How do you like to market your side project?
I have been having a lot of trouble promoting my side project. Since I don't know anyone irl from my target audience, I have to find them online. I have had little luck doing so. People on Reddit and Facebook have not been receptive to my posts about feedback. Overall, people don't want self-promotion or spam.
So does anyone have more ideas?
So ideally you want to do things in this order, refining your hypotheses at every stage:
So if you are having problems with step 4, take a step back, i.e. stop promoting your project and try to get feedback on your project (paying people if needed to talk to you).
If you are having problems with step 3 as well, then try taking another step back. Find the communities where your target audience is and talk to them so that they are willing to share their pains with you.
I usually build something and try step 4 first. After failing, I end up rolling back to step 1. No promotion of my projects, and just participating and helping people in the community. It takes time, but within a few months I feel like I get to a spot where I can graduate from step 1. This is the time to go for step 2, etc.
One important but overlooked strategy is to create valuable content that might be helpful to your target customers. This content is received well on platforms because you aren't screaming "buy my product" at everyone. (especially on reddit/other forums).
Would you mind telling me about the product little more so i can able to help.