Linked Article: The First, The Free, and the Good
This is an interesting way to think about software. The article is looking at something from an iPhone developer perspective where I’d be interested to look at it from a web-app/website perspective.
My current hypothesis is that there are at least three positions of prominence in each segment — three ways to be number one, if you will: The First One, The Free One, and The Good One.
With Wordtrip we’ve always been the Free One, and I’ve always tried to be the Good One. I think the problem I’ve had lately is that the metric for what is “good” in the writing website field is a bit vague. That’s probably less a “market” issue and more an issue of my defining the market we’re aiming for and then determining what the good should be (be that magazine style articles, critique services, publication outlets, marketing networks, or whatever).
