Users Must Pay

I am taking a course in XML Development. We are getting to the point where we need to validate our documents. To do that, you run your code through an XML processor. It turns out that this is an external piece of software you have to acquire. Our instructor told us to use the industry standard software. He told us to download the free version.

It turns out there is no free version. There used to be a home use version that was free. However all traces of it seem to have disappeared. Now the company only allows you to download a free 30 day trial. After that, you have to pay big bucks to use their software.

This is great when you work for a big company. You just purchase a license. However that does not work for a starving college student. What is a hacker to do? Well you could go with a free or low cost alternative. In this case, the competition has weaker products. When only the best will do, you got to pay up to steal.

From an end user perspective, this sucks. My trial ends well before I can do my work for class. Should the company offer a student edition for a reduced price? Well I guess that depends. If I do get a low cost copy, will I be happy and talk my future employer into buying the expensive software? The other angle is whether I will somehow pony up the big bucks even though I am a student. That one is easy. Hell no.

The company has already done the hard job of producing the best software for this particular niche. Everyone wants to use their software. Now they have locked a high price tag on it. Let's see if the company makes out like a bandit, or suffers the consequences of the lock down.

Dome Fail

Was watching the SuperBowl to watch the commercials. There were few really hot commercials. A kid is going to prom. He looks depressed. Then his dad gives him the keys to the Audi. The boy is happy. He pulls into school and parked in the principal's parking spot. He makes out with the prom queen. He gets a black eye for the effrot. But he is happy.

Next I saw an ad that made me check of the link. It was some Stephen King thing. Not sure if it is a book or a movie ot TV show. Went to the web site. Had to enter my city and zip. Then I clicked submit. The thing hung for three minutes. What a waste. King probably spent a couple million on the SuperBowl ad. Could not convert because the darn web site was frozen.

Sales Funnel

I was reading a blog post. Found a picture near the bottom and thought it was part of the post. No. It was an advertisement. The girl with the big jugs caught my eye. I clicked through.

I saw a promotion for T-shirts. Nothing new. A girl with a big chest filling out a shirt has been used before. At first I thought the promotion was a buy three, get three shirts free one. Nope. Upon closer inspection, it was buy three, get six free.

Now I am one for a good deal. This was starting to sound like a good deal. I read the fine print. The only catch was that any upcharges would be applied to all the free shirts as well. Fair enough. Then I started trying to pick some shirts. The site was slow. Every options I chose took a while. Not good if I plan to buy 9 shirts.

I wanted a larger size. Upcharge. I wanted a color other than white. Upcharge. The deal was getting less and less attractive as I went along. The price was rising. And it was going to take forever to wait for the site to respond to all the options I needed to make. Sale lost. Too bad.

The Proposition

I found quite the interesting offer over on Hacker News. Dude put out a call for developers with ideas. He would put up $5k to pay for the developer to code up their idea. When done, dude would spend an additional $3k to promote the product. In the end, dude and developer would split the proceeds 50-50.

There was some comment backlash that 50% sounded a bit steep for $8k. However this was for ideas that were sitting around unfinished. Also the dude was offering expertise in marketing, and putting up all the cash. I actually kind of liked the idea.

The only caveat is that he dude required that he approve the initial idea. It has to be good enough for him to invest the $9k. That sounds fair enough to me. I wonder if he would back my latest game idea. I could probably code up an MVP in a month or two. There is only one way to find out.

The Goal of Free

I found this site that provides a daily list of free Kindle books. These aren't some lemons that nobody wants. They seem like good books. The reviews show 4 or 5 stars (out of 5) for most of them. I wondered why the authors were allowing the books to be distributed for free.

I have been reading a bunch of these books recently. And I am getting some ideas on wht is going on. Sometimes the free book is the first one in a series of books. I suspect the authoer is trying to get me hooked so I buy the rest of the series. Other authors are brand new. I bet they are just trying to prove how good an author they are. Then I might purchase some of their other titles.

Another technique might be getting buzz about a book. If you can get enough downloads, driven by a free price, your book could rise up in popularity. Then the price could be changed from free, allowing the author to profit.

Perhaps there might be some authors who just want to give their works away. Does not make much business sense. But hey. Not everything needs to be done to turn a buck I guess.

Bradford Exchange Checks

I am old fashioned. I still pay all my bills with paper checks I send in the mail. Recently I found I was on my last book of checks. Time to order some more. I saw some good designs from Bradford Exchange Checks. I ordered from them before. So I place another order.

I had not received my checks. But I did receive a letter in the mail. It was an invoice from Bradford Exchange. WTF? I sent full payment when I placed my order. Looks like they added an extra $4 to the bill. Initially I was going to write to complain. But it was just 4 bucks.

I suspect the problem is that they charged full price for my checks. I was supposed to get a $4 discount because it was a reorder. The fail was the way my invoice was written. It said that this was my second invoice. Wrong. This is the first correspondence I got from them. In addition, there was no phone number on the letter. So I could not call up and sort this out.

The total order for my box of checks comes out to $20. Not a huge amount. But being an avid check writer, I am going to always need replacements. In other words, a good checking printing company can have me as a customer for life. But not Bradford Exchange. They are screwing up what should be a very simple transaction.

It is difficult to provide top notch customer service. You should try to though. It can earn you customers for life. Yeah. Their mistake. Maybe I will write them anyway and inform them of the problem. Give them a chance to win me back. Let's see how they perform.

School Projects for Sale

There is a new business opportunity over in India - creating projects for students in school. Tech students learn a lot of theory. But they are lacking in practical experience. Their colleges require them to submit worthy projects. Many students are finding this near impossible. They are turning to companies that can provide the finished products to them.

Former grads are racing to create companies to provide the "project support" to students. There is apparently a lot of demand. You got to know what you are doing. It also helps if you keep up with the engineering industry to see what is hot. I guess there is a bit of manual labor involved if you have to wire up the project yourself. The component prices might be cheap though, especially if you buy in bulk.

I hear the going rate for project is between $300 to $750. You pay more if you are trying to get an advanced degree. Luckily there is some competition, so the prices are not that high. Seems like a deal to me.

Now I would not recommend any student buy such a project. The whole point of a project is to learn while building the project. But perhaps purchasing a project will help you figure out how to do business in the future. Let's just hope these engineering graduates aren't designing the air planes you fly in.