How would you Populate this Site to Get it Started?

I would like to create a niche classified site. This is more of a passion project than anything. Im curious though, how do you create a new site and get people to come and post things for sale? Its going to be free and not like craigslist. It will focus on one type of product where there are commercial sellers.

How would you get items listed to show the site has products and attract more sellers?

Thanks

You may want to check similar sites and get in touch with people who advertise there to let them know of your service. But first, it may be worth making your site unique and possibly ranked for related keywords.

giveitallback said:

You may want to check similar sites and get in touch with people who advertise there to let them know of your service. But first, it may be worth making your site unique and possibly ranked for related keywords.

Click to expand...

Im good with that idea. I was planning on ranking the categories as my first focus. But, how do you tell some one to come to the site and sell and then they come and there are no other people selling there? Should I scrape a bunch of current listings to populate the site first?