Thread: What do you do on the first day when launching a fresh site

After great feedback from people here I decided to go ahead and open FREE dating site for a specific community.

Problem is that it’s a fresh start with no members right now. I am still working on cleaning up the site so that it can launch in Sept.

Some questions come to mind and am sure the great folks here with their experience can provide valuable input.

1 On Day one how do you start? Is it like a blitzkrieg of advertising in various sources so that people start coming or is it a slow trickle to begin with and start placing ads in various places over a period of time?

2 I don’t want to buy any old db from others as the profiles won’t be relevant at all. Should I create like a bunch of dummy profile just so that there is stuff out there when people start coming in. How many is usually enough?

3 Next questions is on ethics. There are too many pay sites in my niche which are really ripping of users with their convoluted pricing schemes. Is it legal to send messages to their members to come see my site? can this cause legal trouble down the line?

4 What kind of publicity stunts have people usually done just before launch. banners? message board notices? radio ads? parties? friends sending out messages?

5 Any specific items you have to be aware of before going live? Legal stuff, registration etc? What are the gotchas that usually come up that most wouldn’t normally account for?

I know everyone is very busy with their own work but I would really appreciate it if you could take out some time to provide feedback as this would be valuable not just for me but the community as a whole.

Cheers

Originally Posted by benDerek

1 On Day one how do you start? Is it like a blitzkrieg of advertising in various sources so that people start coming or is it a slow trickle to begin with and start placing ads in various places over a period of time?

You might want to start out with some Google AdWords based on your "niche".

2 I don’t want to buy any old db from others as the profiles won’t be relevant at all. Should I create like a bunch of dummy profile just so that there is stuff out there when people start coming in. How many is usually enough?

This is common practice - as a site with 10 users does not have much attraction. You may want to make several hundred or a thousand. Also, sometimes scripts that take these users offline/online, do profile views, etc - can make the dummy profiles seem more realistic.

Maybe not really a great thing, dummy profiles - but unless you have a bunch of people you can get to join your site quickly (friends, schoolmates, etc) - it maybe necessary.

3 Next questions is on ethics. There are too many pay sites in my niche which are really ripping of users with their convoluted pricing schemes. Is it legal to send messages to their members to come see my site? can this cause legal trouble down the line?

Also common practice - legal - don't know... moral, up to you.

4 What kind of publicity stunts have people usually done just before launch. banners? message board notices? radio ads? parties? friends sending out messages?

All of this helpful - but be careful of the cost of things like radio ads - and before spending money on premium things like this , make sure your site is ready for launch. To often, I see people buying advertisements, and scheduling a start date for the ads - but their site is not ready on that date.

5 Any specific items you have to be aware of before going live? Legal stuff, registration etc? What are the gotchas that usually come up that most wouldn’t normally account for?

Decent backups... always good to have. Test everything. Join, profile edit. Searches. If your site has a checkout - make sure it works.

Good luck!

Smoge