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A CP member's post about the job market triggered a related question for me. We moved to Arizona to care for her ailing mother 10 years ago. We needed something we could both do at home while being available for medical care, so we opened an Internet store. My mother-in-law has since passed on and now I'm looking for other work.
Meanwhile ...
To streamline the business, I wrote software to handle back-end processes like shipping, inventory, and catalog management. I'm considering productizing some of it. For one example, I wrote a file open/save dialog that emulates the Windows dialog but handles protocols like FTP and RSS using plug-ins.
Is there a viable market for such components nowadays? How does one get started? Has anyone on Code Project done this?
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I did something like this in the 90s, so a very different market environment, and there were some real pitfalls we navigated. I say we and that is the first pitfall, make sure your partner(s) have the same level of enthusiasm and ethics as you do (yes that was very carefully worded).
Having built the software with the input from an industry sponsor we then attempted to market it. Marketing/sales is a bloody nightmare unless you have a bent for it. You also need to make sure your income streams are practical, ours was focussed on sales and the support eventually killed us.
Each client wanted something slightly different to what we were offering so trying to build in the mods was another disaster.
Finally we had to have an exit strategy, it took me 6 years to eventually get out of supporting the application and we only sold about 15 systems.
This was before the interwebs grew up so things are very different now so do some serious research into the viability before committing to it. There are higher costs than money involved.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity
RAH
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Thanks for the input. Food for thought indeed.
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Don't let me put you off, those years were some of the most exciting and satisfying times of my working life and I would not have missed them.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity
RAH
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If you worry about support and sales, it might be an idea to produce an Open Source version. By definition, if it works, fine, if it doesn't it is not something for which you can be held accountable.
FOSS-ing the product does seem like a giveaway, although without IP it would be vulnerable to reverse engineering anyway.
What you get from successful FOSS is repute, and it is this that makes it possible to negotiate a comfortable salary-man position if you aren't worried. For example, working on new projects every few weeks, and from home.
It's also a good entree to contract work, which is practically having your own company.
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My take on this is that the unless you're offering flashing components in a bunch, there is no market for it, your component will be against the likes of Devexpress, Telerik, Syncfusion and other like them who offer a lot of components on packages.
If you plan to offer a suite of components then it may be worth it, otherwise, go open source and negotiate a good position in a good company.
Alternatively, if you created a good online store system, then there may be a market for it.
(Sorry if it sounds a bit harsh, that's only my feeling about this)
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Harsh is good. I appreciate it.
Do you earn a decent return from selling your paid components and support for open source components or is that business just a sideline to your main income source?
Is it no longer possible to compete against the "big boys"? Is market disruption impossible in the component market?
Regarding a good position in a good company: I'll soon be 59 years old. Companies rarely hire people my age. But I am actively searching.
There is indeed a market for a good online store system. The existing choices all have serious shortcomings. I have considered competing in that market. Of course, income to live on while doing so is a concern.
I have also considered turning just the product management portion of my back-end software into a commercial offering. It imports catalogs from online stores such as Yahoo Merchant Solutions and allows single-location management of all product data, producing exports to different advertising channels such as Google Products and Amazon Marketplace.
Thanks very much for your comment. Please add any further thoughts you have. Your input is helpful.
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Ed Gadziemski wrote: Do you earn a decent return from selling your paid components and support for open source components or is that business just a sideline to your main income source?
I never earned anything from them, and based on the interest I had on them, I couldn't have survived if my income depended on them  in fact I turned them open source after realizing I was going nowhere, so at least they could serve me as a project to showcase my abilities (or lack of  ). Just note that mine didn't compete with anyone, and only until recently Microsoft began offering something similar to my E Drawing Library (Win2D).
Ed Gadziemski wrote: Is it no longer possible to compete against the "big boys"? Is market disruption impossible in the component market?
I think it's possible, you just need a good offering (at least matching theirs), a good price (low enough price so you can compete, but not look cheap) and a lot of evangelization and marketing with a lot more of evangelization and marketing, ah, and did I mention that you need a lot of evangelization and marketing?
Ed Gadziemski wrote: There is indeed a market for a good online store system. The existing choices all have serious shortcomings. I have considered competing in that market. Of course, income to live on while doing so is a concern.
There are some open source online store systems that are pretty good and know to everyone like Magento, Prestashop, etc., even using plugins you can turn a Joomla site or Wordpress blog into an e-shop, i'm not expert on those systems, but if yours kick their asses, then go for it. 
Ed Gadziemski wrote: I have also considered turning just the product management portion of my back-end software into a commercial offering. It imports catalogs from online stores such as Yahoo Merchant Solutions and allows single-location management of all product data, producing exports to different advertising channels such as Google Products and Amazon Marketplace.
Perhaps if you can turn your backend into a plugin for the aforementioned systems, you may sell it for them, then offer a fully integrated premium solution with your own e-shop system.
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RafagaX wrote: Perhaps if you can turn your backend into a plugin for the aforementioned systems, you may sell it for them, then offer a fully integrated premium solution with your own e-shop system.
That's a very good idea, and one I hadn't considered. I'll look into it. That would certainly be a quick way to gain entry to the market.
Thanks,
Ed
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Why doesn't it work with Vodafone?
I always like to keep a backup phone in case the new one breaks.
Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello
Any organization is like a tree full of monkeys. The monkeys on top look down and see a tree full of smiling faces. The monkeys on the bottom look up and see nothing but assholes.
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Don't know - it just never did. It wasn't locked when I bought it, it just refused to accept Vodafone sims - Orange, EE, and Virgin all worked, but not Voda.
I can't keep the old one as a backup any more: I moved the number to the new one, so gawd knows what it would try to do! 
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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Odd, maybe HP isn't that stupid after all.
Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello
Any organization is like a tree full of monkeys. The monkeys on top look down and see a tree full of smiling faces. The monkeys on the bottom look up and see nothing but assholes.
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They are a sort of "anti-Apple": they come up with brilliant ideas and then entirely fail to market them.
(Whereas Apple don't come up with anything new and market the heck out of it!)
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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Maybe 20 years ago HP hired a new head of marketing, somebody from a big consumer products company. This hire was reported in the Wall Street Journal, along with a quote from an HP leader along the lines of "we are so terrible at marketing that, if we sold sushi, we'd market it as cold, dead fish"
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Please, please, please send it in to the site that offered "up to £0.04", I want to know exactly how much they actually pay for it. I am even willing to reimburse you for any difference between the £0.04 and the actual price given, just so I can find out.
Try Hovercraft for Android, voted "a game" by players.
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The last of the big spenders, I see!
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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If the ringer is easy to get to with a soldering iron I think you have the makings of an IED but I wouldn't advertise that as a feature on eBay.
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Here you can send your old phone to someplace that does whatever to them and donates the proceeds to a children's hospital. You could be last of the big donators
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Vodafone stores used to contain a recycle box. The phones got sent to people in emerging markets that can't afford them.
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I've had it for about 20 years, but at least it gone to a friend who is going to tidy it up back to show condition.
Now my man shed looking a bit bare. So I might look for another classic bike. Not British this time, maybe jap.
Any ides? And please don't mention hardly movingsons
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Aren't you going to hold out for a jet-pack?
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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Maybe for a daily flyer. But I wouldn't trust myself to tinker round with it... 
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Vincent Black Shadow.
Will cleanout your wallet, but what the heck.
Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello
Any organization is like a tree full of monkeys. The monkeys on top look down and see a tree full of smiling faces. The monkeys on the bottom look up and see nothing but assholes.
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awesome bike, but I'd never find one here. Not sure if they ever made to New Zealand. That and the Lamborghini will just have to stay in the dreams.
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