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There are a million non-programming things to do in a startup. * Talk to schools/teachers to get them to try your software - especially study abroad programs.

There are a million non-programming things to do in a startup. * Talk to schools/teachers to get them to try your software - especially study abroad programs. * Reach out to Chinese community centers * Write. Write for your blog, guest blog. Do everything you can to find people in your target audience. * Learn SEO. Hunt down and win your keywords. This only takes time. You don't have money for traditional marketing. And you are worried about having too much time. Fortunately non-traditional marketing takes much more time than money.

joez 17y ago
I really like Joel's point about reaching out to Chinese community centers. This gave me some good ideas for what you guys can do at Skritter so let me elaborate. This is from a Chinese San Franciscan's perspective, so it maybe a little skewed. But there are lots and lots of parents who are worried that their kids are going to grow up to be illiterate. It's very common here for parents or grandparents to pay for Chinese language summer school for their kids or grand kids. One marketing/sales perspective is you could appeal to this demographic (the parents and grandparents of users). This would be one demographic where they will just pay for it and keep up recurring payments regardless of actual usage. Chinese community centers are one place where you could reach them. Most of these organizations have websites now and contacts. You could even try talking to some of these Chinese schools to see if they'll buy a few subscriptions. One weakness that I do see in pursuing this route is you guys lack a Chinese version of your site. If you want to try to penetrate this demographic, you will need some marketing material in Chinese. P.S.: Ugh, okay I hate to contradict myself in the same post but giving it even more thought I realizes that many Chinese kids not interested in learning Chinese. This misalignment of interests is probably not one that will cause the kind of word of mouth growth you are looking for. But could be worth a try if you've exhausted other ideas. Chinese communities are very tight knit, so any market penetration could have fast traction.

joez 17y ago

I really like Joel's point about reaching out to Chinese community centers. This gave me some good ideas for what you guys can do at Skritter so let me elaborate. This is from a Chinese San Franciscan's perspective, so it maybe a little skewed. But there are lots and lots of parents who are worried that their kids are going to grow up to be illiterate. It's very common here for parents or grandparents to pay for Chinese language summer school for their kids or grand kids. One marketing/sales perspective is you could appeal to this demographic (the parents and grandparents of users). This would be one demographic where they will just pay for it and keep up recurring payments regardless of actual usage. Chinese community centers are one place where you could reach them. Most of these organizations have websites now and contacts. You could even try talking to some of these Chinese schools to see if they'll buy a few subscriptions. One weakness that I do see in pursuing this route is you guys lack a Chinese version of your site. If you want to try to penetrate this demographic, you will need some marketing material in Chinese. P.S.: Ugh, okay I hate to contradict myself in the same post but giving it even more thought I realizes that many Chinese kids not interested in learning Chinese. This misalignment of interests is probably not one that will cause the kind of word of mouth growth you are looking for. But could be worth a try if you've exhausted other ideas. Chinese communities are very tight knit, so any market penetration could have fast traction.