Launch Days

[Sneakyheathen]

Ah. Launch days still bring back nostalgia. When everything on the website is finally prepared and all that's left is to bring in traffic and start building a legacy. Of course, launch days also bring anxiety. Are people taking interest? How much content should I put into my site? Is everything prepared right? I think the proper way to start off this blog would be to give you a breakdown of how to handle launch days.

Build It And They Will Come, Eventually.

"Build it and they will come....eventually..." It's true that people are looking for resources. However, trust takes time. Visitors have to read your information, view your content, and see that you're consistent.  Once they begin to see your website as creditable, they'll come. Some tips to getting your content out there:

    * Post a few articles on forums. Posting insightful articles makes forum members respect you (provided you post them in the correct places) and then people will start to notice. Before you realize it, the link in your signature will be getting more links. A respected member of any community gets attention.
    * Create a blog. People enjoy reading blogs, for no discernible reason. Create a livejournal, blogger, or wordpress account and start posting. Your new posts will automatically be displayed on a "last updated" panel on the service's home page, and users will start to read it. Sneak a few links back to your main site, and you may attract some stragglers.
    * Social bookmarking rocks. Services like digg and technorati allow you to "claim" blogs, and you can rep your own content by posting it to social bookmarking sites as well. People will stumble upon it and be drawn to your website.

The Three A's, Advertise, Advertise, Advertise!

Another thing about launch days is the amount of work you have to do advertising. While content is king, nothing beats plain old word of mouth. The steps in advertising are obvious, find some directories and start linking. However, it's more than that. Some things to consider when advertising:

    * Webmasters are not alone. There is probably someone out there who has a concept similar to yours. If you can, build an affiliation circle. Sites that support and represent each other with links and the occasional mention. Be careful, however, that your affiliate doesn't steal all of your traffic!
    * Signatures are for more than userbars. Link to your site in your forum signatures and become involved in a community. Again, once they see you're interesting, they'll visit the link.
    * Directories are king, if you avoid the spam. Submit your site to directories everywhere. Beware, as you'll probably want an alternate email address for the spam that might start rolling in. Something like [email protected] should keep it manageable.
    * Nothing beats word of mouth. Your friends may be interested in the project you're working on. Ask some of them to talk about your site with people they know who might find it interesting. As well, you could try posting up flyers or posting on a bulletin board (in the real world). People still read paper.

The Website Is Only As Successful As You Are Committed

You have to realize that you are the main drive behind your site. If you run forums but don't post, then nobody else will. If you don't update your site regularly with fresh content, nobody else will care. Communities become self sufficient in years, not days. You should start launch day with a bright attitude and remember to keep up the following practices:

    * Be enthusiastic, not pushy. People are drawn to electricity, but put off by outright cockiness. You need to believe in your community, and give it a small nudge here or there. Remember to encourage and reward members and to always present your readers with fresh ideas.
    * Change is scary for everyone. Try to deter from changing the website theme a thousand times or switching directories when you're just starting out. If you find that you have to constantly test things, create a duplicate site in a different directory (like yoursite.com/demos/website/) and test things out there. There's nothing more annoying than an unstable website.
    * Give them too much, they become dependent. Give them too little, they feel abandoned. Do not flood your site with updates everyday, as people will fall into the pattern of things rapidly changing. However, remember to try and keep updates on a constant basis so your members always know what's going on. Try picking a day of the week to make a news post about all of the new and current happenings. If you have nothing to say in the way of updates, then just try and put up new content, ask members for feedback, or discuss things happening on other websites related to your topic. Find a nice, steady rhythm.

Be Patient!

This cannot be stressed enough. It's just the first day, you can't expect a flood of traffic and hype. Just relax and realize that running a website takes a lot of work. It takes time to develop an active community of visitors. So stop looking at the unique page hits, take a deep breathe, and get down to other tasks that need to be done. When in doubt, take a break and watch some television.

[christicehurst]

Great post, I still remember my first day of Writersmuster too. Members will take alot out of this.

[HoTmetal]

Nice post.

I really agree with the "affiliation circle" and new content. Its very important to plan ahead and release a steady stream of content, rather than putting it all out at once.
This shows a steady growth and also gets your users involved in the discussion further adding to the content/popularity of the site.

[sokki]

Thanks for your tips Sneakyheathen

[agentbrokerforum]

Great information, for someone like me(newbie) this is what i needed.


Real Estate and Mortgage Forum [nofollow]