Hello again

Today we want to talk about commissioning software. This is a topic we probably should leave until you have been in the business for a while. But there are times when you wish you could do something in a certain way and you cant find the software to do it.

Commissioning software
Sometimes your Internet search fails to help you find a solution to your problem. When this happens, you can look for somebody to create software for you. We are talking about two very different needs:

• You have looked closely at your market and decided there is a need for a brand new product an ambitious software system that will solve a problem for people on your list
• You regularly are frustrated by a silly little problem and your life would be happier and your income greater if you could find a bit of software to solve it

You probably will want to leave the first until you have some experience in the business and some money in the bank. Its not unusual for somebody to pay 10,000 to 20,000 for a software system that over time will return him or her 2,000,000 in sales.

Realize when you have commissioned a system this way, you own it. You may do anything with it you choose. You may sell copies of it to people on your list, you may license your customers to sell it to others, or you may license your customers to license people on their lists to sell it to others.

In a later article we shall talk about joint ventures. These are situations where somebody with a product joins up with somebody with a list. They sell the product to people on the list and agree split the profits a typical split is 50%-50%.

Suppose you have a product and you are going looking for somebody with a list. Naturally you are going to try to join up with the person with the most impressive list available. People with impressive lists (remember I told you in Part Three about the importance of your list) realize they are sitting on gold mines. They are usually only interested in products that you own or for which you hold exclusive licence.

But you need to be a bit careful with a project like this. On one hand, you stand to win big, but on the other you stand to lose a bundle you probably cant afford as a Newbie if you get it wrong. Leave this one for now.

The second is different. As you go about your business, as you fine-tune your operation, there are many times when you say to yourself, Wouldnt it be nice if I could? and you cant find a way to do it. Help is a hand.

Check out these two websites: www.rentacoder.com and www.elance.com. Here is where freelance software developers and programmers go when they are looking for work. When you are looking for a software solution, put your project up on these sites and watch the offers roll in.

Recently I needed a snippet of HTML code to solve a little, troublesome problem with a webpage. I put my project up on RentaCoder and specified a maximum price of $75. Within two days I had quotations, literally from around the world, at prices from $60 down to $15. Amazing, this Internet thing!

(The big players also find resources here to solve their 20,000 problems.)

This can work the other way, too. If you are a programmer or software developer, you can register with these two sites and generate some income for yourself.

Thats all for this time. See you soon.

Next time we shall talk about testing. This is the process you use to try to figure out which headline or which price is the best for a product you are offering for sale.

Thanks for listening

Copyright 2006 Mary Rice-Johnston & Golden Goose Direct. All rights reserved.