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Marketing is scary for a solo developer

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Re: Marketing is scary for a solo developer

#241

Post by dhimes »

dangrossman wrote: post #213
datavirtue wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hmmm....did you mention lasers? That might have triggered their "sketchy" Algo. How do they know you are misleading anyone? People clicking "misleading" because they saw your ad in the wrong context?

There's no ad involved. It's just a product feed for Google Shopping that's auto-generated by Shopify, so the product details match the website always. Here's the store: https://ligninandlight.com/ Google's customer support just provides form responses linking to this policy my store violates: https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/6150127?hl=en But they won't provide any concrete information specific to my stor…

So, I looked at this and the only thing I can see is that the price doesn't update as you add options (larger size, engraving) etc., until you add to cart and then view the cart. So G may think that's misleading: It's not going to cost me $23 but $35.

Your shop looks very nice, actually. Cool and thoughtful stuff.

Re: Marketing is scary for a solo developer

#242

Post by lmarcos »

oblio wrote: post #203
exdsq wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's just the insecurities of developers realizing they don't understand an important subject because it's separate to their work. Magicroots advice is great. Suggesting devs should be siloed from marketing in the context of a solo developer building products is insane. Signed, an insecure developer with bad marketing skills

The reality is that a lot of developers like to build just for the sake of building. This can lead to the "if you build it, they will come" mentality. Or worse, "we'll build it and we don't care if they come (and if they do come, they'd better RTFM!)" mentality. A huge amount of developers just want to be shielded from any kind of customer interaction, and I'm not talking about call center support.

> The reality is that a lot of developers like to build just for the sake of building.

Very true. I build for the sake of building in my free time.

> Or worse, "we'll build it and we don't care if they come...

True as well. If I am working on a personal project is because I believe it's the best project ever conceived (obviously I know I'm wrong, but there is always "what if I'm not?!").

> A huge amount of developers just want to be shielded from any kind of customer interaction, and I'm not talking about call center support.

But if we are talking in the context of developers working for companies (not developers working on their personal projects) then the only responsible person of working on features no one will use is the project manager (or product owner): they own the product, they decide what comes next (with the help of devs).

Re: Marketing is scary for a solo developer

#243

Post by hwers »

I don't mean this in a mean way at all but when I read this my mind mostly goes to wondering if the energy spent on marketing and building yet another product we've seen thousands of iterations of would be better spent on trying to think of things that produce genuine value. (Another chart app? Again I don't mean to be insulting at all but it doesn't seem to solve much that hasn't been solved already.) Maybe engineers should be learning how to sit in an empty quiet room for hours and just brainstorm ideas until they hit on something that would really be useful since once you come up with it implementing it can usually be done in a week.

Re: Marketing is scary for a solo developer

#244

Post by oblio »

lmarcos wrote: post #242
oblio wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reality is that a lot of developers like to build just for the sake of building. This can lead to the "if you build it, they will come" mentality. Or worse, "we'll build it and we don't care if they come (and if they do come, they'd better RTFM!)" mentality. A huge amount of developers just want to be shielded from any kind of customer interaction, and I'm not talking about call center support.

> The reality is that a lot of developers like to build just for the sake of building. Very true. I build for the sake of building in my free time. > Or worse, "we'll build it and we don't care if they come... True as well. If I am working on a personal project is because I believe it's the best project ever conceived (obviously I know I'm wrong, but there is always "what if I'm not?!"). > A huge amount of developers…

There are plenty of companies where developers go partly rogue.

Or work on behind the scenes stuff with little oversight and unclear actual benefits.

Some developers are actually good at promoting their initiatives.

Re: Marketing is scary for a solo developer

#245

Post by andruby »

j4yav wrote: post #197
andruby wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you considered recording a video of you using it? Have a rough landing page. Add the video. Post a Show HN. How I would consider marketing it after that is through "content marketing". Ie: start a blog/insta/twitter/youtube channel where you post relevant stuff for people trying to solve or improve remote collaboration. You can show your solution, or talk about common problems you've seen, etc. Good luck! (I'm c…

We have a video and landing page at https://AsyncGo.com , but the messaging isn’t super locked in yet. Curious for your feedback.

I would probably focus on "Remote decision making" as that seems to be the key thing setting you apart from other solutions (imo). At least, it is the key element that attracts my attention :)

Re: Marketing is scary for a solo developer

#246

Post by piyh »

jimbokun wrote: post #175
CJefferson wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see Tesla's promises on self-driving cars over many years as lies. It doesn't see to have done them any harm so far.

It did some harm, but certainly not enough to detour Tesla from it's overall trajectory.

I'd say them lying about timelines and selling a dream that's not here for thousands of dollars is not harming them

Re: Marketing is scary for a solo developer

#247

Post by koonsolo »

codpiece wrote: post #190
koonsolo wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why does it feel gross? You would be helping a lot of people. Do you think how for example Andrew Chen markets himself and his book is gross?

I think it's the hustle of social media to be heard that turns me off. The 'thought leader hustle' feels artificial, manipulative and needy. I think it comes down to what you hear in this very thread, and often expressed by engineers; marketing and advertising to consumers can feel deceitful. Business to business marketing is very different. You present your value to customers, they explore, and reach out when ready…

You can look at is as "hustle on social media". But you can also look at it as "be authentic and help people". You probably have knowledge that others find very valuable.

For my own product, I noticed that trying clever hacks is never that successful. Delivering proper value gets more and better responses. Looking backwards it always seems obvious "of course people prefer that".

It's possible that twitter is not for you, but maybe insightful blog posts are. A tweet lives for a day, but a blog post for years.

Maybe you can find a communication channel that works both for you and your audience.

Re: Marketing is scary for a solo developer

#248

Post by konschubert »

stavros wrote: post #177
konschubert wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Man, we should start a support group. PS: Now I know how I know your name :) Thanks for making that great HN responses email tool!

By the way, I made one for Telegram, if you use that: https://gitlab.com/stavros/hn-reply-bot I posted it but not many people seem to use Telegram, or find it useful?

I guess not so many people use telegram.

And email somehow fits better the calm pace of discussion here on HN.

Re: Marketing is scary for a solo developer

#249

Post by konschubert »

dangrossman wrote: post #213
datavirtue wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hmmm....did you mention lasers? That might have triggered their "sketchy" Algo. How do they know you are misleading anyone? People clicking "misleading" because they saw your ad in the wrong context?

There's no ad involved. It's just a product feed for Google Shopping that's auto-generated by Shopify, so the product details match the website always. Here's the store: https://ligninandlight.com/ Google's customer support just provides form responses linking to this policy my store violates: https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/6150127?hl=en But they won't provide any concrete information specific to my stor…

Same here. I have Shopify connected to google merchant center.

Re: Marketing is scary for a solo developer

#250

Post by shukantpal »

playpause wrote: post #120
fny wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. Marketing and sales should be siloed away from devs. This is why you need a product person to intermediate. Marketing and sales has very different incentives from developers. Marketers are often trigger happy with features because they "sell" despite the fact that these feature may have a short shelf life and may take resources away from developing of more essential product features. Developers are similarly alle…

Off topic, but there is something intensely irritating about replies that start with “No.” It’s fine to disagree and argue whatever point you want, but when you open with “No.” it seems like you’re saying “You are objectively wrong; I will now enlighten you with the correct viewpoint.”

No, that is aan interpretation your coping with.
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