: How do you get a user base like Yelp did? I am working on a website that will be community driven by user generated content. I need people to write reviews and their experiences in similar

@Murphy175

Basically it's a combination of promotion/advertising in old media, promotion in social networks, SEO and other marketing magic (aka What Would Don Draper Do). The downside is that this requires a lot of money to do so you either need to have the money on hand or know somebody who'll provide it as venture investment or a business loan.

Now, you can go smaller and grow. Basically, you have to find something you can rank for in terms of SEO and/or isn't too expensive for PPC ads. If it's a topic people like to talk about and are passionate about, you'll get regular visitors, readers and commenters/posters (aka free content providers) in most cases. It can grow quite big over time. Consider how well StackExchange has done from essentially a small beginning.

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@BetL925

YELP did a lot of advertising when they first launched, I would advise following suit and getting a budget together for a large campaign.

Hooking into social networks would be a good way to make it easy for early users to share with their network of friends and colleagues.

Finally, I agree with @itpian .com - % of earnings and gamifying everything with a reputation system couldn't hurt!

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@Shelley277

The best would be, offer them some % of your earning and give them reputation.

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