Valleyschwag has shipped the second issue of their bundle o’ schwag to approximately 1,500 subscribers, up from 50 for the first issue. The growth is amazing, and so is the money involved. This month they should have seen somewhere around $21,500 in gross revenue.
For a part-time project where you are just mailing out free stuff, $22,000 a month is not bad at all. There are of course a number of expenses, but this is what’s important: this is an innovative business model that really works. How well it would go in other industries, I don’t know, but after seeing the popularity of the Kings o’ Schwag, I’m sure we’ll see similar attempts in other industries.
I’m a developer, and I love what I do, it’s a great industry, and a very exciting field to be in. If you read my blog often, you’ll see I take every opportunity to mention how great this line of work can be, today I offer a somewhat different, less sugar-coated view.
The Pressure There is a constant pressure on developers to be better, to do more, to produce more, sometimes more than is possible.
Does your business model thrive as your customer thrives, or does it drain the life from your customers? After a recent1 conversation on the impact of improved privacy tools (i.e., the eventual elimination of third-party tracking cookies), I realized that the most significant effect of these improvements would be to companies with a parasitic business model. A business model which I see no problem in disrupting.
For many years, the web has existed as an advertiser’s dream2 — minimal privacy limitations, technical controls that had little impact, and a strong lobbying arm that has been able to derail many efforts to improve the situation.
I have a project coming up that will require some iOS development – which means that it has to be done on a Mac. Seeing as I didn’t own a Mac, and as the more I spent on acquiring one, the less money from this project will end up in my pocket; I needed a cheap solution. In the end I acquired a very nice 13″ MacBook from CowBoom.com; so this is both about the deals that are available and a review of my experience with the seller.
A couple of weeks ago, Hulu Plus shed its beta tag and opened to the general public. When this happened, the price was changed and a new one week free trial was added. As a subscriber I was happy to hear about the new lower price, though my main concern was wondering if I would have to contact them to get the price break. That concern, thankfully, was the furthest thing from the truth.
