Hi Shlomi, As always, thanks for the comprehensive tips. A big question that troubles me is if you have to always incorporate for a cloud/on premise business. The last incorporation (i am now closing) was costly but the lawyers keep pushing you to incorporate (hopefully not from a self serving interest). On one hand, I am currently an independent and I would prefer to stay this way until the cash justifies an incorporation. OTOH, I want to keep my bank account safe from law-suites as much as possible.
Would love to hear comments about this... Thanks! On Sun, Sep 21, 2014 at 11:50 AM, Shlomi Fish <[email protected]> wrote: > > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > From: Shlomi Fish <[email protected]> > Date: Sun, Sep 21, 2014 at 11:49 AM > Subject: Fw: Question about how to make a living from open source > To: [email protected] > > > > > Begin forwarded message: > > Date: Sun, 21 Sep 2014 11:48:01 +0300 > From: Shlomi Fish <[email protected]> > Cc: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: Question about how to make a living from open source > > > Hi Tzahi, > > On Thu, 18 Sep 2014 14:15:40 +0300 > tzahi ml <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Hi All, > > I am in need of assistance. > > > > I am currently working as a freelancer coding stuff in a company. > > However, although I am making good living, this does not scale much (and > > promotion is out of the question :) ). > > > > Anyway, I am looking for ways to scale. > > > > I've written about some business models for web-based publishing here: > > https://plus.google.com/+ShlomiFish/posts/MRLntf3xu5Y > > Some of them have correspondence to open source. See: > > <<<<<<<<<<<<<<< > Alternative profitable business models for Web-based commerce. > > This is a list of 5 business models for web-based commerce that do not > require > depending on advertising: > > > 1. Collect donations or ask for money for public appearances in advance - > see > https://plus.google.com/+ShlomiFish/posts/GUpTuA6641x . > > 2. The Flickr model - charge people for a premium model. > > 3. The Bandcamp/Humble-Bundle model - pay what you want (people can be very > generous). > > 4. The cloud model - pay for hosting or a MMORPG account > (World-of-Warcraft/etc.) or whatever. > > 5. Pay to liberate - collect money to make a CC-by-nc-sa work CC-by/etc. > > 6. Sell merchandise - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNZove4OTtI . > > 7. One can also set up non-intrusive ads like those provided by > http://projectwonderful.com/ , but I doubt they'll be profitable. > >>>>>>>>>>>>>>> > > Another suggestion I can give you is to work a lot on publicity, social > networking, etc. - both in real life and in Internet-based social media > venues. > > See: > > > http://www.reddit.com/r/Objectivism/comments/2c1fue/the_importance_of_human_networking/ > > A chauffeur with whom I stroke a conversation at a McDonalds restaurant > close to > Heathrow airport in London told me he now gets most of his customers from > social media outlets such as Facebook or Twitter. The newfound > possibilities > from real-life and electronic social networking are very much reflected in > stories here: > > * http://www.shlomifish.org/humour/Buffy/A-Few-Good-Slayers/ > > There are plenty of online communities for various topics on the Internet. > Find some of them that you are interested in and contribute to them. There > are > Reddit subreddits, wikis (Wikipedia, Wikia wikis, etc.), IRC channels on > Freenode/etc., Facebook groups and pages, Twitter feeds, mailing lists, > etc. > and you should be able to contribute to some of them. > > The greatest threat for any business is obscurity. > > You may also wish to invest some money in buying ads, commercials, > promotions or whatever - nothing wrong with that and this money may be well > worth it in publicity. > > Finally note the Carpe Diem / "He who saved one man has essentially saved > the > world entire principle" - don't try to maximise your audience immediately. > Invest time in each and every friend and recipient: > > * http://www.shlomifish.org/humour.html#carpe_diem > > Finally, I should note that your English does not sound idiomatic > (although I > admit I heard much worse). You should work on improving it. See my advice > for > how to do that here: > > * > https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/hackers-il/conversations/messages/5143 > > Regards, > > Shlomi Fish > > -- > ----------------------------------------------------------------- > Shlomi Fish http://www.shlomifish.org/ > Beginners Site for the Vim text editor - http://vim.begin-site.org/ > > God helps them that help God help them. > — http://shlomif.livejournal.com/66017.html > > Please reply to list if it's a mailing list post - http://shlom.in/reply . > > > -- > ----------------------------------------------------------------- > Shlomi Fish http://www.shlomifish.org/ > What does “Zionism” mean? - http://shlom.in/def-zionism > > Harry: Mr. Mumford, I hereby propose my friend, the beautiful Hermione. > Hermione: Ahem… actually I kinda have a bad hair day today, so I think > your assistant should be the beautiful Harry (Potter!) here. > Harry: Very well, I shall be the beautiful assistant. > — http://is.gd/zsmond > > Please reply to list if it's a mailing list post - http://shlom.in/reply . > > > > -- > ------------------------------------------ > Shlomi Fish http://www.shlomifish.org/ > > Chuck Norris helps the gods that help themselves. > > Please reply to list if it's a mailing list post - http://shlom.in/reply . > > _______________________________________________ > Linux-il mailing list > [email protected] > http://mailman.cs.huji.ac.il/mailman/listinfo/linux-il > >
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