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Marketing is scary for a solo developer

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Re: Marketing is scary for a solo developer

#141

Post by pigcat »

_teyd wrote: post #140
mdorazio wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's designed from the ground up for async collaboration and focus (you collaborate on decisions like you might an issue, rather than interruptive chat discussions or worse, meetings.) This doesn’t really tell me anything. Can you provide a real-world example of how it would work on a project? Is there a ~10 second video or gif of it in action? Or even more basic, what specifically made you angry enough with existi…

The app has a list of topics that anyone can add to. Each topic has a due date so you know when it is wrapping up, and they also have an explicit context and outcome; the topic creator sets the context, and the outcome is the bit that everyone collaborates on by editing together/using the discussion thread. Once the topic is done and a decision made, you lock the topic, saving the context, decision, and the discussio…

Sounds cool. Where can I find it?

Edit: I see you added a link! It _is_ cool. Great idea, I like the name too. I can see this being very useful and will give it a try the next time I need an outcome.

Re: Marketing is scary for a solo developer

#142

Post by glitchc »

magicroot75 wrote: post #26

I 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. Mar…

Is there a mechanism to make this transition easier or access folks as like-minded as you? As a technology developer, chatting with technology enthusiasts can be very enlightening as they attempt to understand your technology and figure out the target market.

Re: Marketing is scary for a solo developer

#143

Post by aembleton »

supperburg wrote: post #129

Minecraft had zero marketing. Tesla had zero marketing. Anyway, if you wanted to market your product how would you even do that? Just buy ads on YouTube and google?

Tesla had and continues to have enormous amounts of marketing. Loads of articles have been written about them; plenty of press generated. Elon Musk, making grandiose claims about self driving gets repeated ad nauseam. All this is marketing.

Re: Marketing is scary for a solo developer

#144

Post by aniforprez »

derwiki wrote: post #116
Invictus0 wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> don't want to deliver a high-impact product > earn some reasonable money These two are in opposition

Not at Megacorp they aren’t

Megacorp usually at least starts with a good product that sells well

Re: Marketing is scary for a solo developer

#145

Post by j4yav »

pigcat wrote: post #141
_teyd wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The app has a list of topics that anyone can add to. Each topic has a due date so you know when it is wrapping up, and they also have an explicit context and outcome; the topic creator sets the context, and the outcome is the bit that everyone collaborates on by editing together/using the discussion thread. Once the topic is done and a decision made, you lock the topic, saving the context, decision, and the discussio…

Sounds cool. Where can I find it? Edit: I see you added a link! It _is_ cool. Great idea, I like the name too. I can see this being very useful and will give it a try the next time I need an outcome.

Added a link above to the current site/video that I have. If you have any feedback (even if you don't use it) I'd love to hear from you, my email is in my bio here.

Edit: Much appreciated!

Re: Marketing is scary for a solo developer

#147

Post by Auracle »

lbriner wrote: post #83

Here's the thing. Developers are generally perfectionists and marketers are realists. As a Developer, I am naturally uncomfortable with marketing because my default view is that I don't want to lie or over-promise and I don't like fluffy claims. Marketers and sales people can be less bothered about facts but I think much of the time, we just think that, the truth is that there can be a lot of fact-based marketing but…

That’s good advice. I’m a developer and a photographer and a couple of months ago I had a wedding consult (sales meeting) where the fact that I’m not good at that portion came up for the reasons you mentioned. The potential client somewhat jokingly then asked “are you a good wedding photographer?”

I’ve never had a question at a consult seize up my brain like that before. A good salesperson would have said “of course, and here’s why…”. I am not a good salesperson and floundered.

Reflecting afterwards I realized the truthful answer isn’t that I’m a good wedding photographer, but that I’m a good wedding photographer for a particular subset of people.

Re: Marketing is scary for a solo developer

#148

Post by elorant »

I have a simple rule for marketing which has proved to give nice results. Give a generous demo. Not that lame 15 days demo that most services provide. No one will manage to test your product in just 15 days. And even if they do it won’t help create a habit out of using it. Give three months instead. It gives them time to schedule a period of using it, and then it provides a cushion to get accustomed to it.

I was testing an IDE the other day that had only one month trial period. One month is not enough. It’s a secondary tool. I won’t use it on a daily basis because I have work to do. I’ll use it on weekends, and probably not that much. I need plenty of time to test it on various projects to get accustomed with all its features and see how it compares to the one I have. Would it break them to give a two or three months trial time?

Long demos does the trick for me. As always, ymmv.

Re: Marketing is scary for a solo developer

#149

Post by scubakid »

Marketing is scary for solo devs, and reading posts about how we should be doing more of it is also scary. For those of you who've successfully followed advice like this (versus myself, where I usually slink right from the comment section back to product development), which modern marketing channels have you found to be the best investment of your time?

Re: Marketing is scary for a solo developer

#150

Post by tppiotrowski »

rikroots wrote: post #49
alexmingoia wrote: post #5

At the end you touch on why it’s hard: fear of failure. When you put yourself out there you have to accept rejection. For developers, coding is an easy way to hide. It’s also why working for yourself is hard. Having a boss tell you what to do lets you off the hook.

My problem isn't fear of failure. Rather it's something around fear of being in the spotlight, or fear of being ridiculed, that keeps me from marketing my canvas library more aggressively. For instance, I've submitted to HN various links to the library 22 times in the past 30 months. My particular fear about submitting to HN is the thought of being accused of spamming the site, which I'd find humiliating. I don't hav…

I’ve felt this. I post my project on HN or Reddit and then I spend the rest of the day looking at analytics and refreshing my email for new comments. But external validation like usage and opinions are not in my control so it feels like an emotional roller coaster ride.

Instead of upvotes and likes, I now focus on optimizing things I can control like render time and amount of network bytes downloaded or adding a new feature. The reward from this feels more enjoyable/consistent than my DAUs

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