A few days ago, I launched my new site: The World, Your Stage. Somewhere in my mind I had the idea for a no-cost launch (the domain name was free from Dreamhost as part of my hosting package; the hosting I already had for other projects; the code and design was done in my spare time)

I spent a while getting it as good as I could while making it ready for launch. I put up an early version without full interaction just so people could get a feel for the idea. I cut down the feature set to only that which I felt was really important. A couple of days before I launched, I put aside some client work to get everything tighter.

I'd shown it to everyone I could get to, and was receiving lots of positive feedback about the concept. I was feeling good! I'd post it on Hacker News, and Reddit, and a bunch of other places, and I'd get traffic, then we'd be off!

I got pretty much nothing. My timing for HN may have been off, or my post in Reddit under the wrong subreddit... or perhaps all the positive feedback I'd gotten was mistaken. Whatever it was, the launch fell flat. I was gutted.

I had no real response from any social networks, despite getting re-tweets from a couple of well-followed users. I got a few curious comments on HN, but not much traffic. I got a few joke posts through from reddit, but ultimately nothing worth writing home about.

Now this was always a possibility. I'd been aware that I may not get a large surge of traffic (although I hadn't entirely prepared myself for practically no traffic.) It still stung though. My initial hopeful checks on Google Analytics started to turn into frantic refreshes (it was pointless, I know), and looking for a whole bunch of other places where I could possibly post it to try to gain some traction. I got annoyed that no-one had told me that it was a horrible idea, and annoyed at myself for not realising that it was a horrible idea, and then annoyed again that I'd decided a lack of initial traction meant that the idea was without any merit.

I decided that if people weren't interested, then I wouldn't be interested either. Why bother fleshing out the rest of the features if no-one will use them? Why should I waste any more time working on something that obviously won't work? I don't care anymore!

Yep, I chucked a little bit of a tantrum.

I've left it alone for a couple of days now, and I'm thinking clearer again. I spent time on the project, and I did believe in it. I still do believe in it, but I've come to realize that unless the idea is really spectacular, or you're really lucky, a no-cost launch just won't work.

So where to from here? Well I'm going to try to keep costs as low as possible for a while, and start a more traditional marketing campaign. I'll print out some simple fliers, and put them in a few places where I'd suspect people might be interested (read: local universities, book shops, art shops, etc.) I'll keep working on my planned features, and tightening up the things that are already there. I'll start gathering up all the "AdWords Credits" that I have lying around from signing up to various services over the years to see if they're still valid. I'll find an actual designer to give everything a run over and make what I've done more attractive.

I'm not giving up. I believe that this can work, and damn it, I'm going to make it work. I just need to find a way to speak to the right audience.

The world is your stage, even if you trip over in the wings.