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2 weeks after launch, and no real traffic. What should I do?

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: 2 weeks after launch, and no real traffic. What should I do?

#11

Post by SwellJoe »

edawerd wrote: post #2

After months of after-work-hours programming, I launched my site http://www.mygrub.net but haven't seen any traction. Any tips for getting traffic? How did reddit get its very first users? I applied to YCombinator with this, but was rejected. Maybe for good reason =(

As Aston pointed out, it looks a lot like yelp. I can see you've tried to differentiate it with the "food blog" thing, and all...but I think those changes make it less interesting than yelp rather than merely differentiated.

Don't get me wrong, it looks really nice--nice design, cool features with the maps and all. Looks like you've executed well, but with maybe a somewhat weak idea. It can probably be flipped over into something cool. You just need to figure out what...

And you will need more content, as another said. Until someone comes to your site and gets value out of it, they won't feel compelled to pay it forward with a contribution of their own.

Re: 2 weeks after launch, and no real traffic. What should I do?

#12

Post by SwellJoe »

jmclain wrote: post #6
edawerd wrote: post #2

After months of after-work-hours programming, I launched my site http://www.mygrub.net but haven't seen any traction. Any tips for getting traffic? How did reddit get its very first users? I applied to YCombinator with this, but was rejected. Maybe for good reason =(

This is a very niche site. I would think that the type of people that would be into this service would be (mostly) over the age of 35. What type of marketing/market research have you done for your target demographic? Do you have an advertising campaign set up to reach your target? You have to realize that the kind of people that would like to share restaurant experiences are probably not the same type of people who e…

Food is a niche? Everybody eats...Most people prefer to eat good food rather than crap food.

Re: 2 weeks after launch, and no real traffic. What should I do?

#13

Post by davidw »

ivan wrote: post #5

Hi edawerd, reddit creators created :) fake contents in early stage to have something on their site.

I hate that - I don't think it's quite dishonest, but it doesn't feel real, either. Unfortunately, I think it's also a good idea:-(

Edit - hate is too strong a word, but still, it annoys me - see below.

Re: 2 weeks after launch, and no real traffic. What should I do?

#14

Post by leisuresuit »

edawerd wrote: post #2

After months of after-work-hours programming, I launched my site http://www.mygrub.net but haven't seen any traction. Any tips for getting traffic? How did reddit get its very first users? I applied to YCombinator with this, but was rejected. Maybe for good reason =(

reddit got its first users because Paul Graham linked to it. Remember it was a yc company. They were getting something like 3000 users a day in the first days. To me it seems that's the best reason to be a yc company, because you trade some share of your company to get free press and free traffic. Which is kind of expensive if you don't get it for free.

In your case I would perhaps consider finding a partner or something to link to you.

Re: 2 weeks after launch, and no real traffic. What should I do?

#15

Post by elialfordj »

Edward - don't let the nay-sayers get you down. Here's a few pieces of advice. First of all, for all of the users who don't sign up and are merely there to look around and maybe catch some reviews, the site has no local focus.(I recently read somewhere that a typical site with user generated content can expect around a 10:1 ratio of readers to creators - so this group should be important to you). I'm not particularly interested in seeing a Google map of reviews from Connecticut when I'm in Portland Oregon. I feel like you would do well to pick one or two cities, and focus your resources on reaching critical mass in those markets. I think what you have is cool. Talk to your friends and enable them with digital cameras. A lot of people eat out once or twice a day and even a few of these people using your site will really rev up the user experience in a given city. After you have 100, maybe 200 reviews. Reach out to local bloggers, small local papers, and some of your favorite restaurant owners. Maybe even print up some info and go talk to some of the more interesting restaurants in your area. Restaurant owners love getting reviews, and many will be happy to speak your praises to their customers in hopes of a good review.

Re: 2 weeks after launch, and no real traffic. What should I do?

#16

Post by elialfordj »

elialfordj wrote: post #15

Edward - don't let the nay-sayers get you down. Here's a few pieces of advice. First of all, for all of the users who don't sign up and are merely there to look around and maybe catch some reviews, the site has no local focus.(I recently read somewhere that a typical site with user generated content can expect around a 10:1 ratio of readers to creators - so this group should be important to you). I'm not particularly…

One last thing. When someone tells you that "people wont be interested in X", you need to seriously consider what they are really saying. For instance, "tx" says "is it so hard to accept that ppl dont' give a rat's a$$ about "blogging" about stuffing themseves with food? People like to talk about THEMSELVES. This is what drives social network sites." His claim that there isn't a mass appeal for restaurant blogging or reviews is legitimate. There probably inst. But there's definitely a market for consumption of that content, I won't even bother listing examples. He obviously doesn't know enough about content generation to understand the concept of power users and the influence they can have on a service like this. Anyway - You might even consider subsidizing meals to help generate content in the beginning depending on your available resources. Goodluck!

Re: 2 weeks after launch, and no real traffic. What should I do?

#17

Post by Tichy »

It reminds me of one problem that actually needs solving: have you ever worked for a company in a remote location, where takeaway is the only food you can get? There are usually loads of leaflets from takeaway restaurants lieing around, and it is hard to remember which ones were good, and which of their meals didn't suck. Maybe if your blog became more fine-grained (which menu did I choose), it could be used for that.

Re: 2 weeks after launch, and no real traffic. What should I do?

#19

Post by cyu »

I imagine people are just going to your front page and then leaving, so what I would do is experiment with the front page to see if you can get better engagement. Focus on getting users to make the next click. Add a 'Add a Location' textfield on the front page, so that I can add a restaurant right away. Defer registration until after they typed in the review. Make it easier to browse restaurants, it doesn't seem easy to explore anything beyond what was recently added.

Also, the content doesn't seem very localized -- I entered my city and state, but it seems to default to California every time.

btw, you have a bug when adding locations with a quote in the name (search for Rhea's or Provino's). I added a couple of locations for you, good luck. You should make a follow up post (after you fix that bug) asking everyone to post at least one location for you. Or maybe you can turk it (http://www.mturk.com/mturk/welcome)?

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