Developed utility, need advise on how to promote

Discussions
#1

Hi,

Me and my friend, we developed 4 simple utilities for IP and USB camera capture and now would like to somehow get them showed to potential customers.

How to do this?

Here is the website: http://www.ipcamerastudio.com

I know that programs are very simple. We are planning to continue the development and turn them into a full featured surveillance solution, but we’ve decided to start promoting them from the early beginning, not in some nice day in the future.

So that is the question: where to submit our software. Is it ethical to spam in forums? I mean, posting new topics that promotes the project.

Appreciate any advices.

Thanks,

  • Alex.
#2

[quote=“AlexC, post:1, topic:2464”]
I know that programs are very simple.[/quote]
Simple is good. It makes the marketing easier.

Also a good idea.

No. Not a good idea. But include a link to your software in the body of the reply if its relevant. Otherwise include a link in the sig.

Your low price ($19 or free) pretty much rules out paid advertising, such as AdWords.

I would start with the following:
-SEO your site for relevant search term
-write some articles of interest to people who might buy your software (e.g. ‘how to set up an IP camera’, ‘review of popular IP cameras’ etc)
-write to relevant blogs and review sites and ask them to review your software (send them a free licence key)
-collect the email of people who download your free software so you can market to them via email (e.g. newsletter), make sure they can unsub easily
-maybe approach manufacturers of cameras and see if there is some possibility of partnership (easier if you have a bit of traction)

I’m not sure if I would bother submitting to download sites these days. They are so full of crud you might get penalized by Google for backlinks (does anyone have evidence either way on this?).

See also:
http://successfulsoftware.net/2007/05/07/promoting-your-software-part-1/ ( 6 parts)
http://tractionbook.com/

NB/ The marketing is generally a lot harder than the developing!

Good luck.

2 Likes
#3

PS/ ‘Connect, view, record video, take snapshots, detect motion and many more’ is hard to read against the image.

#4

What behavior is acceptable varies by forum, but if it feels like spam to you, it probably is good to avoid. Some forums allow a single post about a relevant product, for ex.

I do think it’s worth finding relevant forums and seeing what the posting policy is, and also how much it costs to advertise on the site. Beyond the forum members, forums get a lot of ‘drive-by’ traffic from people looking for answers.