Whirr. Click. Clank! Reboot complete – 47hats is back! Having taken a long virtual walk to clear my head about what I want to do here, I’m writing again about what matters to me (and hopefully you): the Startup World, productivity in the early days of the Internet Age, and sundry other topics.

Redoing this site has been very much a case of eating my own dog food (or in my case cat food): I’ve been taking my own advice from WordPress for Startups, my next book. WordPress is an awesomely powerful codebase for anyone who wants to build a great site for their business without spending huge amounts of time and money. But like a lot of the progeny of the Internet, understanding some of the deeper truths about it helps:

• A lot happens in a few Internet years. The workflows that made sense a few years ago can come back to bite you now. Case in point: Featured Images in posts, added to WordPress about two years ago, gave theme developers lots of new functionality to work with. That’s the good news. The bad news comes in if you’re ignored this new feature. If you just keep adding images to posts the way you used to pre-Featured Images, you could end up a corpus of 700+ posts that as far as modern themes are concerned are just so much text. Ouch. Which brings me to point 2:
• Look within your given online community for who’s already solved your problem. The number 1 reason to do you site in WordPress has to be the hundreds of thousands of developers, designers and artists who are part of the WordPress Community. For example those 700+ posts I’d have to go through manually to generate featured images for. Let me introduce you one of the 16,000+ WordPress Plugins: Generate Post Thumbnails. Install it, run it, and let it do the heavy lifting for you.
• When adopting major software, or components for that software, there’s no such thing as having too much support. It can be an enlightening experience as software developer when you start getting jabbed in the side by some other developer’s idea of what you should be doing with their creation. If there’s one thing 30 years of dealing with software has taught me is that every single application has built into its core a set of assumptions about the world, what problem it is solving and what is the “right” way to solve that problem. If you situation is different, you’re mileage will vary. A lot. And that when you are going to want help.
• Accept un-perfection and move on. There will be times when the effort cost of fixing something is way too expensive. For instance, either manually editing and resaving each of 700+ posts to not use use features images when displaying just the post, or running a fairly complex SQL query on my (don’t touch it!) WP database to generate the needed records in wp-postmeta. So, I’ve done the last dozen or so posts, and the rest will have to wait for a while.

You’re reading Here, we go, again. from: 47 Hats. If you like this post, there’s plenty more! Want more sales for your startup? Stop by and let’s chat, or consider a Microconsult with Bob Walsh.

By Aymeric Gaurat-Apelli
Founder, Task Army

Many people are attracted by the idea of outsourcing but starting outsourcing can be quite daunting. Where to find the right people? How to make sure they will produce the results you expect? How much to pay?

I will try to answer these questions in this (lengthy) post.

I. Where to go to find a remote contractor?

There are different approaches you can take, all with pros and cons.

I.1 Local forums
You can post your job to local forums. For example, if you are looking for someone in the Philippines, you could go to local Filipino job forums.

Pros: cheaper, there is no middle man.

Cons: it is riskier because you have no way to access previous customers feedback and ensure the provider will be good. You will have to spend more time making sure the provider is qualified.

Example of websites:

• http://bestjobs.ph
• http://www.greatjobs.ph
• http://www.jobstreet.com.ph
• Craigslist

I.2 Placement services
You can use placement services that will find a the right service provider for you.

Pros: Quality is usually higher.

Cons: Expensive because of the overhead of finding the providers for you.

Example of websites:

• http://zirtual.com
• http://virtualstafffinder.com by Chris Drucker (Virtual Lifestyle Business blog)
• http://www.hireyourvirtualassistant.com by Owen McGab Enaohwo
• Solvate for American freelancers

I.3 Outsourcing marketplaces
On these websites, you post a job and service providers submit their quote in some kind of auction. Quality varies from a marketplace to another. Elance tends to be best to find quality providers but is more expensive. These platforms can be a bit overwhelming because you receive 100s of applications that you have to filter through.

Pros: Many service providers for a wide range of skills. It is good for bigger projects when you want to ensure the quality of the service provider and to make sure the provider has the right skillset.

Cons: Unnecessary and overwhelming hiring process for smaller tasks.

Example of websites:

• Odesk
• Elance
• People per Hour

I.4 Micro-job marketplaces
You can buy services like if you were at the supermarket. The services offered are well defined and small.

Pros: Depending on the size of the task you need done, this is a good compromise between removing the overhead of finding the right provider and yet not adding a huge extra cost.

Cons: Works only for smaller tasks.

Example of websites:

• Fiverr (be careful with what gigs you buy, you might get penalized by Google)
• TaskArmy.com (focuses on tasks that will improve your website and online sales)

Note: TaskArmy.com goes one step further by manually approving the services and service providers to remove all the crappy services.

I.5 Niche websites
Some websites focus on a specific kind of experts or services.

Pros: They usually make the process much easier or the quality of the providers is much higher.

Cons: If you hire more than one contractor with different skillsets, you will likely have to manage them across different platforms.

For writers

• http://jobs.problogger.net: Quality bloggers (starting at $20/post up to $120)
• http://ghostbloggers.net: Buy unique posts (around $30 per post)
• http://textbroker.com: Crappy posts aimed only to Google for SEO purposes ($5 per article)
• http://myblogguest.com: Find people willing to write articles on your blog for free in exchange for a backlink

For designers

• http://99designs.com: Design contests. Expensive for smaller tasks like icons or to refresh of a landing page.
• http://dribbble.com: It is a community of designers. Find great designers there and contact them directly.
• http://crowdspring.com: another contest platform.

For developers

• ODesk is usually the best place.

II. Hiring process

II.1. Favourable criteria
Country of origin: Based on my personal experience, I tend to prefer people from Philippines for general assistance and from Eastern Europe for development: you have a higher chance to get someone reliable and honest.

Responsiveness is essential. If someone takes two days to answer your emails, it will slow the project a lot. Timezones are already challenging, having someone who is not online most of the day is an unnecessary pain.

English skill. Depending on the type of task, you don’t need perfect English (except for writers). You just need to make sure they understand your English, ask them to re-explain what you have given them to work on in their own words.
For a writer, be VERY picky with their English. If they don’t capitalize their “I”‘s (as in “i am” instead of “I am”) for example it is a big red flag. Also, if you can find typos in their conversation with you, it is another red flag. A good writer must be anal when it comes to typos and good grammar.

II.2 Outsourcing the hiring
Hire one or two people from Philippines for $3/h to help you hire someone. Ask them to post your job on the different websites I cited above and to filter the good from the bad based on the criteria you give them.

I found my own Ruby on Rails developer this way and we have been working together two months and I canít be happier. It costed me $20 to get two people look for a developer for me.

II.3 Some more tips on how to hire

• You can decide to pay the service provider to take a specific test on oDesk. They have a wide range of tests for all disciplines.
• Verify they have done similar work or that they have the skills required
• On Odesk, you can look in the history of closed jobs. You can find closed jobs similar to yours and approach people who got a good feedback directly
• Give a mini project. The mini project should be totally independent to not have to give away too much and yet should be useful to you. It shouldn’t be bigger than a week worth of work though to waste any time if youíd decide not to go ahead
• Go with your gut: if you feel the provider isn’t responsive or you have a bad feeling, move on, you are probably right.

III. How much should you expect to pay?

I assume here that you outsource offshore:

IV. Recommended virtual assistants to start outsourcing now

If you want to try your hand at outsourcing, Iíd recommend starting with small tasks to slowly acquire the outsourcing mindset and make it second nature. Karissa and Joni are two virtual assistants on TaskArmy that I recommend if you want to start outsourcing.

Any questions?
I will be following the comments so please don’t hesitate to ask me any questions in the comments.
—-
Aymeric is an French entrepreneur based in Sydney (Australia) who has founded TaskArmy.com in 2009 to make outsourcing online easier. If you’d like to share your lessons learned, domain knowledge or relevant product (translated out of Marketize), how about doing a guest post for 47 Hats? Email me.

You’re reading Outsourcing 101 for Startup Founders from: 47 Hats. If you like this post, there’s plenty more! Want more sales for your startup? Stop by and let’s chat, or consider a Microconsult with Bob Walsh.

For the past two months, hell for the past 3 decades, every time I sit down in front of computer to create I have to push myself to do it. It’s like a force field or some sort of invisble mind-sucking SciFi monster pushing me away from creating. I can spend all day answering emails, surfing the web, looking for new Mac or iOS apps to buy, doing essentially worthless things. But try and write, try and create, and a truckload of rationalizations, excuses, distractions, emotions and other crap springs out of my screen like some sort of weird airbag.

For months I’ve known StartupToDo.com was deader than the half-eaten lizards one of my cats likes to bring in. I’d even figured out what I need to do to “Pivot” (polite-speak for dumping this baby into the garbage and starting over) and just maybe ship something that people want. And for about the same time I could not bring myself to posting to this blog.

As creatively constipated as I’ve been, there would be days, or at least hours, when I could confront my own Resistance and it would fade for a time. And during that time, I could create, I could have a few brief hours of just being able to make things to have fun we were all promised as children.

So how and why am I writing this?

The how is simple: Steven Pressfield’s Do the Work. Kindle version free at Amazon for another 18 days. It’s my garlic and Star of David to wave in the face of all the rationalizations and excuses Resistance puts in front of me.

When I think, it’s not the best time of day for me to be creating, or that I need to check email again, or I’m too tired, or that I can’t succeed because I’m whatever, or I really should go do this or that instead; when Resistance in its seductive voice whispers, “relax, take it easy, you can do that later, you can’t do it at all” I think of this one short book I’ve read a dozen times. And I pause – is this reality or just Resistance?

Nearly every time, it’s Resistance, that enemy with a thousand faces and 10,000 lies. It will fuck up your head, play on your self-doubts, do what it takes so you can’t do what you can do and create something.

The why is simple too: When you look, really look, at what’s in your way, at the excuses/rationalizations keeping you from creating, they fade. This post is my way of looking at Resistance in the face. One small victory. Think of it as a small note smuggled out to the prisoner in the cell next to mine to not give up hope.

If you’ve read this far, but you haven’t downloaded Do the Work, ask yourself why.

It’s not the cost – it’s free, thanks to a bit of unexpected corporate generousity. It’s not that you can’t read it – you’re reading this, afterall. It’s not that you don’t need any self-help crap, or you’re too busy or you should be doing something important, or you’ll get to it next week, month or year. Unless you are doing this instant the one creative thing that above all else you exist to do, you’ve bought into the same con that derails so many of us.

If you’re pissed off, indignant, angry that I just wasted your time, as yourself why – I’m just some guy with a blog.

The one thing good about Resistance is it’s the ultimate game cheat – the more it pushes you away from something, the more likely that’s what you need to be doing.

You’re reading I’m Back. Here’s Why. from: 47 Hats. If you like this post, there’s plenty more! Want more sales for your startup? Stop by and let’s chat, or consider a Microconsult with Bob Walsh.

As you may have noticed, I’ve been fairly quiet here of late. That’s changing, but as part of that change I need to know if continuing the weekly MicroISV Digest is of value to you. If it is, let me know, and please vote!

You’re reading Useful or not? from: 47 Hats. If you like this post, there’s plenty more! Want more sales for your startup? Stop by and let’s chat, or consider a Microconsult with Bob Walsh.

Woke up to a light sprinkling of snow here in Sonoma, CA – something that happens where I live about every three years. Took a quick pic as an MMS to text to various friends, got busy coding and testing a big batch of enhancements to my startup app. Keep coming back to coding after various calls, noticed the last of the snow melting early afternoon. Next time I came up for air, it was 7:05 pm.

When you’re brain-deep in coding, you can really lose track of time. Hence, this week’s MicroISV Digest and Startup Success Podcast will be delayed, but should be out tomorrow.

You’re reading Snow in Sonoma? from: 47 Hats. If you like this post, there’s plenty more! Want more sales for your startup? Stop by and let’s chat, or consider a Microconsult with Bob Walsh.

It’s been a while since I’ve explained who I (Bob Walsh) am and what I do regarding microISVs and startups and it seems this blog has picked up a lot more readers recently, so here goes. Please feel free to skip this post!

1. You’re reading my blog 47hats where you’ll find hundreds of posts on topics that concern microISVs and startups by myself and others. If your startup/MicroISV is launching, releasing a major update or making a special offer, please let me know by emailing me at bob.walsh@47hats.com and I’ll probably include it in next week’s MicroISV Digest.

2. Have a listen to the Startup Success Podcast – interviews with successful startups and companies doing interesting things for startups. Please contact me if your startup relates to others or you’d like to help other startups by talking with myself and my cohost, Pat Foley about your startup’s experience to date.

3. The Web Startup Success Guide just came out – just about everything an aspiring web software company founder needs to know. What you’ll learn:
• How to define the value your web app will deliver to its users
• Evangelizing your startup via social media—from Twitter to Facebook, from YouTube to your own social network
• Which web app pricing strategies work, and which don’t
• What alternatives to traditional business structures will let you launch and run your startup without all the legal mumbo–jumbo
• What services and web apps exist today to help your startup succeed
• How to get meaningful online press for your web app

Plus, interviews with David Allen (Getting Things Done), Rafe Needleman (CNET), Marshall Kirkpatrick (ReadWriteWeb), Guy Kawasaki (Garage Technology Ventures), Dharmesh Shah (OnStartups, HubSpot), Joel Spolsky (Fog Creek Software), Eric Sink (SourceGear), Pamela Slim (Escape from Cubicle Nation), and 40 other people who can help your startup succeed.

4. If you’re microISV is built around a desktop application, you might want to read my book, Micro-ISV: From Vision to Reality. While it’s a few years old it’s still the best single source of information for the aspiring MicroISV desktop software founder.

5. Join the conversation of your peers at the Joel On Software Business of Software forum. I and my fellow co-moderators work make sure you have a spam-free, high-quality forum to discuss the gambit of issues facing small and not so small software companies.

6. Purchase and read my ebook ($19) on what microISVs need to know to improve their web sites, MicroISV Sites that Sell!.

7. Want to know more about getting started with Twitter for your microISV or startup or yourself? Check out The Twitter Survival Guide. Tools, interviews, insight and more by myself and leading news blogger Kristen Nicole.

8. If you don’t have a blog for your microISV or startup, my book, Clear Blogging: How People Blogging Are Changing the World and How You Can Join Them will show you the value and get you started.

9. I provide consulting services to startups and microISVs including web site copywriting, market positioning, social media and product strategies. See http://www.47hats.com/consulting-services/ for details.

10. In August StartupToDo.com (a training/productivity community for startups and microISVs) will launch. Be Successful Faster.

You’re reading Allow me to introduce myself… from: 47 Hats. If you like this post, there’s plenty more! Want more sales for your startup? Stop by and let’s chat, or consider a Microconsult with Bob Walsh.

(Please skip if you don’t know me…)

Dear friends,

It is with great sadness we need to let you know that yesterday we had to put Sake to sleep. After 22 years and ten months, he’d come to his time. He will always be in our hearts; please say a short prayer for him today.

-Bob, Tina, Sammy and Squeaky.

You’re reading A very personal post… from: 47 Hats. If you like this post, there’s plenty more! Want more sales for your startup? Stop by and let’s chat, or consider a Microconsult with Bob Walsh.

Just spent a couple of hours tracking down why readers of this blog using Internet Explorer were suddenly unable to access this site – and the culprit turned out to be my latest Firefox extension! Here’s the gory details for anyone with a WordPress blog and your readers start getting “Internet Explorer Cannot Open the Internet Site- Operation Aborted” errors when they try to open your site.

What’s happening is Bit.ly’s new cool Firefox extension is writing errant bits of JavaScript – JavaScript that will cause IE to fail – to the posts you’re writing behind your back while you’re working in WordPress.

Specifically, Bit.ly released two days ago a new Firefox extension that pops up the full URL of a URL shortened with any one of a number of popular URL shortener web apps like TinyURL.com, Bit.ly, etc. It also pops up on a Twitter page the short profile of any referred to user – @bobwalsh. That’s also very handy.

What’s not so good is if you are writing a post in WordPress (self-hosted, probably wordpress.com given it’s the same basic codebase) and you click the Save Draft button, the Bit.ly extension inserts into your post a line of JavaScript code:

script src=”http://s.bit.ly/bitlypreview.js” /script [brackets removed to prevent it being js.]

And this code in your post triggers this “problem behavior” that happens with all versions of IE except IE8 beta.

If you Save Post while writing in Visual Mode, you won’t see this code added because it’s code, not displayed text. If you Save Post while in HTML Mode, you will not see the code added, because wordpress after saving the draft automatically switches to Visual Mode.

An altogether nasty, nasty bug – and yes, I call writing out code without permission a bug.

So for now, the Bit.ly Firefox extension goes away – and I will be much less likely to install FF extensions no matter how shiny they are. Thanks Bit.ly!

Update: Here’s a video capture of the bug

You’re reading A nasty, nasty bug! from: 47 Hats. If you like this post, there’s plenty more! Want more sales for your startup? Stop by and let’s chat, or consider a Microconsult with Bob Walsh.

I’ve started writing a new book for Apress: working title, The Startup Success Guide (SSG).

This is not Micro-ISV: From Vision to Reality (MIVR) 2.0. MIVR did and does a good job of covering what’s involved in moving from being somebody else’s developer to creating, marketing and making money as a self-funded microISV selling a desktop app.

I just forgot to cover how you create a startup that launches a web app. Oops. My bad.

Seriously, since I started on MIVR in 2005, web apps – or more explicitly, Internet-centric applications running on the web, desktops, cell phones, iPhones, etc. – have taken off. And startups – what used to be serial Silicon Valley entrepreneurs convincing VC funds to pony up a few multi-million dollar rounds of funding – have furiously evolved.

If you’re looking for info on how to get your standalone desktop app into potential users’ hands, lessons from various microISVs, pros and cons of different business structures, how to build a decent site for your microISV, etc., MIVR is a good choice.

If you need info on the pros and cons of the multitude of web app platforms, how to get funding from angel investors, micro VC’s and VCs in [economically shell shocked] 2009, subscription/alternative revenue models for web apps, how to develop a web app that will make money, the huge role Open Source now plays, why, how, where to build your web app’s social media network, getting PR about your web app and a lot more, I hope The Startup Success Guide is a big help when it releases this summer.

Three last things (I’m an writer, I can say things that way ): I need your help. Specifically, I need your suggestions on big things to cover in the startup/web app world now so I can work them into the existing chapter outlines, and later, I’ll need your feedback on specifics, recommendations of people I should interview, etc. Add them as comments, email them to me, tweet them: whatever works for you.

What about Project X Bob!? Well, you don’t have to do something to write about it, but it does add verisimilitude. Look for Project X very soon. And maybe another startup too!

Writing a book is more than a little like doing a bungee jump – something I did in Queenstown, New Zealand too long ago. They tie your feet up, you stand on a little platform looking down while your body is screaming, “What the hell are you doing, you’re going to Die! Die! Die!”, then you jump. Here’s to a happy landing.

You’re reading He’s at it again. from: 47 Hats. If you like this post, there’s plenty more! Want more sales for your startup? Stop by and let’s chat, or consider a Microconsult with Bob Walsh.

Starting today, I’ve added UserVoice.com goodness to 47hats.com. As we roll into 2009, I want to write more of the posts that you want to see, and UserVoice lets you to tell me what posts, interviews, guest posts, topics you would most like to see here.

Click the Feedback tab, click the posts you want me to work on, done. Or hop on over to the UserVoice 47hats forum and suggest a story there.

Think of it as being able to add a experienced researcher/writer to your startup. Free!

You’re reading Something new at 47hats.com from: 47 Hats. If you like this post, there’s plenty more! Want more sales for your startup? Stop by and let’s chat, or consider a Microconsult with Bob Walsh.

My co-author Kristen Nicole and I have just released The Twitter Survival Guide.

Twitter is the fastest way to build connections online, and The Twitter Survival Guide is the fastest way to master making the most of your Twitter experience. Whether you are building an online reputation for yourself, your startup, your company or you just want to stay in touch with your online friends, Twitter is a powerful tool for finding, connecting and sharing with others.

We wrote The Twitter Survival Guide to provide a definitive, timely resource for people who want to get the most value from Twitter and build their personal, microISV or startup online reputation.

In this 90-page ebook, we combine our insights on the deeper dynamics of building online reputations with interviews with 12 influential early adopters and ardent supporters of Twitter, including Guy Kawasaki (Garage Technology Ventures), Steve Rubel (Micro Persuasion), Darren Rowse (Problogger.com), Gary Vaynerchuck (WineLibraryTV) and Marshall Kirkpatrick (ReadWriteWeb).

In The Twitter Survival Guide we start with why you should care and use Twitter, then a bit of Twitter history and myth-debunking, then creating a effective Twitter presence, 11 profiles of the most useful Twitter related applications, clients and web apps, explore the relationship and interaction between traditional blogging and Twitter, suggest 9 strategic ways to use this microblogging service to build reputation and your online network and then get advice and insight from 12 influential early adopters and ardent supporters of Twitter.

The Twitter Survival Guide is on sale at 47hats and at MultiSocialMedia for $24.95 USD via either PayPal or 2Checkout.com.

About MultiSocialMedia

MultiSocialMedia is a site dedicated to the ongoing projects from Bob Walsh and Kristen Nicole. This partnership began with the publishing of The Twitter Survival Guide e-book, and will continue its evolution here on the web. It’s not enough to write a book about online social media–a dedicated website was also in order, because the state of online social media is ever-changing and impossible to capture in just one book. So MultiSocialMedia will be the progressive forum for analysis and discussions surrounding online social media as we know it.

This subscription-based access to articles published on MultiSocialMedia will include a deep look at practical, personal and business use of online social media, harnessing the experience and expertise of others through interviews and guest posts. We will also address the real effects of the Internet’s social climate on the online and offline spaces, as these have a major influence on our culture.

Your subscription to MultiSocialMedia costs $24.95 (Including a free copy of The Twitter Survival Guide) for the first month and then $5.00 per month thereafter. Sign up now!

You’re reading The Twitter Survival Guide released. from: 47 Hats. If you like this post, there’s plenty more! Want more sales for your startup? Stop by and let’s chat, or consider a Microconsult with Bob Walsh.

I’m in the process of moving 47hats to a new web host: I can’t afford to wait for Alentus to resolve its problems. Initially I’d plan to move to wordpress.com but there were 3 catches:

• The feed: While I can list any old feed I want as a link in the sidebar at wordpress.com, there’s no way to control the autodiscovered feed and force it to be my existing feedburner feed. That means I’d end up with two feeds from the same site, a major web analytics pain in the butt.
• While premium WordPress accounts let you override CSS/use your own, there’s no good documentation of that css structure.
• Given other things to do, and that the present theme here is pretty good, I just want to move with the least amount of pain possible.

The upshot is I’m moving this domain to GoDaddy. I have been seriously, consistently impressed with their telephone support, their uptime is good, and the price (for a shared host) is good. Also, they are not about to get bought out.

If all goes well, come Monday you should see the weekly MicroISV Digest in your RSS reader or in your web browser and it will be fine: if you don’t email me at bob period walsh at safarisoftware dot com and let me know.

You’re reading Moving Day. from: 47 Hats. If you like this post, there’s plenty more! Want more sales for your startup? Stop by and let’s chat, or consider a Microconsult with Bob Walsh.

One of the cool things about consulting with microISVs and startups is when your clients reach and pass important milestones on the road to success. Four of my clients (that have given me the okay to talk about them) have done just that:

Tim Sullivan - Spice, an innovative SaaS application for hiring managers launched last week. It’s a killer app for startups and other agile companies who need better hiring results than either conventional recruiting shops or bloated “HR mission critical enterprise” whale apps can deliver. The beauty of Spice is that it takes the process most small companies use for finding/screening candidates – email – and removes the pain while improving the results.

While Tim and the rest of the folks at Without Software (love that name!) are totally responsible for their success, emails like this are a rush:

“I was not prepared for the depth of assistance that Bob provided. I had expected a through review what I’d already done, but Bob provided ideas not just for our USP but for the product itself, helping to focus it very, very effectively. Thanks, Bob!”

Tony Wright – RescueTime, a SaaS time management and analytics tool, made it into the New York Times not once but twice last month. Believe me, that’s PR traditional ISVs would happily sell their first born for. (And yes, the second mention was a comment – on a post by David Pogue, one of the very most respected/read tech writers out there.)

RescueTime is exactly the kind of app microISVs can produce: really innovative solutions that break with conventional wisdom. If Tony had tried to create RescueTime at one of the Big Software Companies you can bet his vision of what RescueTime should be about would have been watered down to nothing.

Tony was kind enough to say a few very nice words about me back in April.

Vadim Kleyzit – Stimulus Technology – Another fun part of helping microISVs and startups succeed is getting to see seriously disruptive tech while it’s still in stealth mode. Take Web Stimulus – a server/IE-plugin that makes ASP.NET 3-8 times faster. No, I’m not kidding – I’ve seen it work and if anything, Web Stimulus is even more powerful than that.

Communicating complex technology is not an easy task; while the site’s copy is good, Stefanie Fontecha did a totally impressive job on the layout, vastly improving the delivery of the copy I wrote. Need a new microISV site? See Stefanie.

Mark Gladding – Text2Go is a cool Windows app for transmuting wasted commuting time into productive time by converting documents on your PC into speech of near-human quality on your iPod. Mark’s nearly ready to release his next major version he tells me, and was kind enough to say a few words about my consulting engagement with him back in March.

To Tim, Tony, Vadim and Mark: Hat’s off guys! Glad I could lend a hand.

You’re reading Clients making news. from: 47 Hats. If you like this post, there’s plenty more! Want more sales for your startup? Stop by and let’s chat, or consider a Microconsult with Bob Walsh.

Faithful (and I know you’re faithful because you’re reading this even though it’s been six weeks since my last post) readers know I’m attempting a hat trick not unlike sticking your head in a lion’s mouth and getting it out again: write a new app for the microISV/startup community that will rock (Project X) in a language/framework I’ve never used before (Ruby on Rails).

But I’ve got an itch. And it needs scratching. Hello, my name is Bob Walsh, and I need to write.

It’s a bug I caught 30 years ago in college. Becoming a reporter didn’t cure it. Switching professions, turning in my typewriter (what’s a typewriter – don’t ask.) for a keyboard only meant my user docs and specifications read like bad Raymond Chandler mysteries (“It was a dark and stormy night. The user, his name unknown, will attempt to log into the system…”). Even writing 2 books, an ebook, moderating a great forum and writing for a major web news site only fed the addiction. So be it.

So the least I can do is try to be useful, somewhat amusing and definitely not boring while I start writing again here for microISVs (self funded software companies) and startups while I scramble to line up some more people to post here who know a hell of a lot about their topics than I do.

We’re programmers, we don’t need to sleep, right?

You’re reading Deathmarch not over; but I’m back. from: 47 Hats. If you like this post, there’s plenty more! Want more sales for your startup? Stop by and let’s chat, or consider a Microconsult with Bob Walsh.

…but nevertheless, extremely funny, especially if think of yourself as a software engineer kind of person:

You’re reading Admittedly completely off topic… from: 47 Hats. If you like this post, there’s plenty more! Want more sales for your startup? Stop by and let’s chat, or consider a Microconsult with Bob Walsh.

You’re reading So why no posts, Bob? from: 47 Hats. If you like this post, there’s plenty more! Want more sales for your startup? Stop by and let’s chat, or consider a Microconsult with Bob Walsh.