
2 weeks after launch, and no real traffic. What should I do? - edawerd

======
elialfordj
Edward - don't let the nay-sayers get you down. Here's a few pieces of advice.
First of all, for all of the users who don't sign up and are merely there to
look around and maybe catch some reviews, the site has no local focus.(I
recently read somewhere that a typical site with user generated content can
expect around a 10:1 ratio of readers to creators - so this group should be
important to you). I'm not particularly interested in seeing a Google map of
reviews from Connecticut when I'm in Portland Oregon. I feel like you would do
well to pick one or two cities, and focus your resources on reaching critical
mass in those markets. I think what you have is cool. Talk to your friends and
enable them with digital cameras. A lot of people eat out once or twice a day
and even a few of these people using your site will really rev up the user
experience in a given city. After you have 100, maybe 200 reviews. Reach out
to local bloggers, small local papers, and some of your favorite restaurant
owners. Maybe even print up some info and go talk to some of the more
interesting restaurants in your area. Restaurant owners love getting reviews,
and many will be happy to speak your praises to their customers in hopes of a
good review.

~~~
elialfordj
One last thing. When someone tells you that "people wont be interested in X",
you need to seriously consider what they are really saying. For instance, "tx"
says "is it so hard to accept that ppl dont' give a rat's a$$ about "blogging"
about stuffing themseves with food? People like to talk about THEMSELVES. This
is what drives social network sites." His claim that there isn't a mass appeal
for restaurant blogging or reviews is legitimate. There probably inst. But
there's definitely a market for consumption of that content, I won't even
bother listing examples. He obviously doesn't know enough about content
generation to understand the concept of power users and the influence they can
have on a service like this. Anyway - You might even consider subsidizing
meals to help generate content in the beginning depending on your available
resources. Goodluck!

------
edawerd
After months of after-work-hours programming, I launched my site
<http://www.mygrub.net> but haven't seen any traction. Any tips for getting
traffic? How did reddit get its very first users?

I applied to YCombinator with this, but was rejected. Maybe for good reason =(

~~~
jmclain
This is a very niche site. I would think that the type of people that would be
into this service would be (mostly) over the age of 35. What type of
marketing/market research have you done for your target demographic? Do you
have an advertising campaign set up to reach your target?

You have to realize that the kind of people that would like to share
restaurant experiences are probably not the same type of people who enjoy
discovering the latest web 2.0 website just because it has been launched two
weeks ago.

~~~
davidw
"What type of marketing/market research have you done for your target
demographic?"

What kind of market research can you do on a shoestring budget?

~~~
yubrew
you'd be surprised. i work for a market research firm for start ups, and most
of it is knowing how to search online, figuring out who to call, and pounding
the pavement to get feedback from people most likely to use it.

that said, it's a lot easier to build something catered towards a specific
user first than to build something, and try to find a use for it.

------
cyu
I imagine people are just going to your front page and then leaving, so what I
would do is experiment with the front page to see if you can get better
engagement. Focus on getting users to make the next click. Add a 'Add a
Location' textfield on the front page, so that I can add a restaurant right
away. Defer registration until after they typed in the review. Make it easier
to browse restaurants, it doesn't seem easy to explore anything beyond what
was recently added.

Also, the content doesn't seem very localized -- I entered my city and state,
but it seems to default to California every time.

btw, you have a bug when adding locations with a quote in the name (search for
Rhea's or Provino's). I added a couple of locations for you, good luck. You
should make a follow up post (after you fix that bug) asking everyone to post
at least one location for you. Or maybe you can turk it
(<http://www.mturk.com/mturk/welcome)?>

------
edawerd
Thanks for all the comments and suggestions! It's all been very encouraging
and I now have a lot of new ideas as a result.

There were a couple suggestions about linking my site to other existing food
sites, like eGullet. I have a hard time thinking about how to do this without
having it appear like shameless self-promotion or even spam. I posted
something on chowhound.com about my site, only to find that it was quickly
removed as spam.

As for marketing, I'm working with a shoestring budget, which consists on
spending about 50 cents a day on google adwords. I guess I really just need to
go out there and tell more friends about it. For whatever reason, I tend to be
a little shy when it comes to making a big splash among my friends about my
startup.

------
orlick
Cool site. I co-founded a startup that was doing a very similar thing in 2002
(it failed). Here are some ideas that will hopefully make your site
successful.

\- Start off with a really niche site. For example: Vegan food in Portland,
Oregon. It's the niches that sites like Citysearch aren't serving very well.

\- Don't code any more features. Spend the next 3 months on marketing. Making
this site successful is an exercise in savvy marketing, not programming.

\- No one cares about keeping track of restaurants they visited. Everyone
cares about going to good restaurants. Same features, different message.

------
mikesabat
I think you want to focus, focus, focus. Ex. become the absolute authority on
Pizza places on the lower east side of Manhattan (or whatever your thing is).
Be SO important to a tiny 'slice' of the world that restaurant owners are
encouraging their customers to review.

Definitely post your own reviews and talk about the idea an insane amount = as
much as you can. How did CL grow - there may be ideas there.

All the easy ideas have been taken. Build it and they will come just isn't
easy anymore. You have to immerse yourself in the market to get traction.

If all else fails, hire some hot girls.

------
Tichy
It reminds me of one problem that actually needs solving: have you ever worked
for a company in a remote location, where takeaway is the only food you can
get? There are usually loads of leaflets from takeaway restaurants lieing
around, and it is hard to remember which ones were good, and which of their
meals didn't suck. Maybe if your blog became more fine-grained (which menu did
I choose), it could be used for that.

------
ivan
Hi edawerd, reddit creators created :) fake contents in early stage to have
something on their site.

~~~
davidw
I hate that - I don't think it's quite dishonest, but it doesn't feel real,
either. Unfortunately, I think it's also a good idea:-(

 _Edit_ \- hate is too strong a word, but still, it annoys me - see below.

~~~
timg
Have fun basking in your honesty, all alone on your fantastic new site.

(if you were against it, that is.)

~~~
davidw
I said it's a good idea, and think it's probably effective. I still don't like
it though, even if all things considered, there are a whole lot of worse
things going on.

------
ralph
The OP explanatory comment has drifted down the page by now. This feature
request would be useful to stop this.
<http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=1149>

------
ACSparks
I think menuism.com is doing something similar. They are based in Chicago and
are targeting only select cities at first.

------
socmoth
make something you want to use

------
sabat
PATIENCE, grasshopper. Give yourself longer than two weeks to build up
'traction'. The more stuff that builds up on your site, the more people will
want to go there. And that takes time.

I would not worry about yelp or any other sites people are comparing you to.
Google emerged after the problem of internet search was 'solved', and Flickr
appeared and succeeded after photo sites had been around for years.

You might want to concentrate on (and emphasize) what differentiates you.

If you have not already, use every channel you have available. Tell everyone
you know, and remind them. Link to other food sites (even competitors?) and
post on restaurant forums and sites.

~~~
sabat
More anecdotal info: Digg didn't have very much traction until Paris Hilton
had her Sidekick hacked, and someone posted a link to her photos. All of a
sudden everyone went to Digg to see Paris kissing girls, and apparently the
traction started there.

Even with a Digg/Reddit effect, there is no guarantee of traction. It takes
time and persistence.

~~~
vlad
No, it was the number one or two result on Google.

------
tx
"Ever wanted to keep track of all the great restaurants you've been to?"

The answer is NO. This is why you dont' have any visitors. Is it so hard to
accept that ppl dont' give a rat's a$$ about "blogging" about stuffing
themseves with food?

People like to talk about THEMSELVES. This is what drives social network
sites.

~~~
far33d
I guess you've never used yelp. Or read one of the many popular food blogs.

tx: just b/c you don't want something doesn't mean no one does.

~~~
davidw
This food social site is quite popular in Italy:

<http://www.duespaghi.it/>

