Ask HN: I've written iOS Middleware. How to market it?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2842183

by steipete • 15 years ago

1 3 15 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

I've build PSPDFKit - solving a common problem in Apps, PDF display. Getting it fast is actually pretty hard. Now I build this awesome framework (extracted from a real world app), set up the site - how do I market it? Already tweeted and got about 1k visitors, but no sales. Is the price to high? Even made three categories for optimal customer segmentation. Suggestions?

http://pspdfkit.com/

Pewpewarrows• 15 years ago

1. It took me longer than I expected to figure out what it is: a drop-in developer library to help in almost every aspect of rendering a PDF in my application. The fact that I wasn't able to recognize this in the first few seconds was an immediate turn-off.

2. Why would I need one of these? As a customer I had to think for a while to realize that this would really help if I was distributing content, like an article or magazine, converted to a digital format. I'm sure there are plenty of other use-cases. But that's not something I want to have to convince myself about. You should be the one telling me all the cool ways I can use it. A video showcasing how it works would be superb.

3. The name. You're probably already invested into it at this point, but there's a very low chance I'm going to remember it.

4. The price might be a tad high. The more important point here is: this isn't like a $0.99 app; you're probably not going to get sales in the immediate future. At this point I'd start aiming at companies that can use your product, reaching out to them and trying to do some old-fashioned salesmanship. Expecting people to come to your page blind and make a purchase of that size is a bit... much.

Best of luck, it certainly looks like a very neat piece of middleware!

steipete• 15 years ago

Thanks! This is superb feedback - I updated the website to reflect your suggested changes - much, much better!

jacksondeane• 15 years ago

I love this BTW...

1) I think the price tiers may be a little high. Independent developers even bitch about the $99 Apple developer account fee. You need to make binary release a little more accessible.

2) This may not be in your scope, but I could have REALLY used a nice library to generate PDF's. I don't know if you are attacking that but I would definitely use it.

Ask HN: I've written iOS Middleware. How to market it?

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