Jonathan Bossenger

Social media applications on mobile

How should I promote my open source work better?

In a meeting yesterday my team lead asked me about how I could better promote and market my educational content on Learn WordPress.

For someone who prides himself on always either having, or finding, and answer, I suddenly found myself stumped as to what to say.

I’ve never been a marketer or sales person. At my core I am a problem solver, so whether that’s solving a problem through code, or helping someone else solve a problem through educational content, once the problem is solved, I’ve never thought beyond how to get the solution in front of other eyeballs.

Now that I’m sponsored to create content for Learn WordPress it’s never occurred to me that I should be promoting my work. It’s certainly a new problem to solve, and so I’m putting some headspace into how to solve it, but I have no idea where even to start.

So, in the spirit of the learning, open source, and community, I’d like to ask you, dear reader, what tips, tricks and tools can you share with me as to how I can promote my work to a wider audience?

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3 responses to “How should I promote my open source work better?”

  1. Alex Standiford Avatar
    Alex Standiford

    One thing I find to be very useful is a good old fashioned cross posting strategy. You can write related content about whatever you publish, and share that content on other websites.

    For example, when I was really promoting WP Dev Academy, I reached out to places like GoDaddy, and CSS Tricks, and Smashing Magazine to publish content related to my original content to share and talk about. I even got paid for some of them!

    Find places to repeat your story. Podcast interviews, for example.

    Reply
  2. Nick Diego Avatar
    Nick Diego

    I say this begrudgingly, but social media is the answer here. The larger following you have, the greater your reach and influence, which then allows you to market your own work (and those of others) more effectively. Social media platforms are really personal “marketing” platforms.

    Reply
    1. Jonathan Avatar
      Jonathan

      Yeah, that’s part of the problem, I’m terrible at social media!

      Reply

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