Show HN: GrowthHack as a Service – mturk + Google news api automation (opens in new tab)

(robogrowth.com)

22 pointsmakerops12y ago21 comments

21 comments

That's not growth hacking, that's spam.

This isn't spam by any means; it manually collates the email addresses of thought leaders in your niche, and provides them to you. It's up to you to start a conversation.

ceejayoz12y ago

I have a hard time accepting "this isn't spam" from someone who simultaneously uses buzzwords like "thought leader".

bernatfp12y ago

This is awesome. It reminds me of this (but automated): http://customerdevlabs.com/2013/09/24/google-news-api-mturk-...

You should take it one step further and automatize email sending to the authors collected.

makeropsOP12y ago

If you look near the bottom of our home page, we thank him for the "inspiration".

justinwi12y ago

Thanks for the shout. Let me know if I can be of service: http://sohelpful.me/justin

jonathanjaeger12y ago

I'm not a lawyer and don't know the intricacies of the CAN-SPAM Act, but I think one provision is that you can't contact people via harvested emails gathered by bots/scripts.

But this is done on mturk manually by people?

robogrowth12y ago

That's correct, we're not bulk harvesting emails by any means. We use google news api to find blogs, and articles written about your niche based on search terms provided. We then research those blogs manually with real people using amazon mturk for crowd sourcing. We then provide you with the blogs, articles, and information about the author so you can begin interacting with them.. Reading their blogs, following them on social media, and maybe pitching them.

watty12y ago

Right, they automated the manual process of gathering email... which I think is still automation?

jonathanjaeger12y ago

Hmmm, like I said I don't know the legal specifics, but if you scrape a site constantly, that puts a load on a server and has consequences. If you manually go to a site and find an email address that is publicly given for a reason, it's there because someone is willing to start a conversation about something.

davemel3712y ago

I am not sure how this tool is any better than buzzstream or followerwonk or ontolo ... Lots of cheap, free, or more robust tools that do the same thing...

I don't recall the company but if you look at the data providers on removeem.com they use a company with 80 million webmaster emails, etc...

AznHisoka12y ago

Hey Dave, what's your opinion on Buzzsumo for finding influencers and influential authors for outreach purposes?

uladzislau12y ago

How exactly did you automated this? Isn't it nothing more than arbitrage? Why would I pay you $60 instead of hiring someone's on Odesk for $10?

michaelbuckbee12y ago

I think with all of these sorts of outsourced items you have to factor in risk and quality.

Having this very narrow niche lets them really keep the quality level high as they can tweak and QA across multiple jobs doing the same thing.

huhtenberg12y ago

Do you provide a trail to the email addresses? In other words - if you give me ivan@kremlin.ru, can I see how you arrived at including it in the list?

makeropsOP12y ago

We do not right now, but it's not something that we couldn't work on getting rolled out this weekend.

ghaspland12y ago

I tried to place an order to how well the site works, and after I clicked the order submit button, the site errored out.

blakerson12y ago

I was looking to hire out some market research like this! I'll likely be a customer soon.

robogrowth12y ago

Any ideas you might have for the site, please let us know. We're looking to continue to build on our MVP.

dlsym12y ago

The devise forms / stylesheets deserve a litte more love...

paulshapiro12y ago

Super spammy

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

21 comments

minimaxir12y ago

That's not growth hacking, that's spam.

makeropsOP12y ago

This isn't spam by any means; it manually collates the email addresses of thought leaders in your niche, and provides them to you. It's up to you to start a conversation.

ceejayoz12y ago

I have a hard time accepting "this isn't spam" from someone who simultaneously uses buzzwords like "thought leader".

bernatfp12y ago

This is awesome. It reminds me of this (but automated): http://customerdevlabs.com/2013/09/24/google-news-api-mturk-...

You should take it one step further and automatize email sending to the authors collected.

makeropsOP12y ago

If you look near the bottom of our home page, we thank him for the "inspiration".

justinwi12y ago

Thanks for the shout. Let me know if I can be of service: http://sohelpful.me/justin

jonathanjaeger12y ago

I'm not a lawyer and don't know the intricacies of the CAN-SPAM Act, but I think one provision is that you can't contact people via harvested emails gathered by bots/scripts.

But this is done on mturk manually by people?

robogrowth12y ago

watty12y ago

Right, they automated the manual process of gathering email... which I think is still automation?

jonathanjaeger12y ago

davemel3712y ago

I am not sure how this tool is any better than buzzstream or followerwonk or ontolo ... Lots of cheap, free, or more robust tools that do the same thing...

I don't recall the company but if you look at the data providers on removeem.com they use a company with 80 million webmaster emails, etc...

AznHisoka12y ago

Hey Dave, what's your opinion on Buzzsumo for finding influencers and influential authors for outreach purposes?

uladzislau12y ago

How exactly did you automated this? Isn't it nothing more than arbitrage? Why would I pay you $60 instead of hiring someone's on Odesk for $10?

michaelbuckbee12y ago

I think with all of these sorts of outsourced items you have to factor in risk and quality.

Having this very narrow niche lets them really keep the quality level high as they can tweak and QA across multiple jobs doing the same thing.

huhtenberg12y ago

Do you provide a trail to the email addresses? In other words - if you give me ivan@kremlin.ru, can I see how you arrived at including it in the list?

makeropsOP12y ago

We do not right now, but it's not something that we couldn't work on getting rolled out this weekend.

ghaspland12y ago

I tried to place an order to how well the site works, and after I clicked the order submit button, the site errored out.

blakerson12y ago

I was looking to hire out some market research like this! I'll likely be a customer soon.

robogrowth12y ago

Any ideas you might have for the site, please let us know. We're looking to continue to build on our MVP.

dlsym12y ago

The devise forms / stylesheets deserve a litte more love...

paulshapiro12y ago

Super spammy

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse