To my first 10,000 blog subscribers: Thank you!
To my first 10,000: thank you for reading! (And I will try to blog more)
Lately I have been tweeting more than anything else, and if you haven’t followed me already, you can do so here: @andrewchen.
Best,
Andrew
PS. I updated my list of essays recently, so all the latest stuff is on there. I wanted to include it below, for your convenience.
Viral marketing and user acquisition
For web entrepreneurs, growing your userbase is a key challenge, alongside product development and financing. These posts emphasize a quantitative approach to getting traction and growing users.
Whatâs your viral loop? Understanding the engine of adoption- Adwords is not enough for success on the consumer web
- Are your SEO efforts working, or failing?
- Bridging your traffic engine with your revenue engine
- Facebook viral marketing: When and why do apps âjump the shark?â
- How to calculate cost-per-acquisition for startups relying on freemium, subscription, or virtual items biz
- Is your site really viral? Viral Branding versus Viral Action
- Social network marketing: Getting from zero to critical mass
- Viral marketing is not a marketing strategy
- 10 obvious strategies to ruthlessly acquire users
- Growing renewable audiences (a talk at OâReilly Alphatech Ventures)
- Go-to-market strategies for vertical social products
Engagement and product design
Using principles from game design and analysis of consumer behavior, these essays cover the process of creating experiences your customers will love.
- 10 signs youâre a product fanatic
- 25 reasons users STOP using your product: An analysis of customer lifecycle
- Are people like lab rats? Using reward schedules to drive engagement
- Do you ever say, âMySpace is sooo ugly?â This blogâs for youâŚ
- Does Facebook reflect your true friendships? How about e-mail?
- Facebook Apps: Why theyâre focused on fun instead of utility
- Friends versus Followers: Twitterâs elegant design for grouping contacts
- Is your website a leaky bucket? 4 scenarios for user retention
- Public and private spaces, and why YouTube comments are so awful
- Social gaming design â Bartle types versus Web 2.0 participation pyramid
- Social network death spiral: How Metcalfeâs Law can work against you
- Social design explosion: Polls, quizzes, reviews, forums, oh my!
- Talk to your target customer in 4 easy steps
- Technology always changes, but people always stay the same
- The design of social spaces
- User retention: Why depending on notification-driven retention sucks
- Users, customers, or audience â what do you call the people that visit your site?
- Why your friends list gets polluted over time
- Why you should make it easy for users to quit your product
- Your site will succeed or fail in the first 10 seconds
Freemium and online ad monetization
Social web product have unique characteristics as it applies to online advertising and direct monetization levels. These posts cover some of the issues around key topics such as ARPUs, conversion funnels, CPM rates, behavioral data, revenue modeling, etc.
- 3 key ideas from a recent Freemium dinner conversation
- 5 factors that determine your advertising CPM rates
- 5 things that make your social network monetize like crap
- 7 ideas for billion dollar startups in online advertising
- App monetization: Gambit launches, funnel metrics, and ARPU versus âCPMâ
- Data portability: Is the social network data youâre hoarding treasure or trash?
- Counting your big pile of Benjamins: 5 startup tips for maximizing ad revenue
- Creating value versus optimizing revenue
- Free to Freemium: 5 lessons learned from YouSendIt.com
- Freemium case study: AdultFriendFinder ARPU, churn, and conversion rates
- How to create a profitable Freemium startup (spreadsheet model included!)
- How NOT to calculate ad revenue
- Online advertising during a recession: 5 key trends for ad-based startups
- Vertical ad networks: What are they, and why did Cox just buy Adify for $300MM?
- Virtual goods summit video, The Whirled Case Study: metrics for the virtual goods business
- Whatâs the value of a user on your site? Why itâs hard to calculate lifetime value for social network audiences
- Your ad-supported Web 2.0 site is actually a B2B enterprise in disguise
- âStealing MySpaceâ and my personal experience monetizing MySpace ads
- Super Rewards and the leadgen side of Facebook virtual currency â can it last?
- Remnant ads and the advertisers who love them
- Ad targeting talk from Community Next: People Not Pages (updated x2)
- Revenue, ARPU, Funnels, and RPM: My talk from Startonomics on Revenue metrics
- Ad-based versus direct monetization: Which one is better for you?
- What would Facebook look like if it sold out to ads? Click here to seeâŚ
- Will social payment platforms really work long-term? (Guest post by Jay Weintraub)
Metrics
Without metrics, web entrepreneurs are just flying blind. These essays cover some of the organization and development issues around instituting a metrics system â what to measure, in what order, and how to implement them.
- 5 warning signs: Does A/B testing ead to crappy products?
- 5 steps towards building a metrics-driven business
- Benefit-Driven Metrics: Measure the lives you save, not the life preservers you sell
- The first 6 steps to homegrowing basic startup analytics
- Are you misusing Alexa numbers? (Probably)
- Lessons from the casino industry on engagement metrics and lifetime value
- Obama and McCain: How political marketing has evolved from offline to online
- omg Iâm just a startup, I canât do those fancy analytics!
- Recency Frequency and Monetization (RFM): Optimizing your notifications strategy
- How to measure if users love your product using cohorts and revisit rates
- How to generate awesome test candidates for A/B testing
- Why metrics-driven startups overlook brand value
Media and games
Traditional media, including TV, music, games, and movies are at a crossroads. Here are some thoughts on how the industry is changing and evolving.
- From analog dollars to digital pennies: The crisis in traditional media
- Game design tutorial at the GDC
- MySpace versus Facebook: Analysis of both traffic and ad revenue, using Google Trends
- What every Web 2.0 entrepreneur should know about virtual goods
- Social Gaming Summit: Recap and observations
- Early adopters vs the Mainstream: Google Insights points out websites only used by Silicon Valley nerds
- YouTube vs Webkinz: Case studies for new product adoption
- Prosper.com and peer-to-peer lending in the economic downturn
- 4 major cultural differences between Games people and Web people
Entrepreneurship and startup life in San Francisco
Just a couple thoughts on things Iâve encountered while arriving in SF.
- 10 tips for meeting people at industry events
- 2009 conference schedule for the digital media industry
- 5 ways to break past the San Francisco echo-chamber
- Are Web 2.0 startups wasting their time with Web 2.0 early adopters?
- Bay Area investors Iâm following on Twitter
- Built to Fail: How companies like Google, IDEO, and 37Signals build failure-tolerant systems for anything!
- Couple quotes on Facebook in Wired, Fortune, and NYT
- Does Silicon Valley noise detract from long-term value creation?
- How do you find a badass co-founder, Part 2
- How do you find a badass co-founder?
- How do you do concrete interviews for non-technical people?
- How do start a professional blog: 10 tips for new bloggers
- Is blogging worth it? Whatâs the ROI?
- Moving to SF and joining the tech community â Lessons from my first year
- Whatâs an Entrepreneur-in-Residence?
- What is your W2SAT* score? (*Web 2.0 Startup Aptitude Test)
- Which startupâs collapse will end the Web 2.0 era?
I write a high-quality, weekly newsletter covering what's happening in Silicon Valley, focused on startups, marketing, and mobile.
Views expressed in âcontentâ (including posts, podcasts, videos) linked on this website or posted in social media and other platforms (collectively, âcontent distribution outletsâ) are my own and are not the views of AH Capital Management, L.L.C. (âa16zâ) or its respective affiliates. AH Capital Management is an investment adviser registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Registration as an investment adviser does not imply any special skill or training. The posts are not directed to any investors or potential investors, and do not constitute an offer to sell -- or a solicitation of an offer to buy -- any securities, and may not be used or relied upon in evaluating the merits of any investment.
The content should not be construed as or relied upon in any manner as investment, legal, tax, or other advice. You should consult your own advisers as to legal, business, tax, and other related matters concerning any investment. Any projections, estimates, forecasts, targets, prospects and/or opinions expressed in these materials are subject to change without notice and may differ or be contrary to opinions expressed by others. Any charts provided here are for informational purposes only, and should not be relied upon when making any investment decision. Certain information contained in here has been obtained from third-party sources. While taken from sources believed to be reliable, I have not independently verified such information and makes no representations about the enduring accuracy of the information or its appropriateness for a given situation. The content speaks only as of the date indicated.
Under no circumstances should any posts or other information provided on this website -- or on associated content distribution outlets -- be construed as an offer soliciting the purchase or sale of any security or interest in any pooled investment vehicle sponsored, discussed, or mentioned by a16z personnel. Nor should it be construed as an offer to provide investment advisory services; an offer to invest in an a16z-managed pooled investment vehicle will be made separately and only by means of the confidential offering documents of the specific pooled investment vehicles -- which should be read in their entirety, and only to those who, among other requirements, meet certain qualifications under federal securities laws. Such investors, defined as accredited investors and qualified purchasers, are generally deemed capable of evaluating the merits and risks of prospective investments and financial matters. There can be no assurances that a16zâs investment objectives will be achieved or investment strategies will be successful. Any investment in a vehicle managed by a16z involves a high degree of risk including the risk that the entire amount invested is lost. Any investments or portfolio companies mentioned, referred to, or described are not representative of all investments in vehicles managed by a16z and there can be no assurance that the investments will be profitable or that other investments made in the future will have similar characteristics or results. A list of investments made by funds managed by a16z is available at https://a16z.com/investments/. Excluded from this list are investments for which the issuer has not provided permission for a16z to disclose publicly as well as unannounced investments in publicly traded digital assets. Past results of Andreessen Horowitzâs investments, pooled investment vehicles, or investment strategies are not necessarily indicative of future results. Please see https://a16z.com/disclosures for additional important information.
