There was a good discussion on this a while back. I'll look for it.

One suggestion I would have is that you write some quality content that begs for replies. Then link to that from your sites that are getting traffic. Then moderate the responses to remove the spam. When people see there's no spam and there is a compelling reason to reply they make take the plunge. Even if it fails you have some quality articles ;)

By the way, Welcome to WebmasterWorld.com joe_in_nantucket!

thanks for delurking, joe_in_nantucket.
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What do i have to do to get people answering questions? [webmasterworld.com]

First of all, I apologize for posting in the wrong topic, guess I just missed this one.

I've looked around at some of the advice, both on WW and elsewhere and what I find is mostly geared to running a forum on a site which is not what I'm doing.

I appreciate the help so far, but perhaps I should give a little more info about my intended project.

- it is more of a social network, definitely not a forum, though I could add that later so users can interact with a wider audience.
- the intended purpose is to have the users interact with each other, not so much responding to articles, but I will have a blog to keep my users up to date on website issues.

So my fear is that people will come to the site, see that there aren't any registered users, and take off running.

My thoughts are this:
- to emphasize my 'newness' since the intended audience isn't tech, I wouldn't call it a beta period, though it is.
- to have a video, preferably narrated by a woman, to highlight my features and to have that on YouTube as well
- to encourage new visitors to notify their friends of the site when they sign up

I'm not a newbie when it comes to SEO just to running a user generated content / social network site (I never can get people to write in a forum to save my life) so any input from those who have experience in this area that can help me 'get over the hump' so to speak would be greatly appreciated.

Welcome, joe. Whether it's a forum post, a blog post, or an article, nothing draws commentary like controversy. Depending on your topic, something like, "iPhone - Overpriced, Underfeatured Piece of Junk?" will make people look for a way to respond.

The early days of a community or social network are the toughest, since as you note people see that there are few members and are reluctant to join. First, try to get as many memberships as you can from friends, online buddies, business associates, etc. In the early days, de-emphasize or eliminate any member counts, etc. where you can. Be sure that any queries get a quick response. Be prominent yourself. Once you prime the pump this way, you may be able to sustain a flow of new members.

I spent many years working hard to keep conversations going on my forum. Beyond the manual labor involved, make sure you enable notification features to keep new users in the loop when folks respond to their posts/questions, etc. Otherwise users fall through the cracks and may forget to come back!

Notifications have been our best tool for helping recruit return visitors.

In the early days, notifying YOURSELF of any activity is a good idea, too. A quick interatction with a new member can give the appearance of an active, vibrant community.

Excellent point rogerd. I may use that on my new forum.