TL;DR
Hello! Today weāll be discussing a rather important topic that rarely comes up in conversations. Letās talk about marketing.
However, not in the usual sense, when people show ads for some kind of food on TV, but in the sense of another productĀ āĀ openāsource code.
Yes, it may seem simple to you, but itās not. In this article, I will try to share a few points that Iāve understood over the 3 years of working on code.
Well, letās get started! šļø
š Understanding the target audience of the product
The most basic and simplest thing possible. Why does anyone need your product at all? Who should use it in their work? And many similar questions.
Understand that just because you found something interesting to do rather than playing games or watching shows doesnāt mean itās as important to others as it is to you. This only means that youāve created a very slim chance that someone will find your project useful.
Today, with AI, your products are no longer needed by anyone, because there are so many of them that people are already sick of yet another openāsource project that will simply stop being supported until the author runs out of money or finds a new project to develop.
Understanding this, you will see that people donāt register in the app or buy a subscription from you not because theyāre mean, but simply because your project doesnāt matter. So, for the project to matter at all, you need to create a unique value proposition. The reason why people will choose you and not anyone else. Understanding this will make it easier for you to promote your product.
š Thanks! What's next?
Youāve created a productĀ āĀ some mobile app or SaaSĀ āĀ and you want people to use it. You have an idea of how to promote it, but you donāt know where.
Thatās already a good question. However, no matter how many articles I read on this topic, everyone starts describing social media, like how great it is to promote your products there. Thank you very much, as if we didnāt know! In 2026, itās probably not obvious :|
Also, Iāve read equally silly advice about how you need to make a good README file, as if thatās not obvious? As if you, who are reading this article, are completely stupid.
I wonāt do that; Iāll just say that it might work.
š Lists
These are various lists where people post projects on different topics. For example, the best projects in JavaScript, and so on.
Letās say thereās ProductHunt:
My experience has shown that the third place there will give you 10ā15 stars and thatās it. More emails from people who are advertising their services.
I came up with something, no, not another ProductHunt clone :). Itās the same list, but its distinguishing feature is the embed.
I came up with something, no, not another ProductHunt clone :). Itās the same list, but its distinctive feature is the embed. Iāve created a platform where you can share what youāve created and show it to everyone on your project.
With profiles, followers, and much more. The cool thing is that you wonāt need to pay anyone to get to the top spot on ProductHunt. On the platform, youāll be able to create your own embed and share it with othersĀ āĀ not as an achievement, but as your own creative work.
š Subreddit
I hate Reddit, and if I had my way, Iād never be on this social network, but the fact is that the community doesnāt care about my opinion or anyone elseās.
There are many different subreddits. Thereās programming, SaaS, and others. When I create a new repository, Iāll post it on coolgithubprojects once or twice, but no more than that.
Read the Reddit rules, donāt post links on new accounts, and post rarely, only responding to comments. This platform bans accounts for everything. For an image, for several identical texts in a row, and, of course, for a link.
š Twitter
The most effective method of all existing ones. Apart from money, this is the only platform for real marketing of your project. On par with YouTube, and even better.
But thereās the most obvious drawback: you have to spend a lot, a lot of free time on it. Literally every day, you have to sit and come up with something. If you donāt have the money to pay bloggers $500 per post, then thereās no other option on this platform.
š» HackerNews
Thereās a tiny, literally negligible chance that your app, which no one needs, might suddenly catch other peopleās interest, get a lot of upvotes and comments, and youāll end up with hundreds of stars on the repository.
But it seems to me that the chances of winning the jackpot in a lottery are greater than the chances of getting more than 100 upvotes with AI. This is impossible, mainly without money or people who have a karma of around 100,000.
āļø Articles
If youāre reading (dev to, daily dev, etc.) this, it means youāve been drawn into promoting my project platform through the article. I donāt think thereās anything to explain within the article itself.
I can only say from my own experience that if you donāt like writing articles, donāt even try. A seemingly simple article can take from several hours to several days. No one is saying youāll be writing a book, but itās a very challenging format, and because people donāt like reading, your efforts will be in vain. Itās much easier to watch a silly video on TikTok, so keep that in mind.
ā ļø Conclusion
Marketing is not coding. It doesnāt have algorithms (which weāre discussing), and it doesnāt have any secrets. Itās about daily work and the talent of understanding your audience. You can make 100 posts on Reddit and get 10 stars, or you can upload a video to TikTok or YouTube Shorts and get 1,000 stars in a day. No one knows what will work, but if you donāt create content, your product will remain unwanted by anyone.
If youāve read this far, I hope Iāve helped you in some way.
Also, I want you to give it a star. I didnāt write this for nothing :)
š Star the EmbedCatalog repository ā
Thanks for your attention! ā¤ļø
Top comments (6)
Great article! šø
Promoting OSS is really difficult, so I think a platform where developers can easily showcase and discover open-source projects is a really nice idea.
Iām looking forward to seeing how it grows! š
The Product Hunt example is a useful reminder to separate a distribution event from lasting adoption. For a developer tool, I would track the first successful setup and a second real use, not only stars after launch. A small tutorial solving one specific problem can reveal more about the audience than another broad launch announcement.
Well, thatās true, but in the open-source world, the term "tool" often bears little resemblance to what it meant 10 years agoāback when people would just download an npm package for an image gallery. Nowadays, apart from AI, nobody reads the documentation.
Hard disagree on the 'with AI nobody needs your product' bit. There's way more junk now, sure, but a tool that fixes one specific painful problem still gets picked up the same day. Did nailing the audience first move your numbers on past projects, or just how fast you got there?
Thatās what my experience has taught me. In Cursor, a prompt can solve a specific problemāeither by pulling in a package or by writing the code from scratch. Itās not 2010 anymore, back when you could create a gallery component on npm and rack up 100,000 downloads in a single week.
And how do you promote your open-source projects?