should I go global or local?

[MichaelCash]

I built a local discussion forum for a niche industry... Now after 4 weeks I realized that only 1 user signed up and it is hard to get people onboard. I posted a link and a small ad at a free local classifieds. It was designed as a local forum and it targets one large city around 10mln people where I reside. Now, I am thinking of pivoting to make it global to have bigger audience. To do this I will remove the city name from the domain and will start promoting it globally. The question is, am I doing a right thing? So "go global" means bigger audience, "go local" - more weight in the community which is important for me(maybe they will show me on a local TV one day LOL). On the other hand, it is better to have popular global forum than an empty local?

What do you think about this situation?
Any ideas how hard is this to onboard users for a local resource vs global?

PS I was planning to spend some money on advertising (up to $1K), but I was discouraged to start with this because I got only 1 user signed up so far.

Thanks,
M

 

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[MattR82]

What do you mean by more weight in the local community? How is that an advantage to you? If it made no difference to sell it worldwide why wouldn't you?

10 million is a pretty big city though. I don't know if not having enough reach is what your problem really is. Kinda need more info for everyone than that.

 

[Get Right]

Sooo, your current ratio is 1:10M. If you go global (and assume a similar ratio) you would be looking at 750 customers.

Is that how many you need to make this business work?

 

[MichaelCash]

What do you mean by more weight in the local community? How is that an advantage to you? If it made no difference to sell it worldwide why wouldn't you?

well, If I have a local resource then local people will know me if I attend some local events. Maybe it will be easier to promote it at local events if I ever come to this. Like networking is always local.

10 million is a pretty big city though. I don't know if not having enough reach is what your problem really is. Kinda need more info for everyone than that.

As I mention, I didn't start with active promotion yet, only free ads at local free classifieds. But I expected to see some demand, like at least 5-6 users to sign up. But I got only 1.

 

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[MichaelCash]

Sooo, your current ratio is 1:10M. If you go global (and assume a similar ratio) you would be looking at 750 customers.

Is that how many you need to make this business work?

yes, it will be awesome, if I have 750 users. BTW, I know most startups usually start locally, e.g. facebook, ubers, etc.

 

[MattR82]

Ok, so it's a discussion forum for a niche industry. Completely online. If it's a global niche then why not target the rest of the world? But putting ads in free classifieds isn't going to do anything. All I could suggest is joining other Facebook groups and forums that are similar, make yourself known as an authority or expert, help people etc. Then PPC? I dunno. I'm not really sure what it even is you are doing or if you charge for membership etc.

Edit: actually you know what, after I read your posts again.. maybe it's better for you to build an audience locally anyway how. It's a start.