How do you get gurus to talk about a product?

by st8ic
12 replies
I built a free website builder made for building adsense sites. I posted it on a few forums for testing and I got a few signups but nothing really substantial.

I think it's a great wordpress alternative because it's faster to build, more secure, all of your sites are centralized, you don't need to buy hosting, you don't need to install scripts and it's really purpose-built for internet marketers.

The problem is that nobody wants to use it because nobody in the community is suggesting it - because nobody is using it. So my question is this:

How can you get Gurus talking about your product? How do I get people blogging about it, writing it into their ebooks, and suggesting it to IM noobies? Should I work out some sort of affiliate program, or a deal with just one person? Do I do a pay-per-post type of thing? I think that a guru would be able to target the audience better than something like adwords.
#gurus #product #talk
  • Profile picture of the author Stephen Lessey
    Hey I got a good tip for you....

    Start answering questions on this forum and commenting on threads. Since your a developer you can answer some technical qeustions, that would help allot of warriors. Do 15 post per day till you get enough to start threads or PM others

    Once you get enough post, become a member of the War Room. Then create A WSO with a simple sales pitch page and video of why IM'ers should use it.

    Then give it exclusively to War Room members for free with a optional optin. This will attract the Gurus and you will be able to further network and establish yourself

    Hope this helps, let me know if any questions
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    • Profile picture of the author Ralf Skirr
      First of all: there's not a chance in the world that you'll make a dent against competition like wordpress.

      That does not mean though that you couldn't build a market niche for your product.

      Instead of hoping for guru help you have a better chance by simply going through the whole range of website and software promotion strategies that you can find in this forum and on many, many other sites.

      About the guru support: Why should they suggest it to their list or their forum members?

      If you can answer that question convincingly, then you can surely find people who will promote it. If you can't answer that question in a way that persuades others, then you've probably built something that will not get used widely.

      A big thing is the question of monetization. You say it's free. But you also consider PPC and an affiliate program. So, what are the financial aspects of this free software?

      Ralf
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  • Profile picture of the author hotrod26
    Trying to get the gurus to promote your site builder may not be very easy. They would have to see a real benefit in using it.

    Like Ralf said you are probably not going to be able to even think about competing with wordpress.

    You need to worry about marketing it first and then worry about the gurus. It will be even harder to get a guru to promote something that no one is using.

    I would try to find a way to make it go viral. Make some cool youtube videos showing how easy it is to build a site with it. Give people a reason to want to use it and one of those will probably be a guru and if it is as good as you say it is then they will promote it if not then it will probably never go very far anyway.

    Try to get feedback from people that use it, find out what they like and don't like. That way you will be able to really know if it is a good product. You can't judge your own product only the customers can do that.
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  • Profile picture of the author Henry White
    Originally Posted by st8ic View Post

    I built a free website builder made for building adsense sites. I posted it on a few forums for testing and I got a few signups but nothing really substantial.

    I think it's a great wordpress alternative because it's faster to build, more secure, all of your sites are centralized, you don't need to buy hosting, you don't need to install scripts and it's really purpose-built for internet marketers.

    The problem is that nobody wants to use it because nobody in the community is suggesting it - because nobody is using it. So my question is this:

    How can you get Gurus talking about your product? How do I get people blogging about it, writing it into their ebooks, and suggesting it to IM noobies? Should I work out some sort of affiliate program, or a deal with just one person? Do I do a pay-per-post type of thing? I think that a guru would be able to target the audience better than something like adwords.
    Why all the mystery? What is the product? Where's the link?

    Forget that nonsense about "build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door"! Nobody can use it as long as you keep it a secret!

    If it's free you don't need the gurus, and they aren't going to be interested because there's nothing in it for them.
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  • Profile picture of the author Andyhenry
    I think you're missing the importance of relationships.

    Why should anyone (guru or not) care about promoting what you're selling?

    Why is it even worth their time to check it out?

    I don't know if you know Paul Smithson or his product Xsitepro?

    I first heard about Xsitepro when I had lunch with Paul in London. I didn't know him at the time but he was a friend of another IM who I was having lunch with. Paul showed us Xsitepro and let us play with it and mentioned that he had set up an affiliate program in case any of us thought others would find it useful.

    When Paul launched Xsitepro - lots of people promoted it. I was one of them because I had seen it, used it, spoken to Paul and trusted him and that he would look after his customers.

    THAT is why I told my list about it and sent him a bunch of buyers.

    If he'd sent me an email or forum PM I'd probably have just deleted it.

    Andy
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    nothing to see here.

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  • Profile picture of the author CDarklock
    Originally Posted by st8ic View Post

    all of your sites are centralized, you don't need to buy hosting, you don't need to install scripts
    Am I right in translating this into "this is a hosted service where your sites sit on my domain and my servers where I can monitor your traffic logs and spy on your niches," as many other people undoubtedly are?

    Sometimes the problem isn't that you don't have a guru talking about your product, but that there is an actual distasteful aspect of your product.
    Signature
    "The Golden Town is the Golden Town no longer. They have sold their pillars for brass and their temples for money, they have made coins out of their golden doors. It is become a dark town full of trouble, there is no ease in its streets, beauty has left it and the old songs are gone." - Lord Dunsany, The Messengers
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    • Profile picture of the author Andyhenry
      Originally Posted by CDarklock View Post

      Am I right in translating this into "this is a hosted service where your sites sit on my domain and my servers where I can monitor your traffic logs and spy on your niches," as many other people undoubtedly are?
      I thought that but wanted to stay positive so didn't mention it

      I'm glad you did though because it IS a concern that people have. Partly because of monitoring/malware concerns but also because if I build 10,000 links to my site and it's hosted on someone else's system I haven't really built my business and they can ultimately hold me hostage over my own site.
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      nothing to see here.

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  • Profile picture of the author st8ic
    Hi y'all, thanks for all the replies! In no particular order:

    Am I right in translating this into "this is a hosted service where your sites sit on my domain and my servers where I can monitor your traffic logs and spy on your niches," as many other people undoubtedly are?
    You're right that it's a hosted service - you're wrong that any sort of server-wide monitoring is done. I'm not an internet marketer, I'm a grad student, and I have no interest in exploiting people who use a service that I built to be helpful. This is the same for any hosted service like Moonfruit, Homestead, Website Tonight, etc.

    First of all: there's not a chance in the world that you'll make a dent against competition like wordpress.
    I'm not trying to replace Wordpress, I'm just offering an alternative which is more suited to a specific purpose.

    A big thing is the question of monetization. You say it's free. But you also consider PPC and an affiliate program. So, what are the financial aspects of this free software?
    Well, I'm stretching it a bit when I say "free". It's free to build a site but there is a cost associated with domains. This is really just to cover the registration fee and the cost of cloud hosting.

    Do you think an affiliate system might work? I'm not trying to make a profit, right now I'm just trying to break even and make the 30+ hours of development worth it.
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  • Profile picture of the author limestone614
    If you have the right product, for what-ever reason, a Guru will find you.

    The motto is Give and ye shall Receive I think.

    Make sure you do your bit giving first without question and ideally, without thought of reward.
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  • Profile picture of the author travlinguy
    What's a guru?
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  • Profile picture of the author omk
    You could post more on WF and try and list the advantages of your website builder and comapre it to wordpress. Make a chart, something that would only take a couple of minutes to scan. Then maybe you'll get more interest. It would be very easy to see why yours is better.
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    • Profile picture of the author mdinnen
      Most of the previous comments are correct in saying that a guru will want to see a real value in the product. After all, many of the IM gurus in today's world use their NAME as the credibility for their promotion. They have responsive lists because they only promote products that actually work great.

      Beyond that point, these individuals are obviously in a position to demand a much more generous financial compensation so that will have to be worked out as well.

      Based on those two tips, you should be able to come up with an effective pitch to a "guru", the next step is to locate them.

      I would say that the best way to do this, as in any industry, is face to face. Where are you located and when is the next affiliate convention in town? etc etc.

      Good luck to you!

      Mick
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