How about starting by getting some target users using it and seeing whether they spread the word and recommend it to their friends?<p>The rest is all very nice, but a bit OTT for an alpha launch. Not putting down your work at all, but anything that hasn't got real users yet is probably still a <i>long</i> way from being worthy of being officially "launched".<p>If you media-blitz and overhype it and it's not ready, you'll end up pulling a Cuil and losing most of your target audience on day 1.<p>Once you have a few hundred normal users who are telling you your product kicks ass, then think about marketing. Until then, focus on getting your product right.
I'd do the early phases like this:<p>1.) Release to family members, trusted friends & people that have a stake in the project. Get their feedback.<p>2.) Release on news.YC. Get their feedback.<p>3.) Find some influential bloggers in your field. Don't release to them; instead, send them a personal e-mail asking for their feedback.<p>4.) Go to forums in your field, pick out some dedicated early users that are really into the space. Send them personal e-mails and get their feedback.<p>5.) Release to the blogs and forums you identified in 3.) and 4.) Pay close attention to feedback and iterate.<p>6.) Release on Reddit/Digg/the rest of your list.<p>I've been a part of a startup that tried the PR blitz thing and it failed miserably, because we didn't serve any useful purpose. Gotta make it basically good before people will pay attention.<p>There've also been several times when I've released on news.YC to a very ho-hum reception and then killed the project, or otherwise took it in very different directions. That's probably not the response you want to hear, but it's much better to kill a product without a market early than to keep improving it speculatively.
If you do announce something, don't call it a 'launch' call it an 'alpha.' When you do a beta, call it a beta. Don't use the word launch until you're ready, b/c any news is going to say "But you launched in August! What's new?" and all you can say is "We're out of beta" or something like that.
> 8. Create Wikipedia page for Onista.<p>Wikipedia is not a promotion vehicle and using it as such is one of the most blatant and despised violations of WP editing policies (which you should familiarize yourselves with). Your article <i>will</i> be speedy-deleted; moreover, it will be very hard to restore the article later on even if your project does become notable. Keep this in mind.
Hey, I Googled 'Onista' and found your recent Vimeo video: <a href="http://www.vimeo.com/1376104" rel="nofollow">http://www.vimeo.com/1376104</a> as well as some introductions in various forums. Looks like you're building up the hype well.<p>My 2c after watching the video: I don't understand the instant negotiation. Is there a limit on the number of times I can submit a bid? If not, can't I just start really low and then increment by $1 or $2 until I meet the minimum? If there is a limit, what's stopping me from setting up multiple accounts so that I can discover the minimum, then bid that amount on my legit account? Since this seems to be a major differentiation point, I hope you've ensured there is no easy way to cheat the system ;)<p>Also, how do people pay each other? If you're relying on people to exchange money privately, how are you going to handle disputes?<p>One more thing about the video: your accent. I'd try to get someone without an accent, probably a woman. I think this would appeal more to your target audience.<p>How many people do you have working on this besides you?<p>As far as the Onista site goes, you've done a fantastic job with it. There seems to do and explore and the interface is intuitive and clean.<p>Wish you the best of luck in the coming weeks!<p>Matt
Just release already.<p>This from 28 February 08 (and blog posts dating back about 9 to 10 months as well):<p><i>We have been working on our Social Marketplace “Onista” for quite sometime and every week (and every month) we think we are almost ready for launch “only if we fix these remaining little issues”. To be honest, there is no such thing called “little issues”. There are bugs in product (tons of bugs) and we must fix those before launching.</i>