Ask YC: How to create enough content for launch? | Hacker News Reader

Ask YC: How to create enough content for launch?

9 pointszabub5 comments

How does one go about creating content on a site to have a public launch of a site that would interest others to stick around and contribute? (ie - if you were building a site for customer reviews of companies in a certain industry)

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For threads like this, you'll want precede the title with "Ask YC:"

I would look into using Amazon's mechanical turk to get it populated.

Edit: I see you fixed it. Cool.

I don't know of any silver bullet, but this is something I've spent some time thinking about regarding my own startup. Our approach is to prioritize quality over quantity, to encourage the type of community-driven content we're looking for down the road. Generic or low quality content populating an unfamiliar site can't result in a positive impression on your users.

Basically, the challenge is to find someone/people with strong writing skills and domain knowledge pertaining to whatever your site is about. Is that you? If yes, why not just crank away for a week or two on the keyboard? If you're satisfied with the content you've produced, but conclude that you need more, then at least you'll have some sample material to present to prospective pre-launch contributors.

I'd be happy to discuss this issue further with the OP or anybody else directly (check my profile for contact info). Our pre-launch content creation challenge is quite different than needing lots of reviews, but it is similar enough that perhaps some mutual benefit could come of a discussion with someone dealing with this, or a similar, issue.

I would look for "power users" or early adopters that have some loyalty to you or your company. You can try to bring invite some from competitors or meet some on some facebook groups, be imaginative. They should be able to generate enough content for you to attract real users.

Perhaps you could create a designation for sponsored reviews and request that companies provide reviews to seed their profiles. The key is clearly denoting them as "sponsored."

Go for a beta launch and use that to prime your content base, to give you something to build on? Rope people into doing work!

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