Spoiler alert: It is a scam! But you already knew it.

Over the years I have built many products on the side. I quite enjoy the building process, but the common thread across all projects have been the failure to gain initial traction. Once the product is built I lack the skills and know-how to get the word out. This translates to abandonment of all the hard work and moving on to the thrill of building out the next cool idea. I imagine this is far less of a problem for founders with existing followers on twitter and other platforms. I have none.

So this time when the product was ready to be put out there I turned to fiverr. I searched and scrolled in awe as there was an endless list of 5-start rated providers with thousands of reviews who could "promote" your project on social media to drive thousands of visitors every single day. Easy to start with a quick $5 and of course you can score a deal by adding on the "premium" package. How could you not go for it with testimonials like, "Thank you for the amazing service. We saw a lot of traffic instantly. Will be using again soon."

If it walks like a scam and quacks like a scam...

Does the offer sound too good to be true? You know it is, but only one way to find out. So I place the order. They ask you what social website you would prefer. Wow! You got options? So I picked LinkedIn and we were off. As promised I could see hundreds of visits each day for the next several day. It is working! Except one small problem. Google Analytics shows the session length of each visit is 0 sec. Every visit.

I point this out to the provider. I have to say, they are extremely responsive. But apparently the problem is on my end. Unless the product is attractive users won't stay. "What is your value proposition?", "What is your strategy to retain users?", "What is the reason for users to stick around?". It seems I have not thought about all this and maybe I should look inwards and rethink my product... and life.

I tell them to quit to BS. They understand but, "we have never had this problem before". I suggest maybe we switch the social website where they are promoting? "Sure, no problem". Promptly I see the traffic from LinkedIn go down and Facebook on the rise. This time the session length for the visits are... wait for it... 0 sec.

Hope this post provided you with entertainment value worth $5.

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