Demandez le gourou seo

Prelude:

{todays article is only indirectly related to SEO. BUT, the objective of the blog from day one was to do whatever I could that I thought would do the most good for the most people. Since going to India, I've spoken with a lot of people who are in the custom applications development business. They all seem to have one common problem. To a person they all say their biggest challenge is to get the prospective client to be open with them and give them the details they need to actually get them a solid quote. I'm hoping this post gives both the buyer and the seller a little insight into how to overcome a big part of the trust issue.}

Soooo- you got a GREAT idea for new online business that can make you rich if you just had one little missing piece. The problem is how can you get someone to help you get that piece without having to give them your idea and risk them stealing it from you?

We’ve all had great ideas. Imagine how much money has never been generated because we never got our idea off the ground.  The difference between the great ideas and the businesses that make their founders rich and famous is that someone turned that great idea into a reality and put the missing pieces together.

With internet technology exploding in your face like a cheap firecracker with a short fuse it’s easier and cheaper to get an idea off the ground than ever before. One of the things I love most about the internet is the fact that opportunity is running faster than a fat guy for a free buffet.

IF YOU HAVE A NEW WAY OF DOING THINGS ONLINE – YOU ARE GOING TO NEED NEW SOFTWARE

I’m getting more and more requests for quotes on custom software applications, (the concept of the more you give the more you get at work), and while I’m glad to have the shot, I’m realizing just how much I’ve got to learn about the software development business.  One of the things I’m learning is that ignorance can piss people off.

For several years now I’ve been on the buying end of custom application development. One of the main reasons I set up shop in India was to cut out the middlemen and have more control over the people doing the developing but I’m starting to feel like the pot smoker who decides to start dealing to support his habit. The more I smoke the more I gotta sell and the more I sell the more I can smoke.

 That’s kind of cool I guess but I wish it paid better.

I’m not complaining about that mind you. For the first time in my 11 year attempt at making my mom believe what I do constitutes a “real” job, I’m actually building myself quite a little library of really cool online promotional tools and databases. I’ve struggled for so long doing so much with so little that it’s really nice to be able to finally have a “menu” of hotrod goodies that actually kick ass at the click of a button.

 My problem is coming from the fact that I made the decision to get into the sales end of application development because  I thought I could use my past experience to help others get through the inherent problems of outsourcing software development faster, easier and at a lower cost. As it turns out it ain’t as easy as it looks!

There are several issues that I have been able to find pretty slick ways of overcoming but one issue keeps coming up and the more people I can educate about it, the better it will be for buyers and sellers .

IF YOU WANT ME TO BUILD YOU A TOOL FOR A NEW IDEA – YOU HAVE TO TELL ME WHAT THE IDEA IS

This past week I pissed someone else off and lost another job because I could not read minds. I won’t use any names or specifics because my intent is not to make anyone look bad. Like I said, I understand because I’ve been there too. My intent is just to illustrate how to save yourself some time and actually get a step closer to getting that great idea off the ground. I'll put the prospect's comments in bold and my replies in red.

New Quote Request:

I need a popunder ad serving software, so I can make a site similar to  popupxxxxxx.com. It would need to track how many popunders actually  loaded (i.e. got past all popup blockers), ability to target by country, ability to automatically pay publishers via paypal, and it would be nice if it could get past the most popular ad blockers like firefox (plus a few other features I'm forgetting right now). If it would be easier, you could base the program off of Open Ads ( openads.org).

Notice the words “AUTOMATICALLY PAY PUBLISHERS” and “COULD BASE THE PROGRAM OFF OF OPEN ADS”.  So right off the bat I know this person is new to software application development. Anytime a program “AUTOMATICALLY PAYS” someone, it becomes much more than adserving software.  And any time you “BASE THE PROGRAM” off of anything else, (even if the other program is some kind of free offering), you just added the time it takes to research and reverse engineer the other program to the cost of the project.

That’s completely all right with me as I know MOST people don’t understand the ins and outs of software development. That’s why they come to someone like me asking the questions. The delivering ads and tracking how many actually loaded is not too big a deal, even the ability to target by country isn’t much of a stretch.  BUT when we get to the automatic pay and the get past ad blocker stuff, now I have some questions. So I ask him:

Hello xxxxx.  We have done a lot of work in ad serving/tracking stuff.
In order to give you a quote, I need a little more detail.
do you have a design document?
do you have a preference in language. java, .net, php ?
since this is going to need to be a revenue sharing program will all
commissions be the same, like 50% across the board or will there need to
be ways to set up and pay "groups" like premium publishers make more and affiliates with lower traffic level makes less etc?
I'm not familiar with popupxxxxx.com so we'll have to do a little research
If you don't have a design doc, don't worry about it. Just tell me a
little more about the business model and we can build from that., If we
do it that way, we will provide you with the design doc and the SRS,
(software requirement specification).

do you have a non-disclosure agreement., If not, we have a standard one
that you can use but you really should have an NDA for your own protection.

It may be that the program you need is not all that complicated and we
can use some, (if not all), open source apps and off-the shelf stuff but
I always take the approach that we are not just building an app, but we
are building your business and the first step is to make sure that we
see YOUR vision.

Massa

You can see that I’m trying my best to educate him without trying to intimidate. I’m also trying to let him know that if he doesn’t  know what a design document is to just explain a little about the business model and I’ll take it from there. Also, notice that I tell him straight out to get an NDA so that he can protect himself.  

After all that, keeping in mind we have both spent two days with this so far and this is what I get back.   

Hi Massa,
I don't have a design document (not sure what you mean by "document"), but I can have a design made. I kind of wanted a stand alone program that I could include in multiple sites with different themes.

I tend to prefer php just because I know it and could better correct errors and whatnot, but if you think another language would be better, that's fine too.

The commission would be a flat rate. Maybe $1.5 CPM for US/UK/Canada traffic, $0.5 for all others. No need for groups right now.

Notice how he says FLAT RATE commission and no need for groups but then shows me two different payouts making at least 2 groups? Now I know he is thinking this program is no big deal and should only cost $1000 or less, (probably a LOT less).  But I also know he doesn’t realize what kind of programming juice he needs to really pull off the base it off of thing and the automatically pay thing, let alone the different payout  amounts . So, if he doesn’t want to discuss the details of his idea with me and let me help him find ways to accomplish his objectives, then my dilemma is, do I tell him what he wants to hear or tell him the truth and hope he realizes that what I’m giving him is a very inexpensive way to have the bare minimum to actually run a business like I THINK he’s wanting?

Well, I have no choice but to tell the truth based on what I think.  My response to him. 3^rd exchange.

I've had several conversations with Chirag. He is the one responsible for getting
the quotes, the time estimations and managing the coders.

based on the details you have provided, we feel that what you are
looking for is something similar to a project we are building for
another client now. That project has a LOT more features than you described such as allowing
advertisers to upload video ads, blog posts, podcasts, etc as well as
basic banners and graphic ads. It also has functions that allow the
administrator to allow payments by the month or by the click or by the
impression. It also has functions to allow payouts to be adjusted so
that one ad could pay out a different percentage than another. It could
allow for premium publishers compared to basic publishers for example. it also has
spidering features to make sure the ads are displaying properly and there are no major content changes to the hosting site etc. It has a desktop communication and notification function and it is much more involved than what you had described but we
feel the ad delivery/tracking and payout functionalities are very
similar. Of course we can’t use this software BUT we do have the knowledge of how it all works and have staff that is very familiar with the entire process.  this could save you a lot of time.

Anyway, to provide you with a stable, scalable application to perform
the functions you mentioned, you are looking at about 1300 man hours
@$10 per hour for a total of $13,000 US. that could be one developer
working for 6 months or 6 developers working for one month.

If you are interested in proceeding let me know and I will call you on
the phone and give you a brief demo of the software. You should probably
at least take a look at it so you if nothing else you could get some ideas.

Massa

I knew two things. #1, $13,000 for a program like this was very cheap and #2. He would freak out at the price, feel a little intimidated and I would lose the deal . His response----