I have a community web site that targets Polish-Americans. http://www.mypolonia.com I have setup myspace account and I have joined all Polish/ American groups there. I am active on their forums, and I have almost 1400 friends. I write blogs there and send messages to friends about events on MyPolonia.com Latest event I informed people about is: "Sign up for MyPolonia account and be entered into drawing to Win an iPod Shuffle + $20.00 iTunes store credit." Seems like it is not working, I get maybe one person a day signing up, some weeks are even worse than that. Any suggestions on how to increase my membership? Is it something I am doing wrong, is it just the bad economy?
Maybe the event title was too long. Try to make it short and you know: free is the magic word in the internet .
Yep, I would agree with the man above. Shorten the title some and include the word "Free". Also, don't fret too much, you're not the only social networking site struggling. I think you have a good concept though and at least it is a niche and you're not trying to compete directly with facebook or myspace.
It depends on how many are visiting your site. Not that many sign up anyway. Webmasters who know their shit, and they get a lot of traffic never used such "methods' to bring in traffic and repeat traffic simply because it doesn't work that well. Interesting, funny, newsworthy info is what brings visitors in, and, keeps them coming back.
Try to leave a comment on each friend. So they are notified personally by you. It has always worked for me. I wonder if Viral Marketing work this way. Let me know if it works for you.
Now that you guys point it out, the title is too long. Thank you, and I will try to incorporate FREE in there somewhere Thanks PHPGator, that is why I decided to start the site, it is a niche that does not compete directly with myspace or facebook. I think it would be a pointless for anybody to start a networking site that competes directly with these two giants unless you have a specialized niche.
Have you thought of any off-line marketing techniques? Such as posting a notice about your website at any local polish clubs? Too often people think the internet is the "do all end all" and forget about other avenues. You might also look for other polish sites on the internet and leave posts with your link in the sig file. There are a lot of different ways to target the audience you want--use your imagination and do a little brain storming.
I think its because your dealing with polocks HAHA (no offense not sure if that's offensive to Polski's) its just not that interesting unless you make it a little more fun not many people want to join add a little humor
i think your problem basically is there are not enough polish-americans who really care about being polish-americans