Plan for the fact that marketing the app is going to take at least two days a week. I’m talking about about 16 solid hours of work, at a minimum.
Here we have the marketer's version of the YouDidNotSpendEnoughTimeLookingAtTheIDEException, where people think an arbitrary number of hours has mystical significance because, why, if you could actually run a business in your spare time then the world would collapse on itself.
There is nothing intrinsic to marketing that says it all has to be done this week, in big consecutive chunks, for it to matter. Some of the most important forms of marketing for Internet businesses take what I like to call calendar time as opposed to wall clock time. For young sites, SEO is very intensive on calendar time but pretty light on wall clock time -- you throw a couple links at it, and then you go off and do other things to amuse yourself while waiting for Google to not hate your bones.
Similarly, blogging and similar reputation-building exercises reward stamina, not number of hours worked consecutively. (Consecutive crunching helps you play Keep Up With Techcrunch. Don't play Keep Up With Techcrunch. That is a full-time job for several people, and besides, people who read Techcrunch are by and large terrible customers who don't actually pay for the stuff they read about. Instead, write software/applications for the people who do actually pay for the stuff they read about.)
It’s very likely that the only way you’ll be able to get the word out to the masses about your new idea is by spending cold-hard-advertising-dollars.
Catastrophically wrong. Understanding PPC advertising is a useful skill, don't get me wrong, but it works a lot better after you have customer validation from your other marketing methods.
Advertising always has been, and always will be, a black art. The percentage of time, effort, and money that works for one company might fail dramatically for another. Just compare advertising budgets and strategies between Pepsi and Google. Any time I hear advertising or publicity advice, I take it with a grain of salt.
However, the fundamental point of the article still stands. Running a business is really hard work, and starting a business doubly so. There's a really strong correlation between effort and success, and it's always good to keep that in mind.
Advertising always has been, and always will be, a black art. The percentage of time, effort, and money that works for one company might fail dramatically for another.
I disagree, the great ad agencies have been around for decades... far longer than any software company to date. It's an art that can be mastered and requires creative genius, the right brain equivalent of an engineer.
The problem is, it usually takes two to tango. Therefore, many times bad advertising is the result of 1) insufficient research by the marketer, 2) poorly executed product, or 3) a client that thinks he knows what he's doing.
I absolutely agree with your first point (re: arbitrary number), but I think the point the article is generally making is "time spent marketing is more important than most web-based startups consider." Maybe not.
Here we have the marketer's version of the YouDidNotSpendEnoughTimeLookingAtTheIDEException, where people think an arbitrary number of hours has mystical significance because, why, if you could actually run a business in your spare time then the world would collapse on itself.
There is nothing intrinsic to marketing that says it all has to be done this week, in big consecutive chunks, for it to matter. Some of the most important forms of marketing for Internet businesses take what I like to call calendar time as opposed to wall clock time. For young sites, SEO is very intensive on calendar time but pretty light on wall clock time -- you throw a couple links at it, and then you go off and do other things to amuse yourself while waiting for Google to not hate your bones.
Similarly, blogging and similar reputation-building exercises reward stamina, not number of hours worked consecutively. (Consecutive crunching helps you play Keep Up With Techcrunch. Don't play Keep Up With Techcrunch. That is a full-time job for several people, and besides, people who read Techcrunch are by and large terrible customers who don't actually pay for the stuff they read about. Instead, write software/applications for the people who do actually pay for the stuff they read about.)
It’s very likely that the only way you’ll be able to get the word out to the masses about your new idea is by spending cold-hard-advertising-dollars.
Catastrophically wrong. Understanding PPC advertising is a useful skill, don't get me wrong, but it works a lot better after you have customer validation from your other marketing methods.