microISV Research Alliance

Aggregators:

• MicroISV Central – The latest happenings around the MicroISV community.
• Planet MicroISV – All the news from the world of Micro ISV’s.

Blogs:

• 47Hats – Bob Walsh “helping microISVs and startups succeed.”
• A Smart Bear – A blog “from someone who’s been there: Jason Cohen, founder of Smart Bear Software.”
• Adam Smith – Adam Smith’s personal blog.
• Alwin Hoogerdijk – A blog by the president and founder of Collectorz.com.
• Avangate – A blog about the software business from a “full featured eCommerce platform” vendor.
• Bootstrapping Independence – A low-volume blog by an anonymous micropreneur.
• Business of Software Blog – The business of software. Building long term, sustainable and profitable software businesses.
• CDixon – Chris Dixon’s personal blog.
• Dave Talks – A collection of articles on marketing, web design, search engine optimization and online business management by Dave Collins.
• Educational Software Cooperative – A non-profit corporation bringing together developers, publishers, distributors and users of educational software.
• Eric Sink – Thoughts about software from yet another person who invented the internet.
• FastSpring – The blog for the popular FastSpring “all-in-one e-commerce payment processing, merchandising, and fulfillment solution” vendor.
• Follow Steph – Follow Steph as he explains the Sunk Cost Effect.
• Gamecraft - A blog all about the craft of making games, and in particular, computer games.
• ISV Kaizen – Strategy of continuous improvement for ISV business
• Joel on Software – Joel Spolsky retired from blogging, but his archives are filled with useful information.
• MicroISV on a Shoestring – Patrick McKenzie’s personal blog.
• OnStartups – This site is for and about software startups.
• Seth Godin’s Blog – Seth Godin is is an American entrepreneur, author and public speaker.
• The Single Founder – Musings on software and startups from a single founder, Mike Taber.
• Software Prototyping – Thoughts on the world of software requirements prototyping and effective design.
• Startup Lessons Learned – Eric Ries personal blog.
• Successful Software – Andy Brice’s personal blog.

Books:

• The Bootstrapper’s Bible – An ebook, manifesto from Seth Godin based on The Bootstrapper’s Bible, which used to come free when you bought a copy of Purple Cow.
• Don’t Just Roll The Dice – A usefully short guide to software pricing. An ebook version is freely available from the author’s website.
• Eric Sink on the Business of Software – A selection of the best and most popular essays from the author’s website. This insightful collection of essays explore the business concerns that programmers face during the course of their careers, particularly those programmers who are small independent software vendors.
• Micro-ISV: From Vision to Reality – Explains what works and why in today’s emerging micro-ISV sector.
• From Program to Product – “Turning Your Code into a Saleable Product.”
• Software That Sells – A Practical Guide to Developing and Marketing Your Software Project.
• Start Small, Stay Small – “Your blueprint for getting your startup off the ground with no outside funding.”
• The Web Startup Success Guide – “Your one-stop shop for all of the answers you need today to build a successful web startup in these challenging economic times.”

Community:

• Association of Software Professionals (ASP) – The World’s #1 Trade Organization for Independent Software Developers and Vendors.
• Business of Software Forum – A public forum to discuss “building long term, sustainable, profitable software businesses.”
• Computer Consultants Forum – A community in existence since 2002. Seasoned and mid level computer technology professionals find common ground and discuss important issues and challenges here. Beginners and recent graduates can obtain the opinions of senior people.
• Joel Spolsky’s Business of Software forum – A community discussing the business of software, from the smallest shareware operation to Microsoft. A part of Joel on Software.
• Macintosh Software Business Group – This Yahoo group is for small, independent Macintosh developers who want to talk with other developers about the business of Mac development. Questions on pricing, packaging, advertising, e-commerce providers, and so on are on-topic.

Conferences:

• Business of Software – A conference that inspires and teaches people about the business of software.
• Independent Software Developer’s Forum – To support software development and promotion; to facilitate the growth and development of the e-commerce industry in the area of software; and to strengthen the position of Russian developers in the international software market.
• Software Industry Conference – The Software Industry Conference is the premiere conference for Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and MicroISVs (started in 1990).
• Writers UA’s Conference for Software User Assistance – In 2010, over 350 user assistance professionals attended, including most of the top luminaries from the user assistance community from around the world.

Directories:

• Startup Tools – A wiki list of some tools (products/frameworks/etc) that might avoid you reinventing the wheel and save you some valuable time.

Legal:

• Mobile Marketing Association – Insights and research on how the mobile channel can be effectively used for marketing.
• U.S. CAN-SPAM Act (FTC website) – The CAN-SPAM Act: A Compliance Guide for Business
• U.S. Copyright Office – U.S. Copyright Office is an office of public record for copyright registration and deposit of copyright material.
• U.S. Patent and Trademark Office – The Federal agency for granting U.S. patents and registering trademarks.

News:

• Hacker News – User-submitted news and links.

Podcasts:

• Startups for the Rest of Us – The podcast that helps developers be awesome at launching software products. Whether you’ve built your first product or are just thinking about it.
• Stanford University’s Entrepreneurship Corner – A free online archive of entrepreneurship resources for teaching and learning.
• Startup Success Podcast – Information you need as a startup, indie or microISV.

Q & A:

• Answers OnStartups – A place to ask questions about startups.

Services/Vendors:

• Avangate Software Marketing Resources – A collection of articles, interviews with top software people, tips and newsletters for software authors and vendors. Expert advice on how to sell more software.
• Bits Du Jour – Offers Mac and Windows software applications and products at substantial discounts, where each deal is available usually for one day only.
• Digital River Developer Resources – Software developer resource from Digital River.
• Microsoft on ISVs - Technology and Partnering Insights and Resources for ISVs Around the World.
• Software Promotions – Software marketing advice and consulting with a focus on Google Adwords, SEO, copy writing, and web analytics.
• Website Grader – Free SEO tool from HubSpot that provides an Internet Marketing Report for your website.