Web 2.0 Discussion

Alright, I'll give this forum a shot. My website (http://www.wisdomdb.net) is severly lacking in users. I was wondering if anyone knows a way to remedy this.
I noticed that this site uses google's sponsered links, and I can confirm that at least one person found it that way . Is that what it would take to get some users? Advertising?
Thanks

Pyzer, what an excellent concept you got! Sharing wisdom is something society needs urgently, and I see good potential in the word of mouth marketing.

Have you tried offering incentives to your current userbase to refer friends and family? How many beta testers do you have currently? Usually if those are true beta-testers, they already have the initial motivation to join and test your service.

Btw, congrats on joining our forum. While we will start marketing it soon enough, and I will certainly add your site to our directory.

Best,

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Artashes Toumanov | Talkio Inc.

Yea, I think that concept of WisdomDB has potential, but, who whould have thought getting users would have been harder than programming it

There are currently 13 users signed up, mostly people that I know that didn't go on more than a few times, so I guess they arn't true beta testers. But it isn't their fault, they don't think they have much wisdom... perhaps I should pick their brains.

Maybe you are right about offering incentives. Then people lacking in wisdom could help if they wanted. Would it be something like "Congradulations, you are now a Gold-Prime User!", or is there something else you had in mind?

Thanks

I wouldn't go as far as promoting the status of users, especially that you are not sure where you are taking your venture just yet. Leave user status promotions for the commercialization stage (users would see more value in getting promoted as financial value will be attached to it).

Since those joining in your initial growth period are joining strictly for concept/idea sake, you can thank them by running a contest in which top Wisdom'ers will receive a voucher/discount on product/service they would value every week/2 weeks/or month. It could be a cash prize (certainly appreciative to all users), it would however cost you money. Try talking to a commercial outlet the service of which would be synergetic to WisdomDB (educational, for example) and talk to them about sponsoring the contest with that gift (would NOT cost you money).

Hope this gives food for thought.

PS: In the meantime, I have added your site to our listing catalog, so that would hopefully bring some traffic your way in the long run.

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Artashes Toumanov | Talkio Inc.

Food for thought indeed.

Although having a sponsor is out of the question, I am considering the cash prize. Do those actually work? I can't recall seeing anything like that lately. I may do that as a last resort.

But, this conversation has sparked the idea of advertizing or something on some kind of frugal website. Thier users might wisdom db.

Oh yea, thanks for adding wisdom db to the listing, I should have probaby done that...