Promoting D projects (or internet marketing 101)

[Walter Bright]

A lot of you are writing useful projects in D, useful code snippets, 
insightful commentary, etc. Much of this stuff gets reimplemented over 
and over because few are aware of the existence of it. We can stand on 
each others shoulders a bit more if we do a little less wheel reinvention.

I've learned a lot about trying to get the word out on the internet with 
little to no marketing dollars, no marketing staff, no nothing. I 
suspect that most of you are in the same boat <g>, so I thought I'd 
share a bit about what I've learned.

1) Make a web page for it. A newsgroup posting here in 
digitalmars.D.announce is great for announcing the existence of the 
project, but then it scrolls away and gets forgotten. You need a web 
page for it to get it noticed in the future. Use dsource.org if you 
don't have your own, or the D wiki, etc.

2) Having your stuff findable by Google is THE MOST IMPORTANT thing you 
can do. The overwhelming majority of traffic to the Digital Mars web 
site is coming from google search results pages. If it isn't findable by 
Google, it might as well not exist. I won't get much into google search 
engine optimization here, as there are plenty of web sites on that 
(findable via google, of course!), but there are a couple highlights I 
want to hit.

3) Think about what, if you were looking for your project, you'd type 
into the google search box. Then, make sure those keywords are on your 
project description web page.

4) Include the phrase "D programming language" somewhere on every D web 
page you do. Don't put it in a graphic, put it in text so google will 
find it. This phrase helps build "brand" on the internet, and your D 
page will show up in google searches on D. Just using "D" by itself 
won't work (try it!).

5) Ask me to put a link to your page on 
www.digitalmars.com/d/dlinks.html. Send me the exact text to cut & paste 
in. Try to get reciprocal links from other relevant D pages. This will 
help people find it.

6) Submit links to your project releases to www.betamarker.com. Submit 
articles, tutorials, anything of interest to www.dzone.com, gamedev.net, 
www.artima.com or even www.digg.com. Let us know so we can digg them! It 
doesn't matter if the reference doesn't make it to the front page, it 
will still help.

7) Post on the newsgroup comp.programming to reach a more general audience.

8) People coming across D source code on the internet may not recognize 
it for what it is. I think it's probably a good idea to add the comment:

     // written in the D programming language

at the top of every published D source code file. I'm going to start 
doing that with Phobos source.

9) Take a look at related Wikipedia articles for which a relevant 
discussion about or link to your project might be appropriate.

10) In doing the above, be sure you're not spamming. Any links you do 
should be of genuine and relevant interest to the readers.

11) Doing this isn't just good for D, it's good for your career. 
Recruiters are going to google your name, and if they find all those 
cool projects you've done, it can only help.

And, of course, I should follow my own advice and turn this posting into 
a web page!