What I do is have a whiteboard and I can't move the post-it notes to the "done" section until there are some kind of tests, docs, and a blog post.
This works because there's limited space on the board and I'm OCD. :P
Marketing is scary for a solo developer
21–30 of 280 posts
Re: Marketing is scary for a solo developer
#22I'm going through the same thing right now. I have an MVP ready for use, sitting in the drawer because I'm too afraid to take the next step. It's encouraging to see stories of others going through the same.
Re: Marketing is scary for a solo developer
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
If they don't advertise, I would love to know how they got over ten million people to watch this video ad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QabM_PvBtsI 14 million views and only 776 likes? That sounds very much like this video was somehow shoved down peoples throats.
maybe it was embedded in some marketing materials
Could be.
I often wonder if views of an embedded YouToube video increase the view count.
Re: Marketing is scary for a solo developer
#24Re: Marketing is scary for a solo developer
#25I know how you feel. I am trying to promote https://fabform.io shamelessly.
The struggle is real :)
Re: Marketing is scary for a solo developer
#26I work solely in marketing/advertising and have no clue how to code. I generally enjoy technology, which is why I'm on HN.
I think marketers and developers need a stronger culture between ourselves. The tools of marketers (data mining, consumer behavior analysis, surveys, market testing, etc) aren't just a veneer to be applied at the completion of a development project. Marketing, when done correctly, informs UX. Marketing can provide developers with insights into the problems they should try to solve.
From what I can tell, many developers view the development process as a sacred protected space for creation. This is not the optimal means to delivering a high-impact product. Developers should be asking themselves during the development process: "Is this feature going to excite a group of users, and do we have some statistical mechanism to predict that excitement?"
When you create something that you already know will excite people, the product launch becomes much simpler.
Re: Marketing is scary for a solo developer
#27Instead of publishing a blog post, I add another feature to my product. Instead of sending a tweet, I tweak CSS on my site. Same here. But I do consider that marketing. The product is the marketing. The better the free product everyone can use, the more the existing users will use it and like it and talk about it. "Build it and they will come" works nicely for me. I do absolutely nothing but coding. Yet a handful of…
> The product is the marketing
Then you don't understand what marketing is.
Re: Marketing is scary for a solo developer
#28Instead of publishing a blog post, I add another feature to my product. Instead of sending a tweet, I tweak CSS on my site. Same here. But I do consider that marketing. The product is the marketing. The better the free product everyone can use, the more the existing users will use it and like it and talk about it. "Build it and they will come" works nicely for me. I do absolutely nothing but coding. Yet a handful of…
> The product is the marketing Then you don't understand what marketing is.
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Re: Marketing is scary for a solo developer
#29Jon Yongfook has a brilliant approach - he writes code one week, then does only marketing another week. https://twitter.com/yongfook I plan to follow that as it completely eliminates the habit of "just have to fix a few things on the software side and then I'll get on with blogging/tweeting/...".
I am not clicking that link.
To Twitter?
Re: Marketing is scary for a solo developer
#30Jon Yongfook has a brilliant approach - he writes code one week, then does only marketing another week. https://twitter.com/yongfook I plan to follow that as it completely eliminates the habit of "just have to fix a few things on the software side and then I'll get on with blogging/tweeting/...".
This is one of those bits of advice that you hear and say, "This is smart, I'm doing it... next week"