Business Model for Writing Scripts

[Andy]

Now I have 2 major scripts that I wrote for Classified Ads and a Business Directory.

The snag is that customers for sites based on these scripts need custom template solutions which take many hours of effort to produce so if you charge them per hour, the price would be very high.

At first it is OK to charge a low fee since you are establishing a reputation and can get testimonials from the happy customer.

But later, it will not be time-cost effective to offer a custom portal design service I think unless you get Blue Chip clients with big budgets.

The idea I have in mind that would be much more profitable would be to set up example sites that are "ready to go" on domain names with traffic and search engine ranking. Then sell them "as is" so there is no customization required.

The value of a working site over one that is on the drawing board must be much higher, easy to sell and not use up a lot of your time once the example site is built.

Of course, this is not a new idea, just me thinking out loud my own future strategy for what to do with the scripts I produced.

Another approach is if you are filling a void in the area of website scripts or you think you can code the best solution, you could aim to be the defacto standard and go open source. Then you can offer paid support to corporations like they do with Wordpress. But in my case, I am simply providing an alternative to existing solutions which allows me to sell the solution. Like for example, Vbulletin for Forums. This is where you can focus on paying clients only, where you don't have the inclination to be involved in a large scale, ongoing development project that could consume all your spare time.

Well, this is my viewpoint on the subject. Others will have a different approach as to how they use their time in the process of doing and structuring their business.