Where can I advertise/buy a .NET library?

Question

As part of a project at work I have developed a library that my company is thinking of marketing independent of the containing project. Where would be a good place to market it? I'm thinking something cheap (free) and low key like an add supported list of links site or the like.

As this is just a side bit, there is almost no budget for marketing so just adding it to the website and letting google-bot do it's thing is the current choice.

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Another take on the same thing: When you go looking for a library to buy for a .NET project, where do you find them?

Answer 1

When you go looking for a library to buy for a .NET project, where do you find them?

Unfortunately for you, it's not generally an "ad-supported list of links site". Developer tools and libraries need to "just work". It's hard enough building software when you can trust libraries. We need to know that our purchased tools have some quality behind them, and that means going through well-known distribution channels, and that means marketing money. Maybe your product is really great, but if you're not willing to back it up on the marketing front you'll have a tough road ahead.

To help you decide how to proceed, two companies that are currently successful selling developer tools are Telerik and Red Gate. You can look at them and see what they're doing that works. There's also a link in Visual Studio on the menu under Community -> Partner Products Catalog that will take you here:
http://www.visualstudiogallery.com/
You can try to become and Microsoft Partner and get listed there, but it's unclear if it has any real benefit. If you do get listed there, your best bet is probably to give this product away for free and use it as a way to drive business to your main product or help recruit more/better developers.

Answer 2

I for one typically rely on Google searches to lead me places for my library purchases. I am more focused then on reading about the company and the information they have on the product so I can get a feel for it. So for me, without this being a primary revenue stream, I would simply ensure that your site that you make it available on is well crafted and work to try and get some links to the product from other sites.

Otherwise, potentially a low budget Google Adwords stint if you want to get the word out.