[@Dervish] Oh yeah, always smart to prep ahead of time, and the best RP I've been in used deadlines to great effect. 

I would think writing samples would be more on the players than the GM in terms of getting the RP started. The last RP i started on a different site ran into that roadblock where I had an established, seemingly-invested player base, but the moment it came to signing up, interest pretty much evaporated. So I'm paranoid about super-extensive sign-ups because it was at least a fourth my fault, lol.