If your site has a "chicken and egg" problem, that is it exponentially more useful the more people are using it (and vice versa) then you're going have a bumpy

If your site has a "chicken and egg" problem, that is it exponentially more useful the more people are using it (and vice versa) then you're going have a bumpy road ahead. Chicken and egg suggestions: - Do all you can to make your site not appear a ghost town. Create content yourself, and hide pages that don't function without enough content until there is enough content. - Feature the best and most relevant content early on. This rewards your users, and gives visitors something to look at (while enticing them to join). - Kiss your early adopter's asses; make it easy for them to give feedback and more receive personalized responses. - Make it as easy as possible to join. This is by far the largest barrier to entry. If you can get users invested in joining before they join, that's great. For example, allow them to submit a comment, then say "this comment will be submitted when you sign up". Cheeky, but effective. - IMO, don't show "streams" of stuff unless that stuff is really awesome. If I see a stream of stuff and it looks lame, I won't be impressed that it occurred 3 seconds ago. - Make it look like a lot is going on. "A lot" can mean only a handful of things, which could all be made yourself.