My side-project is gaining lots of users, but things not working as I expected, help me understand why!
A few months ago I built an online book club platform as my girlfriend seems to really enjoy talking about the books she reads. I checked the market and saw there was demand so built bookeclub.com
The site is getting lots of sign-ups, people find the site on Google and register to create an online book club.
But they don't stick! They are supposed to invite friends (few people do), and use the discussion section (very few do).
I'm scratching my head at what is happening, people like the site, sign up, and then they don't come back?! I send weekly emails with a resume of what the book club will read over the week. Make it very easy for users to invite friends. And yet the amount of returning users remains low.
Help!
I signed up and didn't go back, sorry.
It could be that people are hesitant to give out their friends' emails. I'm now reading SNAP Selling and the author started with "everyone is very protective of their inboxes because they're so busy". If that is the case, maybe other sharing options, like a unique link people can share with contacts?
It may also be worthwhile connecting to the Goodreads API to show "most popular book in this category" to help people choose their next book.
In the email resume/digest it may also be worth sharing a list of "XYZ book club just finished ABC book and are going to read DEF book next". That might help people rejoin and engage.
I also agree with Dennismu that you'll need to gather feedback from both abandoned users and active users.
I think one of the challenges is that you are adding another dimension to reading, that if time. Now it's not only the book club picks the book but the club also picks the time it'll take to finish the book. In in-person clubs it's more of a vote and more flexible. I suggest the ability to make it a little more asynchronous. So, as you read you can make notes around pages of a book. Then in 10 years when someone reads the same book they can see the discussions regarding various pages and add their own thoughts. By doing that, people don't have to read the book at the same time to participate in the book club.
Hope that helps,
That does help a lot, I like the idea of adding notes based on the section of the book being read. We already send a weekly email with the information, still lots of things to improve.
How many users do you have? And how many have you talked to? Understanding these will provide helpful ideas as to what is going on.
It is easy to not talk to users in a software startup - but then you don't know what to do when things are not working.
People might not be coming back because a feature was missing, they could not figure out how to use it, or because they got busy with less important things.
Churn is a big problem for startups. You need to work on it in and there are lots of ideas to make it happen: feel free to disable signups by default and put people on a waitlist. Only allow people in after they have scheduled a call so that you get feedback and insights from them. Maybe also, schedule a followup call in a week. Or, start charging for your software, but waiving people to get in for free if they are part of a beta program.
I have talked to very few users, mostly talked with my girlfriend as I built this for her. Still this is a side project but is growing rapidly so I may need to talk with more users.
I could be wrong, but how This is different from aby social network group about books.
there are a few differences, for example, books suggesting and voting by the club members. It is not much different, it is a social network for book readers.
Sounds like they are expecting something they aren't quite getting. Have you asked some of those bounced users what they were expecting but didn't find?
Maybe they are looking for existing bookclubs? Have you installed tracking? Are they performing any actions?
I haven't talked with much users, I think that is my next step. Still, this is just a side project that is growing, time is limited!
Just email them one by one and ask them why they aren't using your platform as intended.
You'll definitely learn a thing or two.
not sure I want to do that, I was thinking of adding a chat widget so they can send us messages, then try to get some feedback from there.