Kick starting a community

[nomax5]

I hope cscgal sees this because it was her response to the “Over 400 Members Hardly Any Posts” post that’s prompted me.

On my site members submit their favourite website and other members can vote for it. The plan is to build a list of the actual best websites on the internet as voted by the public.

Currently things like page rank, Links and Advertising budget are used to decide which is the best and that’s wrong!

So this is my go at democracy.

Initially I put all my favourite websites on there and then I went off looking for really good websites, the ones which are just good sites you know.

They were all in the New Releases section with 1 vote each.
So I created some fake users and voted some websites into charts, I wasn’t happy about this but I felt I needed to get the site populated initially so new visitors would find something useful.

The sites been going over a week now and I’ve had about 200 visitors, which I’ve worked for. Asking for critiques, posting on forums emailing friends etc.

The thing is they visit but they don’t vote? Consequently the site isn’t changing much and I don’t like that.

What should I do find more fun sites and get them into the charts? Or what?

That zwok game as been at the top for ages people email me saying it’s fun and addictive game and when I look they haven’t voted for it.

I despair. :sad:

The site needs to be moving and changing to be attractive.

[cscgal]

How about offering some type of "reward" in exchange for submitting new sites? For example ... list the latest five sites added to your homepage. Webmasters might submit their own sites in exchange for some temporary fame on your homepage. Or, perhaps you can run a "special" where members who vote get promoted to a usergroup with slightly more private messaging space or something. Or something ... :) The key is incentives, and they don't have to be financial.

[FSPplayer]

You did say you are only going for a week. Although 200 visitors that are unique is nothing stellar, it is still a good start. One week? That is not enough time to change your site dramatically especially when you see it every day. Try your hardest for 3 months, you will see a change in traffic and activitiy, as long as you don't stop working hard.

[cyfm]

Mate, you can't give up in just one week, one week and over 200 visits now that is not bad! Some people wait months for that kinda traffic. You really have to push the content out their and offer some sort of rewards or benefits for posting, what about a points system and at the end of the month a person gets a prize or somthing like that? But don't give up!