Marketing advice from open source founders
1–10 of 19 posts
Re: Marketing advice from open source founders
#2Is there ever a point where we can just accept the reality that "open source marketing" is really kind of an oxymoron?
If you want to give your work away for whatever reason, I salute you.
I know it's hard to believe but trying to monetize what is available for free just doesn't meet with a whole lot of success in most cases. And it is really misleading to keep suggesting otherwise.
Re: Marketing advice from open source founders
#3Is there ever a point where we can just accept the reality that "open source marketing" is really kind of an oxymoron? If you want to give your work away for whatever reason, I salute you. I know it's hard to believe but trying to monetize what is available for free just doesn't meet with a whole lot of success in most cases. And it is really misleading to keep suggesting otherwise.
If you want to give your work away for free, people still need to hear about it some way, which would be the marketing side of it.
I think it's only misleading when someone markets their open source project without being up front about their monetization strategy (whether they have one or don't)
Re: Marketing advice from open source founders
#4Is there ever a point where we can just accept the reality that "open source marketing" is really kind of an oxymoron? If you want to give your work away for whatever reason, I salute you. I know it's hard to believe but trying to monetize what is available for free just doesn't meet with a whole lot of success in most cases. And it is really misleading to keep suggesting otherwise.
If you want to give your work away for free, people still need to hear about it some way, which would be the marketing side of it. I think it's only misleading when someone markets their open source project without being up front about their monetization strategy (whether they have one or don't)
people still need to hear about it some way, which would be the marketing side of it.
*Marketing* as defined in the article is specifically about monetizing and generating income from open source in some way.
*This article is aimed at commercial open-source software (COSS)*Re: Marketing advice from open source founders
#5Is there ever a point where we can just accept the reality that "open source marketing" is really kind of an oxymoron? If you want to give your work away for whatever reason, I salute you. I know it's hard to believe but trying to monetize what is available for free just doesn't meet with a whole lot of success in most cases. And it is really misleading to keep suggesting otherwise.
For individuals, that's true: free always wins. It's different for corporations, they'll often pay for more commercial licensing or support. Unlike individuals, they're also often happy to pay because they'll spend money either way: buying vs paying someone to build/figure out.
And I don't see that as an oxymoron. If you believe that something is worthy of sinking your time into it, and you believe that it should be open source, and you're not filthy rich and can afford to do it as a charity, you'll need to get paid somehow. And for that, you need marketing.
And more generally, I'd love it if more open source developers adopted a business-approach to onboarding. "Here's what our product does, here are some use-cases it solves, here's how to get started quickly, and there is the documentation with plenty of working real-world examples" is just so much better than "here's some code that might or might not be what you're looking for, works for me, whatever".
Re: Marketing advice from open source founders
#6The guide talks a lot about "be clear with your monetization strategy", which is great, because it is important not to bait & switch people, as well as to be clear to the Freetards exactly how much of a free lunch they can expect.
However, IMHO of equal - if not GREATER - importance and entirely missed from the blog post is "be clear about what you are doing with people's data".
You might well have just written the next unicorn dog's bollocks of software, but I (and I suspect many others) couldn't give a rats arse about your "journey" or any other marketing fluff if the practical reality is that you are secretly collecting telemetry all over the place, storing my data to train your AI algorithms and generally engaging in all sorts of other privacy infringing practices.
Re: Marketing advice from open source founders
#7The guide talks a lot about "be clear with your monetization strategy", which is great, because it is important not to bait & switch people, as well as to be clear to the Freetards exactly how much of a free lunch they can expect. However, IMHO of equal - if not GREATER - importance and entirely missed from the blog post is "be clear about what you are doing with people's data". You might well have just written the n…
This is a very good point and I absolutely agree transparency on all fronts is important.
Re: Marketing advice from open source founders
#8Is there ever a point where we can just accept the reality that "open source marketing" is really kind of an oxymoron? If you want to give your work away for whatever reason, I salute you. I know it's hard to believe but trying to monetize what is available for free just doesn't meet with a whole lot of success in most cases. And it is really misleading to keep suggesting otherwise.
For individuals, that's true: free always wins. It's different for corporations, they'll often pay for more commercial licensing or support. Unlike individuals, they're also often happy to pay because they'll spend money either way: buying vs paying someone to build/figure out. And I don't see that as an oxymoron. If you believe that something is worthy of sinking your time into it, and you believe that it should be…
100% right for corporations. When speaking with some security professionals, one aspect they look for in open-source projects is whether it has a monetization plan behind it. This is to give some assurance that there is longevity to the project and that it won't be forgotten about in the future.
Re: Marketing advice from open source founders
#9The guide talks a lot about "be clear with your monetization strategy", which is great, because it is important not to bait & switch people, as well as to be clear to the Freetards exactly how much of a free lunch they can expect. However, IMHO of equal - if not GREATER - importance and entirely missed from the blog post is "be clear about what you are doing with people's data". You might well have just written the n…
Yes, great point, but sadly I think we are still are in the minority.
It is amazing for instance how many note taking apps are cloud based, with so little justification, for something that screams local first so loudly.
You might think that Obsidian / Logseq etc are popular (and they are), but they pale in comparison with Roam, One Note, Evernote, etc. Syncing notes across devices in 2023 should NOT require a permanent copy in a cloud server, but here we are.
Re: Marketing advice from open source founders
#10Is there ever a point where we can just accept the reality that "open source marketing" is really kind of an oxymoron? If you want to give your work away for whatever reason, I salute you. I know it's hard to believe but trying to monetize what is available for free just doesn't meet with a whole lot of success in most cases. And it is really misleading to keep suggesting otherwise.
You can make money with open source, so there is no contradiction.
As an example, imagine an open source library where you sell support for certain use cases. Marketing your library will bring you extra revenues.