How do you go about spreading the word about your product or service?
warwick: I've got some desktop Mac software.  Today, I've got an application of mine on MacUpdate Promo.  We discount my app, they promote my app, I tweet and post on my blog, they take a cut of the sales, I take a cut of the sales, and with any luck at the end of the day we'll both be happy.I try to do 1 or 2 promotions a year.  Any more and your app is 'always on sale'.  Results vary for me.  I find my business app outsells my 'geek toy' app most of the year, but during promotions the toy gets good sales.  Business users don't tend to hang around looking for cool toys at promotions.  Geeks do.Generally I find out about these promotions by keeping my eye on the Mac developer community.  In todays case I got an email out of the blue about a month ago saying they were interested.  (There's some sort of mechanism where users vote that they'd like to see a piece of software on their promotion.)I don't think I've ever spent more than an afternoon setting one of these up.  These people do this constantly, and I'm more than happy to let them play to their strengths.That's one way you promote.  Instead of getting your app in front of reviewers, you get it in front of actual customers.That being said, I also:- Send out a lot of personal emails to various editors, bloggers, etc. when release time comes around.  Give them a little advance notice.- Make sure you're listed on major directories.  For me, this is the Apple Downloads page and sites like MacUpdate or VersionTracker.  Most of my traffic comes from these kinds of sites.  (That being said, I really need to improve my sites Google ranking for certain keywords.)- Get to know the salespeople at your local computer stores.  I'll admit, I'm biased on this one since I used to work for one of my local computer stores.  These are people who sell things all day to your potential customers.  If somebody complains "I keep having to switch my SMTP servers when I bring my laptop home from work" when they're in the store, I want the sales people to know that there's something they can point the customer to.  Some people also have the same reaction to 'local developer' that they do to 'locally grown lettuce'.  Somehow it's better, even if it's the same.- Show your app to everyone you know.  As a bonus, they might even start to understand what it is you do all day.Those are the strategies I use myself.Here are a couple of videos from the C4[1] conference that I found fantastic on the subject.  They're long, but they're worth it.Wil Shipley: Monster Marketing (http://www.viddler.com/explore/rentzsch/videos/4/)Adam Engst: Hacking the Press (http://www.viddler.com/explore/rentzsch/videos/12/)