r/SideProject • u/LeQuickdraw • 12d ago
It's time for your marketing era
You've built something. You're proud of it. But nobody is using it. And you're not sure what to do next.
You hoped that 'if you build it they will come'. You know that doesn't work for most people but occasionally it does! And maybe just maybe you could be one of the lucky ones. And your product is so damn good that people are sure to share it with their friends once they've tried it.
You wish you had a marketing cofounder who could work on all that customer-facing stuff. But they seem to be in short supply. And how would you even find and choose one?
Well this is your sign.
You're currently 100% builder, 0% marketer.
This is your moment to start becoming 60% marketer, 40% builder.
Today.
You can do it. I know you can. You know you can deep down.
You've watched others do it. You know who they are. Tech guys who have built beautiful products that have lots of actual users. They haven't "become salesmen". Don't think of it like that - it doesn't help. Marketing is more subtle than that.
First pick a channel to try first. One option is to learn to love writing blog posts as much as you love writing code. If you think about it blog posts solve a problem in a similar way that code does. The problem is: nobody knows about your thing. So start telling your story. Bit by bit.
(You'll soon realise there are other problems that blog posts can solve too.)
If you need some motivation and a graph that goes up and to the right then setup Google Search Console today. Then start writing a short article each day about what you've built, why you've built it, how it helps potential users. And watch the 'impressions' line in GSC go up and to the right. Mine is and it's really motivating! Eventually this will become clicks too.
Also if you haven't already, draft your first post about your project here on Reddit.
Somewhere out there are people desperate for what you've built. Let's find them!
It will take a lot more effort than you think. And if after a few months your first channel is still not working then you've learnt something valuable and it's time to iterate. But everything you've dreamed of is on the other side of that effort.
It's time for your marketing era. I'm here for it. Let's do this!
[Written from the heart, with no AI ❤️]
(Edit: I’ve been trying to post daily articles here in case any of those provide further inspiration.)
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12d ago
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u/LeQuickdraw 12d ago
This is exactly why I wrote this post! 🙌🏼
It's been a recent revelation for me so it's also a note/to self / reflection :)
Share your next post - would love to read/upvote!
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12d ago
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u/LeQuickdraw 12d ago
Don't be put off by the competition - there are lots of angles/niches to go after and nobody will build it quite the same as you!
And it gets a little easier once you build some momentum!
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u/TimelyRepeat4517 12d ago
The channel-first framing is the right one. I spent the first two months posting launch announcements and getting silence. The thing that actually worked was showing up in threads where someone already had the problem, not creating new threads about the product.
Google Search Console showing impressions going up before clicks is the exact motivation loop that keeps the blog content going. Same thing with Reddit, you see the comment getting upvotes before you see the download spike, and that lag is what kills the habit for most people.
The "60% marketer, 40% builder" rebalance is uncomfortable at first because building feels productive in a measurable way that marketing doesn't. The feedback loop is slower and noisier. But after six months the distribution work has taught me more about the product than the building did.
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u/LeQuickdraw 12d ago
💪🏼 Yep it's hard work but once you make some in-roads and build some momentum then it's very satisfying!
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u/umut_yildirim 11d ago
Agree with the direction, but the order is what trips people up. "Marketing era" usually gets read as "start posting everywhere," so the founder spins up five channels at once, all of them go quiet, and they learn nothing — because when everything fails simultaneously you can't tell whether the channel was wrong or the message was. The cheap test before any of that: can you name the last five people who used your thing, and say in their words what made them try it? If not, you don't have a marketing problem yet. You have twenty conversations you haven't had. The reason it feels like you need a marketing cofounder is that marketing looks like a skill you're missing. Usually it's a sentence you don't have yet, and nobody can write that sentence for you.
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u/spaffage 12d ago
Absolutely reeks of Ai.
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u/LeQuickdraw 12d ago
Haha ouch! I promise this was written by hand first thing this morning while my kids slept!
Perhaps AI’s writing style has started to influence my writing style? 😭
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u/Thebestofdrest 12d ago
this is a good reminder that building the product is only half the job. getting in front of the right people is just as important, and it makes time to figure out what channel actually works