It's perplexing... the feedback is great. Anyone else have this happen and have any suggestions?
The site is a user-to-user marketplace.
Perhaps the market niche is not compelling enough for people to use. Or you're finding a population that doesn't have a compelling desire or need.
It appears you hope for an almost obsessive population to be your desired market. (I'm thinking of the legendary Grateful Dead concert tape trading era as an example of an obsessive trading population and community.) Are there additional potential markets for trading person-to-person that have an unmet need that might have a compelling payoff for you to serve?
I notice that there is some similarity in function to the Craig's List and eBay and Amazon markets -- are they inadvertent competitors?
Is community trust, and trust building, or trustworthiness measurement an issue?
What if I want to search by genre, or by other kinds of dimensions, and not by publisher?
Does there need to be a forum for the obsessed? The site looks like a storefront, not a community coffee shop to hang out in.
Could it be worthwhile to contact one-hundred-plus signups personally, hoping for an informative conversation. What other means and methods do people use if not your application? What do they like about your app? What do they find lacking? Is the community big enough to serve the population you desire? Are you capable of contacting every new sign-up for a while to learn what new signups think?
Could it be worthwhile to have a friendly and informative process (email?) that contacts signups perhaps once a week, during their first weeks, or first month, to remind them of their interest and your offering?
Does this essay give any useful perspectives for you? (Paul Graham's "Do things that don't scale") http://paulgraham.com/ds.html
What is your webapp?
What are the main features to keep people using it?
The app is comicswap.com
a handful of the new features (from the "launch" email):
* Dedicated Comic Pages with Multiple Listings (no more 1 listing, 1 page setup)
* Wantlist - Add a comic to your wantlist and get an instant notification when someone lists it for sale or trade!
* Over 180,000 Unique Comics Available to Browse on the Site
* Many Comics Have eBay and other retailers Piped In along with Users Listings for Comparison Shopping
* Robust Feedback System (on swaps too!)
* New Messaging & Transaction System Allows for External Swaps (you dont even have buy/sell/trade through our site to be able to track and leave feedback on your swaps!)
* Mobile Design - works on phones, tablets... pretty much anything except stone slates from the prehistoric age.
* For dealers and those with lots of comics to sell -- you can subscribe to a feed of items that receive more than 5+ wants from users and receive an additional bounty for listing these items for a quick sale.
The specificity of your app makes it that much easier to "reach out" to your demographic.
You need to be on the social networks as much as possible.
for example http://www.reddit.com/r/comicbooks
Also go to those cos play conventions and advertise on the floor. Get a stall
Maybe you already thought of all this but the biggest thing to remember is that it will take time because of how specific your app is.
If you want more and more people to use the app start selling action figures/ toys/ other comic book relevant stuff
I don't know anything about that stuff good luck