by 40 people |
You just heard that an old high school buddy of yours just sold his web horoscope business for tens of millions of dollars and you decide that it is time you get into it yourself. A web business can eventually just involve waking up in the morning and checking your latest signups and bank balance before making your way down to the golf course. But in the short-term it is probably going to involve long hours, frustrations, failures, no income, no success and no love.
This lens will guide you through starting and running a web startup business and everything that is involved in the process. Take shortcuts by learning from the mistakes others make and learn about what works and what doesn't work by absorbing the mass of information avaliable online now about the web, business, customers and marketing.
If you like this lens and would like to find out more about starting a web business take a look at the authord blog at www.nik.com.au.
Articles To Read Before You Start
- Ideas for Startups
- Learn quickly that your idea alone is worth pennies without the right plan and execution
- How to Start a Startup
- Learn the keys to success: get the right people, build something people want and be tight with your spending
- Becoming a Micro-ISV
- What you need to know before starting a one-man software company
- No one starts with a masterpeice
- Lower your expectations and stop wanting to be the 'next Google' - important lessons about expectations
- Guide to Starting Your Business
- All the basics - structure, accounting, taxation, legal. You have to know all this.
- 10 Rules for Web Startups
- Essential rules from a startup vetran
Here are the tools and services you need
- FogBugz
- Track bugs and customer support cases via a web interface
- Instant Domain Search
- You will need a domain and if you only want to spend a few dollars you will need one that hasn't been squatted on
- Wordpress
- You will need a blog and you will need the best blogging software
- EV1 Servers
- Best value server provider - you can go cheaper but don't
- Basecamp
- For project management online - has it's limits but good until you outgrow it.
- Jotspot
- Online hosted Wiki's and applications. I use it to write specs to share with a group of developers.
- Blinksale
- A good application that allows you to manage customers and send out invoices to them
- Kiko
- Online calendar (doesn't seem to work at the moment)
- Salesforce
- And if you can afford it, replace most of the above and get the best web CRM there is with Salesforce (have used it for years)
- Colr
- Need help finding the right color theme? This online app will help you pick a color and a pallete of colors to match it so your site won't look ugly.
Development tools and applications
- Eclipse
- Eclipse is the best IDE with many plugins. Run you repository, access your databases, run queries, start servers and write code all from this open source and extensible environment
- FreeBSD
- Free, open source and mature UNIX operating system ideal for web servers
- Postgresql
- A free and open source database with all the features and stability of commercial databases. Fast, scalable with excellent documentation. Use postgres if you want more than SELECT and INSERT
- RubyOnRails
- A new web development platform that allows you to quickly write powerfull applications using widely accepted development models and design patterns
- Subversion
- The best code repository application and an excellent alternative to CVS, Perforce or Sourcesafe. Integrates well into Eclipse.
Development References
- FreeBSD Handbook
- Excellent documentation for the FreeBSD operating system
- O'Reilly Safari
- Read thousands of tech books online with a low monthly subscription
- Mastering AJAX
- Excellent guide on AJAX from IBM
- CSS cheat sheet
- Cheat sheet for all CSS properties and values
- W3 Validator
- Validate your markup and make sure you comply. The W3 site also contains all the standards (XHTML, CSS etc.)
- Regular Expression Tutorial
- Learn to use regular expressions and save time and be more efficient
- HTML Center
- Web design tutorials and libraries
- Hostscripts
- A large library of scripts in Perl, PHP, Javascript etc.
Blogs to watch
- JoelOnSoftware
- Joel has been running a software company for years after working at Microsoft and talks a lot of sense.
- Paul Graham
- Paul Graham sold his startup to Yahoo! before some of us even knew what the web was
- Don Dodge
- Don Dodge has the great job of watching startups for the Microsoft acquisition team
- Nik Cubrilovic
- My own blog where I write about the startup experience
- Ventureblog
- Learn from the best VC's about what the trends are
- Om Malik
- Om keeps on top of latest tech, trends and acquisitions
- Silicon Beat
- News about money, tech and innovation
- Pete Cashmore
- Pete writes about the latest releases and the entrepreneur experience
- Techcrunch
- Keep an eye on the competition and other offerings with Techcrunch profiling the latest and best of Web2.0
- Eric Sink
- Eric Sink is yet another startup vetran who is also a prolific writer
Take some time off and do some reading
The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
Avg. Customer Rating: 
Amazon Price: $7.97 (as of 11/15/2009) 
The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It
Avg. Customer Rating: 
Amazon Price: $11.10 (as of 11/15/2009)
The Business of Software: What Every Manager, Programmer, and Entrepreneur Must Know to Thrive and Survive in Good Times and Bad
Avg. Customer Rating:
Amazon Price: $19.80 (as of 11/15/2009)
The Art of the Start: The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything
Avg. Customer Rating:
Amazon Price: $17.79 (as of 11/15/2009)
dot.bomb: My Days and Nights at an Internet Goliath
Avg. Customer Rating:
Amazon Price: (as of 11/15/2009)
The New New Thing: A Silicon Valley Story
Avg. Customer Rating:
Amazon Price: $10.20 (as of 11/15/2009)
The First $20 Million Is Always the Hardest: A Silicon Valley Novel
Avg. Customer Rating:
Amazon Price: (as of 11/15/2009)
Hackers and Painters: Big Ideas from the Computer Age
Avg. Customer Rating:
Amazon Price: $15.61 (as of 11/15/2009)
Latest del.icio.us postings about startups
Subscribe to the del.icio.us bookmarks for 'startups' to keep ontop of the latest news and articles that will concern you.
Fetching RSS feed... please stand byby nik
Explore related pages
USMC- Semper Fi! This site is dedicated to all, who have ...
Using Web Content to Get More Traffic To Your Website- This lens focuses on content on the web, all kinds of web content, and how it ca...
Web 2.0 World- What will the next Internet be like. What websites are introducing elements of t...
Web 2.0 "The New Rules of Marketing and Business". :: Reviews the Rapidly Changing Technologies and How They Impact Business and Marketing Online. by Rodney Rumford- What the heck is Web 2.0 and why should you really care? I guess if you want to...
Podcasting Resource Tips:: Podcasts Can Effectively Be Used as a Business Marketing & Communication Tool: Tips, News and Best Practices by Rodney Rumford- Podcasts are Audio or Video files that are encapsulated in an RSS/XML Feed....
Philadelphia- Welcome to Philadelphia. The fifth largest city in the United States has everyth...
