically speaking, the typical valley startup builds something quickly, fails to acquire users, burns through angel funding, and dies quietly. The typical _succesful_ Valley star

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