(by 5 people)
Free Micro ISV Tools & Resources
It's amazing what you can get done online for free these days. The links on this page are essential (almost all free) tools for Micro ISVs (or anyone else running a business online, or just trying to get something done...).
Essential Tools
- Microsoft Visual Studio Express
- You're going to need to develop some software. The Visual Studio Express editions are free development software, with no restrictions on commercial use.
- Borland Turbo Editions
- Similarly free development tools from Borland.
- Joel On Software
- Joel Spolsky's blog, an archive of his must read articles and essays, and probably the best developer communtity forum you'll ever find.
- Inno Setup
- For distribution, try this free installer software.
- Creating Passionate Users
- You're going to need to learn about marketing, and reading this blog would be a great start.
- Open Source Web Design
- Get free templates for your web sites. A big timesaver.
- Free Stock Photos
- The Stock Xchang is a great site for free, royalty free stock photos for your site or software.
- Wink
- A cool tool for building Flash tutorials.
- FAMFAMFAM Icons
- Free icon sets, suitable for use in commercial projects.
- Free Fonts
- There's a huge collection of fonts for download on this site, great for logos.
- Google Adwords
- You have to advertise your business, and adwords are the quickest and easiest way to do it.
- Google Alerts
- Keep track of who is talking about you, your product, and your market by having google track your keywords. With Alerts you get an email whenever they are found by the search engine's spider.
- Google Analytics
- Don't forget to monitor your site traffic. Google's Analytics is a free web site analytics service.
- Blogger
- If you want a blog to talk about your business, Blogger is quick, easy and free.
- Wordpress
- You could also use this free blogging software for installation on your own server.
- PunBB Forum Software
- When you have some users, you'll want somewhere for them to meet. PunBB is free simple forum software for your website.
- Folder Synchronisation Tool
- Please don't forget your backups, no-one wants to see their work go up in smoke, let alone their whole business.
- Cobian Backup
- Another backup tool.
- Paint.net
- Free image editing/graphics software.
- Kuler - Colour Network
- A colour scheme based social network from Adobe. Find great colour schemes for your product or site.
- Audacity Audio Software
- Free Audio editing software.
- IcoFX, Free Icon Editor
- For your shiny XP & Vista compatible Icons.
Good Sources for More Tools
- Planet Micro ISV
- A great collection of Micro ISV blogs, all on one page.
- ISVoogle (ISV Search Engine)
- An ISV themed search engine. Searches through only ISV related sites, blogs and forums.
- My Micro ISV
- Bob Walsh's brand new Micro ISV resource.
- Bob Walsh's Micro ISV Search Engine
- This is useful for finding information on related topics that Micro ISV's might be interested in, whereas ISVoogle indexes more sources of direct Micro ISV accounts and information. Go here to hone your other hats, or when you need some extra motivation.
- Software at WorkHappy
- WorkHappy.net is a blog for entrepreneurs, this is a link to their archive of useful software they have reviewed.
- Services at WorkHappy
- This link takes you to the archive of WorkHappy's reviews of useful services.
- The Micro ISV Show
- A podcast show from Bob Walsh and Michael Lehman, with Micro ISV related interviews.
- On Startups
- A great blog dedicated to startup issues.
- Startup Spark
- Another Micro ISV/Startup blog.
- My Micro ISV Digest Lens
- Another Squidoo lens where I keep track of my weekly Micro ISV Digest blog posts. Each one contains a summarized round-up of Micro ISV news of the week, along with any helpful links or articles I found that week.
Micro ISV books
Micro-ISV: From Vision to Reality
Amazon Price: $26.99 (as of 10/11/2008)
Eric Sink on the Business of Software (Expert's Voice)
Amazon Price: $16.49 (as of 10/11/2008)
Founders at Work: Stories of Startups' Early Days
Amazon Price: $17.15 (as of 10/11/2008)
Clear Blogging: How People Blogging Are Changing the World and How You Can Join Them
This is Bob Walsh's new book. It's not specifically for Micro ISV's, but if you're going to start a blog, you'll probably find something useful in there.
Amazon Price: $16.49 (as of 10/11/2008)
Still want more?
- The Daily Hub
- A social bookmarking site for business geeks.
- Y-combinator Startup News
- Another bookmarking site, this one for Startup themed links.
- Popurls
- All the top links from all the social bookmarking sites.
- Must have Micro ISV tools
- Must have tools from the Business of Software.
