Let’s Make Software!

Since we started that conversation about releasing ISB as an open source software, lots of things have been happening in the background. And we are very close to launching the new website!

The main site structure is in place. I only need to make a couple of small adjustments at the point, but you will be pleased to know that my to do list has shrunk from 100+ tasks to only 4 more which I find essential. It’s been a fun learning experience as this was the first time I set up a proper CMS site using Joomla.

At this point the main wait is for Cody to finish the license agreements. It is 95% sure we’ll be offering ISB under similar license conditions as MySQL does: a dual licensing system where governmental organisations and companies and individual with commercial intentions for their applications are required to purchase a commercial license before they can sell their applications. Otherwise the use of ISB will be 100% free.

Everyone who purchased the commercial ISB as it is still sold at this point, will have rights to sell their applications according to the conditions they purchased it with. Basically you have the equivalent of a commercial license for ISB 2.2 or less. I honestly don’t have any clue about what happens when ISB 2.3 is released. My focus has been on providing a decent structure for the community first…

If you are a member of our forum, you may have already noticed: the forum as you knew it is locked…

We migrated the forum and all the users to a new location:
http://instantsoftwarebuilder.org/forum

And we also made a couple of changes…

• The login procedure for the forum is now completely integrated with the website. You login once to the main site and this will give you a range of options which go beyond forum posting. After login you will not find yourself redirected to the forum, but you will have to click the forum link in the horizontal navigation bar at the top of the site.

• We reorganized the categories and added a couple of new ones to allow members to find the information they need more quickly. We also went through all the existing posts and moved some to other categories as they were really posted in the wrong section. (If you cannot find your post, keep looking as we didn’t delete any!)

• We removed the MYOS category. For starters this doesn’t belong on a purely ISB oriented website. But as Inventor pointed out to me recently, the last post in this category dated from the fall of 2005. So we don’t think anyone is actually going to miss it…

• The sections ‘Success Stories’ and ‘Look what I’ve made!’ are now locked. You can still read them but you can no longer post in here. There are new locations for these sections which are more suitable to the site.

  Success Stories will now be posted as articles on the site. And you will be able to write them yourself just as you could on the forum because all members will have author rights.

  Look what I’ve Made has been replaced by a free ISB downloads section where all members can post their software applications with a full description and other members will be able to rate and review these applications.

• It’s no longer possible to post your affiliate programs and member-to-member offers on the forum. You can still post them on the new website however. We have created a special section called ‘Member’s Portfolio’ where you can advertise your commercial products, services and affiliate programs. The portfolio makes it possible to display your stuff in a very professional manner.

  For the time being this is a free service. But we do intend to make this a paid service in the future as it will allow us to generate some revenue from the site to cover hosting and maintenance costs…

Again: all existing forum users have been migrated along with the forum itself. If you were a member of the forum, you will be able to login to the website using the same username and password you always used for the previous forum.

So there’s no need to sign up. You are already a member of the new website!!

The same holds true if you are a member of my own site www.programmersecretsrevealed.com (where I sell the Big Books on ISB). You are already a member of the new site.

The login procedure is slightly different from what you are used to however, because you sign up with your email address at my site and you now need a username for the new site. If you were also a member of the forum, you can use this. If not, you will receive an email from me shortly with more precise instructions…

That’s it for today. If you want to be the first to get notified about the official launch and receive a very special offer from Cody and me, put your name on our VIP list at:

http://instantsoftwarebuilder.org/index.html

Thanks!
Patricia

Article by Maria Winslow

Creating a community is a tricky business. Think of it instead as finding and nurturing a community that can naturally exist around your software. First of all, take a hard look at whether your software lends itself to an open source structure. You should be able to answer “yes” to the following questions:

• Will the software be used by people who will interested in either improving the code or having some influence over its direction?
• Will those users have the skills ncecessary to contribute successfully to the project?
• Can you structure your organization in such a way that participants will be encouraged to contribute?
• Can you maintain a relationship with contributors that makes them feel they are truly a part of a community (as opposed to free labor)?

If you answer “yes” to these questions, then your software is a good candidate for open source. You also need to be sure of your reasons for starting an open source project. If you’re just looking for free labor to reduce costs, then you will be in for a surprise. People don’t take kindly to that attitude, and it’s likely to show. Management of an open source project frequently takes as much time and effort as a proprietary product, if not more. If your goal is to speed adoption of the software, and you fully recognize the effort you need to put into it, then you’ll be in good shape.

Next, clearly define the structure. Who has final say over the code and the roadmap? Who owns the copyright? What license will you use? It’s a good idea to create a non-commerical organization with clear rules on roles, code submissions and copyright assignments. Don’t forget to appoint a press contact who will respond quickly to requests; this can make a huge difference in whether you get any free promotion.

Be prepared to compromise when you open source the project. If you can attract good contributors, then they will certainly have their own ideas. You will need to walk the fine line of accommodating them while serving your own goals. Having a clear structure will prevent (almost inevitable) problems in the future, and having that structure be non-commercial will ensure that participants don’t feel like you’re just looking for free coding.

Assuming that you plan on making money from your association with the open source project, I advise you to make sure you have fully developed your business model. Will you be offering support, customizations, proprietary add-ons? Make sure you have considered that under most open source licenses, a competitor could fork the code at any time. Part of your relationship with your community is to try and prevent anyone from feeling an incentive to do so.

And finally: building a successful open source community is all about relationships. Large companies have offered up very well-known proprietary products as open source, and I didn’t see any rush of developers jump on the projects. So developer awareness is only a part of the picture, and not the most important aspect. My advice is to contact users or potential users of your software. Tell them you are thinking of releasing code as open source, and ask for their opinion. This is the best way to measure your potential for success as an open source project. And if you decide to go open, work on establishing relationships with users that might participate. Many open source contributors start by submitting bug reports, patches then gradually more. Start establishing relationships early.

Found at:
http://searchopensource.techtarget.com

I have a question for this community…

During the holidays I took some time away from my own websites and investigated some other interesting scripts. I’m very interested in CMS at the moment as it allows a web community to build their own site and manage the content and it’s less dependant on a couple of webmasters to keep things interesting.

I am perpetually short on time and managing this site along with all of my other websites has become somewhat of a burden frankly.

Anyway, while looking at CMS scripts it struck me how flourishing the communities can be which are built around Open Source scripts. WordPress is a great example, and the script which has my current interest, Drupal, is another one.

What I also like about the Open Source communities is their lack of aggressive marketing and the fact they have a more integrity when it comes to how the ‘customers’ are treated (though some can really turn newbies off as well…).

What I don’t get at this point is how they fund their programming efforts and their websites. The sites can be really massive and when there’s heavy demand on a server, there’s a pretty high ticket attached usually with the hosting company. And some of the developers seem to work on upgrades and features almost 24/7 - what are these people living off?

The reason I’m asking is that I’m thinking about asking Xodoinc to release ISB 2.3 as open source software. But when negotiating this, I need to build a strong case. And I’m pretty sure that Cody won’t feel like doing this, if there’s no profit in there for him somehow.

So my questions to you are:

• Would you be interested in ISB as an open source release?
• If so, would you also be interested in participating in documentation of the software in an open source community structure?
• Is there any way to make such an endeavor profitable so at least the costs of the community can be covered and programmers can be paid?

At the moment if feels like Xodoinc. is neglecting ISB in favor of more profitable projects. This is a shame as it’s still a software with a very good base to continue developing.

I hope I can count on your feedback!

Thanks in advance,
Patricia

Tonight there will be a Simpleology live learning event around creating and marketing software online. Here’s the official announcement:

What must you know before getting into the lucrative software development and marketing business?

Are there hidden risks that are unique to software development and marketing?

How do you hire the right programmer for the job and get your project off the ground?

In tonight’s Live Learning Event, covert marketing expert and computer programmer Mathew Frank will teach you his secrets for creating and marketing software online.

Live webcast/tele-cast starts at 8PM Eastern tonight!

All the best,

Mark

Mark Joyner
Founder of Simpleology

You need to be a Simpleology member to get access to this call.

Click here to register a free Simpleology account…

It’s very much worth your while to register an account here. As most of you know I’ve been working with the Simpleology techniques for over a year now. And hey, it’s 100% free to join and give it a test-run…

If you cannot make it tonight, register anyway and you’ll be able to download the recording for this call (and dozens more) at some point next week.

Enjoy!

Patricia

I’m currently implementing a new theme for this blog. Lots of customization is required to get it to look the way I want to, so it may take a while…

When I’m not working on this, I will switch the looks back to the current theme. In the mean time I apologize for any php errors which are likely to occur as I experiment with inserting certain plugins into the theme files.

Patricia

As you all know, people can make tons of money selling software. I don’t guarantee you will be the next Microsoft, but you should get a lot more sales. I have used these techniques with my software and they do get me downloads even if its not a high-demand software. Just keep in mind; this is not a tutorial, this is the secrets! I assume you already have at least a basic Internet knowledge. Before you read these. Just don’t want it to be too difficult… There are no affiliate links in this post, just references…

Lets begin. The first thing is to choose a product that is in high-demand. You can do research online by comparing what product got how many downloads. Many people may look at this as a waste of time, but it is true. Some of the software that gets a lot of downloads may be possible to make with ISB. Check the top sites like Cnet’s Download.com. There, you can see the most popular software and if possible, try to make it. Once you have created your high demand software, its time to advertise it. Make it available to the public. Using these techniques I will get your software seen in the high demand sites like Download.com and Softpedia for free. Its actually easy. The awesome part is when you submit your software to Cnet. If you submit to them, your stuff will be all over their partner network. Which includes:

ABC News
AT&T Worldnet
BellSouth
CNET International sites
Compuserve
Download.com
EarthLink
Froogle (products with Buy Now buttons only)
Microsoft Windows Marketplace
MSN
MSN Canada
PeoplePC
Shareware.com
TechRepublic Downloads
WindowsAtoZ
Winfiles.com
ZDNet Downloads.

You see what I mean .

The next thing is a website. Even though you have your software on those sites, its best to have a website where you can place your customer support, detailed product information, and more. You should also have a way for them to buy from your site (I recommend PayPal). You could even set up an autoresponder with a newsletter to keep them informed.

Now for the fun part - publishing. This is quite simple. I won’t provide the instructions here but at the reference sites they have instructions. To publish to all of those sites above, it takes just one site - the sacred upload.com. They have the instructions, and its free. Of course you could upgrade to one of their plans and get more exposure, but I advise you to stick with the free one… I also advise you to submit to Softpedia if you like, but upload.com takes care of it…

To Your Success,

Maximus.

This weekend I spent some time upgrading the Lets Make Software forum with new mods (hacks) and services. Here’s the change log:

• Forum category ‘WANTED! Beta-testers’ added. Post your requests here to get yourself a team of beta testers before releasing your software apps…

• Anti Spam MOD installed to make it a little harder for casino junks and certain perverts to posts their links and totally off usernames on our board.

• Custom Mass Messenger MOD installed so Matt and I are able to send a PM to all forum members at once. If you really, really detest receiving important forum announcements, you can change the settings for receiving our PMs in your profile…

• User Delete MOD installed so forum members can now delete their own accounts. Pretty useful mod and I wonder why it isn’t an integrated part of phpBB. It can be a little annoying when you move on in life that you cannot remove yourself from certain forums and have to request somebody from admin to cancel your account…

• Forum Topic Notification Mail Manager set up with Aweber to replace the previous Feedburner list. The latter used a subscription form and this was confusing for some. So there’s an icon at the bottom of the forum with a mail address where you simply send a blank email to to subscribe yourself to forum topic notifications.

• Running a new special offer for forum members only this week. You’ll need to visit the forum to see what this is…

• And of course upgraded the phpBB script to the latest version.

Otherwise we have a new moderator. He goes by the name of Maximus and he will also be writing content for this blog. Maximus is a true expert in creating software in ISB advanced mode. He’s hacks open source scripts and api’s and turns them into useful software applications. He just wrote a small special report about this which you can download at:

http://www.letsmakesoftware.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=592

I am quite impressed with what Maximus pulls off with ISB. It’s perhaps the kind of programs for the more script savvy users, but if that’s you, his report will get your creativity running without doubt!

Depending on how long it’s been since you checked the boards, you will also find a nice new collection of demo software in the ‘Look What I’ve Made!’ section:

http://www.letsmakesoftware.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=12

Lots of good things happening here again. I’m looking forward to seeing you back on the boards!

Patricia

Ever since Joel Comm released his commercial word cloud in June, shortly followed by the first word cloud script for internet marketers, word clouds have been the topic of many discussions in forums and on blogs.

Commercial word clouds are sites with a ‘cloud’ or group of words and others can purchase words with the site owner so they will link to their own website.

It’s another way to advertise your products and services in addition to all the established advertising means.

Being somewhat of a script ‘geek’ myself, I purchased and installed a word cloud script myself. Several actually. I really like them. But I also found that there is a total lack of clear information about how to properly take advantage of word clouds.

So I decided to write the book myself and it’s ready now.

You can get an instant download here:

http://thinelectrons.com/blog/word-cloud-secrets/

Enjoy!
Patricia

Over the coming weeks I will be working on upgrading this blog to my new standards. Oh, I’m so terribly picky…

I’ve spent a lot of time on www.thinelectrons.com recently and I apologize for neglecting this site. In addition to this my father-in-law got very ill late August and passed away on September 12th. Needless to say this had a big impact on our family and was another cause for prolonged absense online.

Back to the blog make-over…

I put together a set of process maps and checklists to upgrade blogs to comply with some basic viral marketing rules and providing a better customer service. WordPress has an awesome set of plugins you can use for this purpose and the first blog I had a stab at was my Thin Electrons blog.

Things which will be added to this blog for example:

• Ability to print posts in a clean format.
• An ‘email this post’ function if you find something worthwhile sharing.
• Better protection against comment and trackback spam.
• Keyword tags which add a new dimension to content search.
• And much, much more…

You are welcome to download my blog installation ‘action sheets’ as I call them here:

http://thinelectrons.com/blog/wp-blog-installation-action-sheets/

You will find them useful if you maintain a blog yourself!

Have a great weekend,
Patricia

I added a new service today for all members of Programmer Secrets Revealed (membership site for anyone who wants to create software with ISB and MYOS). If you are a member, you can now advertise your software creations for $1 only on this blog!

Small links for free members, medium sized links for bronze members and large links for silver members…

I’ve added a static page to the blog at http://letsmakesoftware.com/blogs/look-what-ive-made and these software links are also shown at www.programmersecretsrevealed.com!

As soon as enough members have added a link, this special software cloud will also be integrated on the index pages of both websites, so you’ll get plenty of exposure to your link(s). Yes, you may add as many links as you wish provided it’s your own software (salespage) you are linking to…

Once you have access to the membership area, look for a link on the left which says Look What I’ve Made! to find instructions on how to add your link to the software cloud on this page.

Make the most of this cool advertising opportunity!

Patricia

P.S. This word cloud was created with the WordSite Builder script. Stay tuned for a new (free) special report I’m writing about Word Clouds and the numerous ways you can use them on your own sites…