New site, offers a service, the best way to make people aware?

Hello all.
My new project is now online. It offers what I believe to be a unique service to people.
I am wondering the best way to make people aware of this site, and make them want to use it!
Money is an issue I'm afraid, so any free ways of doing this would be great.
Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

 

You can get 366 backlinks in 30 seconds -- go to the control panel in this forum and set up your signature. You have 366 posts here so your signature will be displayed under every one.

 

Doesn't work like that I'm afraid. Your sig will only start from when you set it up. It doesn't "go back" to every post. Nice thinking though!

 

Are you sure? I have experience from many forums powered by vBulletin (the same script which use this forum) and I always got signature links from the previous posts.

Anyway it is possible that the forum owner can setup the signature policy.

Why not to try it? We will see how it works

 

Okay! Here goes.....
The sig only works from when its set up. Thanks for your advice though!

 

OK, thank you for the test

 

Is it worth just counting on word of mouth?
Should I concentrate on building back links or concentrate on telling people verbally or visually about the site?

 

lol... just put you live link at your signature....

 

Do you think I should just set up forums for random businesses, and hope that their employees catch on?

 

Write a press release and submit it to prlog or other free sites. If you have a little money to spend prweb.com or prleap would be a good choice.

Maybe some would be willing to review you service site on the blog.

 

you can start writing articles and ask blogmasters if they want to publish your articles on their blog (with a link back to your site ofcourse)

pm if you are interested in this

 

Just one quick note... I have an error on IE6 for your website. The idea is pretty interesting and needs to be marketed to HR people for various companies. I'm not sure how to accomplish this exactly. It definitely seems like a tough one to market.

 

Hi, can you please give more details of the error?
It is a tough one to market, but it doesn't have to be aimed towards HR people. The beauty of the site is anyone can set up a forum for their place of work - its that easy!

 

Crikey - good luck with your "unique" idea - people are liable for what they type online, so what employee is going to stick their neck out on a public forum?!

Also no emploer (unless they are nuts) would endorse their employees using a forum to discuss their company that was not within their control on an intranet.

 

Thousands of people use blogs to talk about the place they work etc..
There is a level of anonymity on a forum, so I don't think anyone will be "sticking their neck out"
If used correctly it will provide a valuable platform where staff and managers can interact on a daily basis - something that very rarely happens in the workplace.
Anyone can set up a forum, whats stopping the employers setting one up first, then they can moderate it?

 

Not to deny that you have an interesting idea but how is your idea better than an employer setting up his/her own forum on the company network or using a wiki to manage inter-office issues? The reason I bring that up is that the answer could be used on whatever marketing materials you choose to use.

In your case I would advise a press release, and maybe a direct mail postcard--which could be expensive--but is more likely to get glanced at than any sort of unsolicited e-mail. So many webmasters think that if their service is internet based then 100% of their marketing efforts should be online as well. Do you have a budget for a direct mail piece or advertising in a business periodical?

The thing I would NOT do is just start setting up forums for random businesses and hoping that their employees catch on. Doing that could cause a whole host of legal issues--just using the company's name without their permission could get you in trouble and many employees are now required to sign non-disclosure agreements when they are hired stating that they are not allowed to discuss company goings on outside of the company under penalty of legal action. Be careful!

 

You make some interesting points - thank you.

For companies to set something like this is just another hassle for them, some have a similar service like this on the intranet etc..

What could make this more appealing for employees is that this is something that the company they work for has no (or very limited) control over. They can feel confident in signing up for the forum and say how they really feel about their issues about work without worrying about any repercussions from their bosses, and all this can be done from the comfort of their own home.

Don't get me wrong here, this isn't some "gripe site" I want people to use it for positive reasons.

Regarding using the companies name issue - yes it is a grey area. There are many sites, blogs etc.. where people have openly stated the name of the company they work for, and openly stated what it is like working there. Those sites are still online, so I'm not too sure where I stand with that one.
I have several disclaimers on the site and forums, so hopefully that will cover me.

 

You can check out how look your design in different browsers using this tool - http://browsershots.org/ (currently doesn't work, I hope it is only temporary problem).

 

Thanks for that! It just looks like it loads strange in IE6 for some reason?

 

I have submitted a press release to a couple of free sites, and I have stared emailing companies directly to see if they are interested.
Is there anything else I can be doing to get this off the ground?