How Typefully got its users

Ship a hosted page the author actually wants to post, not a badge. Typefully never stamps 'sent via Typefully' on the tweet. It builds a second, more readable version of the same content: an unrolled page where a 14-post thread reads as one article, on a permanent URL at typefully.com. Find the format where your users' output is painful to consume (a fragmented thread, a 40-minute recording, a spreadsheet nobody can open) and host the clean version yourself, on your domain. The author posts the link because it fixes their reader's problem, not yours.

done whenYou can name in one sentence the reading pain your hosted page removes, and a user would still post the link if your logo were not on it.

Pre-fill the link into the thing the user is about to send, at publish time. Typefully attaches the unrolled link as the last post of the thread inside the compose flow, before it goes out, and the author can delete it. It is not a share menu they discover three weeks later. Do the same at the exact moment your user finishes, exports or publishes: put the public URL in the draft and let them remove it.

done whenCount the clicks between 'user finishes the work' and 'public link exists inside the user's own post'. If it is more than one, the loop is not running.

Own the furniture, never the content. On an unrolled page the thread text is untouched and the author's avatar and handle sit at the top. Typefully takes the top left logo, the 'Create profile' link, the 'Try Typefully' button and the footer line. The page reads as the author's; the frame reads as Typefully's. Watermark the header, the footer and the domain, never the work itself.

done whenShow a hosted page to someone who does not know your product. If they think your company wrote the content, you overstepped. If they cannot name the tool that made the page, you are invisible.

Put the sharer's referral code in every outbound link on the page. Links leaving an unrolled page carry via and typ_source params, and Typefully runs an affiliate program at affiliates.typefully.com paying a recurring commission on anyone who signs up through a via link. Posting the unroll link stops being a favor to the vendor and becomes the author's own revenue line. Generate the code automatically for every user, not just applicants, and make the payout recurring so the reason to keep posting survives month two.

done whenOpen one of your public pages in a private window and inspect the outbound links. If the sharer's ID is missing from the query string, nobody has a paid reason to keep posting them.

Let the arriving stranger read free, and put the account wall one step later. A visitor on an unrolled page hits no login, can browse the author's other threads on their Typefully Profile, and can start on a free plan the same day. On shared drafts the wall sits exactly one notch further: reading the draft and its comments is open to anyone, leaving a comment requires a free Typefully account. Copy that ordering, consume free, contribute costs an account.

done whenWrite down the first action on your public page that demands an account. If it comes before the visitor has received anything, move it back one step.