Somewhere out there is someone that's looking for the functionality that you just built. Someone is desperately seeking exactly the technology that you just put live on the Internet. After all, it's a good idea! And that's why you built it in the first place!
But, now that it's up, or getting close to being up, you're wondering where you're going to get traffic for it??? I mean, you know your fans are out there, but how do you get them here?
Here are some ideas.
Put up a promotional site as soon as you can. Have a screenshot, and some enticing text or a small story to tell. Include a text box where someone can get an email notification when they can access your site.
Start a blog. Tell people about your service, but also post some helpful information that will be of interest to people using your up-coming service. Continue posting to it – make it fresh and up-to-date so people know that the lights are on.
Contact some people that are important in the blogging community your site is going to be part of. The leaders of the pack. The big names. Stroke their ego, give them something, make them feel warm and fuzzy because they're the ones that will cause the massive flood of traffic your way. They need to feel good enough about you to write about you. You don't need to choose someone with an Alexa ranking under 10,000, you just need to choose the right person. Give them access to your site, give them a free subscription, give them a bottle of wine – just get on their good side!
Once this person (people) has written something about your site, you'll start to get a little trickle of traffic (or a lot, if it's the right person). If you've done your job properly on your site, people will start to put their email in to be notified of the launch. Their curiosity will be triggered. They'll write about you on their own blogs, and the cycle will continue.
If you don't have enough traffic from this cycle, keep going after the bloggers – they all want to be the person to discover the next big thing. Once a couple of high profile bloggers writes about something, it trickles through the blog ranks, down into traditional media.
A few weeks before you roll out, put some more info about your product online. Get some screenshots or tours up. Explain more about why you're doing it. Share some stories about how this will help them solve a problem. Let a select few people start using the app if it's usable. Always push the email signup – one simple text box saying "Let me know when I can use this!" You want to have as many emails as you can by the time you go live.
When you launch the site, send out the emails. Get some testimonials from the beta testers. Get on as many blogs as you can. Put out a press release. Keep your home page updated: how many people signed up? How many successes can you count?
Set up a forum where people using the site can ask questions and quickly receive answers. People that are researching the product will see this and get an idea of how well you respond to your customer.
All sites should, if possible, offer free access. Offer a low-end free subscription and a high-end paid subscription. Get people in the door – let them tinker with the site and see if it's for them. If they need it bad enough to upgrade, they will.
I've recently read some excellent material that goes over this exact topic and much more. I can highly recommend the Getting Real ebook by 37Signals. It is both inspirational to the small Internet business start-up, and every section makes perfect sense.
You should also check out the recent speech by Seth Godin given at the Googleplex. He goes over a couple of the above topics (and much more) and agrees on the power of using bloggers to market your web site.
Good luck and happy coding!
TG