How to Populate a Site
Many people believe that marketing for the launch of a new product or service is a mysterious process. Not so. There is no ‘secret’ to marketing success. There is no magic button that you push and then sit back, relax and watch the traffic counter on your website suddenly go to warp speed. You still need to use ‘shoe leather’, that is, stop trying to push on a string. Sometimes, all you need to do is to ask people (either in person, by phone, by email or through your network of friends on the Internet) to support you and they will. It also helps if you have the endorsement of some influential people in your industry.
I recently asked Ryan North how he launched his democratic and transparent advertising engine, ProjectWonderful.com (which has become terrifically successful) and this is what he answered:
a) Qwantz.com was the main thing. It taught me the value of a “celebrity” endorsement. (The celebrity Ryan is talking about is himself, a well known writer of the daily dinosaur comic strip found at Qwnatz.com, Ed.) We had tons of people using PW on day one—I talked directly with everyone (sometime by phone, sometimes by email and sometimes by blogging about it on my site and others that I respect) and they were just waiting, eager for me to launch—so much so that I had to throttle signups just to keep up. It was one of the most flattering things ever to happen to me, even if I have to be a bit egotistical to refer to myself as a c-list Celebrity here.
b) It also helped that I have an IT background and was using PW myself. As a content creator, I knew what other publishers were looking for and needed. I also understood the other part of the equation—what advertisers were looking for, for example, I gave them control over the pricing for their own ads. That is, they were able to make their own determination about what the traffic on any site (and the quality of that traffic) was worth to them. I also protected the publisher because the price of each ad is posted right underneath each PW display ad and another advertiser can come along at any time and outbid the first advertiser. So rates are set by advertisers in a completely fair and transparent way while at the same time, content creators get full and fair value because the advertisers compete for the space.
c) Twitter would certainly have helped but PW launched before Twitter had traction, and I wasn’t using it then. If I had been, though, I would’ve posted about it. At the time I used blogs and other social media in much the same way.
d) Having a good product that solves a real problem as I did with PW was key but even so if you want to fast forward word of mouth and grassroots growth, having an opinion-maker (which doesn’t have to be a celebrity, but someone who others respect) using your product really helps. I think this is why companies send products out to people for their review but a product review is sort of a pale echo of what I actually was able to do with PW. An opinion leader reviewing your product/service is good; the same person actually USING the product/service day-to-day is way, way better.
I hope this helps! And yes, please feel free to share it with your students.
Ryan
qwantz.com
Ed. Note: I think Ryan’s pixie dust (other than the fact that he is a brilliant tech guy) is his quirky personality which people picked up on with PW. He spread the gospel of an open advertising platform through a vertical—comics, socially aware content creators and off beat personalities who ‘get’ Ryan. It then spread fast. But Ryan’s own recommendation and his ability to make direct contact with hundreds of launch clients was huge as well…