21–30 of 39 posts
http://www.buzzshout.com/ http://www.launchfeed.com/ Social networks on Ning with collaborative blogs - write posts Google Ad-words Put a link in your email footers Make some good comments on Techcrunch with a link to your site
I've found the best thing to do it Press Release. Why? 1. It's syndicated across hundreds of websites including forbes.com and yahoo news. 2. People read them constantly to find what's new 3. Writers read them to get new stories 4. People in your industry read them to bring new apps to the limelight with their small audience and all other forms of promotion should compete with the press release, not supplement it.
Can you explain a little more about how to do this? Is there a place you submit your press release to get it "syndicated across hundreds of websites"?
We've been syndicated across forbes: http://www.forbes.com/prnewswire/feeds/prnewswire/2007/08/07...
and yahoo: http://news.yahoo.com/s/prweb/20070823/bs_prweb/prweb548843_...
it's very effective, as you can see. It lead on to other things like industry coverage and free links - we've had numerous travel agents cover us on their blogs or podcasts and a Forbes web article actually printed because of our press releases.
If you seriously want to launch this service you'll need to be ruthless about who you target. You're not going to get anywhere by playing nice and focusing on a handful of sites. Target everyone and anyone. Then go back and do it again. Marketers typically try to make 3 impressions on a person for any given product or service. And as others are mentioning press releases are pretty ineffective. I find it's always best…
While I'm not a marketer, targeting anyone and everyone isn't the way to go, imo. Despite all the greatness we think that we built, most people simply won't care. And spam is the evil that doesn't think it's evil because it thinks it's doing everyone else a service. "And I'm not saying that television is vulgar and dumb because the people who compose the Audience are vulgar and dumb. Television is the way it is simpl…
Either way, the social component makes it sound like you'll need to get over the cold-start "hump."
One more thing -- another poster suggested trying to generate a little bit of pre-launch hype. I've never, ever ever ever, seen this work out in a positive way. Once the floodgates open, users are almost invariably disappointed by what's available. The result is that you lose the (critical) attention of early adopters.
I'd suggest you go focused rather than shotgun. Who are your target customers? What other sites are they using? Are you a cross between eBay and Facebook? Who are the biggest bloggers out there on those topics? Target those people, like a laser beam, you should be able to guarantee coverage on launch day. Plus, you should be able to generate some hype beforehand. Start targetting these sites now. Tell them the launch…
To make things clear, yes we are building onista as amalgam of eBay, LendingTree, Priceline and LinkedIn. We are basically trying to close the gap between social network and a marketplace. We are also not as boring as auction or reverse auction.
It is a general marketplace and not specific to any niche.
The key take away from everybody's reply is
1. Pick a date. Sure We are confident that we will launch on November 1st 2007. (139 more bugs to fix) 2. Put a day counter on front page 3. Contact Bloggers that cover social networks and marketplaces and Web 2.0 in general. (Wish I knew where to find these bloggers) 4. Post on http://www.buzzshout.com/ & http://www.launchfeed.com/ 5. Post comments on TechCrunch with a link back to our site 6. Write a personalized emails 7. Though generating lot of pre-launch hype sounds very attractive idea it may not always work. as "ed" mention in the post, "I've never, ever ever ever, seen this work out in a positive way. Once the floodgates open, users are almost invariably disappointed by what's available. The result is that you lose the (critical) attention of early adopters". 8. Use SEO press release from PRWEB.COM for $200. (Any suggestions on services that can help us write a press release? I've never written one and certainly writing is not one of my great skills. Except javascript/css and html) 9. Send a link to the uncov guys. Loved this idea. Would be interesting to read how they will tear us apart.
Now I will post specific replies to each post here.
I'd suggest you go focused rather than shotgun. Who are your target customers? What other sites are they using? Are you a cross between eBay and Facebook? Who are the biggest bloggers out there on those topics? Target those people, like a laser beam, you should be able to guarantee coverage on launch day. Plus, you should be able to generate some hype beforehand. Start targetting these sites now. Tell them the launch…
Yes Onista is amalgam of eBay, LendingTree, Priceline and LinkedIn. We are basically trying to close the gap between social network and a marketplace.
We picked the date: November 1st. Will update the website with counter and the launch date
BTW, How do I find out who are the biggest bloggers in our area? I am trying to find on Google, TC, mashable as well.
Will start talking on different forums. Starting to search the forums now.
Thanks again for taking time and providing suggestions.
I'd suggest you go focused rather than shotgun. Who are your target customers? What other sites are they using? Are you a cross between eBay and Facebook? Who are the biggest bloggers out there on those topics? Target those people, like a laser beam, you should be able to guarantee coverage on launch day. Plus, you should be able to generate some hype beforehand. Start targetting these sites now. Tell them the launch…
I'd agree with everything here except to say pick a date for 4 weeks after you're ready. If you want a big launch, don't schedule it for the day you've just finished that last bug. Make sure you're really ready and then in those last 4 weeks you'll discover all those things you thought were finished aren't. Otherwise you're a big chance to miss the launch date and not be ready, that's bad news.
Your blog is very optimistic. You'll need that:) This is an interesting topic. I'm always trying to learn more about what other people do for publicity. I get really tired of all the bs stories with the founders who claim that they just told some friends and then woke up with ten million users the next day.
I know. I wish I knew the secret.
"My friends and I" Best foot forward, you know.
Thanks
Press releases and public announcements on these aggregator websites really aren't good. You need to find some more creative way to generate publicity for your launch. Since you're working on a marketplace, what is some high-profile good or service you could offer that would draw people in? Were you to release next week, a couple hundred copies of Halo 3 might just do the trick (though at $60 a pop that could get exp…