Referly's company blog covers its link-sharing and recommendation startup, including its rewards program, an iPhone app, and startup lessons.
HN commenters mention it in discussions of affiliate links and recommendation sites, and link its user-made pages, with a note on its correct URL.
Very interesting post.
Now that we're talking about growth hacking...
Funny thing is the first thing I thought after finishing it was my recollection of their previous landing page where they practically forced me not to give out my email address and how that decision would have impacted the activation rate via proper retention drip email campaign.
To me it felt like they were ignoring a low hanging fruit in their post-registration activation funnel.
Of course it was only after I checked up on their landing page again that I realized they had indeed changed their UX pattern from the previous lazy reg / "instant candy" (ie. letting people just have the URL to share right from the frontpage w/o getting them to sign-up [1]) to the "standard" approach of requiring a sign-up before any gratification.
Not only that by they had also gone quite aggressive with their approach by showing a 0 sec delay dialog box demanding a registration via FB / Twitter.
Would be very interesting to hear how these changes have reflected in their lp conversion rates. Would be especially cool to hear how the controversial pop up is performing for them. It's a ballsy move. Gotta like that. :)
[1] http://refer.ly/blog/referly-homepage-simplification-retrospective/
- They are partnering with businesses and many of those businesses aren't familiar with .ly to the extent that tech people are.
http://refer.ly/business
The local pizza shop probably isn't aware of bit.ly. Which now uses bitly.com (bit.ly redirects.). Ditto for recur.ly -> recurly.com.
- Their current branding shows "referly" not "refer.ly"
- Email addresses at the company are @refer.ly and could easily get addressed to @referly.com - best case scenario it bounces (and the bounce is noticed). Worse case scenario the email is read by someone else.
- You are underestimating the amount of word of mouth in a domain being passed along. You don't want to have to spell it out that's refer dot .ly anymore than you want to call it "referlee.com" and have to spell that out.
- A mainstream media article on the company will throw off potential customers that aren't familiar with .ly domains
- Ditto for mention on any TV etc.
Swimmers shave their body hair to gain any additional advantage in speed they can. Definitely worth avoiding problems in this area. The name of a company is always an important issue to consider.
>Brilliant.
Except that, if you're removing nails, there are much better tools than the claw on a hammer. [1][2] I've done demolition, and I've had to pull a lot of nails, and the claw on a hammer is about the last tool I'd use for the job. I basically only use the claw to straighten or remove a partly-hammered nail that's gone wrong.
So yes, the analogy is brilliant.
[1] For really big nails, more leverage is good, and the hole in the flat part can be used to pull longer nails out than you can pull with a hammer claw: http://refer.ly/abwW
[2] To get a nail started, something sharper with points, and that (here's the important bit) can be HAMMERED under the nail head: http://refer.ly/abw2
I thought Referly was pretty cool and decided to sign up and created my own link for the new Apple MBP.
But when I click on the claim rewards link: http://refer.ly/claim
It's telling me a different story (compared to on their main page - Earn rewards like whoa.)about getting the rewards.
"During the beta period we are not yet able to redeem your rewards, but we are saving them for you.
We'll let you know as soon as you can claim them."
I really felt like being Bait and Switch'ed.... Totally not whoa at this point.
Personally, I'd be OK if someone "refers" me something through an affiliate link, but I wouldn't be so sure that my friends / everyone else thinks the same way. Pinterest got away with it, though.
It sounds a little like http://refer.ly/ and I'd recommend to take a look at them if you haven't done it already. They have a neat product, although the name can potentially turn off some people (see above).
And don't get me wrong, I think there's always room in the market if you do your job extremely well. :)
This Referly page may be right up your alley: https://refer.ly/the_men_behind_movie_trailers/c/aaf97926603b11e2b5ab22000a1db8fa The routine by Pablo Francisco makes me laugh every time.
On a more serious note, one of the gems in this page is the Art History series called Civilisation by Kenneth Clark. PG recommended this guy in one of his essays, and it's one of the best things I've watched all year. I feel like I have such a better perspective on art now.