So here, in no particular order, are my favorite tips for getting a ton of members to your new social media site:

1. Refine your register and submission processes: These two pages are the funnel through which everything happens; if they’re not extremely easy and painless, kiss half your potential users goodbye.
2. Look alive: There should be new stories–on upcoming, and on the homepage–every single day. For the first few months, that’s going to be you and 3 of your friends (or perhaps you and 3 paid members/submitters). It’s the old chicken and the egg problem: You need to have an active community, from day one!
3. Use other social platforms: You can get more members from Twitter, Friendfeed, and Facebook. Make sure to set up profiles (and USE them)!
4. Love bloggers: In the first month (or three) of your existence, the majority of people submitting stories will be bloggers submitting their own stories. I prefer to encourage, rather than discourage, people from submitting their own content–synergy happens when interests align! (You get submissions, they get traffic.)
5. Don’t forget retention: Keeping current users involved can do much more to grow a social news site than adding new users will. Engage and respect your current users, and don’t forget to directly communicate with them! Blogs, RSS, Twitter and e-mail are all great channels through which you can communicate with your existing users.
6. Advertise (but be frugal & track results): At Tip’d, I can tell you that most of our (already small) advertising budget for the launch was a complete waste. What wasn’t a waste: Google CPC ads & direct ads on smaller blogs (the latter can get a relationship going, if nothing else).
7. Get integrated: You’ll have to show some traffic and membership first, but once you do, try to get included to the various “Add to” plugins and scripts; this will, if nothing else, ingrain your site’s favicon into readers’ memories.
8. Bells and whistles: Yes, you need an easy submission bookmarklet. Along with about 25 other “must-have” features. No, you don’t need to have “every” feature (or even “most” features)–but anything that encourages people to join, comment, or submit is a no-brainer–unless you’re sick of getting new members and activity!
9. Get Muhammad Saleem and Tamar Weinberg on your team: Just kidding, they work at Tip’d and we’re not sharing! But seriously, it will help a lot if you can get some social media vets on board. They can make sure you don’t make any huge mistakes, and they can get you connected to the right people.
10. Have a niche and make your site worth visiting!: OK this is obvious but I have to say, 99% of the niche social news sites out there aren’t worth participating in. You need good design, good content, and a real community (or else why wouldn’t users just go to Mixx instead?) Further, I would suggest picking a relatively un-touched niche. I think the Web has tech news covered already, but look what Health Ranker was able to do by picking a vertical.
11. Bonus tip: Enjoy working 80 hours a week and not making a profit for the first year!

As challenging as it’s been, I’ve enjoyed every minute of the last four months, and I’m extremely happy that we have so many people who’ve joined and contributed to Tip’d. If you’re struggling to get a social media site off the ground, please leave me a comment–I’ll check it out & register, that’s at least one more member!

I decided to write up a little comparison cheat sheet for the major social news sites, because when I tell my non-Internet friends to check out Tip’d, they always ask, “So, you basically just copied Digg?” (At this point, I give them a look that could curdle milk.)

So if you’re not currently a member of the major social news sites, and are wondering which one to join, here’s a concise comparison of the most popular social media platforms:

• Digg: Digg is a social news site that’s mainly focused on technology; you’ll find Linux news and Apple fanboys who sometimes make comments that aren’t, ahem, too mature. If you’re age 14-21 and you love all things technology, this site is for you.
• Reddit: Reddit has more of a social/political focus, and a lot of submissions are of the ‘crazy news of the day’ variety. Reddit is generally recognized as having an older and possibly more liberal userbase than Digg — but you’ll still find your fair share of offensive comments here
• StumbleUpon: StumbleUpon isn’t exactly a ‘social news’ site, though it can be, depending on what channels you subscribe to. When you sign up, you can choose your interests, and you’ll get content served to you on those interests only (though, it won’t always be news, and it won’t always be new).
• Mixx: Mixx is a relative new-comer to the social news space, and a lot of ex-Digg members hang out here, although it covers a wider range of topics than does Digg. Mixx is still growing fast and has a lot of great features.
• Kirtsy: Kirtsy is a bit smaller than the above sites (yeah, so is Tip’d!), but as my mom says, good things come in small packages. This may be the only site on the list where women are the majority of users, rather than the minority.
• Tip’d: Last but not least is our own site Tip’d, which covers investing, financial, and economic news. Currently we’re a smaller (but fast-growing) community, and we pride ourselves on keeping discussion clean, friendly and intelligent. Yes I’m biased, but I think we have a great thing going: Sign up now, it only takes a moment!

Other social news sites you may want to check out include: Designfloat (design news), Ballhype (sports news), Tweako & Dzone (development news), Propeller (worldwide news) and Health Ranker (health news).

• Clusterstock (Community Stories section): has a heavy focus on tech stocks (like its parent site, Silicon Alley Insider)
• FeedtheBull: has a day trader / Wall Street feel
• Motley Fool CAPS: shows news about single stocks (thus the name CAPS)
• PFBuzz: news and tips on personal finance
• ValueInvestingNews: the name is self-explanatory

If you’re a personal finance blogger, I would suggest submitting good posts to all of the above–some sites will send more traffic than others, of course, but it’s better to go popular at “3 for 5″ (or even “1 for 5″) than to go “0 for 1″ by submitting your post to only one finance social news site.

Anyone come across any other good financial / business social media sites (with sustainable communities)?