Re: The Small Developer
Re: The Small Developer
- Subject: Re: The Small Developer
- From: Charles Srstka <email@hidden>
- Date: Sat, 22 Jun 2002 14:22:25 -0500
Well, I was in the middle of filling out Paypal's registration form, and
I thought that before I clicked the "Sign Up" button that I should do a
Google search and see what people are saying about the service first. I
found this:
http://www.paypalwarning.com/
http://www.paypalsucks.com/
http://www.aboutpaypal.org/
On Saturday, June 22, 2002, at 12:52 PM, dave dowling wrote:
i'd like to hear the synopses of a few of these "horror stories". i've
used Paypal for billing with success, but i'd be interested to learn
about the pitfalls as well.
feel free to back-channel me on this. i'd imagine, though, that this
would be a topic of interest to many on the list, so you might consider
sharing this info with everyone.
On Saturday, June 22, 2002, at 01:09 PM, Charles Srstka wrote:
What's generally the best thing to use for accepting payments? Kagi
seems quite expensive, but I've read some horror stories about PayPal
on the Internet...
On Saturday, June 22, 2002, at 10:14 AM, Jason Moore wrote:
Edwin,
For large projects, an interesting idea. If done properly, maybe even
good enough to challenge the big boys. Kagi can handle payment for
such an effort, as they can accept one customer payment and then
distribute it to collaborators. It would still however require
someone to write the core of the application, not a trivial task. Who
knows. Good Luck. :)
Jason
On Saturday, June 22, 2002, at 10:04 AM, Edwin Zacharias wrote:
Jason,
I think the rules of software development have changed. Most large
programs are now a loose collection of plugins rather than one large
body of code. Why not let a different shareware author work on each
plugin and then package them with a registration program that
distributes the payments to each individual author. Suddenly
there's no company, just a bunch of shareware authors doing whatever
they want. You can write plugins and make money or bundle other
people plugins into an app and make money that way.
I'm working on an open source plugin management program that does
just that and I'd appreciate some feedback from small developers in
terms of features they'd like. Or just if you think the idea won't
work and why.
Thanks,
Edwin
On Saturday, June 22, 2002, at 02:45 AM, Jason Moore wrote:
Hello all! I just finished glancing over the 30 some odd digests
that had been piling up in my DevList folder in mail (i have them
auto dumped into their own, nicely searchable folder), and i
noticed (how can one not) the thread about protecting software with
keys. Don't worry, i have no intention of re-opening that can of
man-eating worms. I would however, like to pose another question of
great interest (to me anyway)...
What i'd like to know is what it takes to become a successful small
software developer. First, let me clarify what i mean by
'successful'. Successful to me is defined as making enough in
revenue to cover any relavent expenses and be able to pay the
developers a decent salery (say, around, $40,000 a year). Is there
some critical mass a small developer would need to achieve to reach
this sort of goal? Can one person do it? Do you need a 2 person
company? 6 person? 12? What? (let's assume that the software these
people develop is of the quality people expect from a Macintosh
program, and that it does either fill a void or differentiate
itself from competetors enough to be viable)
What i'm looking for is not on advice, but also some numbers. Not
exact numbers, but something. I have yet to find any hard data to
be able to size up the 'small business' developer in terms of how
well they do. What kind of numbers (users that register, support
requests, etc) should a budding small mac company expect? How do
you find that balance between charging enough for your software to
be profitable and charging so much that you start turning away most
people because your program is expensive and doesn't have a well
known brand plastered on it?
Some people write programs just because they need it and then give
it away to be nice and help out the rest of us, others (like
myself) would like to make some money doing it (so as to avoid the
need for a horrid retail job to pay the bills, and just maybe the
ability to pay for school without the need for loans). Am i nuts
here?
Thanks in advance,
Jason
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thanks.
dave dowling
free at last! how i found peace with God:
http://www.davedowling.com/steps.html
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