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Running an ad for an opensource project on reddit

I maintain the opensource JavaScript library TaffyDB. TaffyDB is a small library that wraps a DB like API around JavaScript arrays in order to provide better features, faster dev time, and faster code execution. We are always looking for new users and contributors. Fork the project on GitHub and follow me Twitter.

How does one 'crack' reddit? This tight knit community can provide enormous amounts of exposure. However it is flooded with spam and is hugely skeptical of new posts.

This time I figured I would try using the front door: the promoted link. My goal was to expose TaffyDB to a new audience. I chose the 300,000+ subscribers of the programming subreddit and spent $100 of my own money.

Results

I made two big mistakes

1. I misspelled redditors in the ad itself. The first comment pointed that out and there was no way to fix it.

2. I didn't have a "Welcome Redditors!" call out at the top of TaffyDB.com during the run of the ad. I think it would have been very helpful to continue the messaging and tell some of those 300+ people which clicked what TaffyDB was and how they could help.

I got some great user feedback

A number of users expressed interest in giving it a go in their next project. It was compared to Ext and to Ruby ActiveRecord (both of which I hadn't looked at in detail before). I also had a request for a "Begginer's guide" for using it (which I hurriedly put together).

I found a couple of volunteers

Two people expressed interest in volunteering to help with the project. I'm excited to have a hand developing the next set of features. It will also be great to have geko with infrastructure pieces such as more formal unit tests and a build process.

The traffic doesn't compare to organic, but comments are more postive

Having had popular links on reddit before, le tme tell you that you can far fewer clicks being a promoted link. Organic is where it is at.

I will say that there was a curious lack of negativity being a promoted link. People generally showed a lot of support for an opensource project sponsoring reddit. In the organic results users have much more of an attitude if they don't feel it is relevant to their interests.

I would do it again

I'd probably target the main reddit next time to see if I can get more exposure and more clicks. There is a good chance a lot of interested parties don't regularly read the programing subreddit.

 

 

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Posted by Ian Smith 
 

Put the body before the title

This blog is about discoveries. Practical, technological, and entrepreneurial discoveries. It is also about beginnings. Where to begin, and where not to begin.

In a web page you first write a <head> section with a <title>. After the <head>, you write a <body>. This leads to wrong thinking. It leads to wrong beginnings. I maintain that the <body> should always be your first concern. Your all consuming concern. If the <body> is not of great value then time spent on the <title> will count as loss.

Let me illustrate. Some years ago I attended a kickoff meeting. It was 2 in the afternoon and the twelve interested parties filled the large conference room. We had a clear, definable problem. And we had a white board. The three developers spent the first minutes discussing the challenges that needed to be tackled. The remainder of our time was given to brainstorming. The PM listed suggested names for the product on the white board for debate. Those who had least to say about the project itself now had the most to say about what the end product should be called.

We began poorly. And we ended poorly. Our team was filled with the curious and opinionated instead of those who would use and build the product. Our focus was on aesthetics. The product we delivered was rushed, buggy, and barely met the basic needs of the project. It had a clever name. But no one remembers it.

This story is common. The lesson is not new. And yet it is hard to learn. It is contrary to our normal way of thinking. The natural mind desires to be known, to have an identity, to be valued without regard to worth. And yet the truth is radically opposite. In business and in life we must put substance before style. We must seek to craft a <body> that is so radically useful, so immeasurably valuable, and so purely necessary that the <title> we choose does not matter. This is what it means to put the <body> before the <title>.

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