2
11 Comments

Is there a way to filter squatters from your SAAS?

Colleagues,

I recently launched www.workliapp.com and -with the increased publicity- I noticed new genuine users but also squatters, e.g. folks that are registering to Workli to use it to presumably spam ( which in this case will not really work for them). Right now, I am ruthelesly taking them down from the system BUT, the question is, is there an accepted way of filtering these other than manually?

  1. 6

    Remove your free tier.

    1. 1

      @omneity yes this is one simple possibility. Do you have experience on whether NOT having a free tier harms/helps the sales funnel?
      I wouldn't like to solve the squatting problem by potentially harming sales...
      What's your view Omar?

      1. 1

        What’s your current conversion rate from Free to Paid users?

        1. 1

          I dont have enough data to answer that, we just launched this a week or so ago. What I can see already is people (besides my early adopters while developing) registering to the free tier....

          1. 3

            You can in this case build your acquisition strategy in a way that doesn’t rely on a free -> paid conversion.

            Trials maybe, a public demo instance, youtube demos etc.

            1. 1

              Thank you. I think you might be right here. I will test for a while longer the free tier --> paid tiers funnel and if it does not work or free tier squaters cause too much trouble for me, then i will try this. thanks

  2. 4

    Do you require users to confirm their email address when they register?
    If not, you should add that.

    If so, then do you have different roles / or a way to mark an account as "blocked"?
    If not, you should add that.

    It's generally better to just block a user than to straight up delete it, as they can just re-register if deleted.

    1. 1

      David, thank you for your response.

      The app does indeed require a confirmation link click in their emails.

      I see the point of the blocked user. Its a possibility....

      thanks
      nat

  3. 1

    What do you mean by spam? It's not clear what they would do with an account on your app to spam others.

    If you mean that people are signing up for other people to spam them, you can stop that with a hidden form field on your signup page. Most bots will fill all the form fields so if you have one that is hidden from users (e.g. position absolute, left -5000px) then you can just reject signups that have that field filled.

    1. 1

      @ProfessorBeekums thank you!
      I didn't think of this, good idea!.

      Nat

      1. 1

        No problem! I had this issue for a while and then remembered that mailchimp has this in the signup forms.

Trending on Indie Hackers
How I grew a side project to 100k Unique Visitors in 7 days with 0 audience 49 comments Competing with Product Hunt: a month later 33 comments Why do you hate marketing? 28 comments My Top 20 Free Tools That I Use Everyday as an Indie Hacker 15 comments $15k revenues in <4 months as a solopreneur 14 comments Use Your Product 13 comments