Private Beta Test

[TC2]

I have searched on the forum and don't find my answer.

I am wondering how to start a private beta test web site.

I know web site such as Facebook, Gmail and many other popular social bookmarking sites started with one or more of the following ways to get people signup and use it.

1. tell a friend
2. Invitation only

I am working on a new user driven site that needs to collect a lot of information prior to go public for end user to see. Otherwise the site will look empty.

What are other ways to get people contribute to the site?

I have the same question about those affiliate advertisement companies. How do they get the advertisers to provide content prior to getting affiliate to publish them? It's like a chicken and egg question to me.

Thanks!

 

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[Runum]

I have searched on the forum and don't find my answer.

I am wondering how to start a private beta test web site.

I know web site such as Facebook, Gmail and many other popular social bookmarking sites started with one or more of the following ways to get people signup and use it.

1. tell a friend
2. Invitation only

I am working on a new user driven site that needs to collect a lot of information prior to go public for end user to see. Otherwise the site will look empty.

What are other ways to get people contribute to the site?

I have the same question about those affiliate advertisement companies. How do they get the advertisers to provide content prior to getting affiliate to publish them? It's like a chicken and egg question to me.

Thanks!

I have used RSS feeds to get some automatic, changing content on my sites. It does keep the site changing even when I don't have the time to post.

 

[AroundTheWorld]

You bring up an interesting topic....

Which comes first, the chicken or the egg? I think a lot of us here are struggling with that. How do you built a database, or content, or a community without any people?

and..

How do you get the people without the database, content or community?

 

[TC2]

My plan was to invite as many targeted audience as possible to join the private beta test for FREE for a period of time (3 months) and to allow serach engine to crawl the site!

When I collect enough data, I will open the site to the private beta for readers. However, the user who contriube to the site will want the pubic to see their content pretty soon (in 6 months, maybe). So I have to prove that they will get traffic when the site is opened.

In other words, I have to invite both the contributers and the readers to join the private beta test. My conclusion is this.

FREE for all!

If I provide a place for everyone to use for FREE, I think people will be willing to give it a try.

Now my new question is how to send signal out without making it sounds like another free crap or junky site.

 

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[Happy]

If I provide a place for everyone to use for FREE, I think people will be willing to give it a try.

Now my new question is how to send signal out without making it sounds like another free crap or junky site.

The design and content of the site will ultimately determine the impression people have of the material you have to offer. This site for example is priceless, yet all of the information is freely available.

The site which I run has a mixture of free and member based material. The free material allows users to try the material to see if it meets their needs prior to making a commitment. This methodology has also cut down the requests for refunds to basically zero.

Another thing I like about offering free content is that it helps SEO, which would be nil if everything was member based. (It's hard for spiders to crawl pages that require membership to access.)