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If you haven't been spending time thinking about marketing and getting users as part of the process of building your product, then you've already lost. The peo

If you haven't been spending time thinking about marketing and getting users as part of the process of building your product, then you've already lost. The people who care about what you've built and are going to evangelize it for you aren't your friends and family or the people who see you on an ad platform, it's the people who's problem you're solving. If you already know who they are, and if they think you're as valuable as you think you are, then add incentives to their sharing with their friends. that's why gamification is the new big thing these days... if you haven't found your customers, and i mean real people with names, not just the demographic or psychographic that is in your business plan. If you've found 2-3 people, then get them to use your product. then get feedback so you can make their lives even easier. as part of that feedback, give them the option of inviting others into the circle. you can also go the easy route and get in touch with a mashable or TC writer. Even a small blurb will get you a bunch of random signups, 80% of whom will unsubscribe from your list and forget about you 5 minutes after they sign up.

sagacity 15y ago
> If you haven't been spending time thinking about marketing and getting users as part of the process of building your product, then you've already lost. How is this so? Care to elaborate upon this a bit?
- polyfractal 15y ago
  I wouldn't say "lost", but I would say "seriously far behind". You should start marketing the product as soon as you start writing code. Start collecting email addresses, writing blog posts, talking to people, etc etc. When you launch you should ideally have an email list which are already interested in your product. These people are your lifeblood. They will tell you what sucks about your product and what to change. They will tell you that your product isn't what they need...but they will provide critical information about what they really need. Code is only 20% of the battle. Marketing is the other 80%.
  - sagacity 15y ago
    Totally agree, polyfractal, and this is exactly the point I was trying to prompt/cadge out of someone :) I'd say the difference between "lost" and "seriously far behind" is comparable to a "broken heart" and a "not-so-broken heart".

sagacity 15y ago

> If you haven't been spending time thinking about marketing and getting users as part of the process of building your product, then you've already lost. How is this so? Care to elaborate upon this a bit?

polyfractal 15y ago
I wouldn't say "lost", but I would say "seriously far behind". You should start marketing the product as soon as you start writing code. Start collecting email addresses, writing blog posts, talking to people, etc etc. When you launch you should ideally have an email list which are already interested in your product. These people are your lifeblood. They will tell you what sucks about your product and what to change. They will tell you that your product isn't what they need...but they will provide critical information about what they really need. Code is only 20% of the battle. Marketing is the other 80%.
- sagacity 15y ago
  Totally agree, polyfractal, and this is exactly the point I was trying to prompt/cadge out of someone :) I'd say the difference between "lost" and "seriously far behind" is comparable to a "broken heart" and a "not-so-broken heart".