ALTERNATE UNIVERSE DEV

Syntax - Tasty Web Development Treats

Marketing for Developers

Scott and Wes talk about marketing. Specifically how to do marketing if you’re a developer wondering where to start.

Freshbooks - Sponsor

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LogRocket - Sponsor

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Show Notes

7:58 - Personal Branding

  • Build trust and reciprocity
  • Be authentic to yourself and let that carry through in your work.
  • Have the guts to put yourself out there and establish yourself as an expert.
    • Speak at conferences
    • Write blog posts
    • Make YouTube videos
    • Be on podcasts
    • Start your own podcast

14:50 - Running a Business

  • Treat people well.
  • Reward your customers.
  • Don’t punish your users.
  • Have a refund policy.

19:26 - Social Media

  • Don’t push people off a platform. Bring content to them that is tailored for that platform.

  • Get in early, before the platform becomes super crowded.

  • YouTube

    • Quality content through quantity.
    • Write good SEO titles.
    • Tease your paid content or create a free one-off.
    • Don’t expect to make a lot of money, but it can be great for growing a brand.

  • Twitter

    • Be helpful - small, digestible tips and tricks and great for growing a Twitter following.
    • Quality is still the key.
    • Steve Schoger is a great example of consistent, high quality content.

  • Facebook

    • People have other interests besides web development. People like to see into your life.
    • Use Facebook to give people a window into who you are.

  • Reddit

    • Reddit is really difficult. It’s easy to get banned. The best strategy is to not focus on marketing and just try to be helpful.
    • It’s sort of replaced forums and is a great place to build communities around different hobbies.

  • Instagram

    • Recently IG has been blowing up for web developers.
    • Dhanish is a perfect example of how to do Instagram well.

49:55 - Paid Advertising

  • Don’t be sleazy.
  • Ads are good for getting likes and driving some traffic to something, but it takes experimentation to get the best bang for you buck.

54:40 - Email marketing

  • Wes: Email is probably responsible for most of my sales.
  • Keeps people up to date and helpful for promoting new courses.
  • Helpful for figuring out what people want.

59:17 - Partnerships

  • A lot of companies want to partner rather than just sponsor.
  • It can be a great way to fund the creation of products/courses.
  • Affiliate programs are great when they work out.

67:30 - Freebies

  • Giving away free content is a surefire way to get people to pay attention.
  • It’s about giving back to the community as much as marketing your products.
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