How to get my first website member?

[C.S. Abbink]

Hey!

It's a bit early to ask, but is something I worry about. There is a great idea in my head, which I will actually start planning and implementing this weekend.

It is not like eBay at all, but I guess eBay faced the same issue: How do you get your first member? Why would he put his item(s) up for sale on a website that has no other members or even visitors.

Do I just buy a massive amount of traffic onto the website (as the site is useful to almost any human being), or maybe start out to invite a couple of friends, and let it spread like that?

To me the latter seems like a good option, but the site is about something specific. Maybe similar to a dating website. In the beginning there might be some hesitation from visitors to actually sign up.

I'm guessing a lot of you guys have dealt with the same, and if you could show my some tricks or let me know where to look, it would mean a great deal to me!

Chris

 

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[CreateLiving]

Sometimes much like Quora and Reddit you have to fake it until you make it. I would recommend making a few accounts of your own and registering them to show people you have a service worth signing up for.

 

[wzrd]

Sometimes much like Quora and Reddit you have to fake it until you make it. I would recommend making a few accounts of your own and registering them to show people you have a service worth signing up for.

Can't say this enough, if you do a little digging on reddit's story you'll find out that at the beginning they had pratically no users and had to create discussions themselves.

Other than that, approach the online communities related to your idea, if it's a good idea (brings value), you'll likely experience sucess.

 

[CreateLiving]

Totally agree with the online community outreach method as well.

 

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[C.S. Abbink]

Createliving and wzrd, thanks alot for your response. I feel that your advices apply mostly on platforms like forums or places alike.

The website type I talk about is where the visitors provide the value for the other visitors. Much like ebay or datingwebsites. Ofcourse I could fake accounts, but wouldn't that lead to unhappy visitors as the fake members won't provide value?

 

[CreateLiving]

Createliving and wzrd, thanks alot for your response. I feel that your advices apply mostly on platforms like forums or places alike.

The website type I talk about is where the visitors provide the value for the other visitors. Much like ebay or datingwebsites. Ofcourse I could fake accounts, but wouldn't that lead to unhappy visitors as the fake members won't provide value?

I understand what you are saying. You could potentially create multiple accounts and have them interact with one another in the same fashion you'd eventually like your real users to interact. We are getting into some abstract shit here though..

 

[C.S. Abbink]

I understand what you are saying. You could potentially create multiple accounts and have them interact with one another in the same fashion you'd eventually like your real users to interact. We are getting into some abstract shit here though..

Yes, quite difficult right? I am almost sure I would be able to get free publicity from mediums like tv or radio, but there is nothing sexy about a website without users.

 

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[CreateLiving]

I would take a grassroots approach and just try to build some brand awareness through communities such as this first. Another forum which has proven successful at driving users to your site is money maker discussion forum. Also build a social following to drive new users. What is your URL, i'd be glad to tweet it out.

 

[C.S. Abbink]

Thanks again! My website, as stated in the first post, is still theoretical. This is just one of my biggest concerns. Thanks for offering a tweet, although I can't make use of it right now, it is much appreciated!

Maybe I should try a combination. Fake 10-20 profiles in different areas, ask my social network to sign up and let them ask their social networks. After atleast 100 signups, drive traffic in all the ways I can think of. And then maybe I could pull off to get it some airtime on television.

Thanks again!

 

[sle3pyguii]

Hey!

It's a bit early to ask, but is something I worry about. There is a great idea in my head, which I will actually start planning and implementing this weekend.

It is not like eBay at all, but I guess eBay faced the same issue: How do you get your first member? Why would he put his item(s) up for sale on a website that has no other members or even visitors.

Do I just buy a massive amount of traffic onto the website (as the site is useful to almost any human being), or maybe start out to invite a couple of friends, and let it spread like that?

To me the latter seems like a good option, but the site is about something specific. Maybe similar to a dating website. In the beginning there might be some hesitation from visitors to actually sign up.

I'm guessing a lot of you guys have dealt with the same, and if you could show my some tricks or let me know where to look, it would mean a great deal to me!

Chris

You're gonna want social proof before spending too much money. I'd go with the second option.

Before you try to bring people into your community, I'd create fake accounts and have content already on the site, kinda like what Reddit did. No one wants to join a dead community, even if they are user #1.

Then, find people in forums or sites (like a specific subreddit on Reddit) that's relevant, and post something like "i just made this, which solves _________. Can I get your opinions and feedback?" If you're an active contributor in the forum, even better because more people will probably try it.

 

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[NicoleMarie]

You might be able to use this method: http://platformed.info/seeding-platform-standalone-square-opentable-delicious/

 

[sle3pyguii]

You might be able to use this method: http://platformed.info/seeding-platform-standalone-square-opentable-delicious/

Never thought about standalones. Didn't even know they existed for the purpose of seeding.

Looks like I learned something new today.

 

[NicoleMarie]

Never thought about standalones. Didn't even know they existed for the purpose of seeding.

Looks like I learned something new today.

yes it's quite genius. Unfortunately it's hard to create standalone value for some websites, like the ones mentioned. Guess this is where innovation comes in. It mentions dating websites being hard, but I suppose for example, you could give people the option to take fun and useful personality tests in the meantime.

Edit: By the way you guys, that whole website is full of great articles.

 

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[CreateLiving]

Some very good responses!

 

[C.S. Abbink]

Wow great! The standalone idea is awesome. Need to get a bit innovative for it, but it certainly is worth a shot! Especially in combination with the other suggestions.

Learned alot, thanks!

 

[healthstatus]

Get a "Coming Soon" website up ASAP and capture names and emails to notify people when a "select few" can get in by invite only. Then use above social suggestions to get people hyped up about it.

 

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[CreateLiving]

C.S. have you thought about what your domain might be?

 

[TJPB]

Create an awesome service and offer it for free. If you start having a lot of people sign up, you have some validation.

 

[johnp]

My answer is a little different. I'm actually living this.

Buy traffic. Your idea could suck. Or it could be great, but it could be a crowded market that you can't compete in..People might want to use your site or they may not. Everything right now is an assumption. The first thing that you should do is build something worth using...but sometimes people will even say that they will use it and it won't happen. I had a focus group of recruiters help me build the core feature of my site and guess how many of them use it..0.

I'm sure that the grass roots, blog outreach, word of mouth, organic traffic stuff works but it won't put one thousand plus users on your site in an hour like buying traffic can do. The more traffic that you can get to your site, the more that you can learn about your business and the needs of your customers.

You can also growth hack. Please don't ask me how, there are a lot of different ways to do this. I got my first paying user within 24 hours of my launch through growth hacking and I started the process of building two sides of my two sided platform through growth hacking..

 

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[C.S. Abbink]

Healthstatus: That is also a good idea. I'll do that in combination of all of the above! Thanks

Createliving: Not yet, brainstorm session will be held today. I'm thinking of a nonsense catchy word. But might be hard to catch the right feeling in a nonsense word.

TJPD: It will actually be a free service! The people bring value for each other on this website. I will monetize this by a couple of ways: Very well targeted ads, and when the site is bigger I will let other companies pay to use the service.

johnp: I will indeed buy traffic, just to get a LOT of visitors at once. My idea does not suck: I am not on a high horse here, almost everyone needs what the website will offer at some/several point(s) in their life. And it's for all ages! Plus there is a huge passion from me to get the website out there: If I make this a success, I will have fulfilled my main goals in life (morally and probably financially). And that's why I am prepared to go all in on this one.
Thanks for your comment, I will go educate myself about growth hacking.

Sorry for being a bit cryptic about the actual website. After development I will share the full idea with you guys.

 

[Soulipsyz]

I would read these two posts on Reddit, some very good information here.

http://www.reddit.com/r/Entrepreneu..._startups_such_as_dropbox_airbnb_groupon_and/
http://www.reddit.com/r/Entrepreneu...oes_dating_sites_get_their_initial_user_base/

Also this guys AMA about a social network he started:

http://www.reddit.com/r/Entrepreneur/comments/1wh555/ama_i_created_from_scratch_a_norwegian_social/

And Matthew Inman (creator of the Oatmeal) explaining how he started a successful dating site (mingle2):

http://schedule.sxsw.com/2011/events/event_IAP5551

 

[C.S. Abbink]

Thanks soulipsyz!

So here is what I got so far. It will be a combination of all marketing tricks we came across in this topic:

In beginning:
- Get the site up and running with a few friends to alpha test it
- Coming soon picture and a catchy video with narration which explains the goal of the website.
- Collect e-mails to notify when the website will go live. (maybe for beta testing, or another way to make people feel special)
Edit:
- Try to get another source of value to members. AKA, give them something to do until more people show up

After alpha/beta testing:
- Make some fake accounts to show a bit of activity on the website
- Get family/friends and their social networks to sign up.
- Message people on marketplaces to place their ad on my website
- This is something I need to think about, but maybe I only show the "ads" of other visitors to people who have signed up. This way they only see it isn't a really busy website until they become a member themselves. Also it gives me an opportunity to e-mail them (opt-in) when the site does get a bit more traffic)
- Advertise on marketplaces, forums, maybe even flyers on the supermarket boards (not sure if this is used outside the Netherlands too, but most supermarkets have a mini craigslist wall, where you can sell your couch or ask someone to take care of your dog)

After the a nice little base of users (hopefully after 2-3 days)
- Buy LOTS of traffic to get boatloads of visitors

After that:
- Try to get free media attention (TV/radio/newspapers). This idea is very social, my guess is that media will love to make a story about it.
- Get returning visitors by e-mailing/app notifications/SMS


For the actual start up I'm in a good position:
- My brother is actually a start-up specialist. He will take part in the upcoming brainstorm sessions.
- I have really excellent programmers, graphic designers, marketing specialists, SEOers and even a professional ( for discovery channel etc) narrator in my (first or second degree) social network.

 

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[C.S. Abbink]

A little update from the brainstorm session of yesterday.

First of all, my brother hooked me up with some awesome javelin boards. He teached me how to use the boards and it will help me to constantly find new problems and eventually solutions. Pretty awesome.

For the brainstorm session, thanks to you guys we were able to fill a nice A0 sized paper with ways to attract visitors in various stages of the project. We also identified what values we offer to our customers and what we need for the project etc.

Going to make a "war room" upstairs (as this is homebased), where we basically come to think, design etc. This will eliminate any distractions from personal stuff. Very excited to finally get a flow going, and I'm not going to stop! Today the second session will take place, and will try to identify the actions that needs to be done first. (Probably interviewing our potential customers).

Thanks a lot for all the good advice, hopefully I can provide value back to you guys.