There are generally three ways: beg, borrow or steal. Beg - stimulating demand, i.e. marketing to random people or actually paying people to use the site Borr

There are generally three ways: beg, borrow or steal. Beg - stimulating demand, i.e. marketing to random people or actually paying people to use the site Borrow - grafting an existing community onto the site, i.e. finding a forum creaking under the weight of classified ads Steal - pulling users away from a competitor, i.e. specializing for a niche or SEO I would recommend the latter two when you're small. If you can find vocal and dedicated users, even from somewhere else, they're like gold.