Best Ways To Promote Q&A Site

I have run out of ideas..

[anand84]

Hello all

I had launched a Q&A portal a couple of months back and now in the process of promotion. While it is accepted that Q&A are a fad with so many sites out there, there are some things about my site that makes it very attractive to my target audience.

Here is what I have been doing to promote

1. Write guest articles on websites which my target audience frequent
2. I know one website where hundreds of thousands of my TG visit. I find out contact information from the site and personally email each of the TG asking them to frequent. While most do not respond back, at least 2%-3% reply back saying they love the concept and would want to try it.
3. Have been commenting, tweting, etc. in order to build TG followers.

This apart, I have hit a roadblock in figuring out how I should promote my site. Unlike other Q&A portals, my website concept needs me to focus on the same crowd for both asking as well as answering questions. So, if I can just manage to find ways to reach them, I can stir up activity.

Could you suggest other ways I can promote my site? I can advertise on relevant sites, but I really do not have a marketing budget at this point.

Thanks

[rogerd]

It sounds like you are doing the right stuff, anand84. Guest articles, contacting enthusiasts (hopefully not in a spammy way), and leveraging social media like blogs and Twitter are all excellent moves.

I'd add:
- be sure you are optimized for search. If your content is behind a login, you will have difficulty growing. A Q&A site is great search fodder, as people will search using "question" language, e.g., "how do camels store water?" If you have a similar question, you may rank even though your site is new.

-Maximize the viral potential of the site. Be sure to enable sharing by your visitors (email a friend, tweet this, post to facebook, etc.)

-If practical, let your visitors subscribe to topics so that every time a new item is posted in their area of interest, they are notified.

Good luck!

[anand84]

Thanks for the post Rogerd., you have touched upon a few things that I am in fact in the process of implementing. I will be implementing an RSS feed for search queries in a few days. Also, the site has been SE-optimized.

[anand84]

contacting enthusiasts (hopefully not in a spammy way)

I've so much dreaded that it should not be seen this way. All contacts I make are to people who must be so interested in such a service, but they have not voluntarily opted in for my mail.

But there is such a thin line of difference between targeting prospects and being seen as a spammer.