311 karma · joined February 14, 2010
Are founders less happy than population as a whole? Or is it that we expect founders of successful companies to be happy?
My app will call on our server to verify receipt and I was getting bogus receipts that actually caused that part of the code to crash.
Apple's receipts are proper json objects and what I was getting was this string "com.urus.iap.30297356." The last part keeps changing, so I am guessing the developer actually tracks usage.
So the moral is to always verify your receipts and don't deliver content unless the receipt is valid.
But most developers won't have resources to do this and creating a general service for them would be too much custom work. I think SDK platforms should have this capability built in. Pay $10/mo and we'll verify your receipt and return a file based on the IAP product id.
As for paying, this is a non-issue, you are going to pay either way.
This feature is only useful for a very minor audience. Most people don't create a lot of content, and won't bother tagging their short tweet/status.
Power users who do write a lot should already have blogs like the one the author is using.
Perhaps you need a learning filter that catches words that are too common and filters them out.
Patent trolls are exactly in this mold, the question is if there is a way to make money off of them?
Any system will have parasites. You can change system, i.e. patent reform, or introduce a predator for the parasite.
Microsoft should just make achievement points a virtual currency that you can buy coupons with.
The critique that web companies don't leave a technical legacy is not really valid. Most businesses don't leave a legacy.
Perhaps I just want to ask a few people that I trust in <food/fashion/movies>.
Of course, the questions will be a great way for companies to get information about you.
Each vendor would have to evaluate with ROI with Groupon and no one really know how good or bad it is because it is likely to be kept secret. No one likes to be shown to be a sucker if it is bad, and no one will share if it is great.
Wish these guys good luck in SV.
I suppose I could try selling user data or use advertising. Either require massive number of users and a lot of upfront time to get going.
Free users are harder to support, more vocal and less likely to upgrade. Even a token amount of money initially is probably enough to discourage the "pathological" customers and the sunk costs mindset might encourage spending more money with your service.
Selecting hobbies and interests beforehand is good as well, since some people might not have social circles that use Twitter.
So I agree with the author in that if account creation was last, it would be the most interesting.
Short term, I've got a profitable iPhone app that has over half a million downloads and will be working on converting free users to paid subscriptions.
Long term, I am looking to disrupt the Dell/HP model of selling physical computers by selling virtual computers.
Disrupt the web by freeing developers to use any technology to develop applications that can be accessed instantly.
Disrupt the social by making users control their own content and run services on their virtual computers to manage their social graph.
You'll need code later for doing IPN and customizing and encrypting the buttons. But it is definitely the lowest barrier to entry. It is also probably the cheapest option, at least when starting out.
I added Recurly for credit card payment for flexibility and credibility. The costs are much higher per paying user than PayPal. Each credit card authorization costs about 30cents, and if a customer input bad credit card info and you have dunning on, it can cost more than a dollar to have a nonpaying customer.
That's why great coders aren't valued at 10x or 100x that studies say they should be from a productivity standpoint.
Self promotion is a further multiplier on your perceived value. Some people do it enough to counter act the transparency problem and some use it to mask their lack of intrinsic value.
TL,DR: Perceived value = Intrinsic value * transparency of process * self promotion
So self promotion isn't bad in and of itself.