How to promote a web application?
Does anyone have any opinions on the best way to promote a web application aimed at developers? We have spent the last few months developing an application and it will be released some time this week.
The budget is quite tight so a large advertising spend is out of the question. I think promoting it on Social Networks may work and at the minute but I am unsure whether to focus on Twitter or Facebook.
One other area is affiliate advertising but I don't know of any networks that are aimed at the tech industry, these seem to focus more on the e-commerce industry.
-
I would suggest asking this question on the [Business of Software forum](http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/?biz) where there are lots of developers who can give you feedback on your app and ideas for promoting it. – Dan 13 years ago
-
Has anyone used LinkedIn as a tool for promoting an application? If so did you have any luck? – Iconic Digital 13 years ago
3 Answers
check stackoverflow for questions that your app solves and offer it as an answer. If your app solves a large enough pain it will spread naturally.
-
If I could downvote I would. Using stackoverflow as a marketing tool is a *horrible* idea. – Jrg 13 years ago
-
Many would call this spam - not a good marketing tool. – Zuly Gonzalez 13 years ago
-
I don't rutherford meant to spam stackoverflow, but rather that any app that solves problems asked by stackoverflow users will not need promotion. But I don't think this is at all answering the OP's question, and even the best products benefit from promotion. – Chelonian 13 years ago
I was in a similar situation and after months of looking and tweaking my app and trying to get my first sale I realized that I was going about it all wrong to begin with. I spent a few months developing my app before I got any customer buy in and have spent months since playing catch up and its killing me. Since that time I slowed down and read a great book that has put all of this in perspective for me called Four Steps to the Epiphany by Steven Grey Blank which describes, in my opinion, the right way to attack the issue you are up against right now.
I highly recommend reading that book before moving forward.
Best of luck to you,
Tim - VA
-
Hi Thanks For The Advice, I will take a look at the book. – Iconic Digital 13 years ago
I had the exactly the same problem. I could not solve it yet but here is my experience.
I would suggest dzone.com which is often used for marketing and of course try to list your app in the proper place like stackapps.com if it is related with stackoverflow.
