Website Promotion

Hi all,

I'm close to finishing my site which can best be described as a social networking / directory site (sort of google local meets myspace). I'm looking for some ideas on how to promote the site to get people to use it. My plan was to send emails to friends and family members but I highly doubt I will be able to get enough users without some incentive.

Any thoughts on how to market/promote such a site is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Frank

Find the local colleges, and make a flier. Then hang it up around the campus for people to see. Your target audience isn't your friends and family, it's the younger generation. On your flier have some information to why your site is better than MySpace and Google Local. You have some big competition. Good luck.
Chad

You can also try out myspace marketing, check out the myspace stats & few marketing technique in this blog;http://blog.eukhost.com/2006/12/08/...g-myth-or-math/

I like both ideas and will definetly start to put a plan together. Is anyone aware of any companies that specialize in that type of "flyer" (non internet marketing)?

I was also thinking of some type of incentive program where the person who provides the most content (and/or signs up the most other users) gets some type of prize or monetary value. Are you guys aware of this being successful? I heard that is how myspace got themselves their first few thousand users.

My company does specialize in doing the "Print marketing".

Check out our website 50 Marketing and I can also send you some of our sample work. How many fliers are you looking to generate and how much is your budget? It's things that we can discuss at a later date. Feel free to call me at the office (the number is on the site). I will be back in the office on Monday morning and will give you a call if you leave me a message.

Thanks,
Chad R. Smith (extension 257 if answering machine picks up)

You can find some other sites visited by young people (who are supposed to be your target) and advertise there

This is how I, myself, learn about new sites..through ads on the sites I usually visit..If they are close to what I am interested in - I go and try them out immediately

I like the idea about the praize..but you should have a very good way to protect against abuse (e.g I can create 10 different accounts under fake emails and apply for whatever the incentive is..). Maybe you can give something to the users with the most interesting profile or something

I sort of had the same question on how to promote my new site
www.pollburner.com

Its a free service that allows people to create web polls without the hassle of signing up / giving email address etc... we cut all that out.

Now I am curious how can I break into the viral marketing to get the word out? I firmly believe in my site, however I need to make people aware of it..

I would put your site on other sites that offer similar to the same service, but are a bit different.

One thing is that you need to define who is your target audience? Who are you going to get to use this product, and the more important part is why should they use your product/service instead of the others?

I understand that you have cut out the need for email addresses and such, but why would they have that in there? Does it make their system more secure, does it offer some functionality that you aren't aware of.

Just some thoughts,
Chad

NW,

For sites that have a developer type audience I find that sites such as dzone.com, digg.com, etc will get you some traffic.

I do like how your site is very simple and quick to use, well done.