This is part 1 of a 4 part series that goes into various ways of promoting a live security distribution. Many of the topics discussed can be used for promoting any linux distribution.
Promoting A Live Security Distribution: Introduction: Article 1/4
You have stayed up slaving all night for weeks at a time developing your own live security distribution. Others have followed the same path but you know yours will be better. You have tested the build, created the perfect site and now you are ready for flocks of users to drop their current security distro and pick up yours. The work is not over, now just as much effort needs to go into spreading the word about your labor of love. You can post a release, send some emails, and wait for your distro to get noticed. This might have been enough in the past but with the increasing numbers of live security distros coming out its not enough anymore. There is a large amount of work that goes into creating a new live security distribution and most creators want everyone to know it exists. Many creators take the standard web promoting approach which consists of forum posts and getting posted on large sites. The standard set of promotion avenues are a must but there is more you can do. In this series we are going to take a look at various online and offline promotional ventures and the steps you can take to ensure your distro gets noticed.
Get focused! Before starting to promote you need to take a look into your distribution and aspirations. Keep in mind that the more popular your distributions become, the more users will rely on your work. Although the ideas that we supply in this series are not specific to any certain style of live security distribution, it is good to determine what category yours falls into. It will help you come up with other promotional ideas for your target audience. For example, if you have a "tool kit" distribution geared for those experienced with the tools then you would not focus your efforts on those who are newly learning, unless you have included tutorials in your distro. Are you targeting newbies or pros?
In part two of the series we will go over the various ways to promote a live security distro online. You may already know the web like the back of your hand but through my research I have found that most creators do not take advantage of resources that I will list in my next article. The listed resources will help new distros get noticed, utilizing large sites with high page ranks such as Wikipedia can help people find your disto easier when using large search engines. Wikipedia is just one of the many places that people search when looking for information.
In part three of the series we will follow up online promotions with a list of offline promotions. Offline promotions are for the creator who wants to really go the extra mile. Going the extra mile will likely involve spending some of that hard earned money and precious time to make sure everyone uses the distribution. When you go offline your promotions are aiming to get the most bang for your buck, by spending as little as possible to create that initial buzz. One of the best examples for offline promoting would be passing out discs at Defcon and other large security related conferences. Part three steps into the various conferences and ways to promote while there.
Finishing up in part four of the series we will discuss the last and probably the most important part of promoting a live security distribution which is the community. If the community thinks that your distro is the best in category they will let everyone know via blogs, videos , forum activity, and assistance. When you get involved with your community you tap into an endless social networking pipeline. The old saying about getting what you put in falls right into place when dealing with a live security distribution and especially your user community. Users want to know how to use it in every way and the more your assist with that the more likely they are to spread the word.