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Since building something is only 10% of the battle (if that) you're going to want to apply the same general techniques to the other things -- web design, marketing, support, etc.

My favorite three words are "Automate, outsource, and eliminate". If neither you nor your customers require your personal attention to X, you should ideally not be X-ing, because you and your customers require your personal attention on enough things as it is.

[Incidentally: Telling your parents and friends about your internal deadlines as a motivational tool is pretty useful. Telling your customers is a great way to get unproductively stressed when life gets in the way. Your parents and friends will still be there later if your schedule slips a week because your girlfriend needed more face time. Your customers, on the other hand, tend to be a little more insistent that when you tell them 2.0 is coming out on July 1st that it is actually out on July 1st.]



It depends what your battle is. This guide is more directed to hackers who want to build something cool than someone setting out to start a business.


I agree, I don't think the article had 'making a business out of it' in mind.

This is just hacking with a goal to finishing the project. A noble goal, I think. Though in my experience a difficult one.


Got any good resources for doing marketing in your spare time?


Just think about who you're building the product for and how you can help them.


If the product's built and you have a small happy/excited community, how do you market then?


Advertise. There is a reason that ads pay for most of the stuff we like on the internet -- they work!




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