How long should it take to get a LOT of members on new social networking site?

Angel A: How long should it take to get a LOT of members on new social networking site?
How long should it take to get a LOT of members on new social networking site? I’m in the process of creating a social networking site like Facebook and I’m wondering the approximate time it could possibly take to start gaining millions of members.

What’s the absolute BEST way to get the website out to millions of people?
Thanks in advance!

Answers and Views:

Answer by Farddin94
The best way is to target it at a particular niche. For example a social network targeted at music. You also have to make it different and unique to all the other social networks eg. facebook, myspace etc.

The best way is to somehow spread it round virally. But i cant really think of a way doing that, unless you somehow give the people rewards or perks for sharing the site with 10 different friends.

Good luck on the site.

Edit : It will most probably take a couple of years, if not at least 5.

Answer by Andy
Well it took Facebook 6 yrs to get 500 Million People. The way the did it was just word of mouth with friends.