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I really like the content marketing approach DO took. If you google for some standard server maintenance problem (e.g. migrating from Apache to nginx), it's us
by gedrap 12y ago
I really like the content marketing approach DO took.
If you google for some standard server maintenance problem (e.g. migrating from Apache to nginx), it's usually DO which is ranked first. Their posts are relatively high quality, and there are a lot of them, enough to cover many common problems. For example: https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-migrate-from-an-apache-web-server-to-nginx-on-an-ubuntu-vps https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-migr...
It doesn't show annoying pop ups, anything like that, but after visiting those pages many times you might decide to give DO a go. Well, that's what I did.
Also, some people say that similar cheap VPS providers exist for a long time and what DO did was put a nice simple UI. That proves that to create a successful product, you don't need some new complicated features that your competitors do not offer. Making interactions with the system easier, improving user onboarding process by reducing friction can go a long way.
- freebs 12y agoYep, this is how marketing is done these days. I'm glad someone on HN is appreciating good marketing. I often see devs refer to marketing as snake oil, simply because they've been exposed to bad marketing. Marketing is just like programming, it can be good or bad.
- finishingmove 12y agoI can't stress enough how much I appreciate the conciseness in their blog post tutorials. Major kudos!
- raiyu 12y agoThanks! Etel wrote many of the articles herself before building out an amazing team. She works really hard to make the articles engaging, informative, and easy to read.
- jtolj 12y agoI think it was Slicehost that pioneered this approach for VPS hosting companies quite a while ago, although it may also have been Linode as I really didn't become aware of them until Rackspace bought Slicehost and I had to migrate.
- tlrobinson 12y agoYes I was about to say, Slicehost used to do this. I learned quite a bit from their articles.
- veeti 12y agoSlicehost had it first, then Linode followed.
- yesimahuman 12y agoThis works super well. It's also the strategy my company employs. Teaching people is the best kind of marketing you can do in the developer space (and probably most any other space).
- sdkaufman78 12y agoSimilar story here - signed up for DO after coming across a couple of really helpful articles. For me, the articles show 1) They're competent. If they're experts at solving all these random problems in managing a Linux server, they probably also know how to run a reliable, high-performant VPS. 2) They care about their customers. They're going the extra mile to help customers (and potential customers) solve their actual day-to-day problems. This is a good sign. Haven't yet had an actual problem that required me to contact their support (which hints at #1), but it's the impression I (and probably many others) got from the articles.
- digitalzombie 12y agoLinode and IIRC Slicehosting had these. I'm just glad they actually took that idea from them and anybody that provide any services should have these tutorials... It makes it much more approachable for people with little system admin skills.
- manueslapera 12y agoTHIS. DO has a dedicate team just providing incredible tutorials that are somewhat related but not completely related to DO itself.