Sympathy for the Corporate Overlord
Sympathy for the Corporate Overlord
Pleased to meet you…
Nah. Forget it. If I was any good at parody songs I’d already be on tour with Weird Al.
Happy Halloween! 
-David
Happy Halloween!
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10/31/2007 Happy Halloween! 10/20/2007Top 10 Reasons I’m an "Indie" and Not a "Micro-ISV"Top 10 Reasons I’m an “Indie” and Not a “Micro-ISV”
10. I can reply to the question, “What do you do?” with, “I’m an indie,” and people understand what I mean. Mostly. Though I sometimes have the followup question, “So you’re a musician?”
9. There will never be a “Micro-ISV Film Channel”.
8. I wrote a book with the word “indie” in the title, and damned if I’m not going to stick with that moniker. It’s just good marketing.
7. “Joe Micro-ISV” sounds stupid. And can you imagine any guy wanting to call himself “Joe Micro”?
6. Indies of all types get laid a lot more than anyone with “ISV” in their name, logo or occupation. Really.
5. “Micro-ISV” sounds like a rat race, treadmill, grindstone of a job you created for yourself.
4. As an indie, I can hang out at counterculture coffee shops and talk politics and philosophy and how corporations are evil and must be reined in. As a micro-ISV, you’re restricted to Starbucks.
3. I’ve been an indie longer than “micro-ISV” has been a term. Or a meme. And probably longer than “meme” too.
2. “Micro-ISV” is geeky. In the words of Socrates (pronounced: soh!-crates), “Geek!”
 1. “Micro-ISV” is the sort of thing that will eventually be appended with a major version, a dot, and a minor version (probably zero). “Micro-ISV 2.0″ is coming. Fear it.
-David
10/19/2007"Take Your Business Global"“Take Your Business Global”
There’s some financial services company commercial that says (amongst many other rather banal statements): “Take your business global…”
Hearing that, it always makes me chuckle.
I went “global” the first time I uploaded my software to the Web in 1996. That’s what the Web is. You know, World Wide.
In the past 7 days I’ve sold copies of The Journal in these countries (in no particular order):
If I expand my search to all of October, I can add these nations:
Wow. I didn’t expect that many.
Anyway, yeah, global. How is someone not global these days?
Even if you run a local, Mom & Pop restaurant or boutique retail shop, you’re almost certainly “global”.
OK. I’m done mocking a TV commercial. Carry on.
-David
PS Sure, I know. The commercial probably meant “open a new office in a new country”. But they didn’t say that. They said “global”. So there.
PPS See? That’s my problem. I have this tendency to de-controversialize anything I say. I qualify. I admit nuances. I seem incapable of making blanket statements that might engage or enrage. <sigh> Maybe someday I’ll wake up my “Inner Ann Coulter” or “Inner Michael Moore”.
10/18/2007My Advice for Indies on 18 October 2007My Advice for Indies on 18 October 2007
Nothing.
In the immortal words of Ender Wiggin, “Today you know everything. No practice. Get some rest. Have some fun. Pass a test.”
You’re all fucking brilliant.
Keep up the good work.
-David
10/16/2007The First Thing a New User Sees…The First Thing a New User Sees…
…should not be an error.
Just an FYI.
-David
PS Oops. At least it’s fixed now.
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10/12/2007An Indie-View: Fashion MashAn Indie-View: Fashion Mash
Meg, AKA Margaret Howe, of something called “Fashion Mash”, has left a few comments on my blog over the past couple weeks. I had no idea what a “Fashion Mash” was, so I figured I’d ask her a few questions…
Joe Indie: Tell me about Fashion Mash. What is it? How long has the company been around?
Meg: At Fashion Mash™ you can upload pictures of your own clothing, arrange them into outfits and get feedback from your friends. It is a great way to organize your wardrobe & discover new combinations.
In addition to clothing images, graphics can be uploaded to use as backdrops or to decorate your outfits. You can comment on each other’s outfits and even experiment with other users’ clothing, backdrops or decorative elements. Outfit images can be shared on blogs or other websites for even more feedback.
The site is currently in beta-testing and we are actively seeking community input on the site’s features.
We started Heliostorm Digital Media, Inc. back in March to begin development on Fashion Mash.
Joe Indie: I’m assuming fashion is a big interest of yours. Do you design your own outfits and accessories? For pay? Or is it more of a hobby?
Meg: I’m just an ordinary woman with a day-to-day interest in what I wear. I frequently ask my husband, “Keith, do these shoes match this dress? Should I carry this pink purse or the brown one?” One day he was getting frustrated with all the questions and suggested I should be asking my friends. And out of that Fashion Mash was born!
Joe Indie: I like to know how companies make their money. So if you don’t mind my asking: How do you generate revenue with Fashion Mash? Are you planning a purely ad-based revenue stream? Or do you plan to sell services (or even fashion products)?
Meg: We are starting Fashion Mash on an ad revenue model. We plan on adding some paid designer accounts later where indie designers can link to their stores and pay to feature their outfits.
Joe Indie: Are you planning any “virtual” or “3D” features? Or both? Maybe for a fee you can see yourself in someone else’s clothes? Or you keeping it simpler? And, while I’m here: Have you considered “consignment selling” or “virtual thrift store” features?
Meg: At this time, we aren’t planning on any of the virtual stuff. We use Meez.com avatars and they have plenty of virtual outfits over there. People can already access each other’s items to experiment with in their outfits. Later on, as I mentioned, we will be implementing paid indie designer/pro accounts. If individuals want to sell their items, or pay to have their outfit featured, they would be doing it through those designer/pro accounts.
Joe Indie: Are you keeping your day job? Is your day job at all related to Fashion Mash? What about your spouse? Are you in this together?
Meg: We gave up our day jobs. Keith is doing the code development and I’m doing the business development.
Joe Indie: Wow. You both gave up your day jobs. That’s commitment. If you don’t mind my asking: How are you staying “afloat” as you build up revenue from FM? Did you have some savings set aside? Or *really* supportive parents?
 Did you have to make some adjustments to your lifestyle with that change?Meg: We had a modest lifestyle over the last 5 years with the idea we would be starting a business and are now living on what we saved during that time. We moved from Boise Idaho to Edmonton Alberta to incorporate. Keith is Canadian and I am working on my Canadian residency. Our parents are all in the US and no, we don’t receive financial support from them. Either one of us may return to the workforce at some point next year. We’ll just have to see how it goes.
Joe Indie: Ah. You made the lifestyle changes before you needed to. Clever. So is this your first “indie” project? Or have you pursued other similar (or dissimilar) projects?
Meg: This is our first project as an independent company.
Joe Indie: Bonus question: Do you consider yourself “Web 2.0″?
 Meg: We’re Web2.0 in every way except the $5 million of VC funding. We are literally two-people on a shoe-string budget. Like Marcus Frind of plentyoffish.com, we are mystified at why it takes developer teams of 40 people and millions of dollars to make a web 2.0 site where people upload pictures of their dog food.
Joe Indie: I hear you. Well, thanks for taking the time to answer my questions.
Meg: Thanks!
So. Now I know what Fashion Mash is.
 -David
10/10/2007My Product Update Roll-out ChecklistMy Product Update Roll-out Checklist
As I mentioned yesterday, I’ve been doing this roll-out thing for new products, updates and bug-fixes for a while now. It occurred to me today that I could share my roll-out checklist. Maybe someone will find it useful.
My Roll-out Checklist
I also announce the new version to my newsletter, but not right away. The newsletter goes out monthly. That seems soon enough.
-David
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10/9/2007I Keep Expecting it to Get EasierI Keep Expecting it to Get Easier
Over the last 11 years, I’ve released new products a number of times, plus minor updates, major updates, and bug-fixes too many to count. (OK, sure. I could count them. But I’m not that bored and I don’t think you’re that interested.)
And it never fails: Come the day of the roll-out, I get all antsy. I check, double-check–and sometimes even find minor issues that I need to fix. Which doesn’t make me less nervous, let me assure you. And I always think–and double-think–before starting the roll-out process.
Maybe it’s a commitment issue (being a guy, and all).
Or (more likely) I just don’t want to get embarrassed by rolling out something that immediately starts blowing up all over the USA (and the world; the Internet makes it possible for your mistakes to reach international proportions; ain’t it great?).
Some parts of the roll-out are much easier than before. For example, I have a checklist I’ve built up over the years. The checklist keeps me from forgetting the details. And I have a spiffy high-speed broadband connection (I can still remember the pain–AAAGGGHHH! no, I can still feel the pain–of rolling out multi-megabyte installer packages over dial-up; <shudders>).
But those are side issues. Salt in the wound (or, these days, the lack of it).
It’s like getting up for a recital. Or giving a speech.
You’re on the line.
Now I think about it…I’d rather be doing the recital or giving the speech. Because those got easier.
But rolling out an update of my software still makes me nervous.
Maybe, someday, I’ll get used to it.
-David
PS The Journal 4.1 Build #239 was released this afternoon.
10/8/2007I Like Supporting Indies. I Really Do.I Like Supporting Indies. I Really Do.
But don’t spam my blog comments.
You know who you are.
-David
EDIT: Just to be more clear…if you’re comments are still here, I don’t consider them spam. =) My apologies for any confusion.
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10/5/2007A Milestone for The JournalA Milestone for The Journal
I don’t know how successful I appear to be, with my blogs, my books, my occasional games, and The Journal (and, of course, my wife, 2 kids, and newly acquired house).
I gave rather specific details in my interview for Bob Walsh’s 2006 book, Micro-ISV: From Vision To Reality. Enough that some people were impressed (“Wow! That much in a month!”), and some people were depressed (“Was that after taxes? No? Before? And that’s it? After 8 years?”). Which shows that “success” is really a matter of perspective.
In any case, depending on your perspective, the milestone I reached this week will almost certainly garner similar reactions (and help update my competitors on my situation).
The Milestone
The Journal’s “net revenue” [1] has, for the first time, exceeded $100K in a year. I came very close in both 2005 and 2006, but that 6-digit threshold had dodged me again and again.
This year, though, I (finally) nailed it. And with a few months of 2007 left to go!
My bank will be so happy with me.
Impressed?
Thanks. =)
But don’t be too impressed. After all, I’ve been selling The Journal for 11 years now.
I often wonder if I could’ve reached this milestone sooner if I had been more focused. Instead of having and working on so many different interests (writing [2], photography, game design, et al). Or if, many different interests aside, I had at least put more effort into marketing and pushing to get my products into new sales venues.
No way to know, of course, and I try not to beat up my past selves too much.
So I’ll just be pleased that I finally got here.
Depressed/Un-impressed?
 -David
[1] I define “net revenue” as: gross revenue minus payment processing fees. Because those fees are taken out before I get the money. If I did count them, I’d have to immediately deduct them, and it just seems less work my way.
[2] I just signed up for NaNoWriMo 2007. So, yeah, my work on Vee will take a hit in November. But I’ll have another unsold novel for the New Year.
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