SocialGO Owners Network

Hello,

I'm a brand new SocialGo premium owner here and I have a quick question. I'll be launching my site in the next week or so and I was wondering if you think it's best to only show the welcome screen on the home page and block out all the other tabs (members, videos, forums, etc.) until people log in. The reason I'm thinking of doing this is because if someone new comes to the site and starts looking around only to see that there's just a few members (because it's so new), they may think it's a dead site and leave.

By making them join before they see anything, that would cause the number of members to automatically increase making it look like there's more activity going on. And I'm hoping since they already joined, they'll participate and make the site grow.

So do you see any flaws with this thinking?

Thanks.

Mike

Hi Mike,

Welcome to SocialGO, and thanks for the question. We'll wait for other owners to give their input, but I don't think what you propose is a bad idea - you could even just make the Members tab and perhaps the Forums/Groups (if there's not much activity) visibleto logged-in members only while leaving the rest visible. Doing this while keeping the other areas of your site regularly updated with content would probably work best. Maybe add as many photos as possible, some video, too (relevant to your network), and keep an active blog/magazine.

Feel free to contact us any time at support@socialgo.com if you have concerns or queries.

I hope this helps a little.

Ryan

I'm looking to launch my site in the next couple of weeks too and was debating the very same issue in my mind. What is it that is going to give my site stickability and make sure people don't just leave as it is just starting up.

We suggest that you show as much as possible early on in your network's life....

Once you get a core group of members and content, then you can selectively limit access beyond the front page.

Think of it like opening a present. If you get a big box with nice wrapping, only to find out it's empty inside... you're going to be dissapointed. Not so much if you could see the contents of the box from the start.

Cheers!

EG
WidgetLaboratory
Feel free to contact the LAB for help any time:
help@widgetlaboratory.com or http://tokbox.com/EvilG

Thanks for the suggestions.

What I ended up doing is only showing the welcome screen right after I launched the site to about 100 people I had on my list. So far I have about 10 that became members and I also added some content (photos, video) so it looks like there's now some activity going on.

So tonight I made some of the other tabs available to everyone.

If you get a chance, please check it out and let me know what you think.

Thanks.

Mike
www.scrappingpeople.com