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Ask HN: How to promote a new site and get users?

13 points by ToniVlaic ↗ HN
I am getting close on completing a project that I am working on for the last 2 years and now the most important part is starting: getting users to the site and growing the sites traffic.

What are the best ways to promote a new site and getting initial users? Should I hire a PR company?

9 comments

[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 26.9 ms ] thread
wj
I really enjoyed some of the tips in the book Start Small, Stay Small.
ToniVlaic
Just bought the book, thanks for the tip.
adidash
Is it for Zanda? :)

If yes, good old SEO is a great way to gain users. Especially for long tail keywords.

ToniVlaic
Yes it is for Zanda :), I agree SEO is one of the most important things or maybe the most important thing. I keep improving and optimizing everything and I am working on it all the time.
brotchie
Facebook advertising.

We were struggling to get traction in the market (http://portalcharts.com). We did a $500 advertising spend on Facebook tailored towards our target geography and demographic. The results were excellent: CPA < $1 per sign-up.

ToniVlaic
Thanks, I started already playing around with Facebook ads a while ago and I really do like it but I noticed that some of the users do create accounts they don't interact too much with the site or visit just one page. Of course this could be also a problem with the site and not the traffic. Since the tests I did a while ago I have improved the site a lot and I will start soon testing this more heavily again.