Build it and they shall come?
Tuesday 26th May 2009
I was pointed at an interesting read on thinkvitamin.com - Launch a Business, Not a Side Project.
In the article, Ryan Carson of Carsonified (a company both delivering web apps to the market and organising the Future of Web Apps/Design tours) talks about the need of treating new web applications as a business - and focussing your time on them.
I, as well as some of my previous clients, have had great ideas, and have wanted to build the online solution to everyone's problem. Sometimes the site launches and works well, sometimes it launches and sits there, and other times it doesn't even get to the launch stage.
We often think that if we build the right solution people will love it and just use it. But the difficulty is getting the right people (those who have a problem to solve) to hear about it! Ryan's article suggests that spending at least 2 days a week post-launch on marketing is vital - and I can see how this is necessary.
We've been building content management systems for years, and are just working on a subscription based system to allow easy, low-cost monthly access to small businesses. Trouble is, as a side project, we've been building this system for over 12 months now. It's time to focus on launching - and then some good effort on marketing!
So if you build it they may come, but they have to hear about it first!