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10 Comments

Is it rude to reference your own product?

When I'm responding to questions or posts in the community, I find myself saying "my product" a lot. But it occurred to me today that I could put my product link there instead.

I don't know though, would that be spammy? The posts themselves are authenticate and I don't want to detract from that.

Sometime it is obvious. If you are asking for feedback about your landing page you have to include the link. But other times it less obvious.

Thoughts?

  1. 5

    My very least favorite thing about IH is the number of people participating here not to exchange or to learn, but to promote their own offerings. There seems to have been a conscious choice on not to crack down on that kind of use in the way most subreddits do, though.

    So I'd go ahead and link where you think is appropriate. It's unlikely anyone will mind you linking to your stuff as long as you're providing value in the process.

    If you're obnoxious about it you'll get more downvotes from people like me, but the fact that you're even asking this question is a strong indicator you're not going to be that selfish of a user!

    1. 1

      Cool, that is kind of what I figured. I'm really here just for the encouragement and learning aspects. I don't even think IH users are my target audience so I'm not here to market anything.

  2. 3

    My rule is i have to add value first, and then can only link if it is extremely relevant. I will also link competition to give them a choice.

    Very easy to do for me to do, as there is a post everyday about what landing page builder they should use.

    1. 1

      I agree, value is the key.

      I like the idea of linking competition sometimes. I'm so new at this that I'm not sure adding any links to other games is going to hurt me anyway. So if there is a good example of something out there I think would be helpful and it happens to be a "competitor" I don't hesitate to link it.

  3. 1

    Generally the type of products that fall into this trap are those that can sell to other founders/makers/startups, I'm encouraged as I'm doing a B2B only product only aimed at a specific team within a business, most startups won't want what I have so there's no bias.

    Where as if you are selling pick-axes for the startup gold rush, the conflict of interest lines are way more visible, I'm most skeptical of the course sellers/trainers or those promising revenue if only you use x.

    1. 1

      That makes sense.

      I'm pretty much in the same boat, my current product is a game so Indie Hackers are not really my target audience.

      Not that I would turn them away, of course! ;-)

  4. 1

    I don't think so, I do the same with my product, oh wait, I mean www.reviewstap.com all the time.

    But seriously, depends on context.
    If relevant to the discussion, no probs, with this community being one that is more interested than some others regarding what everyone else is working on.
    But if not relevant leave it out and stay on topic, contribute to what the discussion is actually about instead.

    1. 1

      I see what you did there! lol

      That sounds like the consensus and it makes a lot of sense. I've done the same thing myself where I read somebody's post and then go check out their product just to see what it is like.

      So if the context makes sense, it seems perfectly reasonable.

  5. 1

    Don't see what's wrong so long as there's some relevance to what's being discussed...

    1. 1

      Agreed. I think people here genuinely want to see what others are making so why not make it easy for them to see

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