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How do you market your startup on a shoestring?

6 points by hxf148 ↗ HN
Since launching a startup (http://infostripe.com) earlier this year I have been learning a lot about how things truly work online. I've been around the internet since the mid nineties, I have worked in web development throughout that time (for a government) and have intensely followed tech news, podcasts and events very closely as an interested observer. I have gotten a lot out of that practice but it was truly when I tried to reach out with my own thing that I discovered the height and depth that is the 4th wall of the marketing underbelly.

We are not yet in a position to spend what resources we have on a lot of things so it has been a grassroots campaign to reach out to tech punditry, journalists, bloggers along with some minor experimental spends on Adwords, Stumbleupon and Facebook Ads. This has been somewhat successful on small scale but we have run into some interesting observations.

- It seems to matter who you know more then what you are if you have little to spend. - Tech journalism is in some corners a vapid recycling of the same daily hot air with very little investigative instinct. - There is a lot going on each day online and getting heard is tough. - Spammers have made us all afraid of each other and new things.

So the question, How do you market your whatever as a small yet unfunded startup on a shoestring?

5 comments

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hcho
Is this meant to be for mobile devices only? You can start with getting your usability right. A narrow column of content on a blank screen is not ideal for consuming the said content.
hxf148
Yes it is primarily intended for mobile and small screens. That it works in any browser is a value add.
hcho
I would say, if you are not relying on an app market for your distribution, a full blown web version is your best bet. My not backed with any data whatsoever observation is, mobile web traffic is still too small to use as the sole medium of a marketing effort.
adou
Use your friend ask them advice and to promote word by mouth ,, spend more time networking and do Favour to other people who can help u with marketing ,,,, but more important keep asking for help never stop !!!!
petervandijck
Make a better landing page. Yours is just super confusing. "Or or or" doesn't work. What do you do exactly?

I know you're asking about marketing, but alternatively, it's possible that nobody really wants what you're building (whatever that is). Do you have people really using it?