Delayed Grand Openning

When to really show what your website can do

[zulufox]

I am doing a solo website (my first) and a HUGE topic that is pretty popular but there was never a site that dealt with the topic as a whole, only its compoenent parts.

Because of it being only me and being sucha a huge project I have abour 150 articles for a website/topic that really deserves 1000 articles because it consider it to be suffieciently convered.

The site is a How to Widgit site, but there are too few articles to really explain "how to widget" yet. I launched by website about 10 days ago and have been writing like crazy and getting submiisions etcc... etc... Google has been indexing my site but I am still FAR in the back of the pack... page 96 or something.

I have a list of about 340 other organizations who im pretty sure will want to link with me, also there is no other website like mine so i think i can get pretty high, probably the first page, but I ahvent asked them yet. This is because I am worried I will go to the front of the rankings but yet my website will not have enough information to KEEP visitors, they will come, see that it does not full cover the topic and then right my site off forever as half-empty.

Should I promote my site now, to get it to the top rankings while working on content, or should I not promote the site and make a grand enterance into the top google pages after I have more content

[PFOnline]

I would wait till the site is fully complete, and then "unveil your site to the world".

I made the mistake of getting antsy, and wanted my website to get visitors while the site was still under construction.

This isn't good because, if people visit your site and it's still a construction zone, and incomplete, the visitors may not like this and not return to the site again.

[moltar]

Not neseccerely. You can turn the whole thing around and make your visitors come back!

If you state clearly the date when the articles were written, and the date when the site was updated last time. And I mean clearly - so that user gets an impression that it's updated frequently. At the end of the article you can say what you will talk about next and when, or you don't even have to do that. Users will see that it is updated frequently and come back for more info.

They won't read all 96 pages at once anyways. At least I wouldn't :)

[zulufox]

welll see I was stupid...

I wrote articles in all the categories, so its 150 articles in about 20 categories/subcategories. Which makes each category look quite empty.

I should of filled each categories with articles before moving on to the next, so instead of everyone being disappointed, atleast some would be happy

[PFOnline]

Well, true... There are probably some exceptions to this, but I'm just saying I would wait until your site's complete before doing any promoting or link hunting, because don't you think webmaster's will more likely link to your site if it's done and looks good, than if it's incomplete... When you ask for a link request?

Just my thoughts... :)

[dirkz]

In Marketing you seldomly crank something out in one blast. First you speak of it. Then a little more. Then you show a bit. Then a little more.

I would publish the thing right now and start gathering links. And updating content like crazy. Moltar is right.

[Chndru]

First you speak of it. Then a little more. Then you show a bit. Then a little more.

Well-said.

[rossH]

you could give users the option to drop their email into a "one-time remind me" field, telling users when you have the next installment scheduled, and asking would they like the system to notify them automatically when the section or category or page gets updated.

Make it clear you're not harvesting emails, make it look like an automatic system even if you do it manually, and one-time means they get deleted from the system after the notification.

You can play with diferent degrees of stickiness in that sign up, and tailor it to each page or subject or category etc.

It's gotta be better than hoping people will come back to see you on a certain date in the future...

[2oddSox]

I'm in essentially the same boat zulufox. My latest gig is a pretty large affair (for my standards) but the problem is that I think up about 5 new topics for the site every day, and only write up about 2 of them. I seem to be perpetually behind the 8-ball and the site gets conceptually bigger every day.

My solution to this is to do something similar to that which Moltar touched on - I'll be getting the site live in about 4 or 5 weeks with the core information written, but on the home page having a 'this month's articles' sort of setup. I'll back-date some other articles into an archive of sorts to give the impression of an established site, and there'll be a preview of topics to be discussed next month (so I can buy time to write them).

There's good arguments for both options (launching when done or by drip-feed arrangement), but I realised I can't be all things to all people and if I wait until I've done all my content, well I'll be too old to enjoy the darned thing.

Good luck with yours,

2odd...

[zulufox]

I've decided to do a moderate approach.

I'm going to do the drip approach, but only in a month or so, giving me the time fresh out my site a bit.

I wont have ALL the articles I want, but I will have enough to make it the site atleast useful.