Name Your Own Price - Supported Flex Components that meet your Budget
I just sent this out to subscribers of the DotComIt newsletter:
Every once in a while someone says to me, "I would have bought your component if it was priced at X, but it is too expensive." Now I'm giving those people the chance to put their money where their mouth is.
In conjunction with the upcoming 360|Flex conference, we've launched a name your own price promotion. Radiohead did it to promote In Rainbows! 2D Boy did it to promote their casual game, World of Goo! Why not us? We couldn't think of a reason.
If you want to jump right to the promotion, do it. Otherwise you can read ahead about our thoughts on this.
Where Do We Start?
DotComit is not a new company, but the product business of Flextras is very different than the consulting business we've run for so long. We're still trying to figure out how to make it work, especially in this digital realm where products are just digital bits easily distributed by anyone.It is up to us to add value to our customers above and beyond what they get by replicating digital bits. One of the items we offer is support. When you buy a Flextras component, you're buying access to us to help you solve your problems. You're buying the ability to have us tweak the API for your specific needs. You're buying peace of mind in the unlikely event that things go wrong.
Sometimes when you're dealing with random digital bits you find on the Internet they are not as polished, thought out, or bullet proof as you need them to be. Another value we can offer is our ability to continue to build and test high quality components. Your support, however you give it, helps us do that.
How do we judge success?
There are two ways we can judge this promotion as a success; one is by the number of people who participate. We'd love to reach one thousand new customers with this promotion. You can help. First, get your own set of our components. Then tell your friends. Blog about it! Post it on Twitter and Facebook. You can help us spread the word.
A second measure of success is the monetary one. I ran the numbers; and discovered that it takes $99.72 a day to keep Flextras running. That does not include non-routine marketing expenses, such as sponsorship costs of 360|Flex or Flash and The City. If we were to generate $15,000 of new revenue it would cover our conference sponsorship costs; and we'd consider it a smashing success.
Can you help us spread the word? We'd appreciate it?
