The blog of UserScape, maker of the HelpSpot help desk software, writing about selling software, customer service and running a small software business.
HN links it for the post on adding a phone number to a homepage and for HelpSpot's first six months of sales; one user recommends HelpSpot.
I sell my product primarily to parents and teachers (mostly teachers).
A 4th grade teacher with a web page, we'll call her Mrs. Smith, picked up my first linkbait and included it in the paper and virtual version of a list of resources she sent home with parents.
Mrs. Smith is now in the good company of several state departments of education, a few curriculum guides, various and sundry teachers, and a smattering of homeschooling bloggers.
As to the first site that featured my product qua my product, as opposed to something free I gave out to get my name out: a particular 3rd grade Spanish teacher, on her personal blog. She liked it.
I also got a good chunk of nepotistic links when I was starting out from other software entrepreneurs who hang out in the same forum I do. Ian Landsman (http://www.userscape.com/blog/) and Joel Spolsky stand out from the first few weeks, but I'm probably forgetting people who were no less important to me at the time.
Check out: http://www.userscape.com/products/helpspot/
It is difficult to navigate and understand what is going on. Of course we get the idea and understand, but think from the perspective of a prospective customer. This is typical of the type of website that has a phone number on the front page. It looks unprofessional. When you get larger you can post your automated answering line (like 1-800-NOSOFTWARE for Salesforce.com) on the front page, because it's limited overhead.
PG: "I admit it's odd, but there are no suspicious statistical patterns in the voting. If it's a ring, it's a new one."
How odd now?
(for those of you following along:
http://www.userscape.com/blog/index.php/site/comments/a_look_back_at_helpspots_first_6_months_of_sales/
is also at the top of news.yc atm)
UPDATE: Oh sweet, now THIS version is number one! 62 votes and I am the only comment!
If your company is in B2B market then yes, I would say that phone number would definitely help.
Solid endorsement about putting phone number from a real business:
http://www.userscape.com/blog/index.php/site/comments/how_to_sell_more_software_by_adding_12_characters_to_your_homepage/
I think Joel also advocates putting phone# on the product homepage.
Thanks for your input. Actually, reading http://www.userscape.com/blog/index.php/site/comments/starting_a_micro_isv_in_the_beginning_there_was_nothing/ made me decide to start blogging again, and to blog mainly about my project, even before I startup.
The UserScape people did a brief post on this earlier in the year:
http://www.userscape.com/blog/index.php/site/comments/how_to_sell_more_software_by_adding_12_characters_to_your_homepage/