I've always felt like there was some sort of mystery around companies gaining users. People tend to say stuff like: "it went viral", "everyone just wanted to use it" etc. etc.<p>It just seems odd to me that some companies succeed in growing a userbase where others just die when most people never even heard of them.<p>What do you do when you launch a product? Share it on Facebook and Twitter? Do you buy google ads or do you just sit around and wait for people to visit, and if not, do you just move on?<p>To those who've had a successfully growing userbase at their company: What did you do in the early beginnings to attract users, what was your expectation before these actions and in hindsight, what did real trick?
Do things that don't scale:
<a href="http://paulgraham.com/ds.html" rel="nofollow">http://paulgraham.com/ds.html</a><p><a href="http://bondero.com/boost-startup-traffic-free" rel="nofollow">http://bondero.com/boost-startup-traffic-free</a>
<a href="http://www.osiaffiliate.com/blog/2014/02/21/83-best-sites-to-promote-your-blog-for-seo-and-traffic/" rel="nofollow">http://www.osiaffiliate.com/blog/2014/02/21/83-best-sites-to...</a>
Hustle my friend.<p>Get your idea into the hands of people that will use it. Network, demo, do free giveaways, discuss on forums, meet people in reality.<p>If you don't know how to do this, this is where a sales master comes in. None of that abstract marketing stuff. A true salesman brings in sales and that is what you need.<p>You should read up on some sales books and strategies in those books, try to employ some ideas.<p>Remember to keep hustling all the time and your product will grow.