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I Must Grow...But How? (alien.top)
submitted 11 months ago by WriteIt2023@alien.top to c/entrepreneur@indiehackers.space
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Hello Fellow Entrepreneurs,

I made https://writeitapp.co.uk - I soft launched two years ago... What a wild journey it has been- From getting blackmailed by devs to being scammed by marketing firms. At the launch we got over 2000 organic users and over 1000 stories posted - within the first few months. After bugs + being totally scammed by a marketing company I hit the drawing board again to revamp the app. Now the app has a totally new design, faster, less bugs and has more features like the ability to listen to stories.
I may be crazy, but I genuinely believe in my product...So Im sticking with it. Recently hit a brick wall, thinking its too much of a mountain for me to climb...How do I get users on board without going completely broke? That's the real question. The App is free so marketing is a cost with no financial kickback.

It is however a mountain I will continue to climb, yes things have gone against me but I have spent too many years of working hard to even make the app a real thing.
Would love some feedback and some advice on how to kickstart a community on the platform, and how I should go about getting real downloads going!

That's my brick wall. How!

Thanks guys

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[–] founderscurve@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

before you focus more on growth - spend some time looking at your retention metrics... you dont want to be filling a leaky bucket.

I work at a VC focused on helping the companies post-investment, primarily helping them grow, and build a well functioning business.

your business generally looks like it will fit the profile of a social media site - i appreciate thats not your business, i'm simply bucketing them into a format of business model.

generally for this kind of business model, the value of the business (for investment purposes) comes from the user base, the activity of the user based and by extension of these two numbers, the capacity of the platform to generate revenue from ads.

you point out you have 2000 organic users - so thats a great start, not a small achievement so congrats. what you need to figure out is of this cohort -

  1. how many registers but didn't do any activity
  2. how many were still active after 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, 180 days
  3. how many are still active now
  4. what is the average number of 'posts' a user does in your app?
  5. what is the average time in-app / day (or month)

if these numbers are low (arbitrarily lets say below 70%) then you have a leaky bucket. for comparable a B2C SaaS would expect a Monthly Churn of less than 5% (See this, no affiliation)

you want to try your best to close off and address whats causing the churn before you spend too much on ads to get new users.

next, since you app is more social in natural, you want to see data that shows that existing users are driving more users to join the app - make sure you're tracking this, and figure out how to trigger this behaviour in your users.

Finally, if you're going to focus on acquiring new users, you need to first really think about WHO these users are, what is the specific niche profile that would be particularly attracted to your platform, try and capture niches and then go from niche to niche, since niches are self-contained networks, it'll be easier than trying to capture a broad demographic.

[–] WriteIt2023@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

In the beginning, we had a 10% WoW growth, Id say now were at a place where we are basically re-launching, with the blackmail and the scams the app is basically at ground zero now. We still have some posts, but rarely- In the beginning we had days of 100 posts a day. I believe for me to continue now it would be to recapture a new audience and grow from there. For a social app to thrive, it needs activity. Currently barely any, so any user jumping on it will leave pretty fast. I have two plans in mind right now would love to hear your thoughts:

A) Target 18-30yo with a contest to share a story about a topic that could go viral e.g: Share a story about your best/worst first date experience. Im thinking this could be engaging, interesting and attractive to the target audience - The question is where should I target?

​

B) Target a specific University: Add a category within the application that is specific to that university and run posts/ a campaign targeting students to write campus stories.

[–] dontwantanaccountata@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

If what Im gathering from the website is correct the app is for sharing actual stories - aka long narratives and written stories about events that have happened in people’s lives. I know one of the other comments said they don’t see the value since they can share their story on any social media site, so I think there’s a disconnect in the message between “story” as in a written story or “story” as in IG/TiKTok 24hour stories. The only thing on the website that got me to understand you mean literal stories is the pictures which all feature long post.

Anyways that being said I think you’re actually much more niche than 18-30yo, and you should be targeting people who are interested in story telling, creative writing, blogging, maybe even theater.. basically people who value the art of sharing and reading long content post. With this you need to figure out how you can make your website & marketing strategies more efficiently target and appeal to these people. From there you can find places these people hang out, maybe book clubs for younger people, flyers in coffee shops and libraries, etc. Maybe also micro influencers in your city, people who have their own blogs - fashion, food, travel, parenting - since if they get on you can pitch it as another way for them to tell their story/grow their brand, and if they get their viewers on they will also enjoy sharing/reading stories.

Unfortunately targeting a university as a whole won’t do you any good. College students who love tiktok/ig/twitter aren’t your market - they’d rather tell their “story” verbally on their 24hr story as a “rant” or in short hand writing as a post, and not take the time to write out and read their friends. However, if you want to target a specific group at university I’d recommend finding book clubs, creative writing clubs, maybe school newspaper team, and pitch to them to get on the app and use it. Again value proposition that it’s for people like them with their interest.

Long story long you just really need to hone in to your target audience and define them as specifically as you can, and then it’ll be more clear how you get them to join. Yes your goal can be to eventually be to be used by all young people across the globe, but you need to start smaller and be super specific so you can get a strong foundation which you can continue to build on. I think your ideas of having contest are great and would engage your target audience, but again you really need to understand who your target audience really is, who would use the app, and who will take the time to share these stories. Because as someone 18-30 it’s definitely not everyone who’s 18-30.

But your users are there, you’ve had organic growth, there is a market and i’m sure you’ll find it! i believe in you! keep hustling and get it done!

(i know it’s such a long response i’m in a similar boat building and marketing a niche social media app so ive been learning a lot in the process)

[–] Due_Tomatillo_8821@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

Can you please Change the landing Page to more different Animations of the phones

[–] thebrainpal@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

This is mostly a comment on the website. The design of your app and site look quite cool and professional. Though, I am not seeing what the benefit, emotionally or logically, is supposed to be.

I can already share my story and connect with the world on Reddit, IG, TikTok, LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, HelloTalk, Lemon8, and more others than I can name off the top of my head. It's unclear to me what your app offers that I can't / won't get from the other social apps.

I'm sure there are some unique benefits you have, so I would consider going into more detail. Maybe try contrasting yourself from the other social apps, or using "us vs. them" to illustrate the differences and your value proposition through story. Don't worry about your text copy getting too long. Being long isn't necessarily bad, being verbose and boring is. Tell us more about what you've got!

Social apps are one of most competitive now IMO, so you probably have your work cut out for you.

Relatedly, I know that Nikita Bier talks quite a bit about his principles for scaling social apps quickly on Twitter. Many of his apps, he just grew quickly and exited quickly. Though, most people can't say they've done either, so I'd say his ideas on the matter hold weight.

[–] Temporary-City4189@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

happy to have a free consultation and review with scLean Labs if you are willing to chat! Please schedule a time here- calendly.com/janoma

[–] Beginning-Comedian-2@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

as u/dontwantanaccountata says...

"...you need to hone in to your target audience as specifically as you can..."

Find out who is using your site weekly.

  • Categorize their interests.
  • Market to the same people.
  • Be the #1 writing/community app for [INSERT NICHE INTEREST].
  • Instead of trying to be just another social app for everybody.
[–] WriteIt2023@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

A lot of the stories I have had on the app are actually stories about mental health, a lot of people share their mental health struggles on the platform, could this be a niche?

[–] Beginning-Comedian-2@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

Absolutely.

  • You could rewrite your home page around this theme.
  • Then start promoting it on Reddit and Facebook groups.
  • But you'll have to research how you'll monetize it.
[–] Mr-008@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I'd like to learn from your mistakes. May I ask how the marketing company scammed you?

[–] WriteIt2023@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

I was recommended by a friend of a friend. Paid upfront, they did no real work and they liquidated the company. I was too naive and trusting, too focused on growing to take a step back and analyse other options. My advice, take your time

[–] jambonking@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

How are you getting paid? With ads? 2000 users, nice! Are they recurring or just 1 time download? How much you make in average from each user?

[–] WriteIt2023@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Not getting paid, want the app to be free- Future would like to have the categories sponsored, i.e sports stories across the app will be sponsored by nike for e.g. Haven't made a penny off the app yet. That's a good idea start up founders!

[–] jambonking@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

Not trying to discourage, but be sure to get some money quickly, targeting companies like Nike is a difficult goal. I would recommend you to watch some YC videos, specially this one https://youtu.be/GMIawSAygO4?feature=shared