Hired content writers to fill the feedback gap

The biggest struggle with any marketplace startup is balancing the gap between supply & demand. Solving the "chicken & egg" catch-22 is the reason most marketplaces don't succeed.

I had been thinking about exactly this problem when I purchased the site from Yash. In one of his posts, @csallen had made a really interesting comment.

"Another thought: What you have is a marketplace connecting feedback givers and receivers, and the canonical strategy for growing a marketplace is to prop up one side of it yourself. In your shoes, I'd prop up the feedback-giving side. Perhaps hire some professional feedback givers to always be present with high-quality feedback. That would make your site much faster and more reliable for people requesting feedback."

Bingo. I agree with this as well, and think you absolutely have to fill the supply to ensure you can meet any level of demand - no matter how small. For this project, that means hiring paid reviewers.

I have been getting a few clicks to my "Become a Paid Reviewer" call-to-action, but let's face it - my traffic is peanuts right now, and with even a 1% conversion rate this will take AGES to set up. So I need to fill the gap another way.

I already work with a team of content writers from my other projects. So over the past few days I've been doing some re-training with these folks so they can give robust, helpful, unbiased feedback.

Since my first sale I've been SCRAMBLING to get these writers online. Wish me luck. And let me know if you want to become a paid reviewer!