On Mon, Aug 28, 2006 at 09:16:05AM -0500, Reif Jeffery M wrote:
a) Regarding guaranteed response, you could use 2 business days, which is a common "basic" service level.
OK, that is what I was planning to offer.
agreements that I have been involved with. Note that "response" means acknowledgement of the issue. A fix is on a best-effort basis. From what I've seen, you generally exceed that now.
I try to.
b) You may consider offering your product for sale, with or without a support option: Put together a one page quote that describes hobbit as it exists today. Same thing everyone else gets, just for sale. For those companies that "need" to purchase a product license rather than just download some old thing off the internet ;). If you work for one of those companies, you know what I'm talking about. No kidding.
Right ... I do work for one such company :-) Some people just cannot get their head to grasp that quality software might come without a price tag, and - well, I try to please :-)
c) If you had a donation link, I think a lot of folks would be happy to donate occasionally, a few $$ per month, or when they've benefited from your work, etc. Kind of like a 'tip jar'. Does the Amazon thing allow a monetary donation to an accout, or does anyone have expertise in setting this up, like with a credit card?
I've setup a PayPal account now, and added a donation button on the demo site. As I understand, that will also allow payments by credit card.
d) I have seen sites that use a bid system for solutions or enhancements. For example, I would like to have feature XYZ added. I would be willing to pay $10 for it. Several other people would like it too and could offer $5, $10, $20, or $0 for it. You decide whether you want to do it or not, but if you do, it would be worth that sum of money. I don't know if this method works or not.
It's an interesting idea. I am not sure I would like to use it, though - it could make planning of the releases more difficult. But I'll keep it in mind.
Good input. Thanks!
Regards, Henrik