There are so many startups out there launching themselves in “beta” or invitation only, like the web is a South Beach club or something. Many stay in that phase for a long time until they can finally come out of their cocoon and fly around the world. Many, sadly, will not make it.

So here are my 5 Ways to Better Launch a Startup

1. The Sign Up Page - So you’re almost ready to launch your startup but need a few more weeks to kick out the kinks. No problem, if you think put up a coming soon page to get some hype going will help then go ahead and do so. Just make sure you do it the right way. Give a little write up about what your application/service is about. Include some nice pictures to let people get a pictorial view of it. If you think your UI is unique, show a little without giving away too much.

2. The Hosting Plan - Make sure you know what you’re doing when ordering your servers up. If you’re not the tech guy in the company then hand this job over to the tech guy. Of course your business mind is always thinking about saving money, but sometimes you just gotta spend on a good foundation. Without it you will crumble. Be prepared for a 1000 visitors or 100,000 visitors. You must stand on launch day.

3. Sell the Present, not the Future - Nobody wants to hear from the outset we are working on these sets of features for the future. Everybody knows that you will roll out new features, what they really want to know is what you have now and what good can it be for them.

4. Launch Status - The minimum is a beta stage. Alpha, closed alpha, version 0.3 is not even worth anybodys time anymore. If you’re not sure about the product or how it will work then don’t go into it until you are 100% sure. In fact just drop the beta tag altogether, everything is always in beta anyway - nothing is final.

5. Simplicity - On launch the last thing you want to do is turn off people with a bunch of questions that have absolutely nothing to do with your service. Nobody likes to give away their address and telephone number, unless you are shipping something. Just an email and password is more than enough.

These are some very simple but sometimes overlooked steps that anybody who is trying to set up their own small internet app forgets to do. Either one or all can apply to any situation. I get numerous emails about new products and launches, most of them just look terrible or have one of the above things missing. From the numerous web 2.0 startups I’ve talked about there are many that are just lurking around the web taking up space.

Technorati Tags: web 2.0, startups, internet

About the author

Hyder has been blogging for the past two years on this blog. He started Weborithm, his web company, in 2007 and along with designing blogs and websites also releases various web related products.