August 8, 2001, 8:16 pm
I found a great resource for someone like me who knows how to design a software product and get it built, but doesn’t know the first thing about marketing it. Luckily I found Rick Chapman. We arranged for a quick book swap — I sent him a copy of UI for Programmers, and he sent me a copy of his book, The Product Marketing Handbook for Software. I read the whole book in one weekend. This book is fantastic. It’s the education you would receive if you captured a veteran of channel marketing and gave him a truth drug. Hours of nonstop, extremely useful info. What’s a SPIF? Do you need a UPC? How do you get into the channel? Should you bother? What kind of deals will you have to cut to get retailers to stock and promote your software? It’s a complete braindump covering just about everything you should know if you’re thinking of creating shrink-wrap software. Priceless.
There’s a web site that goes along with it called SoftwareMarketSolution.com (I know, that’s a mouthful.) Check it out, it’s the Joel On Software of marketing.
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Joel on Software]
