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I have developed a website that i am convinced can be an asset to anyone. It's a refreshing idea and i have already copyrighted it. I'm graduating this year, since i'm finished with school.. i will eventually make it go live. I'm skeptical though that a big company could come and dissect my website and make their own version, which i don't have the money and the team to even compete. So i need to guarantee to stay ahead in the race, which obviously starts wit the users. How do i develop a strong network of users? My website hasn't got a niche but it's the methodology that is unique.

I have no idea how websites like Twitter and Facebook got so big... a larger company with a "researcher" could of seen the potential and have the infinite resources to create a better product and advertise on a larger scale.

I'm a one man team, i'll appreciate some advice on the cautious steps i need to take when i finally do decide to make the website live. The business side seems more difficult than the design/coding/testing etc.

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Without any idea of what it is your website will offer, it's hard to evaluate what steps you might be able to take. You've done the legal aspect (which may or may not be enforceable in such a way as to protect your business, but still necessary and prudent), which is the first step.

You need to keep an awareness of what your competition, or potential competition, are doing. You need to focus on improving your own business, so that you are constantly staying ahead of the curve (think Apple moving forward with the iPad2, while other companies are still trying to compete with the original iPad).

Funding can help you get a solid user base quickly by making it possible to run massive marketing campaigns. Getting that funding, though, is easier said than done.

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This is why venture funding is helpful for ideas like this. it helps you "explode" onto the market.

As others have said, enforcing patents is almost impossible... but you just said Copyright, which is intrinsic. Is it some kind of system you have built?

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yes it is system.. it can be copied just like i'm sure twitter can be copied. So venture funding is the best approach for a big lead? – user8859 Mar 23 '11 at 15:51

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