Midweek (code)sniping

I missed my Monday morning slot on Codesnipers this week, so I have a post up there today. The topic is public holidays. What do you do about holidays? How do they fit in with your Micro ISV? If you work, what do your friends and family think about it?

Read: Holidays and the Micro ISV

Tag: micro isv

We like Viking

The Viking Direct catalog just dropped through my mailbox. I don't buy a lot of stationery, but if I do need anything I usually check these guys first. They seem fast and friendly, and there's a nice family business feel about the way it's run... there's even a picture of their chairman on almost everything they send out, it's like he's their logo.

Anyway, although I think they deserve the plug, that's not why I'm writing this, or why I always take a few minutes to flick through their offers when they arrive. I'm talking about them, and I read their catalogs, because they always have the weirdest free prizes.

Today, you can get a free toolset if you buy lever arch files, a luggage set with some multi function paper, a free pizza voucher with some scotch tape, or my personal favorite, a picnic hamper if you buy a few boxes of pens. Would you like a free MP3 player with those envelopes? Cool.

I often wonder whether they have some marketing guru with a stack of Seth Godin books, and this unpredictability is their Purple Cow, or whether they just started doing it one day to get rid of some junk. Either way, they seem pretty remarkable to me.

Micro ISV Digest

Last week's Micro ISV news and blog posts. This time I've tried to separate the links by relevance, I hope that helps.

News and Announcements

• Colin McLennan launched EarBoost, an ear training program.
• Chris Thompson launched GoCRM via MyMicroISV (there's an offer of a free copy there for MyMicroISV readers). Postmortem on BoS.
• SpoiltChild's Weddings By Adam is now in open beta.
• Andrew Rowley is looking for testers for TimeSprite, his new time tracking program.
• Choosen Hairy Irish launched his anonymous Micro ISV blog.
• A Micro ISV story about OptionGrid, software for covered call investing.
• J's never needed anonymity to share: see his May 06 factsheet.

Relevant Blog posts and Articles

• Dharmesh on why the bad ideas are better than the good ones.
• Selecting a product idea on MyMicroISV.
• Startups still focus too much on geeks.
• The Boompa launch party post mortem (part 1 of 2).
• Guy Kawasaki: After the Honeymoon.
• Paul Graham on How to be Silicon Valley.
• A basic marketing plan for indie games, a Gamasutra article from GameProducer. Also, from Download Squad, part 2 of how to create your own games company.
• 6 steps to being your own boss on MSN Money.
• Microsoft's resources for Micro ISVs.
• 37 signals How to shoot a bullet through your startup, vs. business 2.0's bullet proof startups.

Further (mostly relevant) reading

• Creating Passionate Users, Good Usability is like "water flowing downhill".
• Dennis Forbes: Rate of Adoption = Ease of setup.
• KC: Is your tail on fire?
• JD points out an example of guerilla marketing on BoS.
• Steve McLeod posted a guide to writing Windows shrink wrap with Java via BoS.
• How not to acheive your goals, via lifehacker.
• The top 10 lies of Guy Kawasaki.

The state of the digest

I started this post to help me and anyone else keep up with the weekly happenings in the Micro ISV community, and to highlight potentially useful links from the week. It's now been over six months since the first one, so it seems like a good time to review the concept and make sure it stays relevant and useful.

So, I'm open to suggestions. Do you have anything to say about how this post has developed? Have I thrown the link net too wide? Should I try to trim the links list down a little? What works and what doesn't?

Tags: micro isv links microisv digest

Freeloaders?

Seth Godin posts (The Freeloader Problem) about a guy enjoying his McDonalds at a table in a busy Starbucks, because it's nicer.

I don't know if it's a British thing, but whenever I've been in the US it's taken me a while to get used to the idea that I'm even allowed to take a coffee from Starbucks into another cafe or vice-versa. After a few months it almost seemed natural, but I still felt like I should hide my cup on the way in... and always needed to buy something from the second place, or at least be with someone else who had.

I guess we figure out our own lines and decide for ourselves what's acceptable. If I'm with a customer I feel like it's okay, if I was paying for their wifi I'd feel like it was okay. What if I bought my coffee there everyday on the way to work, then decided I'd like to eat my McDonalds lunch there too?

Well, I still couldn't do that, but it doesn't seem like so big a leap...

Traffic chaos

A post on Philipp Schumann's blog this morning reminded me of a local situation. Here's what I posted in his comments.

After we had a flood in our city, there was no power to some important traffic signals for quite some time. It was noticed that traffic was flowing through the junction more smoothly without the lights. Rather than just ignore the evidence, they ran a pilot scheme for a while which kept the lights turned off. Now, they only operate on a part time basis, in peak rush hours (maybe a total of 4-6 hours per day). The rest of the time it's just a free for all.

I don't drive often, but as far as I can tell, it works. I doubt anyone would ever have been brave enough to try it if the original experiment hadn't been forced by the flood.

So basically, the traffic signals went without power because of an unforseen disaster, but then we found out that we could manage without them. There must be a lesson in there about being bold. Challenging rules, constraints, and perceived wisdom... something like that.

Google Link Dump (or not)

For the first half of last week, the links I'd scavenged as potential for the digest post were almost exclusively opinion pieces on Google. I have weeks like that. I find an interesting rant, or some generic blogging advice, and into the pile it goes. Then I sit down at the weekend and wonder why it's there, because it has nothing to do with Micro ISVs. I think it's because the entry potential threshold goes way down when there's not a lot happening. Fortunately, the second half of last week provided enough good, relevant links to make a worthwhile post.

So, I'm left with a handful of fairly interesting Google articles, a quick re-read through each one reveals very little worth sharing. Yet each one turned up on most of the social bookmarking sites. If, like me, you're getting sick of ploughing through page after page of "recommended" links to find anything worth reading on digg et al, you probably don't want to see them all again.

I'll stick with just these two:-

Google - Fuzzy Math from the economist
Google & Dilbert

The best Google links last week made it into the digest post, because they were definitely relevant. The update to the Adwords API, and the forum thread on Adwords tools. Someone out there must be working on projects based around all these new APIs and services from Google, Amazon etc. I wish I had the idea, the time, and the energy!

Micro ISV Digest

A round up of Micro ISV news and articles from the past week.

News and Announcements

• Fogcreek released version 5.0 of FogBugz.
• Google released a new version of the Adwords API.
• A new version of DTSDoc.
• Congratulations to LibraryThing on their deal with AbeBooks.
• A new USA tech entrepreneurs portal from IEEE.
• Another one bites the dust, Matt Breckon on aborting PageTrack.

Relevant Blog posts and Articles

• The top ten lies of partners from Guy Kawasaki.
• Matt Inglot on the top 5 points a Venture Capitalist wants to hear.
• 7 Risks in Indie Games Production from GameProducer.
• A new Micro ISV Show, with Buzz Bruggeman.
• The Myth Reality and Future of Web 2.0 from Gigaom.
• Digg is your marketing secret weapon from the Small Biz 101 series.
• Meanwhile, Dharmesh at OnStartups is more interested in traffic quality and manageability. Also from Dharmesh: Usability vs. Buyability.
• Outspend vs Out Inspire the competition on Creating Passionate Users.
• Paul Graham on How American are Startups?
• Seth Godin: Is it CB Radio?

Anything Else?

• An Adwords tool and a new thread about Marketing methods on the BoS forums.
• If tech companies made Sudoku.
• Are you procrastinating or are you just thinking?
• The Dalai Lama, marketer from Seth Godin's Blog.

Tags: micro isv links microisv digest

Micro ISV Digest

Micro ISV news and announcements from the past week, with some relevant blog posts and articles.

News and Announcements

• Bill Rayer launched a new Ubercode beta via BoS.
• KC announced the availability of dotProject/mantis bug tracking integration.
• A new version of TurboGears.
• The Gurocks got a new website.
• Use the APIs... Project Detail Systems built their own product around Basecamp. More on svn.
• A new batch of Google services launched. Trends is of particular interest, as pointed out in this forum thread, and by Bob here.
• KC's latest Codesnipers recruitment drive is really paying off, we had an almost full strength week last week, although we did lose Rusty along the way. There's a stronger BoS/Micro ISV theme over there now, so if you haven't stopped by for a while, give us another look. You could start with Bob Walsh's first post on the site.

Relevant Blog posts and Articles

• KC on Pricing, Dharmesh on Enterprise Pricing.
• Three good articles about stealth and NDAs. Stealth mode Schmealth mode, the fear and shame of NDAs, and just NDAs from KC.
• Ian Landsman and GameProducer both had a little something to say about customer service.
• 7 reasons why web apps fail.
• 37 signals say push optional data input as far back as you can. In other words, if you don't need it, don't ask for it.
• On a similar note, from Creating Passionate Users: Don't give in to feature requests.
• Courtesy of PicoBusiness: 5 ways to start a company without giving up your day job and Why small is better than big.
• Alex's notes from startup school on Codesnipers.
• Guy Kawasaki's Art of the Start speech (video & pdf).
• Did someone just trip over your barrier to entry, by Dharmesh again.
• Training yourself to work at home.
• A nice piece on finding a place to be free and independent on gapingvoid, and I'll vouch for the coffee. Also, one of my favorite cartoons yet: if you talked to people.

Tags: micro isv links microisv digest

More Back-up Advice

Game Producer just posted his 7 rules of backups.

It's good advice, and very relevant to Monday's Codesnipers post.

Back on Codesnipers

I've just posted my first Codesnipers article in a while: Back Home, Back-up. Basically it's "how the flood taught me about back-ups".

Also on Codesnipers, I was sorry to hear that Rusty was going to stop contributing, but I can understand. He's been onboard since day 1, and I don't remember him missing many weeks. As KC mentions in the comments, shorter tours of duty might be a good idea, after a while it does get tricky to come up with something new every week.

Tags: micro isv blogging flood rants backups

Micro ISV Digest

A round up of the Micro ISV happenings and writings of this last week.

News and Announcements

• New Guidelines were announced for the BoS forums, and Dharmesh Shah launched the OnStartup forums.
• Ryan Smyth launched a Guitar and Drum Trainer, appealing for feedback on BoS.
• Pat Fitzsimmons launched ZipApp, a tool for opening Excel files and Access databases up for internet access. Here's his BoS feedback link.
• Bob Walsh joined our Codesnipers team, posting his introduction on Thursday.
• Microsoft adCenter.

Relevant Blog posts and Articles

• A new article from Paul Graham, the 10 hardest lessons for startups to learn.
• 10 smart moves to improve your business.
• Guy Kawasaki couldn't quite keep it down to 10 this time, the top lies of Marketers.
• 10 rules for success via FinalBuilder.
• Via PicoBusiness, Stromcode's How to make money on the Internet.
• Game Producer's 3 step guide to getting responses.
• Creating Passionate Users: The Myth of Keeping up.
• KC on concerns about selling to certain groups.
• Dharmesh Shah had some selling tips for the technically gifted.
• 37signals, Don't forget the premium plan.
• Lead your customer into temptation.
• Dave Winer's, the utter futility of geekiness, via gapingvoid.

Useful Extras

• Notes from Startup School 2006.
• Remember Bob's Micro ISV tip #4: the Microsoft Office Marketplace.
• The BoS discuss interface design resources.
• You might find some tips or products you haven't heard of in this forum thread on the favorite Open Source apps used by ISVs.
• This promising looking thread on time-limiting/license protecting software already has a nice collection of links.

Tags: micro isv links microisv digest

Keeping up

I just caught up with Creating Passionate Users, and a great post from last week:-

The Myth of Keeping up.

It's definitely a must-read, there have been so many times in my life when I could have saved myself a lot of stress by reading that. Go and read it now, and then relax, I don't need to say any more.

Oh, except that one of the recommendations in the post is to find good aggregators, and that sounds like a perfect opportunity to for me to plug Planet Micro ISV. It's easily the best aggregator I've found, and it saves me a lot of time and effort.

Mind Blowing

Interesting post on Reveries about Entropia.

Entropia is a virtual world with a real cash economy, and they've just issued an ATM card so you can get easier access to your balance. The Reveries post also tells this story of one Entropia member, Jon:-

“known online as Neverdie … last year sold almost everything he owned (real
and virtual) to scratch together $100,000 (one million P.E.D.’s) to buy a huge
space station in the game. By selling apartments and storefronts to other
players and by imposing taxes on his real estate, he is now making about $12,000
a month on his investment.”

When you think about it, it's already pretty amazing that we make our living selling 1s and 0s inside of Microsoft's 1s and 0s, but this virtual world/second life thing completely blows my mind.

469 Days Later

On January 8th 2005, as many of you already know, we had this flood in town which wiped out the ground floor of our home.

Finally, on 22nd April, after spending 469 days in spare rooms with our very generous families, we were able to spend the first night back in our house. I really can't believe it took so long, it's been practically 16 months of just waiting around, but it feels so good to be back.

Last week was a bit crazy, but I feel more settled now, and I'm starting to get back down to some real work now that there's less "moving" stuff to distract me. We're still waiting for a few things, especially the refridgerator and broadband connection (typically the two things that were the highest priority), but hopefully everything will come together over the next week or two.

In a way it's like starting completely from scratch, our lives have changed a lot in 16 months, so much so that I can't really remember what I used to do before the flood. I certainly can't remember what I used to talk about; I've hardly had any conversations during this time that weren't in some way related to moving home, flooding, insurance, lost belongings....

I also didn't have a blog before the flood, so I can't tell you whether I'm going to get better or worse at this now that I'm comfortable and settled.

The Forums are Revolting

A mini Forum revolution in just a couple of days, I feel like I slept through the whole thing and woke up in a brave new world...

As I mentioned in the last Micro ISV Digest, Ian Landsman was getting fed up with the deluge of web site review requests on the BoS forums. He started a thread to discuss the problem, but was outraged when it was deleted. Eric and Bob acted quickly to restore the thread and announce a new set of guidelines for the forum.

In the meantime though, Dharmesh was demonstrating the most outstanding sense of timing and launching his own forums on his excellent OnStartups site. Nice move.

So, we now have some sensible posting guidelines on the BoS, and a nice new place to hang out (Dharmesh has suggested acronym fans call the new forums OSf).

I was wondering if I should change the Micro ISV Digest criteria in respect of the new forum guidelines, but as I use the forums as a source for many of the links, it should just take care of itself.

Tags: micro isv software marketing

Micro ISV Digest

Last week's Micro ISV news and blog posts.

News and Announcements

• Phillip Schuman launched Quotator, a quotation rotator.
• Leroy Clark launched his Active Directory add-in, Active Last Logon.
• Tate Needham launched his second product, Automise.
• Jason Sankey launched his build automation server, Pulse on the BoS forum.
• "bfd" launched a new search engine, Bookmach, via the BoS forum.
• E Smit launched SonicFile, a large file transmission solution, via the BoS forum.
• Rudolf launched DBxtra for FogBugz.
• A new version of Surfulator was released.
• The Gurock brothers released a new version of Smart Inspect.
• A new version of TurboGears was released.
• Ian Landsman started a Helpdesk software forum.
• Paul Graham wants you to vote on the best web 2.0 startups.

Relevant Blog posts and Articles

• Jim Logan is trying to teach you how to make more money, in exactly 100 words.
• A Shareware Life on startup risks, No-one is going to take the risk for you.
• KC continued last weeks recharging theme with Taking a day off.
• WorkHappy linked to an interview with John Bogle.
• Seth Godin on Telling a good story.
• Cameron Moll shares the lessons he's learned from full time freelancing.
• Ian Landsman wants to make sure "Micro ISV" doesn't start to mean "a half-assed attempt to make some quick money online": Finally a decent new ISV website.
• BugNinja on Real people and web design. Definitely worth keeping in mind, especially if you aren't targetting tech-people.
• A collection of tips for Screencasting on the BoS forum.
• Guy Kawasaki's Top 10 lies of Engineers.
• Two good posts from OnStartups, Projects vs Businesses, and the Startup Reality Distortion Effect #4.
• The 37signals philosophy on all those different hats: It's all the same.

Anything else?

• Guy Kawasaki: A poem for all bloggers.
• A new classic example of bad naming? The Nintendo Wii (we).

Tags: micro isv links microisv digest