[Blambu]

Howdy all

Me and my partner have been developing a website for the past couple of weeks and it will be launching next week, or just after. The website is aimed at females and their clothes. I hope it will build a good solid social community as the site involves photos of the females clothes, shoes etc.

However, I probably have about 10-20 people (male) who I know would help me out and begin being members on the site, however, because the site is aimed at female I think I am going to find it very hard beginning the initial task of getting a good solid member base.

The site could be opened to the male audience, but I don't think they'd enjoy talking and taking photos of their handbags, shoes, dresses etc.

Does anybody have any experience in setting up websites that are specific to one gender? And what is the best way to go about getting these members? It's been a very long time since I've launched any sort of web application, and this is probably my first which is big for us.

Any advice and tips would be greatly helpful

[ALTWeb]

I see a whole lot of advertising for things like this with companies using social networks to widen their client base. I've had a few add me on myspace and the like, and they seem to have a large collection of friends on there who are interested in what they're offering. Obviously I don't personally know how successful it is, but it looks like it works. Maybe that would be one step? I dunno.

[Jock]

What about paying someone for data entry? e.g pose as fake members to get the community started. A lot of people do similar things on forums.

[robbydesigns]

I'd start by building up a fan base on Twitter, before the site is ready, that way people spread the word and you get some possible members.
Some people think Twitter is a boring, useless, waste of time but the truth is there are millions of people chatting and sharing information and links every day - you talk about the things that interest you/the subject of your website and people will Follow you (I can create a nice Twitter background for £30 for that pro branding feel), once people start following you they tell their friends, and their friends, and their friends, you get the idea...and all of these people are already interested in your subject. Nice

[terydinho]

Offer incentives. That is the key thing.

I would do the following before the site launches...

1. Set up a twitter account / Facebook profile

2. Offer a range of prizes for silly little things... for example £50 river island vouchers for the best one liner... eg I love *insert random thing to do with your company here* becuase... and then the best five word answer as voted for by the fans (set up a poll somewhere) and also, do things like a meal for 2, theatre tickets for 2. Basically set aside about £350-£500 for prizes. Another good one is to make it a prize draw, but only if you recruit 10 people to the twitter account or something like that.


This should allow you to build up a base of fans really quickly, and as long as you are very open and transparent (basically DO NOT spin them a load of crap) then you should get a fair few solid visitors who are loyal.

Make the comps or prizes tied into your brand/usp/company and that will help with the association.

PM me if you want a bit of consultation on this

Tel

[BlueDreamer]

Blambu, on 30 May 2010 - 01:43 PM, said:

The site could be opened to the male audience, but I don't think they'd enjoy talking and taking photos of their handbags, shoes, dresses etc.

Blokes don't openly talk about their own handbags and shoes until they hit 40