I need some advice, I started a SN about 3 years ago since then I have updated the site about a zillion times from bookmarking capabilities to importing your myspace profile blah blah blah blah blah .. It gets traffic, a nice amount but I'm lacking sign ups only 15-25 a day... What the heck am I doing wrong?
You need to make your traffic convert into membership....I would recommend offering them something in return for signing up...As to what that might be is down to you !
I'm on a really tight budget I don't know what i can offer, I'm already offering users backlinks links on their profiles twitter and rss feeds.. I fell like the site is just hitting a wall because I just dont have the money to take it to the next level.
You could create a few facebook apps with your site url advertised at the footer of the app. This would give you a fair boost however, running a SN site is a double edged sword....you need to offer something unique to your members in order to become a recognised SN site and unfortunately, this costs time and money ! For better SERPs & PR, you could try blog commenting as this will get you backlinks. This would also create traffic for your site and could potentially mean more members.