Reddit and Twitter were big things for me, I announced the initial release on the Rocket League subreddit[1] and then announced updates whenever they were released[2][3][4][5][6][7][8]. I automated daily posts to reddit and Twitter[9] for the "match of the day" (calculated based on a variety of factors). I engaged heavily in the community on Twitter, other fan sites and got my name out there. I gave away the extra (paid-for) features to the top teams to get them using it. I added support for features which users asked for.
One of the biggest sources of traffic for me now are the Rocket League analysis / training subreddits[10]. It's become _the_ location to upload your replays if you want to share them with other people. Making it easy to share (no account required) was a big part of this.
Wow, you've done a great job making this a useful product with meaningful value.
There's a user in the Heroes of the Storm (Blizzard moba, same engine as SC2) that did the same thing, except went the completely opposite route and riddled the site with predatory ads (the kinds that produce popunders and play audio on load). The paid option was to get rid of the ads. Most updates to the site lately seem to be to combat ad blockers instead of add new things.
The community went from being extremely open and excited about the site at the beginning to now begrudgingly having to use it since it has no competitor.
Props to you for engaging the community and keeping them on your side.
To be fair I do have ads as well, but it's just Adsense so there shouldn't be any of the bad stuff. Removing them comes with the Patreon membership too.
One of the biggest sources of traffic for me now are the Rocket League analysis / training subreddits[10]. It's become _the_ location to upload your replays if you want to share them with other people. Making it easy to share (no account required) was a big part of this.
[1]: https://www.reddit.com/r/RocketLeague/comments/3et5yx/after_...
[2]: https://www.reddit.com/r/RocketLeague/comments/4f3jq2/rocket...
[3]: https://www.reddit.com/r/RocketLeague/comments/4d1kpe/rocket...
[4]: https://www.reddit.com/r/RocketLeague/comments/4a9s44/rocket...
[5]: https://www.reddit.com/r/RocketLeague/comments/44xp8j/rocket...
[6]: https://www.reddit.com/r/RocketLeague/comments/3yws8d/rocket...
[7]: https://www.reddit.com/r/RocketLeague/comments/3pra3u/rocket...
[8]: https://www.reddit.com/r/RocketLeague/comments/3gtulm/rocket...
[9]: https://twitter.com/RLReplays
[10]: https://www.reddit.com/r/RocketLeagueAnalysis/