Getting traction for web startup

Those 6-7 people are the kind of users you're after. Think of an incentive to give these people in exchange for 3-5 questions you'd like to ask them about what they like about your app and what they don't. If you can get a pattern from such a small sample -- great! Fix the "bad" add more "good".

Find where these users hang out online and try to spread the word about your app there.

First thing is that you will need to create some content to get visitors take their first step.

If possible add trends based on the demographic of the user.

Also the Hot Trends section should be filled to the brim. When I visited I only saw iPhone 5 as among the hot trends. The empty look of the site will not invoke any interest among the users. Even if for the initial phase think about engaging bots who can post about certain hot topics to get the site going.

This is a great idea and it seems to work very well, but I would focus your efforts on the design.

• The page isn't displaying 100% correctly in Chrome on OSX, try browsershots.org for screenshots of the site in different browsers on different platforms.-

• text-decoration:none is pretty much a must for links

• The landing page needs more content. A suggestion for content on the front page is maybe to display some feeds of the highest trending topics.

• On the results page I would put the content of the story between the heading and the line that has the source & twitter/facebook links. I'd arrange it like this:

• You might consider integrating your site with Facebook Connect. Not having to register and login would be a huge plus on this type of site.

In general I think you've got a good site going and I could see myself using this site pretty regularly.

As some people said you are after those 6-7 people. On the side of your site, add a feedback popup/script. Tell them to give you feedback and tell them how you can get better. Involve those people in anyways possible. Get their attention.

If you have ads on your site, remove them for now. Also, I can't stress this enough. Your website is working good, your idea has potential but you need to.. ABSOLUTELY NEED TO consider design.

I want to see you succeed. goto www.psdtuts.com for tutorials. creattica.com for inspiration and metalabdesign.com if you want to pay someone.

Look at how metalabdesign.com makes their clients websites. Thats what you want to make. Clean interface, vibrant colors.

You'll meet your goal if you do so.

Certainly four key ongoing activities are:

1. Push out to new users
2. Engage with your base (those who try, those who dip in, those who become regular)
3. Measure everything you can
4. Split test different ways of working

One observation I'd make from your website is that you're making people provide email addresses before you show value. That may deter some people who may like your service from getting started; but it also means that you're getting email addresses from people who have no idea whether what you offer will suit them.

So far, you have 25% of the returners you wanted. Well, that's a start. And you can work with them. Maybe it'll turn out that you need 600 sign-ups to get 25 regulars.

Now go to work with the non-returners. Take a third of them and offer them some help. Take another third and just send them a reminder you exist. Take another third and give them a questionnaire.

And that way, you'll start to find what users are getting out of your service, what they're missing, and how you can improve their experience.

I think you're trying to solve a really interesting problem. I really want news that finds me! Best of luck.

i did a like on facebook to get you started! I would sign up for a google adwords account, after not using it a few months they will give you a free credit to get you started. Try out some PPC ads.

Also buysellads is a great place to advertise your venture.

The truth is, with any free product, its hard to get your users to actually participate. I am sure the numbers are similiar for many free services.

Check your web logs or analytics and try to find what makes your site "sticky" - what action/activity user who visit the site often do that people who don't return don't do (if you don't have any logs or can't tell exactly what every individual user does on the site everything and fix this first).

Now that you know what "sells" the site is feature X your goal is to get people to feature X as quickly as possible, make it more prominent in the UI and A/B test like crazy to find what changes to the web site increase usage of feature X.

• Write a blog about your product / domain, invite domain experts for an interview
• Social media - Follow people who would be your potential customers or who use similar products - interact with them, understand pain points.