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Azfar

How did you get your first paying customer?

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As a passionate programmer I have developed lot of side projects in the past, but I always suck at marketing. I request PH community to share some Strategies & Tips on how to get your first paying customer.

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Aris Nance
Hi Azfar, I just launched www.onlyblog.io and within a few hours have gained more than a few early paying adopters. I agree that marketing is very difficult and stressful, so as I did. Have fun sharing your product idea with your network, go on Twitter and share your design and development progress, seek feedback, and become a storyteller. Meaning deep dive into your use cases, and then think of a few more and then use hashtags and find relevant lists and publications, etc. As one comment mentioned, it’s going to require some hustle upfront. Aris.
Viktor Brešan
Two completely different cases from my personal experience: 1. I built a PHP library for my own larger web project and decided to sell it as a separate product. I set up an e-commerce platform and launched a minimalist product website. On the very first day, shortly after the website launch, without announcing the product anywhere, I made my first sale! I couldn't believe it. I initially thought the product would sell like wildfire, but unfortunately, that wasn't the case. In the end, I didn't generate enough sales and had to shut it down. 2. I developed a free Android app and published it on the Play Store during the early stages of the smartphone era. An user contacted me and expressed the need for certain features, offering to pay a certain amount for them. That's how it all began. More than 10 years later, the app is still generating sales, although not as much as before.
André J
I dont think you need to be good at marketing. Most devs suck at USP. But then blame lack of marketing skills. Marketing is easy if you have a great USP. So focus on that is my recommend.
André J
@azfar_ahmed Also validating if its a real painkiller for the end user or a "nice to have". "Nice to haves" are very hard to do marketing for. Painkillers market them selfs because people will start recommending them.
John Carmichael
It is very different of course for each business. But, I firmly believe it is all about how much value you are bringing to your audience. With Liffery we started with the problem for the end user. We wanted to solve the issue of mindless and annoying push-ads... shoppers want to buy and shops want to sell, it is a simple situation. It is hard to put our journey into words in a short comment here, but you can read our full story/journey over at https://www.liffery.com/liffery/... I hope that helps :)
John Carmichael
@claire_bizflip hi there, just had a look at your web3 asset management tool. not sure if we are at all similar... Could you reveal a little more about your product before I joined your wait list?
Jack Davies
Pure hustle and a bit of luck! I networked like crazy, pitched my services to anyone who'd listen, and finally landed my first client through a referral. Provided them some value upfront and made sure to exceed expectations once I got the gig. It was all about proving my worth and earning their trust.
David HK
Me too.
Carter Michael
For freelance it was literally them making a completely cold outreach to me. It was incredibly unexpected and it was great. For products, by launching here.
Raisa Shafiyyullah
I can relate to that. I'm a tech and product guy, and I always need help with marketing. One time, I tried cold emailing, averaging about 10 emails per day and 100 emails in a week. My response rate was around 10%, with 1-2 good prospects per week. Although it was tedious work, it paid off in the end.
ashen
one of my friends paid even tho they didn't need to :)
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Sandra Djajic
Our first 10 customers came from our personal network so dont be afraid to utilise your connections 😊
Renat Abyasov
It happened entirely unexpectedly. But before the first payment, we had two failed months of working with different types of advertising.
Aurelio
WordPress public plugin repository!