How can I give an open source project more exposure? [closed]?

Here's what I've been doing for ReactiveXaml, though I'm just as clueless as you are - my two main goals are to make sure people know what it's good for, and make it easy for people to get started. To this end, here's what I've been doing: Make sure you have a sample application checked in that demonstrates how to use the project if it's a library. Blog.

A lot. Blogging not only lets you talk about the project, it lets people see the design decisions behind your code, the 'why' as well as the 'what'. Set up a Google Alert for your project's name as well as any relevant keywords, so you can jump in and help folks out Make sure you have a mailing list and point folks to it It feels a little spammy, but for example any time anyone mentions Reactive Extensions and MVVM, if they might be interested I leave a comment with a link to the Github page.

Like I said, I'm totally new to this too, but I'm just starting to get some traction after months of nothing - keep in mind that most of these things are on an exponential curve, it'll feel like you're getting nowhere for a long time but if you've got a good idea, eventually it will pick up.

The truth is that my blog reading public is as big as my blogging habbit: not so big. – Dave Van den Eynde Aug 25 '10 at 16:38 @Dave True, but every time you mention the project, you link to the blog (or better, a Wordpress category that only shows project-related entries) - when people have specific q's, you can link them to the related blog post too. Think of a blog post as a reusable Email reply :) – Paul Betts Aug 25 '10 at 16:47.

To be honest, I'm not sure what you can do other than tweet or blog about it. CodePlex itself has increasingly more visibility in the community, so if your project solves a genuine problem for many people, they will find it without your help. If it's niche, not so much.

If your project is useful and well programmed there should be no trouble getting exposure whatsoever. What you need to do is to make an announcement about the project on some community of potential users (on a discussion forum most likely) and if they like it, that's all you need to do. If people don't find it useful, there's not much to do other than annoy people by advertising it too much.

That is a naive answer basically saying just wait and it will be picked up. – Sebi Aug 25 '10 at 16:43 If it's good and you let people know it's there, it will be picked up. Of course you can do a lot of things on the project page to make it more attractive, but people still need to find the page.

And since I'm not a big fan of aggressive advertising, I don't think there much else you can do. – Carlos Aug 25 '10 at 16:55 I know many programmers feel advertising or marketing as not being part of their job. However, it is an essential skill you need if you want to get attention.

Take a look at all programming gurus and you will notice that in most cases they are good presenters and have done a lot to build their online reputation. There might be a few exceptions where it is really enough to just upload the code, but in most cases you will never be noticed. Anyway, the poster said it is a pet project, so he might not be interested in creating a big buzz.

– Sebi Aug 25 '10 at 17:53.

As always, you need to market your project to those, who might be interested. As a first step, you need to identify your target audience. Second, you need to identify where your target audience is usually located (e.g. Online boards, stackoverflow, conferences, etc. ).

Finally, you need to go there and make them aware of your project. Besides this direct approach, you can also maintain a development blog and provide online documentation in the hope that a search engine will direct some users to you. Still, such an approach could take some time as search engines need some time to pick up completely new sites.

Finally, it is always a good idea to inform your friends and fellows about what you are doing. If it is not just a small project, but a larger code release, it might be in the interest of your employer to make a press release. But of course they won't do it for just a small lib.

Still, they could add a link to your project on their corporate profile page saying that they give back to the community, etc.

Announce it via freshmeat and sourceforge, i.e. Create a freshmeat page and a sourceforge project page. Include nice 10 line summaries and provide easy accessible documentation, s.t.

People can find it, if they search for it.

Link to it in your SO profile and scan SO occasionally for any questions that may be helped by your library directly as a solution or indirectly as a code reference and mention it in answers or comments. It hasn't worked for me yet but I'm still hopeful :) code.google.com/p/psilent-poker-engine/ code.google.com/p/psilent-card-graphics4j.

The way I see it done all over the internet is to present yourself and possibly your software as an "expert" in whatever field your software targets. Then leave "breadcrumbs" everywhere and anywhere you post or make comments in your signature. I'm Bobbo Brilliant and I just answered your question.

For an amazing experience visit my website: IAmSmarterThanYou. Gone Or Here I am answering your question about The Most Awesomest Game Ever that I happened to write. You really should check it out.

Create a Blog and flog that as above. Read Guerrilla Marketing.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.