Thanks for your inputs, they're insightful. Tapping into my local network might work only so much in my case - most folks aren't too active on Twitter.
But I'm not going to give this up so easily - i will give it my sincerest shot. I guess the hard part's figuring out what works and what doesn't.
Whatever size voice you might have, it is louder when you use it locally. Are you and your friends using it to help people? Are the people then helped not willing to try it?
I can’t see your site from my current location but with local and modest goals you might be surprised who the influentials are and what karma they might really want.