I am looking for ways to promote my Free Ruby eBook. I have come up with some ideas. Some zany, impractical and okay maybe a bit stupid.. but some are simple, fun and easy to do. Will you help me come up with even more? Any idea is acceptable …. this is just a fun brainstorming session - to spread the book as far and as wide as it can go! Leave your comments below (you will have to register to do that…..which is safe, simple and allows you to make comments for other posts as well).. but if you don’t want to do that…. (there are a lot of loops to jump through)… just send me an Email with your idea. and I will add your comments to the list!

Okay.. so I leeched a little from Sister Patricia Proctor but hey that’s just flattery, don’t you think? Sister Patricia Proctor, author of 101 Inspirational Stories of the Power of Prayer, shared 101 ideas for marketing her book with the readers of her blog. Since posting that list, a number of readers have sent her almost 20 more ways — good ways — to market her book.

Okay.. let’s get serious. Please help me make this list!

1. Make a screen-saver
2. Tell friends
3. Announce on radio and TV
4. Share on Craig’s list
5. Buy a billboard
6. Make T-shirts
7. Decorate a bus
8. Make bookmarks - leave everywhere
9. Add a line in all emails
10. Banner on web page
11. Promote via Peepcode (by Ryan)
12. Make News-Suggestions to print-magazines (by Michael Uplawski)
13. Translate to Japanese and ask Matz for a testimonial
14. Make a screencast “Ruby in 5 minutes” and put it on YouTube (by Chris Porter)
15. Send out a press release to all the top Ruby blogs / podcasts (by Chris Porter)
16. Add it as a prize for all the Hackfest winners at WWR (by Juanjo)
17. Streak across a morning news show while waving your book in the air… (by Tim Kadom)

So you want to do something with Ruby but think there’s not much you can do? Rubbish!

Below is a list of just 7 things you can do with Ruby.

1. Name your daughter or puppy Ruby - Peter Cooper reports that Ruby has become the 4th most popular name in the UK! Dan Kubb named his puppy Ruby.
2. Draw Cartoons for Ruby - whytheluckstiff popularized Ruby with his excellent cartooning ability in his book Why’s (Poignant) Guide to Ruby.
3. Become Famous using Ruby - Build a ‘killer’ application using Ruby like David Hansson did with ‘Ruby on Rails’.
4. Write a book on Ruby - Bruce Tate, David Black, Hal Fulton, James Edward Gray II, Peter Cooper to name a few, have done it. If you have the knack and the knowledge, write one.
5. Build a business around Ruby - Peerant amongst hundreds of other companies are doing it. Why not you?
6. Have fun - My RubyLearning.com site’s motto is - ‘Ruby helps programmers have more fun…’ Why not?
7. Blog about Ruby - And finally like me, if you have nothing better to do, blog about Ruby!

In conclusion: I could go on and on (and I probably will)…

Update: The 7 Things can easily become 10 or 25 or 50 Things -

1. Teach Ruby - Like I do at the University level.
2. Start a RUG - I started a Ruby User Group - PuneRuby. The experience has been satisfying.
3. Monetize your Ruby site/blog - I use Google Adsense. Atleast it covers my domain and hosting costs!