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Marketing is scary for a solo developer

raumet.com

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Re: Marketing is scary for a solo developer

#31

Post by Flankk »

_teyd wrote: post #17

I feel like I've been in quicksand for the last year. I've built something that my cofounder and I are using internally for remote collaboration, along with a couple support people, and it's great. But none of us have been able to figure out how to talk about it in a way that generates interest. This is really hard if you're more of a natural builder than a seller.

You should have a deep understanding of why your product exists. Other people don't, they only see what is on the surface. I recommend Start With Why for more on this idea. Sales is a bunch of smoke and mirrors. It's the difference between remote collaboration software and sipping a pina colada in the shade while enjoying the ocean breeze.

Re: Marketing is scary for a solo developer

#34

Post by monkey_monkey »

ushakov wrote: post #24
TekMol wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could be. I often wonder if views of an embedded YouToube video increase the view count.

if it had auto-play enabled, yes

No, if autoplay is enabled, youtube embedded views don't count.

https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/171780?hl=en-GB#zi...

"Embedded videos that are auto-played don't increment video views."

Re: Marketing is scary for a solo developer

#35

Post by bootstrapsite »

So funny I asked the exact same thing on HN a few days ago and got some very helpful replies. The top reply which resonated a lot with me and also true for Plausible as per this blog post is to get a 'marketing' co-founder.

I think it's a pretty combustible combo if one guy loves making the software as much as the other guy loves marketing it! Like Steve and Steve?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29459901#29462551

Re: Marketing is scary for a solo developer

#37

Post by konschubert »

I've started to sell a physical product that I make and have had my google merchant account suspended twice.

The algorithms claim that my ads are misleading. I don't think they are, I hope they aren't.

The first time, I appealed and it got un-suspended. No reason given. I thought: Cool, must have been a mistake but it's been sorted out.

Then, after a couple days, another suspension.

Now I don't know what to do.

Google ads and google merchant center seems to be a science in itself, but I don't have the time to learn it all, nor the budget to pay a consultant.

Re: Marketing is scary for a solo developer

#38

Post by hluska »

_teyd wrote: post #17

I feel like I've been in quicksand for the last year. I've built something that my cofounder and I are using internally for remote collaboration, along with a couple support people, and it's great. But none of us have been able to figure out how to talk about it in a way that generates interest. This is really hard if you're more of a natural builder than a seller.

Hey friend, I understand exactly where you’re coming from. When I started high school in the 90s, my stutter was such that you would have had a lot of trouble understanding me. When I started building stuff, marketing seemed like voodoo.

I learned. And frankly, I was so inept that if I can learn, you’re going to be an expert.

You’ve got this. Seriously, you’ve got this. I’d put my last dollar on you because you’ve got this.

If you’d like some advice, think back to when you were learning how to write code. You wrote some monstrosities that you likely wouldn’t write today. But that was okay because you were learning. Think about marketing the same way. You don’t have to be perfect because you’re learning so just chill and have some fun.

Tactically, approach marketing like you’re learning a totally new programming paradigm. Try something, test it and measure.

For example, you’re in a thread right now with a lot of hackers. One of whom is writing a message to try to encourage you. Now might be a really good time to put a link to your product. You might not get any traffic. In that case, this was a really bad marketing tactic. You may get traffic and zero sales. In that case, this was a really good exposure campaign but remember that people die of exposure. You may get traffic and some sales. If that happens, you can deduce that something about the link or where you have placed it (on HN in general or on this thread in particular) is powerful.

There’s a piece of data for you. Try it out and see what happens. Worst case scenario, blame me and the shitty fucking school that gave me a marketing degree. Best case scenario, we’re going to have a party when you go over a million in revenue.

You’ve got this. I believe in you. If you’re here, you’re more than intelligent enough. You’ve got this. It’s not even a matter of belief in you, it’s fact. You’ve got this.

Share that beautiful, perfect product.

(Note - the second you start to share it, the market may tell you it’s neither perfect nor beautiful. That’s a very good sign. Anyone can build something fit to be ignored. It takes one hell of a good team to build something that people will shit all over.) :)

(Note 2 - Chill and have fun.)

Re: Marketing is scary for a solo developer

#39

Post by nicoburns »

_teyd wrote: post #17

I feel like I've been in quicksand for the last year. I've built something that my cofounder and I are using internally for remote collaboration, along with a couple support people, and it's great. But none of us have been able to figure out how to talk about it in a way that generates interest. This is really hard if you're more of a natural builder than a seller.

What makes it better than what’s out there? There are a lot of tools in this space!

Re: Marketing is scary for a solo developer

#40

Post by pawelwentpawel »

metadata wrote: post #12

Jon 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'd vote for Jon's method of one week code, one week marketing:

- Limiting distractions. I won't get any work done if every five minutes I'm checking notifications that come in as a result of my marketing efforts. It gets me out of the zone immediately.

- It forces a 50/50 split. It's too easy to stick to what you're good at. In my case it's coding and building the product - it's my comfort zone. It gives me a feeling for accomplishment and productivity. Feeling productive while neglecting the other side of the process is dangerous.

- It's enough time to incorporate feedback from users quickly while staying sane without sacrificing the process itself.

As per the release anxiety mentioned by the OP - that's a very common one, especially if you're the one that actually made the product. One way to tackle this is to view it as a continuous process of release, not a single event in the calendar. For me this means building confidence in increasing steps and doing a release often with a smaller audience first (maybe some small subreddit or a submission website?) and gradually increasing it as time goes on. This also allows you to spot any bugs or problems quicker.

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