Despite Datafeed Studio being written in PHP, it is fair to say it is not my programming language of choice.

Datafeed Studio is a web application that is installed by the end user on their server, thus it made sense to go for for the language that has the biggest support amongst web hosting services.

Of course, now that mod_rails / Passenger has been released, hopefully it wont be too long before Ruby does some catching up in the widespread availability and ease of deployment stakes. I understand that major web hosting providers such as Dreamhost are already offering support.

The second reason I chose PHP is to do with script protection. There are several PHP solutions out there to encode scripts to prevent piracy such as Zend Guard, Code Lock and IonCube (I opted for the latter) but seemingly none for the Ruby world?

My previous Rails projects have been SAAS based so I’ve never had to worry about this – but I have a mISV idea that like Datafeed Studio, would require the customer to install the software on their server, but the lack of script encoding / protection does unfortunately put me off using Rails in this instance.

Has anybody else been in this position? What did you do? Am I worrying too much about piracy concerns?

I’ve finally become a bona fide Micro-ISV (mISV).

Today marks the launch of my first product, Datafeed Studio – a web application that allows affiliate marketeers to create price comparison sites, niche online stores and product compare pages from CSV datafeed files provided by online merchants.

Running my own business has always been a dream of mine, I’d like to take this opportunity to thank those people who have inspired me to take the leap from the lucrative world of contracting into the far riskier realms of being a one-man product making machine.

First and foremost I’d like to thank my wife and two young ones for their support and understanding this year as I’ve been developing Datafeed Studio.

Other influences include :

1. Bob Walsh – perhaps the voice for the mISV community. Micro-ISV : From Vision to Reality
   is still the mISV bible – I guess now I better start reading this in earnest.
2. Eric Sink – author of another mISV classic.
3. Steve Pavlina – former shareware author and now a personal development guru, always challenging, always inspiring.
4. Business of Software forum. Maybe I can stop lurking now that I’ve earned my stripes and got myself a product?
5. Joel Spolsky – great musings on software development, and for FogBUGZ, which I’ve only just started using but it looks like it could save me a lot of headaches.
6. Andy Brice – fellow Brit and a great contributor to the mISV community. Thanks for the software and marketing tips on your blog, Andy.

So – what’s the plan from here on in?

Well, much as I’d love to make a full-time income from my product, I don’t think that’s viable just yet.

By the end of this year I’d like Datafeed Studio to make 20% of my monthly income (the other 80% coming from freelance web application gigs (Ruby/Rails, PHP, etc.), which, yes, I am still available for if anyone is interested in working with a reliable, hard-working developer type).

I am to increase this percentage by 20% each year, so in five years all my income is from my own products. Well, that’s the dream anyway. Only time will tell…