Hello, We can see on the Internet a number of community web sites: Auctions, Classifieds, Social Networking, Dating, etc... Some of them are popular and there are lots of people interacting. Others are abandoned because no one visited. There's gotta be a beginning, how do you launch a community web site and make sure people are going to participate and come back? I mean, if I access one of these sites and I see close to no members, or no products (for auctions and classifieds), I leave and never come back. Do you think these sites owners add a whole bunch of zombie products and made-up members, just to give the impression to the visitor that there are many people already (while in reality there aren't). Or do they massively advertise and in the end some people stay and participate? Or maybe they have another technique? How do you think these web sites get started and gather visitors who always come back? How would you do? Thanks.
You're right. Lets use MySpace for an example. It obviously started out small time and didn't have many members at all. It was basically a community where almost everyone that was registered there knew each other. Maybe something like yourfacesucks.com is right now. Then the advertising came in and money was spent. Word of mouth came into play etc. So it starts out as a small community - But how do you even get the small community there when it's new and there's no one there? Well have all your friends sign up, Make some fake accounts if you have to and do all the free advertising you can. Even some small paid advertising if you wish. And if these people like the site then they'll come back and it'll be a small online hangout for them and they all know each other. Like forums. Then spend a million dollars on advertising and wah-lah
Thanks for your opinion, yes, I think focusing on a niche at least in the beginning, on a geographical region, etc... Helps a lot too.
You can also find people who will post to your community if you pay them. They may be able to sign in as several different people to populate the site quicker.