Sponsor's Message

Within a few short months, this guy was selling copies of his program to a small army of other Apple users and making a fortune in the process.

In fact, if you look back at the history of the personal computer you'll see that there are many, many programmers who have turned a bit of time and a good idea into a large amount of cash, often working from home without any real capital.

But things change, and I was almost convinced that the PC market had become so mature and dominated by big players like Microsoft that the days when a little guy working from a kitchen table could become rich had long-passed.

However, this story carried on the IDG website this morning has caused me to reconsider that opinion.

It would appear that the days of the solo software millionaire are not over yet.

Readers Say Got something to say about today's column, or want to see what others think?  Visit The Forums Have Your Say

That's got to be good news for all the other programmers out there who are just dying to go it alone and make themselves a healthy living from their efforts.

It's worth noting that in the case of MailWasher, the millionaire concerned didn't even cut the code himself -- and therein lies a valuable clue if you're thinking of doing something like this yourself.

Those who will succeed in turning a bit of code into a fortune will find that an ability to program is not essential -- but the ability to come up with a good idea and market it effectively is.

Let's face it, even if you could write a word processor that was every bit as good as Microsoft Word, you'd probably be wasting your time -- because Microsoft Word already owns that market.

If you're going to try and generate large numbers of sales and produce an army of happy customers you've got to come up with something that people will want to buy -- then make sure they know about it.

One only has to look at the success of world-leading companies like Coca Cola to realise that marketing is the key to sales of any product. After all, why else would anyone pay $2 for a bottle that contains water, sugar and a few flavouring compounds.

Perhaps an even better example of how marketing can make a product is the locally produced beverage 'V'. This is an extraordinarily expensive brand of sugar-water, costing around $10 per litre. So why do people buy it? Because it's very slickly marketed. Yes, it tastes rather nice but without the high-powered, carefully targeted marketing campaign behind it, there's no way that V would sell in the volume it does.

And that's where today's lone software developer with their good idea and many hours of spare time has a huge advantage over the programmers of 25 years ago.

The world's cheapest and arguably one of the most effective marketing tools can also be your sales conduit.

I'm talking about the Net of course.

Use the Net properly and it can be an incredibly powerful marketing tool -- as Nick Bolton has discovered with his MailWasher system.

What's more, doing a good job of marketing on the Net isn't actually all that difficult and I've done my best to offer a few tips to those looking to make their own millions.

Maybe it's time for more Kiwis to "give it a go" and turn their own good ideas into commercial realities. It need not cost a fortune and you don't have to be an expert programmer.

Imagine the benefits to all NZers if we could come up with just a couple of dozen more products like MailWasher.

If you've got a good idea, or are a programmer looking to team-up with an "ideas guy" to create an earth-shattering new product, why drop a note in the forums.

And, if you think you've got a good idea, I'm always happy to offer an opinion -- although they say that free advice is worth exactly what you pay for it :-)

If any Aardvark readers want to share an opinion on today's column or add something, you're invited to chip in and have your say in The Aardvark Forums or, if you prefer, you can contact me directly.

Contacting Aardvark
I'm always happy to hear from readers, whether they're delivering brickbats, bouquets or news tip-offs. If you'd like to contact me directly, please this form. If you're happy for me to republish your comments then please be sure and select For Publication.

Other media organisations seeking more information or republication rights are also invited to contact me.

Just add a couple of lines of JavaScript to your pages and you can get a free summary of Aardvark's daily commentary -- automatically updated each and every week-day.

Aardvark also makes a summary of this daily column available via XML using the RSS format. More details can be found here.

Contact me if you decide to use either of these feeds and have any problems.

Linking Policy
Want to link to this site? Check out Aardvark's Linking Policy.

Did you tell someone else about Aardvark today? If not then do it now!