What no one has mentioned so far is that this will have a direct impact on any sites, forums, apps, etc. that use Google+ Oauth for Google log in. My own support forum does and I received my first email about this only a couple of days ago.
>Please update your projects listed below by March 7, 2019 and ensure they are no longer using Google+ APIs, or requesting Google+ OAuth scopes.
Sure, it won't be that difficult to change, but this isn't something you do every day. You do it once and then forget about it. The initial investigation of how to add a Google login and then implementing it was done 2 years ago -- now I have to go off and research and learn how to do it all again in a different way.
Desktop one off purchases:
Clients for MySQL and SQLite (prettier and easier to use than free alternatives). Snagit for screenshots
Desktop subscription based:
Devexpress Winforms and ASP.net component suite (best Windows component suite on the market - leaves free alternatives in the dust). Add in Express components for building office add-ins (could not build my core product without it)
Both of these combined cost me about €1,000 a year. Well worth it too as they make my software far superior to all the competition that use free components.
SaaS:
Hotjar for website heatmaps and session cams (HUGELY VALUABLE!). Linkedin Premium for help contacting potential partners (HUGELY VALUABLE!). Feedbin, RSS reader. Mailchimp
[All of my own products are desktop apps that consumers pay $60-$150 for. Sales are up.]
I’ve built a dozen apps over the past 10 years, most of them commercial, and I always encounter this dip that you describe as I approach the finish line. A number of commenters are suggesting it’s the fear of what comes next that is causing it, but I don’t agree.
For me, it’s so regular that I can see it creep up on me — all the major features completed, only the polishing and websites to complete, and it starts to hit me, trying to drag me down.
Steven Pressfield wrote a short book called The War of Art that talks about this. It’s common to any creative endeavour, whether you’re writing a novel or building a product. I’ve written a novel as well, and it hit me at the same time and in the same way — near the finish.
You need to power on through and come out the other end. All the problems and issues others have talked about will be there waiting, bit that’s a different can of worms.
Unless your potential product is for tech users, I don't think IndieHackers is a good place to discuss your idea. If you're building software for cafe owners or dentists, then you need to be talking to groups of cafe owners or dentists, not other tech guys like you.
Leave out the bottom 10 years and leave out your degree years -- if you have one. My software development career began at age 28 (I'm now 45). My CV begins in 2001 and makes no mention of what I was doing from 1990-2001, and makes me appear about 35-37.
When I turn up for interviews, nobody bats an eye, and all interview questions that touch on previous jobs talk about what I've been doing in the past 3 years.
4 years ago I was broke and considered myself unemployable. I’d been out of the job market for 6 years as I tried to start my own software business, releasing one failed product after another. My skills had stagnated, I was in dept, and had maxed out my overdraft.
When crunch time came, I took the first job I found, worked there for 6 months as a C++ developer, and then started working as a .Net contractor after teaching myself C# over the space of a few weeks.
Forward 4 years: I earn top money as a contractor, have released 4 new applications and a couple of web apps — all far better than anything I released during my failed solo career. For me, the truth was I produced more and of better quality when I was in full time work than when I had all the time in the world. There’s a saying: “If you want something done, give it to a busy person.”
Contracting 6 or 9 months in different companies actually helps with my own software, as I learn new ways of doing things, get new ideas for products, and get huge confidence boosts from doing well in each new job.
I can't say if this works in China, but Astrill VPN have a number of ip addresses that they label "China Optimized." I use them to access Netflix in the US from Ireland, but don't know if they work in China or not.
Got an email from Techsmith (Snagit and Camtasia) a few days ago about a Cyber Monday sale. No figures mentioned, but the above 2 products were mentioned.
>the dot net world lacks any sort of real UI building capability
Off the shelf, yes. But third party providers like Devexpress and Telerik have stepped into that gap and now produce some very polished component suites that sit on top of Winforms. At a cost, of course, and more geared towards the enterprise market.
I've used component suites like these in new .Net desktop products and without fail they're received well.
>Please update your projects listed below by March 7, 2019 and ensure they are no longer using Google+ APIs, or requesting Google+ OAuth scopes.
Sure, it won't be that difficult to change, but this isn't something you do every day. You do it once and then forget about it. The initial investigation of how to add a Google login and then implementing it was done 2 years ago -- now I have to go off and research and learn how to do it all again in a different way.