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I think you misunderstood my second point. When advertising in magazines, you already knew who your customers were - they were those that were reading the maga

I think you misunderstood my second point. When advertising in magazines, you already knew who your customers were - they were those that were reading the magazine (the publishers all gave out circulation numbers, of which I'm sure many were fudged a bit). Combined with my first point in my original post, you pretty much had an "in" at that point if you at least had a demo/trial version of your software that someone could get. For example, one of the first things I would do when getting a new copy of DBMS or Data Based Advisor magazine would be to head to the back of the magazine to see what kind of new software was being advertised. Yeah, it was the section that looked like the "see if you can draw Tippy the Turtle" ads in other magazines, but people looked at them and they worked. So, perhaps, what we're seeing in the software industry is a result of the collapse of the media industry and targeted magazines...

sehugg 8y ago
Not only magazines but BBSs too, speaking of shareware. The volume of new software was low enough that you could publish to a BBS and if it wasn't completely awful, it'd get distributed. Today you can't get a dozen organic downloads on the App Store without some kind of promotion or virality hack.
paulsutter 8y ago
In the early days of computing there were a small number of highly technical early adopters who were easily reached. Now, there’s a vast market of almost the entire population, supporting technology companies worth hundreds of billions. Product categories that worked [for tiny startups] in the early days don’t work now, but there are vastly more opportunities (especially in vertical markets) then ever before By the way - cryptocurrency is one area with primitive tools and a similar user base to the early days of computing.
- TimJYoung 8y ago
  The same product categories definitely do exist (I know I changed your wording there a bit). In fact, many of the software companies that advertised back then still exist today in those same categories. The main difference is that today they advertise in ways that are out of reach for most ad budgets. It's the "reachability" that is so difficult, not deciding which category one wants to target.

sehugg 8y ago

Not only magazines but BBSs too, speaking of shareware. The volume of new software was low enough that you could publish to a BBS and if it wasn't completely awful, it'd get distributed. Today you can't get a dozen organic downloads on the App Store without some kind of promotion or virality hack.

paulsutter 8y ago

In the early days of computing there were a small number of highly technical early adopters who were easily reached. Now, there’s a vast market of almost the entire population, supporting technology companies worth hundreds of billions. Product categories that worked [for tiny startups] in the early days don’t work now, but there are vastly more opportunities (especially in vertical markets) then ever before By the way - cryptocurrency is one area with primitive tools and a similar user base to the early days of computing.

TimJYoung 8y ago
The same product categories definitely do exist (I know I changed your wording there a bit). In fact, many of the software companies that advertised back then still exist today in those same categories. The main difference is that today they advertise in ways that are out of reach for most ad budgets. It's the "reachability" that is so difficult, not deciding which category one wants to target.