how would you promote this sort of site?

[eMEraLdwPn]

i made this site (http://www.drunk-as-hell.com) almost a year ago, and it receives very little traffic per day. virtually all the traffic it receives are from the 2000 drinks and 500 drinking games that are on the site. the idea was for it to be a site like hot or not, but with drinking pictures. very few people actually sign up, and even less add pictures. the idea to me seemed like one that would spread by word of mouth, but either it isn't going to spread, or not enough people have seen it yet to start spreading the word. i think once we have more pictures that are funnier people would be more inclined to tell their friends about it...

i've posted on some forums before trying to get people to add pictures, and generally everyone seems to really like the idea, but it doesn't go anywhere. any help on how to promote the site some would be much appreciated

[michael_gersitz]

For one, make the site load.

(I waited 25 seconds and the site did not come up)

[eMEraLdwPn]

my server has been running incredibly slow for the past two days, but apparently it's only in certain areas? my admin said he'd let me know what's going on tonight... if you waited 2 more minutes it probably would have loaded... :P

[cameron]

Offline advertising would work best, I think. Make some flyers to put up at any local colleges and universities.

[eMEraLdwPn]

that's what i thought of too. i hung some flyers at my college recently.... of course the day i hung the flyers, my server went down for 24 hours. needless to say, there was no increase in traffic.

[cameron]

Sounds like you need a more reliable host before you worry about promotion.

[eMEraLdwPn]

the server i'm on has been under DOS attacks or about a month now. i've been on this server for about a year and a half now for free per an agreement with my friend who runs the server. up until this last month there was no downtime whatsoever, and everything was great (and free)... but this past month has been pretty bad. i'm going to be moving to a dedicated server this month probably.

[incka]

If you don't move to a dedicated server I can provide free hosting in return for a text link...

[chromate]

It is a nice idea. But, as you're finding out, it'll probably take more than just posters to get people to spread the word. It takes a large amount of force to get the ball rolling. What you need is to attack all angles at once. Take any media exposure you can get. Do you have a uni radio station? A uni magazine etc? It's a site about drinking, so promote it in uni bars and clubs with flyers / leaflets. If you can possibly afford it, run some competitions for the funniest pictures with drinking related prizes etc.

For people to recommend stuff like that to their friends, they need to see there's a "buzz" about it. They need to see other people talking about it, then it catches on and they do the same.

Another great thing you could do is play off people's naturally competitive nature. ie, select some universities where you're actively promoting the site and get them to compete against each other for the funniest photo etc. That's good for word of mouth, because people rally together for support in the name of competition and university rivalries are normally quite high.

In your promotions, don't focus on the site itself, but focus on the reasons why people should participate and post photos. Concentrate on what's in it for them.

[incka]

Make some very funny pages and submit them to college humor ;)

[James]

I'm thinking of doing that when I get my site up.

The best part is that even if CollegeHumor doesn't want it there are sure to be quite a few other websites that are probably able to give me some decent traffic, also.

[cozza]

I would try and echange some links with other Hot or Not companies see if you can raise the profile or joind the community