Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

I would like to hear your feelings and advice about the best way to launch a website.

I remember when Google launched Gmail, they did so on a invite basis. Is that advisable, or did that only work because Google had established it`s name already and people were ready and willing to jump on the bandwagon. What about for completely new, unestablished players to the internet game?

How about invite codes for a membership based website (e-commerce)? I saw a CNet video where one of the featured websites that had released their beta site used invite codes. I`m not sure how successful the campaign was but it did seem like an interesting concept.

How would one go about promoting a website via an invitation based strategy? I`m guessing one would have to target their niche and announce some sort of reason for one to request an invite code.

Gmail`s invitation strategy required people to get invitations from other members who were invited. How did Google go about selecting the intial batch of invitees?

Is it better to launch as beta than straight off with the full fledged/featured website? What is the ideal beta period? Does it depend on the type of website it is?

Any input on maximizing the effectiveness of a website launch is appreciated.

I`d suppose that Google`s invitations to subsequent applications and beta releases would work only because of their massive "customer list."

A much better question would be to ask how Google became so popular back when they were competing against CompuServe, Yahoo!, and AltaVista.

Do you have an extensive customer list of people who already know who you are?

-------------------------

Web Design | Best Beef Jerky | ecommerce articles | Follow vwebworld on Twitter

The main thing, if you want people to come and stay, is make