Marketing the Web Service

After you have a Web Service written and you understand how you are going to make money from it, how do you get people to use it? First, you need to register the Web Service with a UDDI registry. Currently, only Microsoft and IBM have publicly shared registries. More will come online as the Web Services model takes hold. Within the registry, make sure to register your WSDL as well as information about your business, the industries it relates to, and any pertinent contact information. The good news for you is that the registries hosted by Microsoft and IBM are free. As of this writing, Microsoft and IBM intend to keep the registry free forever. The easiest way to submit a Web Service to the registry is through Visual Studio .NET. Chapter 4, “Using Attributes to Shape the WSDL and XML,” has a demonstration of how to do this and details the information needed to register. For more information, go to http://uddi.microsoft.com.

Other than registering with UDDI, you should market the Web Service the same as you would for any other application in the industry. This means running advertisements in industry journals, sending out sales people, and direct mailing to potential customers. Make sure that you have a few samples available so that customers will know what they might be buying.