Did I "half ass" my launch?
So I launched my side project, www.mmamatchups.net, a simple website for MMA fans. When I launched, I submitted the website to the MMA sub-reddit and the biggest/main MMA forums, as well as emailed several MMA journalists.
Results: Terrible! Got BANNED from the MMA sub reddit for posting my website, the MMA forums didn't allow posting it either, journalists didn't cover it.
Created an Instagram MMA profile and put the website in the bio, worked it up to 250 followers. Result: 66 users in 10 days with a 2min 12sec average session time and a 10% sign up rate. (Good Users)
Posted to a less relevant sub reddit, the Sport sub reddit and got 60 users, 100% bounce rate and 0min 0sec average session time. (Bad Users)
What else could I do to find a good launching platform for my niche? What else can I try?
(All the above happened in the span of 10 days)
THANKS!!! :)
10 days isn't a lot to base a decision on. What strikes me as odd is that you got banned from the MMA subreddit. I would assume these people like this sort of content, so perhaps it's just the way you phrased your post and your copy needs some work?
Exactly, I was amazed as well. I tried to post it, got rejected, then changed it around and tried again and got banned temporarily for "spamming my website".
I tried to be authentic saying I made it for us (the MMA community) and was looking for feedback, but they told me they don't allow advertising.
I think you are right @poehah, maybe I need to respect and examine the style of the platform more prior to posting.
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This is great advice! Especially agree with this part:
Makes 100% sense. Since I want to invest time in this market/niche I will start giving to the platforms I need before asking for anything in return! You guys are awesome thank you :)
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Having been in situations similar to this before, where I needed to advertise a launch on Reddit, my best advice would be to (in the future) contact the moderators of that sub and directly reach out to the users in that sub that are active and trusted.
Getting them to first check out your website and (hopefully) endorse and post about it will have 100x better results than you going in there and popping in like a salesman.
Many subs do not allow the direct advertisement of websites or services, since they know they are a likely target of frequent advertisement posts. So I would always reach out to the leaders of that subreddit or community to get their stamp of approval before doing so. This builds rapport and builds trust.
awesome answer man really helpful! Thanks
I recently soft-launched https://vanspiration.com/ on a sub-reddit. Prior to doing that, I had read and contributed there for a few months, seen that such posts were not inappropriate if relevant, and contacted a few key contributors to get their thoughts. It wasn't a booming success by any stretch, but I got positive responses. Since then, there have been posts where it's been relevant for me to add my deep-link with a comment.
You can see my launch post here and how I tried to give people specific examples that would best explain my plan:
https://www.reddit.com/r/vandwellers/comments/7slrfy/vanspirationcom_is_a_site_ive_started_building/
What is the final intent of your website?
Seems to me like you'd be better off getting into the live streaming market and promoting your page on https://reddit.com/r/mmastreams.
Can't people just Google matches?
Intent of the website at the moment is a place for people to vote for the MMA matchup they want to see. It is not a streaming website, my bad I didn't explain what it was in the original post.
This is a more generic question, validation is the goal, but not specifically for this project. Ideas and ways of finding a good launching platform when the mainstream platforms don't fit your niche and the platforms that do don't allow you to post your project.
i checked out your website , maybe work on the frontend design and make the site more eye catching/engaging i viewed via mobile and all i saw was a list of fighters
Thanks for the feedback man, will do if I continue with this project. :)