Comments on: The Other Way to Launch in the Blogosphere

By: Nick Wilson

Nick Wilson — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 11:14:07 +0000

heh, it’s just like anything else Raj, there’s no “using”, its just a way to get the attention of those that matter to you *before* you launch, not after.

It’s certainly not a new idea. Just a little different in the currently overhyped, sickeningly nepetistic web2.0 environment many are convinced they need be part of right now..

By: Raj Dash

Raj Dash — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 11:03:31 +0000

I feel so used, Nick ;>

But seriously, a beautiful strategy. Bootstrappers like myself could never pull such a thing off. You need capital to start with. But maybe, one day, when I’m making a trillion dollars a month from AdSense, I’ll try it.

By: David Morgan

David Morgan — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 07:00:35 +0000

Can’t see the downside of this:

What if you spend all that time and money developing a community only to find that you’ve called it wrong, and they hate your products?

If the community hate your product then is doesn’t matter if you’ve greased every A-lister’s palm, they’ll still hate it when they eventually use it.

Too many people focus promotion on the blog A-list rather than on the real users of their product, looking for the halo effect from celebrity.

Focus on who will buy your product or use your service, make sure they love it and they will do all your promotion for you.

By: shotoshi

shotoshi — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 06:10:45 +0000

Nick, the way you have developed Perfomancing is how I am trying to develop my product e.g. build an audience first, then the product comes later. I can’t divulge much more about my product as the 1st stage still hasn’t been hit yet, but within my niche I’m going against the grain, as opposed to my competitors who are still stuck in 1999.

The trick, of course, is to develop something that will turn my competitors into customers

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: it’s better to shoot your arrow first then draw the target around it, rather than shooting for the same target as every other mofo out there. I’ve managed that in music, will manage it again in my new field.

It’s disappointing that some of the Ruby merchants I’ve approached are now slapping a few zeros onto development costs for something that purportedly takes a fraction of time to develop compared to php etc. Greedy w@nkers!

By: Chris Garrett

Chris Garrett — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 05:22:07 +0000

Obviously you would expect me to agree but here is my take on it.

You can release with a big bang and hope lots of people like it. Seems to work. Kinda.

What I would rather do is find out what people want and need, try the best you can to meet those needs and release something that you think is pretty much right. Then talk to the people who are going to use it and ask them to try it. Act on feedback, take comments seriously, help people. For all the web2.0 claptrap I think that is actually why things like BaseCamp are a success. Not because they were built using Ruby by groovy web2.0 fellas, heh.

I believe the days of “company vs consumer” are over. There isn’t some distant, abstract entity called a “market” you can hold at arms length and shout at via broadcast media and PR manipulation.

They are real people with real needs and voices. They will get heard anyway so why not start with listening?