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Simplifying Commercial Software Development?
NerdOfPrey writes "I'm nearing completion of development and testing of my first self-produced commercial application, but just beginning to appreciate the full bevy of other associated tasks ahead. There are help files to compile, end user license agreements to write, a website to create - and a secure online payment system to identify and integrate, automated installers to build, logos to design, marketing, and so on. Are there any good web-based single sources of information covering these sorts of issues? I've never had to do all of these things myself in the past; a comprehensive 'small developers guide' would be of considerable benefit." So is there anything besides "imitate, guess and pray" for all the tasks that come after the app is written?
You mentioned a website to be developed. One of best pieces of advice i've heard regarding websites (iirc, it was from the useit.com guy) - people (aka, customers) spend their most of their time on other websites. In other words, dont do anything that's out of the ordinary.
One way to do this is to identify a competitor of yours, check out their site. Make notes of what's good and what's bad about it, and what you can do to improve upon the bad.
The One Rule Of Chess You'll Ever Need: Don't play someone who carries a kit in their bookbag.
And remember, (to me at least) a business isn't really a business unless you can take a year off and it keeps running. Without that, you've just created another job with no time off.