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I guess I should start actively promoting Mfop2 once it's done. It should have a lot less problems posting, and even if it does, it sends an automatic debug message to the sender to let them know the problem as best it can.

This will mean more people can be served without my direct help, but it also means I am taken out of the direct contact a little bit. One of the things I liked best is trouble shooting a mis-behaving post together with the user.

Anyway, if more people can use it without problems, and the registration screen is much clearer (and oh is it ever a beauty! though suspiciously similar to the MT admin screen....) I should start actively trying to get the word out that I am here. So far it has been word of mouth. It all started with Ian at Domodomo on Blogger, and Carsten's Pocket Publishing. Somewhere along the way Kurt Easterwood from hmmn... found out about it (I think it was Ian's site?) and then the registrations started flowing in. It'd be neat to map where everyone heard about it... There are people all over the world using it now. Another obvious idea would be to have a map showing where users are based.

Anyway, what made me think I need to start promoting is this article on CNN that doesn't even mention Mfop! I couldn't believe it!

I myself came across the article from a post at studio2f where Jonathan is contemplating a system similar to Mfop

All emails you send to Mo-Fo with photo attachments get automatically posted to your blog (much like audioblog). You could add a couple of keywords- or text that would get parsed by the Mo-Fo system to set categories and add captions. Of course there's some sort of authentication that still needs to be worked out- so everyone in the world wasn't sending photos and having them posted in your blog.

Hmmmnnn, I wonder how many other people there are out there that are would like to use this now... but don't know it exists and how long it will take to get to them by word of mouth alone.

Jonathan also goes on to say

Somewhere in there Mo-Fo must get some sort of per post payment. Gone are the days of great free online services paid for by IPOs. Mo-Fo would need to a) make cash or b) become a value-add to mmode/sprint vision/etc and get funded that way.

That's another thing I'd have to consider if the number of users grows... I'd have to move it to another server, but that doesn't cost so much. I have had dreams lately that this could somehow be big enough that I could quit my job now and at least be able to eat from this, thus having more time to work on it, because it's a heck of a lot more fun than real work! Of course there is no business logic behind those dreams, just dreams....

There are companies out there, I doubt they make profit off it, but who ever said business was about posting profits? The companies have more time and money to make the site look spiffy but as far as aproaches to moblogging goes, I think Mfop is top. Of course I'm a techy guy, so like to do everything myself. i.e. have everything on my own site. Maybe regular people don't mind posting and hosting at a third party site. Unfortuantly, they also have investors who pay for that spiffy site... I wonder if there is any profit... and for the advertising and promotion.

I just recieved a comment tonight about how great it was that I am doing this for free, and I agree to some extent, that it is great to have a free option, but I also wonder how much better it could be if I spent even half the time I spend sitting in my office working on Mfop instead. Even if Mfop didn't require so much work as it is now, having the time would foster more related ideas...

Don't worry though, I'm not really planning to start charging you all... just yet.. :-)

MFOP2 .. MFOP2 .. MFOP2 .. not to add to your stress or anything. ;)

I've been playing w/ an idea to create a ColdFusion MX moblog for myself. Gonna rip off some of your ideas.

Please no suing ...

Kevin - great that you are thinking of making enhancements to the application. I for one don't mind paying for something if it has real value. Provding the charge is not excessive. You only get what you pay for. I recently moved from using Hotmail to Oddpost and the difference between a free service and a paid for service is immense. Perhaps you could consider a model something like BlogRolling - you have the plain vanilla version that is basic but free and the 'Gold' version that is fee-based but has lots of nice features. You could even have the 'Free' one add the text 'Posted using mfop' with a suitable link to each post to a blog. That way you get free publicity and exposure for every time the service is used. Of course, there would be an option to remove this advertising for the 'gold' version. I'm actively looking at e-commerce business models for my MBA, so just some thoughts that came to mind.

kevin-
as I've told you before, I too wouldn't mind paying for the service, and have often admonished you that you need a tip jar or paypal button or something. in any event, on the surface there isn't anything to say your dreams can't be realized.... I have no doubt that the folks over at Movable Type, just to pick one example from many, had some of the same dreams and doubts as you do.

with respect to how I found MFOP, your right, it was through Ian's site, or rather a post he made to JapanBloggers list. But actually, before that, I saw a comment you left on Carsten's site about how you could set something up, and I wanted to email you at that time and say, "I want this functionality too!", but figured that might be interloping so I didn't.

To prevent any further admonishment from Kurt :-)

However, I am a little reluctant to get money from that, because even though I get tips, and thank you to all who have tipped me it's not enough that I can quit work or anything, and so it doesn't really open up more time, which means I can't really devote more time to Mfop, and so I am getting money, but not able to spend more time, and the next thing you know the site goes down or breaks or something and I have to refund everyones money....

I know it's an exaguration, but despite all the Chutohanpa (half-ass) things on my forever unfinished sites, I really do like to do a thurough and good job. With my personal sites, I don't feel bad if the CSS breaks in xxx browser, because hey, it's my site and I would rather take picures to put on the site, or paint a little, than spend all my free time perfecting CSS. But if I get money for it, I feel I have some resposnibility to do a professional quality job. That's when I loose the freedom to be chyuutohanpa. If I felt I could live up to the tips, I wouldn't be so worried.

It also should be noted that although I write as though I am dismayed at not being "discovered" by the newpaper yet, It's not like I don't know how to promote mfop, but I have really held off because 1. the site looks poor quality. 2. It is buggy and still many problems. I spend a lot of time helping people get it working correctly, and making adaptations to (non-bug related) problems. As it is now, there are a lot of people who I don't get to helping, and I wish I could. If the number of people using it doubled, there would be just that many more people going away unsatisfired.

Luckily, I think I will have much less work to do to keep people happy with the new one, and I have some help to make the registration page snazzy.... maybe it's time to come out.

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