The Future of MDN
Its now been almost two years since I produced the very first episode of Late Night Cocoa as a complete Cocoa noob. Since then I have had great fun producing over 70 podcasts and screencasts for Mac developers.
As you maybe be aware in 2008 I took the step of investing far more time into the Mac Developer Network (MDN) in order to provide additional benefit to Mac developers. As part of this process I also introduced MDN membership in the hope that developers would look to support MDN and its contribution to the community. Unfortunately these plans have not been successful and I now find myself in a very difficult position and having to make some serious decisions regarding the future of MDN.
After a lot of consideration I have decided that I must either close MDN down and return to life as a normal developer in order feed my family or I must take the bull by the horns and make MDN produce enough income to justify the hours of my time it consumes.
In order to take the second option I have needed to transfer MDN from a place where the majority of the content is free with a few extras for members to a place where the majority of content is for members with a few freebies for non members. From this time forward al MDN content will fall into one of two categories FREE CONTENT or PREMIUM CONTENT.
FREE CONTENT is exactly what is says, free.
PREMIUM CONTENT will be available free to all MDN members or can be purchased by non members.
This situation is now
FREE CONTENT
- The Mac Developer Roundtable
- Xcode Quick Tips screencast
- The Developer Lives podcast has also become a free podcast.
PREMIUM CONTENT
- Late Night Cocoa podcast
- The Mac Software Business podcast
- Mac Developer Network Video Training Courses
(Note MDN Video training will now be free to members.)
A vast majority of the content released as free in the past will at this time remain FREE CONTENT.
I understand that for some this will be seen as unacceptable, however I hope that a majority of people will accept that if we as Mac developers want decent resources then we must ensure that those producing them are rewarded for the time spent producing them just as we expect to be rewarded for the time we spend developing in either the form of a pay check, a consultancy fee or sales of our software.
I fully understand that not everyone who has listened or watched MDN material in the past will consider it something they actually want to pay for, but I hope there will be enough people that consider it of high enough value to pay the new $49 members fee. Some people may not find value in purchasing a full membership so as I have said most PREMIUM CONTENT is now available for purchase on an episode by episode or single course basis.
I still want MDN to be seen as a valuable resource for the Mac developer community and wish to support others in their work to add value to the community. So if you are a developer who makes a good contribution to the developer community drop me a line and I will give you free membership. If you want to support MDN but genuinely can’t afford the $49 membership fee also drop me a line and we will sort something out.
During the process of moving to this new style MDN I have spoken to many Mac developers and I want to thank them all for the huge amount of support and good will they they have given me while making these very difficult decisions.
Regards
Scotty
You have my support Scotty. MDN has been a great resource for me and I love the consistent high-quality podcasts that you produce. Keep up the great work in 2009 and I hope you get a ton of well-deserved support from our developer community!
My MDN membership was well worth its investment. Hopefully others will join me in supporting all your hard work.
I have found most of your work useful but sometimes inconsistent. More conceptually useful than practically useful. I can’t see it being worth the fee you are asking.
I might be willing to do it for a smaller fee, perhaps half. You might do well overall in that scenario.
With regard to the current framework, there would need to be a great deal more quality of content to compete with content available elsewhere.
The new logo and design looks nice and I wish you well on getting MDN to profitability. I would sadly miss your podcasts were they to go away.
Thanks,
Sean
Scotty,
I appreciate all of the work you’ve done for the community and hope that you are able to get enough financial support to keep things going.
Good luck and Happy New Year,
Daniel
I love the new site design and I think that this is definitely the right decision. Closing the Mac Developer Network would be a great shame and I think you deserve to be rewarded for the time and effort you put into the site and the more physical Mac developer community.
I hope that this works out for you and that the developers who have enjoyed your contributions in the past pay their membership fees and keep supporting you in your efforts to create a stronger community spirit amongst the Mac developers.
I’ve listened to your podcasts since you started, they have always been interesting and provide a valuable resource. Thanks for all the hard work (I can only begin to guess how much effort has been involved) and good luck for 2009.
Thank you Scotty for providing the Mac developer community with great podcasts and content. I’m looking forward to see where MDN will go, and I am already a member.
Oh, one more thing: mac-developer-network.com (without the www.) results in an error. May want to look into that.
Hi Scotty. Good luck with mdn. I am a member and have listened to the podcasts since day one, they are generally excellent.
I really hope this change will make it financially viable, as it would be a shame to close such a great resource. My advice would be to try to make the best of MacDev2009, as this could generate quite some buzz if the content is good, and some videos are made available.
Best of luck for 2009!
As a relatively recent switcher to the Mac I have found your podcasts invaluable, and also very entertaining.
It’s well worth the membership fee, and I encourage any non-members reading this to sign up!
Best of luck for 2009!
I’m afraid I don’t need API training. In fact, I’ve burned through 2 years of ADC Select without using any of the tech support incidents… everything just worked (or turned out to be my bug, not Apple’s, and I just needed to look harder at my code).
But — what I do find invaluable is the SB related stuff, and will definitely be buying those episodes.
I suspect that you may get some additional traction by marketing the API training to prospective iPhone developers also; most of it will be applicable.
Um… a little graphic design nitpick… I think the join graphic needs some work; it took me a full 30 seconds to figure out where/what it was (I was looking for something similar to some of the other indie software websites – a brightly colored 1.5×1.5 in. or so box with the price in a multi-point badge, located in the right hand navigation column towards the top.) Currently, it’s the same size and general position as an ad, which I have learned to tune out when reading websites, and is in the same color scheme as the rest of the site graphics, causing it to blend into the background.
Hooray! You’ve made a huge and important commitment to the Mac Developer community. I hope MDN not only sustains, but thrives and grows. Making the videos part of membership is an excellent move.
True story: Every year I make a list of work-related stuff I want to buy before the end of the year. It’s stuff I’d buy at some point anyway, but better to buy in December than January to write the biz expenses off. So the last week of December is always a big shopping spree for me. MDN was on my list (managed in OmniFocus if anyone cares). But since the site was offline, the entry reads “mac developer network?-NO, site is being redesigned.” So I’ll sign up in a few days when my wife lets me put my wallet near the computer again. With videos included, it’s even easier to justify, taxes be damned.
Here’s my justification (again, if anyone cares). I gladly pay $500/year to Apple for ADC membership. Honestly that doesn’t get me all that much unto itself. Another $1300 for WWDC which gets me a lot. Another $49 is a tiny drop in the bucket for continuous training and inspiration while I’m waiting for WWDC to roll around again.
I hope you guys plan on recording each session of the MacDev conference and publishing it on the website. Even for a fee so that the people who aren’t able to go for whatever reason can still catch up and enjoy the things being discussed.
Good luck with the change! I joined as a member when you first started Developer Lives, and I think closing off more of the podcasts is fair if they can’t be supported by ads. I can imagine how much work it is to produce so many.
Your podcasts are an invaluable resource, and I hope that these changes will help produce the income you deserve for all the work you put in.
All the best for 2009!
Best regards
The Dare to be Creative Ltd. Team
Hi Scotty!
I would really like to join the MDN as I recently switched to the Mac and enjoyed the podcasts so far very much. Even though other high quality podcasts are free I can also see that you need some compensation for the work you do in order to keep it up.
I would gladly join immediately, however Paypal is a no-go for me, considering the stories about them (I personally know people who lived through things like what you can find on http://www.aboutpaypal.org). If there is any other means of getting the $49 to you (BTW based on what EUR/USD exchange rate?).
As I cannot seem to find a more direct contact on the MDN website, I resort to commenting here.
I’d be glad to hear from you.
Scotty,
You have had and will continue to have my support. This is a great resource that helps bring the community together I think.
Keep up the great work as long as it’s supportable!
scott
Good luck, I wish you the best!
For a start, I have to say that the amount of content Scotty is providing is formidable; the Mac Software Business podcast, Late Night Cocoa, Xcode Quick Tips, the Mac Developer Roundtable, and a number of training videos and third-party book reviews (all that as well as founding the aforementioned CocoaHeads chapter!). Most of this content has proven useful; even in those areas where I consider myself expert, listening to the opinions and tips from Scotty’s interviewees has made me re-think my approach or given me extra insight. I particularly find the MacSB podcast useful; working at a multi-national separates me from the nuts and bolts of marketing, selling and profiting from software. MacSB lets me find out what people are doing in such fields.
Of course, as with any bunch of customers, I’m not the same as any of the others and neither are any of them
. In particular I’m networking-heavy, and find listening to, talking to and indeed arguing with other developers to be a great way to learn. That’s why I try to get to the WWDC and other conferences whenever I can, and it also means that podcasts particularly work for me. Anyway, all of this means that for me MDN is great value for money and I’m going to carry on supporting it; I hope it works out for you!
Graham.
MDN has such fantastic content. I’m glad you chose this path. I’ve been listening to the podcasts since I started programming for the Mac in April, and they’ve been a very rich resource for both a high-level view of mac programming and little hints. Like Rentzsch’s overview of class-dump and F-Script Anywhere. Or Mike Lee talk’s description of United Lemur. Many, many great episodes…
Good luck in 2009, and I hope the transition works out!
Brian
MDN content is fantastic Scotty and I both applaud and support your decision in this area.
I’m already a member, but plan to remain a paying member for many years to come. I’ll also be letting our local CocoaHeads chapter know about your content and encouraging folks to join.
I hope not only is MDN worthwhile in 2009, but perhaps even a little profitable.
Wade
Just stumpled upon this site via Twitter. I think you’re absolutely right about charging for premium content. Nobody can continuously invest considerable amounts of time into anything without getting something back (unless we’re talking hobby here).
Originally a Windows developer, I’ve just started getting into Mac (and eventually iPhone) development. I’m currently working my way through Aaron Hillegass’ excellent book. As soon as I start getting “serious”, MDN is on my list of must-haves.
Looking forward to subscribing!
Tom
Scotty,
Great move. I think the quality of the MDN podcasts are fantastic and at $49 are a steal. I am an avid reader of technical books and go through many every year. To be able to get this much great content for the price of a single book is absolutely worth it to me.
I kept telling myself I should join the MDN, but just sort of never got around to it. This was the little nudge I needed.
Keep up the great work!!
Mark
Keep up the great quality, and I’ll gladly keep paying for it.
Good move, I’ve always felt late night cocoa gave so much content for free, content that i would gladly pay for.
Now hurry up and get some forums implemented, build the community man.
I talked to you briefly when you first took MDN to a pay option. I had suggested a possible option of $3.95 or $4.95 a month. Particularly with the terrible economy i think taking the really big up front cost away and giving people a lower monthly option would greatly increase the odds of MDN succeeding.
I do not say this in a void. I have a very long successful business career and it is a well established fact that a lower cost product will generate many times more sells than a higher one and that even with a lower per sell profit the net result is a far greater income.
I am sure there are many way, like a very active developers forum and ever growing video how to library will keep people coming back month after month. Simply set it up as a recurring monthly subscription that at people do not even have to think about.
Please think about it again and again if necessary because you have a great thing going here and development in Mac environments is a rapidly growing market you have the opportunity to tap into. The large up front cost will seriously erode your market penetration.
Don’t forget, the fewer members the fewer people talking about your product. The more people who can afford it the more people will be out there evangelizing it.
I want my logos back!
Ha ha.
Just kidding, Scotty.
But it is an atrocity what you did to that LNC logo… “touch”…
it may as well be bright orange with a black hood on it…
(maybe that’s harsh…)
If you’re in need of some dressing up on some of those… by all means drop me a line.
I think I could do you right by the MacSB …
JJ
I have voted with my wallet.
All the best from down under!
Andy
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