I created a small application, and got one user. It's absolutely a hobby project -- so I'm not advertising, and I'm not looking for thousands of users. That being said, it's exciting to have people use things you make! I'd like to get small numbers of people to use it, but I'm not sure how.<p>What are some low-key ways you have grown hobby projects? Is it just something you let happen naturally?
Read this book ASAP<p><a href="http://tractionbook.com/" rel="nofollow">http://tractionbook.com/</a><p>and read <a href="https://growthhackers.com/" rel="nofollow">https://growthhackers.com/</a> to get ideas<p>Another trick - post your URL in Ask HN posts ;)
Product Hunt is a great (and free) place to start<p>Personal Networks, writing blog posts about what you've learned, interact with people (genuinely) on twitter (and obviously link your project in your account), Reddit is also good. With any of these respect the community and don't spam them (you don't seem the type given your post here, thought I would mention anyways)<p>If its technical and you know where the people are who benefit go and interact with them. Help them with something they need help with. Then get them to try it, find issues, fix 'em, rinse repeat.<p>It takes a lot of footwork!
We are in a similar place right now. I'm looking forward to seeing what people have to say.<p>Blight of the Immortals only has about 50 daily active users. We would like to grow a little to get a better idea about what people like and don't like about the game.<p><a href="https://blight.ironhelmet.com" rel="nofollow">https://blight.ironhelmet.com</a><p>We've run some Facebook and Google ads and it looks like it costs around 35 - 40c a click. We only get about 10% sign-up so we are paying about $4 a user. (From what I have read that's about what to expect)<p>We still have a lot of cool stuff to add, but we make about $2 per new account, so I guess that means we are about halfway there :)
Is the app you are talking about the one in your profile? If so I personally think it's great. I am sure you will find few more users now that you posted here.<p>If I were you I would personally go to small-mid-big biz in your area and pitch them this tool. I know that Internet is the thing but real money and connections are offline....just a hint....
I also wrote a few years ago an "nmap as a service" tool, had some challenges like false positives, how to authorize automatically, slowness, UDP ports, using different origin IPs in case I was blocked etc. OP email me if you want to exchange notes.
"Do things that don't scale"<p><a href="http://paulgraham.com/ds.html" rel="nofollow">http://paulgraham.com/ds.html</a>
I'm not sure what exactly you mean by "hobby" project but if prospective got a whiff of such a thing, I suspect they'd pass. I would at least try to exude more seriousness about the product, unless it's a game or something frivolous.
Nobody is going to simply stumble across your application, so it's your job to start promoting it! That doesn't mean paying for advertising, but marketing doesn't always cost money.<p>If you're keen to have more people use it, you need to be able to clearly answer:<p>What is the benefit of using your application?
What does your tool do to make people's lives easier/better?
How can people access your application?<p>Then you start with your own social networks. Explicitly ask people to use your tool as testers, find people who you think would benefit and approach them directly. Tell people why it's cool and ask them to share it - then go from there.
I read a little bit about what your app does -- scan for open ports.<p>I think "native" promotion is the best. Figure out who your best customers could be and start watching ports on all their websites. Whenever one changes, send an automated email saying something like:<p>"We noticed a potential vulnrubility in your site, if you'd like to know if this happens again, reach out to me"
One strategy that sometimes works is to help people see the tie between your app/product and something else that's already popular.<p>One of the other comments here notes that your application does some kind of scanning for open ports. Assuming the application has some kind of integration...<p>That might be easy to link to, for example, Docker. A blog post showing how to "automate security validation for newly created containers" might have a broader audience that just "port scanning". Especially if you provide working code, and some path to integrate more than just your app.
I have the same problem, my project is extremely niche and I hoped it would spread by word of mouth. I don't really use social media, so I don't self-promote it. The big boost came when I posted my project on a specific subreddit and it got a large number of upvotes. However the wave of users died off quickly and a year later I get like 10 users per day and maybe once per month it gets mentioned somewhere on the Internet.
Firstly, since it is a hobby, tell a few friends about it -- see if they would get on your application, get some feedback from them and move on accordingly.
. u already started by asking for help<p>- invite folks you know on an "sure to open your email/answer ur slack/im/sms" message and<p>-- invite folks you know little bit outside of that circle<p>--- invite folks in forums your' involved with (give/take)<p>--- invite folks on ur mostly active social media account<p>---- you can submit to betalist.com if it's beta private only<p>---- you can submit to producthunt.com if it's live and ready to be used
Please watch this first and I am sure you come back here with more enlightenment.<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v47WEyeSMSA" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v47WEyeSMSA</a>
You could post it here for feedback: <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/sideproject" rel="nofollow">https://www.reddit.com/r/sideproject</a>
if it is something any regular person on the street would use, get some business cards focused on the application with the website and start handing them out.<p>Who is your one user? Do they fit any particular category? Ask them if they have friends that would use your software.