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Re:Ask HN: What'd you do to get your first 100 users? by gabemart on Sunday February 16, 2014 @04:07PM (#7249319)
I haven't done any promotion for http://asoftmurmur.com besides posting to reddit and HN, and it now has 400-500 regular daily users. It depends entirely on what type of product or service you're offering.

Another key thing is to understand the community. There is radical cultural diversity between subreddits which manifests in very different reactions to self-promotion. It's essential to engage appropriately and respectfully.

Something I've used for other projects is searching for coverage of competitors in the same space, then pitching to people who have already featured them. Again, very important to hand-tailor each pitch and offer value to the person you're contacting.

Re:Ask HN: What'd you do to get your first 100 users? by ChrisNorstrom on Monday February 17, 2014 @02:44AM (#7251026)
Please add "Crickets" pleeeeeeease. And make sure it's the subtle crickets and not the really harsh sounding ones. Find crickets that sound like these: http://naturesoundspa.com/nature-sounds-for-sleep/relaxing-c... and NOT these: http://naturesoundspa.com/nature-sounds-for-sleep/undisturbe...
Re:Ask HN: What'd you do to get your first 100 users? by gabemart on Monday February 17, 2014 @07:50AM (#7251817)
It's funny, I was watching House of Cards last night and during one scene there are crickets in the background and I found it very relaxing so I was just thinking about adding this sound.

I'll have a hunt for some appropriate samples. I have to do some back-end tweaks before I can add more sounds, though, because there's a practical limit to how many samples the browser can stream at once.

Thanks very much for your suggestion!

Re:Ask HN: What'd you do to get your first 100 users? by 97s on Sunday February 16, 2014 @06:09PM (#7249769)
This is fantastic. I am in love, I feel like I'm beside the ocean while I'm working. Thanks for this. Instantly bookmarked.
Re:Ask HN: What'd you do to get your first 100 users? by iterationx on Sunday February 16, 2014 @11:00PM (#7250579)
Re:Ask HN: What'd you do to get your first 100 users? by lmg643 on Sunday February 16, 2014 @10:49PM (#7250547)
agreed - asoftmurmur rocks - listened to it all evening.
Re:Ask HN: What'd you do to get your first 100 users? by 1757 on Sunday February 16, 2014 @04:58PM (#7249527)
Your site is great!

To add similar services I've been using for quite a while:

http://www.noisli.com/ (very nice UI with changing background colour, a distration free editor and so on)

http://mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/ (quite professional)

Re:Ask HN: What'd you do to get your first 100 users? by christiangenco on Sunday February 16, 2014 @04:14PM (#7249349)
Oh man, I love this. I've been using it since you've posted to HN.

For the life of me, though, I haven't been able to remember the name the last couple time's I've wanted it (and my bookmarks are horrendously disorganized at the moment), and googling different iterations of "white noise generator sliders people birds rain" didn't yield success. I need to stash this away somewhere I won't lose it...

Re:Ask HN: What'd you do to get your first 100 users? by gabemart on Sunday February 16, 2014 @04:43PM (#7249458)
Hey, thanks!

I have actually wondered about the name thing. It is a little whimsical, and I guess it would be easy to mix up with lots of similar descriptions like "a quiet buzz" or "a gentle burble". From that perspective, it might have been better to choose something more memorable.

The site won't rank well in google for descriptive terms because it doesn't contain a lot of text. Even for terms it does contain, it doesn't do very well (e.g. it ranks at ~20 for "ambient noise" in google US). I haven't worried about that so far because the large majority of the traffic is direct, social or for the exact term "a soft murmur".

Re:Ask HN: What'd you do to get your first 100 users? by snayan on Sunday February 16, 2014 @07:17PM (#7249956)
Perhaps the reason a large portion of the traffic is direct, social etc. is you're far better optimized in these areas.

Based on your other comments it seems like you really know what you're doing in these spaces. I'm no expert, but based on all the positive feedback, capturing organic search traffic could help you kill it. Show them and they'll stick.

Re:Ask HN: What'd you do to get your first 100 users? by matznerd on Friday February 21, 2014 @03:49AM (#7276029)
Add a blog of other subpages with content...
Re:Ask HN: What'd you do to get your first 100 users? by hrayr on Monday February 17, 2014 @01:01PM (#7253339)
I've come across this site several times and promptly forgot where to find it.. perhaps a browser extension will make your user base more sticky instead of transient (I have no idea what i just said but it works).
Re:Ask HN: What'd you do to get your first 100 users? by _xhok on Sunday February 16, 2014 @04:12PM (#7249335)
I have to say, that's probably partly because you actually have a good product. Added to my bookmarks. I've been looking for something like this for years. Thanks for making it!
Re:Ask HN: What'd you do to get your first 100 users? by gabemart on Sunday February 16, 2014 @04:58PM (#7249528)
Thanks very much for using it! I built it because I wanted it to exist. I got tired of jury rigging three instances of VLC together on my laptop every time I wanted some background noise.
Re:Ask HN: What'd you do to get your first 100 users? by NicoJuicy on Monday February 17, 2014 @03:05AM (#7251064)
Re:Ask HN: What'd you do to get your first 100 users? by phoenix1887 on Monday February 17, 2014 @09:40PM (#7256020)
SWEET!
Re:Ask HN: What'd you do to get your first 100 users? by NicoJuicy on Saturday February 22, 2014 @08:06AM (#7281957)
And i see the op has added "humans", which is a sound of coffitivity ;-)
Re:Ask HN: What'd you do to get your first 100 users? by gedrap on Sunday February 16, 2014 @04:50PM (#7249490)
>>> It depends entirely on what type of product or service you're offering.

And the luck/chance involved :) basically, the votes a new link gets in first 30mins largely decides whether it will make to front page or not. More specifically, the first upvote because then social proof kicks in (hey it must be good if someone liked it).

So while posting to HN/Reddit might help to kick in, I would take it more as 'good if it hits, fine if it doesn't'.

Re:Ask HN: What'd you do to get your first 100 users? by gabemart on Sunday February 16, 2014 @04:55PM (#7249515)
Sure. I didn't mean to suggest that if your product is a good fit it will definitely get a lot of traffic. Just that, if your product isn't a good fit, it definitely won't get a lot of traffic.
Re:Ask HN: What'd you do to get your first 100 users? by basicallydan on Sunday February 16, 2014 @04:17PM (#7249361)
Oh, this is cool. There are lots of things like your app out there but this is the best implementation I've seen so far. Great work!
Re:Ask HN: What'd you do to get your first 100 users? by gabemart on Sunday February 16, 2014 @04:44PM (#7249470)
Thanks very much! It's still a big novelty and great pleasure for me to hear positive feedback. I really appreciate it.
Re:Ask HN: What'd you do to get your first 100 users? by basicallydan on Sunday February 16, 2014 @05:58PM (#7249733)
Of course. I hope that it remains a novelty and pleasure for a very long time :)
Re:Ask HN: What'd you do to get your first 100 users? by d0m on Sunday February 16, 2014 @10:25PM (#7250483)
This is really useful and very well implemented gabemart, congrats. The "humans" is a big no-no for me but I see why some people might use it. That would be amazing if you had more stuff.. Maybe some relaxing instruments such as piano or acoustic guitar. Wind could be great too.
Re:Ask HN: What'd you do to get your first 100 users? by imdsm on Monday February 17, 2014 @09:43AM (#7252269)
Thanks for this, it is amazing. I feel like I am on a ship, floating at sea, whilst coding. Something about it is very isolating, which is good for this open plan office.

Thanks again!

Re:Ask HN: What'd you do to get your first 100 users? by Ind007 on Monday February 17, 2014 @03:44AM (#7251157)
I liked the simplicity of UI. Good work!!!
Re:Ask HN: What'd you do to get your first 100 users? by rukugu on Monday February 17, 2014 @05:58AM (#7251475)
I have something like this that helps me sleep at night sometimes but this is much better!
Re:Ask HN: What'd you do to get your first 100 users? by patrickdavey on Sunday February 16, 2014 @09:59PM (#7250396)
Wow, that is absolutely great - also bookmarked. Very nice and many thanks!
Re:Ask HN: What'd you do to get your first 100 users? by petervandijck on Monday February 17, 2014 @07:01AM (#7251653)
Awesome. Make it a chrome plugin that shows in every new tab perhaps?
Re:Ask HN: What'd you do to get your first 100 users? by lauriswtf on Sunday February 16, 2014 @04:37PM (#7249434)
This is so good! Big fan!
Re:Ask HN: What'd you do to get your first 100 users? by JacobH on Sunday February 16, 2014 @10:04PM (#7250411)
Yeah, this is great.