Attended a panel with a bunch of do it yourself'ers and their opinions about your next big idea, your side project that could potentially become your main project, etc.
Seems as if if you are in it for the money, you have a long hard road ahead of you, but success can be measured in different ways, etc. The most interesting thing I got out of the panel is the crazy challenges people have to deal with, most of the time for little or no monetary gain.
At any rate, here are my notes for all you geeks who are dreaming of the next big thing. I do a lot of these already, the pickle does more. He's better at innovation and ideas, I'm all about organization and putting the 'goal' wrapper around things. The notes are shit, but I suppose you'll get the picture.
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Top tips --
Getting started --
Fail fast and often -- look at next and go damn that was dumb -- at least get it out of your system (make a lot of noise)
Picking the right project
Get ready for things to get harder than you've ever thought
Building the team -- you can't do everything, how do you compensate your team, programming, design, editorial, exposure, could translate into business for them, for consistent voice you have to pay someone, barter / trade, etc -- community ownership, agree to license
What happens when things get successful? -- success and financial success doesn't go hand in hand, get handshake agreements, get into business with ppl you trust, campfire, getting together with people at least twice a year,
How do you find a great group? -- http://www.hipstercards.com/ -- http://www.elance.com/ (find people from romania), point to other things and be as clear as possible. Sent photoshop files, specific instructions -- delight is all done on traditional blogging software, done not for a profit -- biggest problem, raising rates and too busy
Legal Issues -- one of your biggest expenses, tess.com, trademark your words and logo, trademarks don't transcend countries, http://www.nolo.com/ -- talk to lawyers about this stuff, lots of them
Failure -- hard to live up to making millions on the web, most ppl with this mindset just want to get it done, as you are failing, don't lose your people, biggest threats could be your biggest opportunities, 'learn from your mistakes' -- read blogs and books about people who do what you do, success is one more failure away, failure is cloaked when you are in a big team, but not when you are working by yourself
Success -- it's a challenge once successful, even thought there is success, financial reward doesn't follow, be careful about what you post personally on the web, lots of users = more expenses but not necessarily money, success is at different levels, a list bloggers aren't rich, everyone is too early to celebrate, some dude finally got to quit his job, the creator of wordpress.com, success comes from giving and then giving back, open source models
Publicizing -- T-shirts and stuff like that, swag, stuff you give away, part of the price you pay, giving to important and non-important people, going to dinner with people, hanging out with people who may want your product, keep your users happy, http://www.metafilter.com/, keep a live product blog, connect with people, don't get angry if things don't take off, most things that we perceive as overnight success takes years and years of work, don't worry about obscurity, it will be organic over time
Highs and Lows of do it yourself -- most ppl don't want to hear or share the negative, internalize a lot, take up running rather than drinking, very hard to deal with the highs and lows, recognize that things come in phases, can't alienate people in your life (it's just plane tickets on the internet, or it's just dogs on the internet, make light of situation)
Making Money -- easy adsense, didn't make money, community friendly advertising, subscription models, find a sponsor or two for 100 bucks, a local bar in your neighborhood, hosting referrals, paid upgrades, nothing revolutionary, don't make money at the expense of your users, more you can help ppl make money, the more you make yourself, premium features, advertising, ad supported, more niche and focus for advertising, give away as much as humanly possible (if you have to ask should you charge, the answer is probably no), spend as little money as possible to make the first things happen
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