I started by posting it here, forrst, startupguild and HN FaceBook group then I got picked up by a couple of other places and used that to then ask yet other places to have a look.
People have so far been very positive and that have helped me gain even more traction. It also help that I have actually connected all projects in need of help with someone who have offered to help.
Next step is to write about all the things I have learned from it. I am working on the website (got people to help me there in the spirit of WH)
What I have learned is 3 things.
1. Create as little friction for sign-up as possible. Be concise. Be personal. Be honest. The majority of my signups read the FAQ.
2. Think about social very broadly. For instance with WH I am sending out a mail with the projects structured, curated etc. Instead of people having to go to the website all the time, they receive a mail with the projects. So right now I am not depending on traffic. I am depending on making sure that everyone who have a project get offered help. (100% success rate so far). If it works by mail it will work by other means too.
3. Create boundaries for what your site is about. WeekendHacker is for very small projects. It might expand later on but now we are keeping it simple and exploring how far that will take us.
Hope this helps. I will make a bigger post about it all and then numbers next week.
How exactly did you learn any of that? Random guesses? Maybe the thing you should have learned here is to put the FAQ on the same page?
Simply because it is a mailing list at the moment and still chugging along doesn't mean this is superior. You basically created something naturally suited to being a website, but forced it into into mailing list form.
As for 'not having to go to the site all the time', there is an established solution for this. RSS.
I started by posting it here, forrst, startupguild and HN FaceBook group then I got picked up by a couple of other places and used that to then ask yet other places to have a look.
People have so far been very positive and that have helped me gain even more traction. It also help that I have actually connected all projects in need of help with someone who have offered to help.
Next step is to write about all the things I have learned from it. I am working on the website (got people to help me there in the spirit of WH)
What I have learned is 3 things.
1. Create as little friction for sign-up as possible. Be concise. Be personal. Be honest. The majority of my signups read the FAQ.
2. Think about social very broadly. For instance with WH I am sending out a mail with the projects structured, curated etc. Instead of people having to go to the website all the time, they receive a mail with the projects. So right now I am not depending on traffic. I am depending on making sure that everyone who have a project get offered help. (100% success rate so far). If it works by mail it will work by other means too.
3. Create boundaries for what your site is about. WeekendHacker is for very small projects. It might expand later on but now we are keeping it simple and exploring how far that will take us.
Hope this helps. I will make a bigger post about it all and then numbers next week.