Micro ISV Digest

A weekly roundup of Micro ISV news, announcements and relevant blog posts.

News and Announcements

• Dennis Bottaro launched ebay Item ProfitCaster, a profit forecaster for ebay. Via BoS.
• Bob on DHH's Startup School presentation.
• A Startup-a-week looks interesting.
• Andy Brice started a Business of Software FAQ, to try to reduce repeating topics.

Relevant Blog Posts and Articles

• Selling software at retail, from Andy Brice.
• Transitioning from client work to products, from 37signals.
• The perils of working alone, from Andrew Duffy.
• User interface before code, from Joel Marcey.
• Focusing on Focus, from 47hats.
• What I wish I'd known, from Jon Fox.
• The startup lottery, from Dennis Forbes.
• Stop waiting for the magical startup fairy, from OnStartups.
  Also, Startup School Takeaways.
• Lessons from a year in SF, from Andrew Chen.
• Are you sure you want to be in SF, from 37signals.
• Bootstrapping in bits and pieces, from BootStrapMe.
• Progress updates from Joel Marcey, Ian (Six Products), Follow Steph.

Further (mostly relevant) Reading

• Becoming a lifestyle Entrepreneur, from AnyWired.
• The long tail and indie game devs, from Psychochild.
• Lessons for weathering a downturn, from FoundRead.
  Also, 9 people you meet at Y Combinator.
• Change your work hours to get more done, from WWD.
  Also, Hands on with Google App Engine.
• About Amazon FPS, from Tim Haughton.

Tags: microisv digest entrepreneurship startups shareware

Step 2 (rant averted)

Since changing the hosting over for this domain went smoothly, I decided to transfer the registration away from my current (UK based) registrar. I hate paying 3 times as much for the renewals as I do for other domains, and finally decided it was worth paying more than 2 years renewal fees to wrangle the domain away.

I'll stop there, because Neil Davidson wrote a nice post yesterday that tackles customer lock-in much more eloquently and usefully than any half baked rant about domain transfer out fees ever would.

I'll also spare you my "stuff costs more in europe" ranting, paying nearly $10 a gallon for gas and close to $400 for Rock Band is just awesome... really.

Back Again

As far as I can tell, everything is back up and running on the new server. Relatively quick and easy. Had to eliminate a few ASP pages because the new host is Unix, but all things considered, not bad at all.

Ch-Ch-Changes

In the first of several changes to the setup here, I'm going to be moving the hosting of this domain to another host over the next few days. So, if everything goes wrong, this blog might be down for a while. It should be back up and running in time for next monday's digest post, but if not, you have my apologies in advance :).

Future changes may or may not include a change of url for the blog, and a switch to WordPress. That'll depend on how well this goes, and whether I manage to get around to it.

Fingers crossed...

Micro ISV Digest

A weekly roundup of Micro ISV news, announcements and relevant blog posts.

News and Announcements

• Simon Shutter launched Schemax Calendar, a group calendar viewer for outlook. Via BoS.
• Alexis Christoforides launched Time2Play, an announcement player for small businesses. Via BoS.
• Anshuman Mishra launched ivontu, an automated financial news analysis site. Via BoS.
• Ken Kaczmarek launched Kirix Strata, a data analysis tool. Via BoS.
• Patrick interviewed on Startup Something.
• Andy points out a domain name scam.
• Registration is open for the Business of Software 2008.
• Joel Spolsky and Jeff Atwood on stackoverflow.com.

Relevant Blog Posts and Articles

• So you want to start a business, from WWD.
• What every freelancer should know, from Salon.
• What is ALM? from Eric Sink.
• How to elicit negative feedback, from Neil Davidson.
• The scariest day of a software release, from Follow Steph.
• 5 mistakes startups make with their logos, from Startup Spark.
• Managing technology in a startup, from KC.
• What the youngsters are up to and why you should care, from Bob Walsh.
• Fostering Innovation, from FoundRead.
• Pithy insights on the business of software, from OnStartups.
• Progress updates from Ian (six products), Follow Steph, Bob Walsh, Patrick.

Further (mostly relevant) Reading

• How to get links, subscribers and comments, from Skelliewag.
• Do you really have to do anything? from Pam Slim.
• Amazon SQS, from Tim Haughton.
• Carnival of Business and Entrepreneurship.

Tags: microisv digest entrepreneurship startups shareware

Micro ISV Digest

A weekly roundup of Micro ISV news, announcements and relevant blog posts.

News and Announcements

• Lewis Tan launched Coding FTP, an FTP automation tool. Via BoS.
• 7thGate launched Turbo Graphix, a 2D plug in for Maya. Via BoS.
• Josh launched FretQuiz, a guitar fretboard learning tool. Via BoS.
• Another Bits du jour experience shared.
• Class of 07 April update.
• Nice write ups of Amazon web services from Tim Haughton (S3 & EC2).
• Google launched App Engine.
• Keith Alperin launched a new Micro ISV related podcast.

Relevant Blog Posts and Articles

• Getting people to link to you, from Patrick.
• Eliminating distractions is key, from Bob Walsh.
• Funding your web work dream, and
  Alternatives to the home office, from WWD.
• 1 1/2 years, 10 lessons, from Found|Read.
• Progress updates from Jon (NGEdit), Follow Steph, Andrew Duffy, Ian (Six Products).

Further (mostly relevant) Reading

• 10 bloggers share their best post ever, from Skelliewag.
• Online activation is inevitable and safe, from Cliffski.
• Carnival of business and entrepreneurship.

Tags: microisv digest entrepreneurship startups shareware

Micro ISV Digest

A weekly roundup of Micro ISV news, announcements and relevant blog posts.

News and Announcements

• Andy's been blogging for a year already.
• Patrick McKenzie moved his blog to http://www.kalzumeus.com.
• Neil has lined up some great speakers for this years business of software conference.
• A slow week, but I guess it's tough to make a serious announcement around 1st April.
  Jon Chase had an April fools day round up. So did Bruce on Games.

Relevant Blog Posts and Articles

• How can I overcome game development obstacles, from Grey Alien Games.
• Things I'd do differently after 2 startups, from Found|Read.
  And, Lessons from a serial first timer.
  And, Little Decisions Matter - A Lot.
• Why you should burn your business plan, from Business of software blog.
• Marketing with YouTube, from Tim Haughton.
• Plotting your career when you've jumped off the corporate ladder, from WWD.
• Cold calling and telemarketing are not the same, from BugNinja.
• Progress updates from Steph, Ian (six products).

Further (mostly relevant) Reading

• 10 things you didn't know about facebook, from Guy Kawasaki.
• Why so many dead blogs, from Follow Steph.
• Forget the professionals, coach yourself, from Pam Slim.
• Carnival of business and entrepreneurship.

Tags: microisv digest entrepreneurship startups shareware