Am I doing something wrong, or is there something else I should do?

Please, don't think like that. Just because I ask so many questions doesn't mean I'm new to the Internet. I have seen some things. You and me could be providing a far better service than the so called "major" players, just because we don't rely on our success and constantly monitor our sites and answer to members problems immediately. Do you know how many complaints I've seen concerning the way a certain "major" player responds (or doesn't) to their members problems or questions?

The sad thing is that noone knows about it....

 

I think you should change your domain name (you can give it to me and I can redirect the traffic to Project4Hire.com ). You should use a domain name that has the keyword "freelancer" such as eufreelancer.com

 

The thing about this sort of site is, it relies on a "network effect" more than anything. The more members you have, the more useful it will be to your members. So the big sites tend to get bigger no matter what they do, and the small ones get stuck in a rut because nobody will sign up.

This has me curious.

 

Obelia, try this for starters:
http://www.alexa.com/data/details/main?q=&url=www.scriptlance.com

I think that the point of this discussion is to find ways to promote such a site (small one) so it can get bigger and may benefit from the network effect.

 

If I were in your situation I would try this:

Step 1
Create an incentive for buyers to sign up. You already have your €3 sign up bonus - which is great. Maybe play around with the amount to see what gets the highest number of signups.

Step 2
Write up all the advantages for your users including the bonus above. Things like a fast customer service as you mentioned. Just simple concise bullet points, people want information fast and they want it simple.

Step 3
Compile a list of the top Webmaster forums around. Most of these forums have a buy sell trade section like here at DP. This section is full of webmasters looking for help programming or searching for freelancers to help them out. There is usually a services section where u can post.

Step 4
Post items 1&2 in these sections announcing your website as a viable resource to meet their freelancer needs. Really try to push the idea of your sign up bonus. The critical aspect here is to provide them with immediate value for signing up and using your website. Your sign up bonus does this well because they will immediately gain a benefit.

Alternatively, you can also buy sig advertising space of the forum members that have high post counts in that section of the forum.

If you successfully complete these steps on 10-20 forums you will be getting a large volume of direct exposure to your target market and providing an attractive monetary incentive to turn that exposure into sign ups.

Potentially, you only need to produce a small number of sign ups to get the ball rolling. If your website provides a great service, people will come back and better yet recommendations will spread by word of mouth.

Remember the critical aspects of a campaign like this is that you must provide a large enough incentive in order to produce sign ups.

If your having trouble thinking of incentives how about:

- A referral program
- Discount on first project (perhaps pay a percentage of the cost)
- Free Stuff – people just love free stuff – I would go for some webmaster ebooks like: SEO, Marketing, Programming. You can find thousands for free with resale rights to give away.

I suppose you could also try some PR. Submit your sites advantages to PR sites perhaps you can generate some hype with some of your free stuff.

Hope some of this helps.

 

Who said that it would be easy, huh?

Vigor, if you have ever bought sig advertising space, can you tell what an acceptable price would be? (thanx by the way, great advice!)

 

I cant really tell you what a reasonable price would be. Perhaps a few $ a month max for a frequent poster. I think its a matter of you chooseing what you wanna pay. Some members will adversite for you for next to nothing - after all its either the price ur offering or nothing at all.

 

Yes, but what would you consider a fair price? What if someone asks $100 per month for something like that. Is that price OK?

How much money would you (as Vigor) ask for this?

 

Id ask for between $5-$10 per month

 

The going rate is $10 per month per 1000 posts, for a member with good reputation (ie, is not likely to be banned, suspended, or lose their sig through infractions). Also look at which forums a member tends to post in, because you need to advertise to the right audience.

This is pretty damning, even considering the handful of "reviews" that are mainly plugging competitor sites. It's quite useful as a lesson in how not to run this sort of site.

 

A good way to do this is to have projects of your own that you'll post on your own site, as well as on Scriptlance, GetAFreeLancer, etc. Then you can say "project posted here and on Eulancers, GetALancer, and others" etc.

But I must emphasize that these need to be legitimate projects (graphic design, programming, copywriting, etc.) or it will come off spammy. And if someone wins the work on anyone of those sites, you need to cancel the project on all the others.

 

They sure are, huh? How do they do that?

 

I would like to wish everybody a happy, prosperous and dream fulfilling new year!