We talk a lot about launching projects, but I don’t think we’ve done such a stellar job in covering some actual strategies that can be used to achieve such success.
Granted, each project is different. Some of the stuff we work on are online campuses, some are going to be media-related, and some may even be in the realm of software.
Nonetheless, there are a number of things that can be done to have a successful launch regardless of the project. Here are three things I’ve found to be effective in launching my own projects.
1. Plan Early
No one has a large scale project that they dream up in the morning and deliver by evening. Projects take planning and there’s normally some level done at the very beginning.
In the context of launching a project online, it makes sense to consider what the presence will look like:
- Will it be hosted on its own domain or located or on an existing site?
- What keywords can you capitalize on for SEO?
- Do you need to leverage a blogging platform or will a single landing page suffice?
Once you’ve got this stuff nailed down, you can go ahead purchase the domain (or add to an existing domain) and get a generic skeleton site up that contains a few of the related keywords (perhaps a teaser is worth posting).
You don’t have to share it with anyone, but getting it online sooner results in Google indexing it so that it will be available in search at launch time.
2. Get Those Inbound Links
Having other people reference your stuff is another good way to get the word out both for others to see and to help give a little extra weight in Google (yes, inbound linking factors into SEO).
It’s not some magical process, either. Post it on Facebook, get your friends to retweet a mention of the project, and have a couple of people cover it on their blogs.
This can go along way in helping others find your site via word of mouth and organic searching.
3. Publish To The Community
Most projects are going to be targeting a specific community. Wouldn’t it make sense to get that community engaged in the launch?
If you’re working on, say, a jQuery plugin, add the plugin to the public repository. Launching an online church? Draft a post for Crunch. Working on an open source project? Manage the code on GitHub.
Everyone of us is plugged into some type of community. Figure out how to take advantage of it in order to publicize your work.
4. Define Success & Measure It
In some cases, success is clear but most of us operate in niches. Anything that goes on within the context of that niche is going to have it’s own metrics of success.
Perhaps 50 views of your latest video in the first day is a success. Maybe 300 hits on the launch of your blog is success. It’s not always going to be clear – you gotta set realistic goals around your work and push hard for them.
Don’t forget to put metrics in place, either. Add WordPress Stats to your blog, include Analytics on each page, setup a Google Alert for mentions, and run a custom Twitter search to keep your pulse on what people are saying.
Be thoughtful about what you’re launching – it’s actually relatively easy to get the word out and have a major launch for a project. It’s more of a matter of thinking through how you’re going to get it out.
Doing this upfront will go exceptionally farther than trying to manage it after you’re done.
Okay, cool. Comments, questions, or thoughts?
Kyle Reed says
Great stuff Tom. Well said.
I will be using this stuff very soon
Tom says
Thanks Kyle – what are you launching? Gonna keep us posted?
joey says
Thanks for the Twitter search idea….never done that…Joey
Tom says
Sure thing