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Q: How best to populate a new site?

6 points by redcherry ↗ HN
I've posted something similar on Reddit - but didn't get very far (most of the responses degenerated into a joke, but that's probably because my example was about a dating site)

And, I saw a similar post here on HN which leads to the OP's blog at http://startupblog.wordpress.com/2009/09/04/inventing-demand/ - but I think that works only for places that do actually trade physical goods, like eBay or any store-like sites.

Anyway, I'm hoping I'd get more thoughtful insights here.

So the question:

How best to populate a new site? sites that don't actually trade goods? (or simply trade on virtual goods)

To put in context, think: - craigslist - reddit - personals/dating - music/book/reviews

Some suggested scraping existing content from similar sites to create the initial population (creating dummy user accounts) - but that seems icky. And, likely not tenable in the long-run - actual early users will detect/notice scraped articles.

Using/asking friends and colleagues might not be as effective (eg: not having enough good writer friends, or willing to participate in a dating site)

I think, there are also services out there that offer to populate your site (like this: http://www.evercurrent.com/adding_profiles.html) but again, new members will likely try to connect with the dummy accounts and not get a response, so will not come back or deem your site useful.

11 comments

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yan
There was an article posted here a few weeks ago about a guy starting a rental site. He basically created a lot of mock listings for popular products, and when someone actually chose to rent it, he'd buy it and rent it out to the person. Then either return it or keep it for more people (Memory not serving me currently)

edit: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=804310

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redcherry
Yeah, I read that one here - that's why I decided to repost my question from reddit here on HN...
zepolen
Classic chicken egg problem inherent with sites that depend on users to generate the content.

Without existing content, users won't find it useful. Without users you can't get content.

In any case, don't fake it, duping your users is the worst thing you can do.

byoung2
Depending on the subject matter of the site, you could invite users to a private beta, and once you have enough people signed up, they could start filling up the site with content behind closed doors. Then when you open, you have enough content to keep the masses happy.
DanielStraight
Make it useful for people to join even when no one else is there. If it's a dating site, offer them fun stuff like personality tests and what not that they can do only if they sign up / create a profile. You get the idea.
pbhjpbhj
Depending how evil you are you can follow the Facebook-app model of offering the personality tests, games and whatnot for free and then getting them to sign up to get the results - only let them know that they need to sign up at the end though.

This coupled with a minimal info request - name, age, email, location (at first) should hook you some punters.

Indeed a FB app is probably a good seed method (or would have been last year!) - something like "which of your friends is most compatible with you" ... you can snag extra info about them under the guise of refining the friend choice then at the end say "here's a list of people [not their friends other people near them] who might want to date you, get more dating suggestions by signing up".

redcherry
I've thought of using an FB app, but like you said - last year it would have been great: last year; instead of a quiz, some sort of game that collects the needed info peripherally might work (full disclosures in the game, to lessen the evilness of course)
DanielStraight
I would be much more likely to sign up if I was told in advance. I don't like to be strung along and tricked.
zaidf
You have to seed it with some content.
Mz
Is there market demand (ie some genuine unmet need)? If so, then put up some content and people will eventually come. It may be slow, depending in part on how much content you put up. I know of a site that started as a list of links and grew into a forum. The forum part took over and the resource part is now kind of underserved. I think the forum was better when the resource part was more important to the owner. I also know of forums that spring up spontaneously around good websites because folks want to talk and want to connect. People need a reason to be there to begin with.