We started this website http://www.respondback.com .. a unique opinion sharing site for social and political discussions. But found that we suck as far as marketing goes. Please help us in marketing and promoting the site. What steps do you think we should take ? Thanks for reading.
What is the revenue model here? Based on that your options can vary. Top 3 1. PPC (Google and Yahoo) 2. Co-registration leads 3. Social bookmarking sites. (Digg, delicious etc.)
Sorry, but I have to be honest with you. My first reaction when I visited your site were the colors. That pink/red is a little blinding. I understand what you are trying to do but the colors are a little harsh. I would make the colors a little more subtle. Also, the site is a little confusing at first. Make it a little more simple like Digg As far as promoting goes, you may want to think of giving something away (free draw). People will sign up for anything if they think they can win it. Maybe its just your web address on a flyer that you get people to hand out. Post the winner on your site. Maybe its a weekly contest for the best debater or the one how posts the most. Again, it doesn't have to be an expensive prize but something that will get people to post and keep coming back to win it. If your site is about debating, how about going to different debating clubs or schools and have them set up their own teams so they can debate each other. Maybe the best team wins some kind of trophy or something. Maybe they all have mascots and team photos or logos so they know who they are debating against. I think the team rivalry thing would be a good angle. Here there could be some sort of fund raising thing for the winning school. Donate a portion of your revenue to them or whatever. Anyway, I hope this helps.
I agree. I think a light blue that's easier on the eyes would compliment the green well. Your site is really unique, I like it. It seems like it'd be more geared towards the mature teen/young adult market, so finding ways of advertising can be tough. If I knew where you were receiving revenue from I could probably offer some paid advertising suggestions, but since I can't find any ads on the site I'll just assume that you want free advertising methods. The only suggestion I can think of is to scout for forums and pick out ones where there seems to be a mature user base with decent discussions going on. You could post new topics with the question as the title, and a link to the debate's page on your site.
Good comments, here's some ideas: 1) get a better webhost, currently your site loads slooooowlllly... 2) create "about" or "whadda heck is responseback" where you explain what your site is, and how people can benefit/use it 3) I'd also consider colors... Then in terms of traffic building: 4) Make some really heated topic - politics is about that - and use social bookmarking etc. to get traffic. I might wonder if it's good to have "social + politics" together... could you focus solely on politics for example? Now there was a question "Will you buy an apple iphone ?"... for some reason that didn't quite look what I expected initially from your site... 5) Check out political forums and comment there. Good luck with your site.
I would have more lead in's to the discussions. Like adding general intro to each of the discussions. I like the idea of your site, best of luck. AZ
Thanks for the feedback. The site as such is not strictly social and political.. its more of a platform for discussions .. but looks like from what you are saying, I need to focus on a specific category to attract serious users. Colors ... I will change the pink to blue. Theres as such no revenue model .. will be based on ads.. but for now I do not want to have ads on the site. I can spend some money to advertise .. if it helps get quality people... around $100 a month. Based on your feedback, thinking of giving away amazon gift certificates or maybe a book .. and publicize on sites related to the book discussions. I can do publicity online. I have someone who can work on the site for a few hrs daily.. so any ideas on how to use him to post content or popularize it. I did all the work a couple of months back ... and then gave up hope. Then thought lemme ask you marketing gurus what can be done... you guys definitely gave me some hope .... if one of you want to join me .... I will be glad .. as you can see I failed in popularizing the site... so if you think its worth it and you can market it .. well I can help you with back end support... few hrs daily of manual work, more features, some money for advertising and promotion ... Keep the feedback coming ... !!
I'm no guru but I would have a couple of ideas: 1) Please stop using so many dots.... please 2) Secondly: check out these traffic tips.