Marketing?
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I just recently made the jump to being an independent developer. It's been about two months and things have been great so far. For those that are doing the same out there, How do you market yourself? I've got a basic website up, but so far all my business has been word of mouth. Any recommendations? Do you use Google Adwords?
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I just recently made the jump to being an independent developer. It's been about two months and things have been great so far. For those that are doing the same out there, How do you market yourself? I've got a basic website up, but so far all my business has been word of mouth. Any recommendations? Do you use Google Adwords?
Word of mouth. 100%. It's the only thing that works or matters to me. The better you look after ytour clients the more "the word" will get around. Good luck! Fred
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Word of mouth. 100%. It's the only thing that works or matters to me. The better you look after ytour clients the more "the word" will get around. Good luck! Fred
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Been independent about 10 years now. First couple of years were a bit nerve-wracking, though actually the spare time was useful as it gave me time to catch up on new technologies... nowadays I'm lucky to get a day off; here I am at 9:20 pm after starting at 9am, still at it....
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I just recently made the jump to being an independent developer. It's been about two months and things have been great so far. For those that are doing the same out there, How do you market yourself? I've got a basic website up, but so far all my business has been word of mouth. Any recommendations? Do you use Google Adwords?
I'd say it depends on the scope/location of the target audience. I use Google Adwords for my products that are useful to a lot of people. As long as the price/conversion is less than one sale price I consider it good. I've found you never know what works until you try.
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I just recently made the jump to being an independent developer. It's been about two months and things have been great so far. For those that are doing the same out there, How do you market yourself? I've got a basic website up, but so far all my business has been word of mouth. Any recommendations? Do you use Google Adwords?
Nothing you do can come close to what word of mouth achieves.
Christian Graus - Microsoft MVP - C++ "I am working on a project that will convert a FORTRAN code to corresponding C++ code.I am not aware of FORTRAN syntax" ( spotted in the C++/CLI forum )
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I just recently made the jump to being an independent developer. It's been about two months and things have been great so far. For those that are doing the same out there, How do you market yourself? I've got a basic website up, but so far all my business has been word of mouth. Any recommendations? Do you use Google Adwords?
If you are doing consulting or one off jobs for individual customers then there's not much you can do for marketing via adwords unless it's highly specialized and of interest to an internet wide audience. If, on the other hand you are making software and selling it over the internet globally then this might of of some help: Basically you need to get your website listed as high as humanly possible in the regular google index for the key search terms for your product. (and other sites as well but anything that works on google will also work on msn and others just fine) You need to start an iterative process by examining the search terms people are using now to get to your site because they often contain clues as to what keywords you should be focusing on as they will include words you don't yet have worked into your home page. Add the new and unique words to your keywords, work it into your text as per normal search engine conformity and human readability guidelines, see how those new words do over and over until you have an exact list of phrases people will likely be using who ultimately purchase your product. The above assumes you know how to construct a home page properly for search engines and humans alike, there are dozens of good of guides on how to and how not to do it read them *all*. Only then, once you have that info go to google adwords and others and pay for listings, they work very well but you will waste a *lot* of money unless you get your key phrases down to a science and they are no substitute for coming up high in the regular rankings so never overlook that. For example we make "work order software". We rank number 1 at google for it and have for years so there is no need for us to bid on it for pay per click to the front page, however we might want to appear on the second page (at a cheaper cost) in the paid listing since we're only on the first page at the top in natural listing. However we noticed when examining the hits to our website and following the visitors that used that phrase to see that they download ultimately, that a lot of the world calls the same thing "service order software" so we worked that in, we also noticed that a lot of the people are searching for "service management software" and so we worked that in. Careful though, you only want to add words that result in getting visitors that are searching exactly for your product. Throwing in unnecessary words is detrimental, work on this on a regular basis for as long as you are in business. You will get all
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Nothing you do can come close to what word of mouth achieves.
Christian Graus - Microsoft MVP - C++ "I am working on a project that will convert a FORTRAN code to corresponding C++ code.I am not aware of FORTRAN syntax" ( spotted in the C++/CLI forum )
That's true if you are consulting or selling software locally in small quantities, if you are selling globally then it's true only when you have a large enough customer base. You have to start somewhere and adwords is a good place to start once you have your website listing good in the regular listings.
Modo vincis, modo vinceris.
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If you are doing consulting or one off jobs for individual customers then there's not much you can do for marketing via adwords unless it's highly specialized and of interest to an internet wide audience. If, on the other hand you are making software and selling it over the internet globally then this might of of some help: Basically you need to get your website listed as high as humanly possible in the regular google index for the key search terms for your product. (and other sites as well but anything that works on google will also work on msn and others just fine) You need to start an iterative process by examining the search terms people are using now to get to your site because they often contain clues as to what keywords you should be focusing on as they will include words you don't yet have worked into your home page. Add the new and unique words to your keywords, work it into your text as per normal search engine conformity and human readability guidelines, see how those new words do over and over until you have an exact list of phrases people will likely be using who ultimately purchase your product. The above assumes you know how to construct a home page properly for search engines and humans alike, there are dozens of good of guides on how to and how not to do it read them *all*. Only then, once you have that info go to google adwords and others and pay for listings, they work very well but you will waste a *lot* of money unless you get your key phrases down to a science and they are no substitute for coming up high in the regular rankings so never overlook that. For example we make "work order software". We rank number 1 at google for it and have for years so there is no need for us to bid on it for pay per click to the front page, however we might want to appear on the second page (at a cheaper cost) in the paid listing since we're only on the first page at the top in natural listing. However we noticed when examining the hits to our website and following the visitors that used that phrase to see that they download ultimately, that a lot of the world calls the same thing "service order software" so we worked that in, we also noticed that a lot of the people are searching for "service management software" and so we worked that in. Careful though, you only want to add words that result in getting visitors that are searching exactly for your product. Throwing in unnecessary words is detrimental, work on this on a regular basis for as long as you are in business. You will get all
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I just recently made the jump to being an independent developer. It's been about two months and things have been great so far. For those that are doing the same out there, How do you market yourself? I've got a basic website up, but so far all my business has been word of mouth. Any recommendations? Do you use Google Adwords?
Some here on CP use articles to advertise their work. Then there is open source projects that get your name out and around. You can spend money to buy advertising and put some time in and use it to promote you.
Rocky <>< Blog Post: Windows Live Authentication - Easy Stuff! Tech Blog Post: Finally, Free Legal Music Downloads! Tech Sites: SilverlightCity.com ~ TheSilverlightDirectory.com ~ TheWPFDirectory.com
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I just recently made the jump to being an independent developer. It's been about two months and things have been great so far. For those that are doing the same out there, How do you market yourself? I've got a basic website up, but so far all my business has been word of mouth. Any recommendations? Do you use Google Adwords?
I've often thought about doing that (going independent), but frankly, it scares me to death. I need to keep the bills paid. I've always had a regular "steady" job. Steady, however, is not really what the last couple of them have been. I keep wondering if I am going to come in, only to find the doors padlocked or something. I really don't know where to start. All my experience is in application development. I have good all-around knowledge (C, C++, C#, .NET), but not a lot of specialized knowledge (I did write firmware for one company). My wife keeps pushing me to go into business for myself, but I keep coming back to that "paying the bills" thing. I can't afford to go for a couple of years without a steady income. :(:sigh:
WE ARE DYSLEXIC OF BORG. Refutance is systile. Your a$$ will be laminated.