

Launch a Business, Not a side Project - GVRV
http://thinkvitamin.com/business/launch-a-business-not-a-side-project-2/

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patio11
_Plan for the fact that marketing the app is going to take at least two days a
week. I’m talking about about 16 solid hours of work, at a minimum._

Here we have the marketer's version of the
YouDidNotSpendEnoughTimeLookingAtTheIDEException, where people think an
arbitrary number of hours has mystical significance because, why, if you could
actually run a business in your spare time then the world would collapse on
itself.

There is nothing intrinsic to marketing that says it all has to be done this
week, in big consecutive chunks, for it to matter. Some of the most important
forms of marketing for Internet businesses take what I like to call calendar
time as opposed to wall clock time. For young sites, SEO is very intensive on
calendar time but pretty light on wall clock time -- you throw a couple links
at it, and then you go off and do other things to amuse yourself while waiting
for Google to not hate your bones.

Similarly, blogging and similar reputation-building exercises reward stamina,
not number of hours worked consecutively. (Consecutive crunching helps you
play Keep Up With Techcrunch. Don't play Keep Up With Techcrunch. That is a
full-time job for several people, and besides, people who read Techcrunch are
by and large terrible customers who don't actually pay for the stuff they read
about. Instead, write software/applications for the people who do actually pay
for the stuff they read about.)

 _It’s very likely that the only way you’ll be able to get the word out to the
masses about your new idea is by spending cold-hard-advertising-dollars._

Catastrophically wrong. Understanding PPC advertising is a useful skill, don't
get me wrong, but it works a lot better after you have customer validation
from your other marketing methods.

~~~
megaduck
Advertising always has been, and always will be, a black art. The percentage
of time, effort, and money that works for one company might fail dramatically
for another. Just compare advertising budgets and strategies between Pepsi and
Google. Any time I hear advertising or publicity advice, I take it with a
grain of salt.

However, the fundamental point of the article still stands. Running a business
is really hard work, and starting a business doubly so. There's a really
strong correlation between effort and success, and it's always good to keep
that in mind.

~~~
pxlpshr
_Advertising always has been, and always will be, a black art. The percentage
of time, effort, and money that works for one company might fail dramatically
for another._

I disagree, the great ad agencies have been around for decades... far longer
than any software company to date. It's an art that can be mastered and
requires creative genius, the right brain equivalent of an engineer.

The problem is, it usually takes two to tango. Therefore, many times bad
advertising is the result of 1) insufficient research by the marketer, 2)
poorly executed product, or 3) a client that thinks he knows what he's doing.

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jasongullickson
I think what's missing here is that it can take a long time post-launch for
your app (or any other product) to take off and this is where the independent
developer with a day-job has the advantage over the VC (or otherwise funded)
start-up with full-time employees.

If you have the means to support yourself, you can fine-tune your app and it's
marketing over the course of years (as someone else mentioned, tuning internet
marketing takes more "calendar time" than clock-time) and hone it until you
get it right. I know we all think time moves faster on the internet, but look
at how much time elapsed between Twitter's first public beta and it's breach
into the public eye (only a month or so ago?).

On the other hand, if you are working on your project full-time, you have a
fuse burning that is your funding and generally it's limited. From some of the
conversations I've had recently, this fuse is as short as six months (and
that's counting dev time before launch) and in my experience that's not
enough, even if you get really lucky with media coverage.

I don't think there is a right or wrong answer here. You have to continually
evaluate your current position and decide if you need to go full-time to make
it to the next level, and there is no prescription for this as every project
(and developer) is different. My only advice is that you put off making the
jump as long as possible because when you do, you've given up one of the major
advantages you have over companies that need to satisfy shareholders/employees
and the cost is going to change the dynamics of your project dramatically.

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dugmartin
I created one of the projects Xed out on that chart. Looking back it was a
project and not a business - I got coverage on all the hot tech blogs and the
associated huge spike in traffic but there really was not a business there. It
did help me get my next job though and it was a fun ride.

~~~
boundlessdreamz
Which one?

~~~
dugmartin
LookLater - the one to the immediate right of Pandora.

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bad_user
Maybe those applications failed because the idea behind them was not that
useful / interesting?

Marketing is important, but a kick-ass implementation of a good idea usually
sells itself without much effort.

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jimboyoungblood
The graphic with all the X'ed out logos is pretty interesting. I noticed that
the founders of a many of the "dead" companies have since moved on to newer,
more successful, projects.

I'd say it's more damning of the Web 2.0 companies w/ no traction which aren't
X'ed out. Maybe their founders/investors just don't know when to quit?

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rokhayakebe
If your product is not viral by nature or solve a real problem people know
they have, you had better market the heck out of it.

~~~
jimboyoungblood
Disagree. If your product is not viral by nature or solve a real problem
people know they have, you had better work on a different product.

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icey
Minor irritation: Having to click an image 3 times to see it in full
resolution.

