my Social Netowrk idea, good or bad?

I have an idea that might get more people signed up to a social network I'm going to open up in a few days. I need ppl's opinions.

What if...when some one signs up, k, and after they've signed up they have to refer the site to three e-mails/people(via a form) in order to fully validate their account.

I've seen this method used on a few different sites but I don't know how effective it is.

 

How would that system make your site better than Facebook and other social networking sites? What do they gain by joining your site as opposed to others? It just seems that your system makes it harder for people to intially register which is not a good thing.

 

The problem is , why should they move from FaceBook , Hi5 , Orkut or Bebo at your site? Are you offering any interesting deal for them ?

Forcing them to refer is not a good idea in my opinion

 

That would actually drive people away from your site rather than the other way around. People usually go after sites that are "limited" or "invitation only" in access such as the way Facebook was originally. People already complain about the "invite or update your friends" options with Facebook applications due to the number of unneeded messages on profiles, imagine if that became the way to get validated after joining. You might as well as for a credit card number (kidding by the way)

 

Thats what I was thinking also. One of my goals is to strip down as much sign up bs as possible. This site I'm working on is going to be for bands, artists, fans etc. where bands can sell their own music. The owner of the site(me) would make a small percentage from each sale made by a musician.

I don't want to compete with Facebook but more with the music and band social network sites.

thanx for your opinion

LOL, the credit card thing might be worth it kidding of course.




Thanks for the help and your comments!

 

Isn't that close to a pyramid scheme, just without the money?

1 person signs up -> 3 refers
3 -> 9 refers
9 -> 27

 

I don't think it'll work as you think it may. Instead, a constant reminder of the ability to refer may be better. Such as on the homepage.

 

yeah, maybe an option where a person can tell-a-friend while viewing a song, band profile or image etc. or as you said, on the homepage. I think, the less forceful the site is, the more eager people will be to come back and use it.

Marketing it properly would be number 1. instead of just tell a friend, I could have a little space that says "know someone who would be interested in this" or something like that.
thanks

 

What you are saying is that you are thinking about using something similar to Viral Friend Generator by Mike Filsaime?

I am sceptical to that kind of systems, but if it is going to work, I think that you really need to give them an incentive to refer 3 people. Give them a gift when they do, or upgrade their membership.

If they just need to refer 3 people in order to sign up, many will probably just leave your website, or they will sign up themselves three times using different names and e-mail addresses.

Jens

 

Thats a good idea, something tricky that makes it sound like their doing their local bands a favor. like "Promote your favorite local bands"

 

About your comment regarding the site being for musicians to sell their music, I think Myspace is coming up with a service exactly for that purpose. Kind of like iTunes. You would have a hard time competing with anything like that where there is a base group of users well above millions. Unless it is for a niche subgroup but then you would not generate any volume thus money.

 

When a site asks me to do that I just invite my self at one of my junk mail account. The account that I never check and use for signing of on website when I don't want to give them my real address.

 

i don't think its a good idea to force people to refer friends in order to get validated. some will just not bother with it and leave. this method will question your site's credibility

 

I'll try to make my site different, test different methods and see what works best and appeals to users the most. If I never try I'll never know, so I'm going to work hard at it.

 

that's the worst idea i've ever heard tbh...

 

LOL, finally someone spices things up around here

 

Hi what is actually your business model? Did you actually identify a problem in the market?

 

no one's gonna do that.

i paid 1 dollar for someone to invite another person, and no one did it.
100 ppl = 100 bucks

my links below

 

Bad idea. Your site must offer a very good thing to make people to send invites to 3 friends...