First Demo and Blog
by Jim PusateriJust finished putting together the first of 4 or 5 demo apps and blog posts that I intend to publish before making the next feature updates for Automated API.
My intent is to show how easily the service can be integrated with, so I published without any major refinement on the demo.
Blog post is here
No pressure, I'm just happy to have something up and running.
-
1
Great strategy of demo projects based on your tool, I'm planning to do that too, more and more.
What I would advise, though, is write more for people who know nothing about your tool. While reading the article, it took a lot of time for me to understand what is the project you're creating, what exactly automated Api does and how it all comes together.
I've suffered from the same thing in the past - you're writing as an author of the tool, knowing it inside out, but whoever lands on your blog they will start from zero knowledge, probably. So add some screenshots in the very beginning - show the end result, what is the stack exactly, and only then go into step by step.
-
1
Thanks, Good feedback. I intend to make a few passes on my posts and will definitely keep that in mind. It is, at best, a work in progress and somewhat incomplete.
Lately, I do all my writing much like I do my software development...which is to say, I'd rather slam it out there and iterate than take forever to get something online. Chasing long tail on these, so I think I'm comfortable with that.
I'm actually planning to also screen cast these as full demonstrations to accompany most of those posts, and to share the source, though as the product develops some of the implementation will change.
-
1
Yes, screencasts are very effective, these days it's all about video demos, my demos on YouTube channel, however long, are the most viewed of all time.
But keep in mind, that, at least in my case:
Short demos of FEATURES are not that popular: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9rr-_zWyBw
Long demos of WHOLE PROCESS FROM START TO FINISH skyrocket in views/likes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pi4u1xO8FOw(I use Camtasia as a software, by the way)
-
1
I love Camtasia, and hate simple feature demos.
I intend to go from nothing to fully functional on all of these.
-
-
-
