The 'enter your e-mail address to get X' approach is spreading! Unsurprising.. because it works like gangbusters :-)<p>In this case, you get an e-mail that says: <i>"Periodically we'll drop you a line if we have something interesting to share."</i> (There's also an unsubscribe link.) They'll get to build up an incredible list with this.<p>I'm happy to see 37signals using this approach as it helps legitimize the technique of building a list using free content without disclosing a subscription up front. Till now I've avoided this technique but I imagine it could convert like crazy and build a good list if done right.
For those who haven't read the book: it's a great experience and gives you confidence in bootstrapping: that you can get things done just by starting and doing it yourself and not waiting for some coding talent or VC money. So, it's definitely very motivating and I recommend to skim it instantly if you haven't done it before.<p>But at the same time it's pretty old now and if you read HN for more than 3 months then the book won't offer any surprise. And though it's not very much about Rails or programming it still transports a specific and opinionated mindset about how life and in particular entrepreneurship has to work. From 37signals' point of view it's the <i>only</i> way how entrepreneurship should be approached while heavily despising other ways, as recently seen in DHH last post about players like Pinterest, Instagram or Quora. So, it's pretty much like Rails—there is only <i>one</i> way and no other—and thus, you should take some messages of the book with a grain of salt and be aware that it's aged and to some extent just a leverage for email Marketing for 37signals (also aging) products.
This book has always been free right? It started life as a free HTML version and they only added the pay-for-PDF later when it became successful.<p><a href="http://gettingreal.37signals.com/toc.php" rel="nofollow">http://gettingreal.37signals.com/toc.php</a><p>Kudos for making the whole thing free. But it wasn't that big a leap.
I like this book, very inspirational.<p>About 'Less features' I've mixed feelings. In lots of markets (for example I am building a markdown editor for windows) you have lots of free competition, and one of the most important competitive advantages of paid applications is feature-completeness. Just too much people build 'minimal' free applications nowadays. 'Minimal' can get in the way of monetization easily.<p>Also 'Build software for yourself' is a good idea, but if you are a programmer, and all your ideas are developer tools be extremely careful because you will have an extreme amount of (mostly free) competition and a crazily hardly monetizable user base.<p>But still, there are very good thoughts in this book, and of course I try to not put any unnecessary features or options into my product.
You know you've created a following of customers that love you when you upload a PDF file full of content that was published years ago to the Internet and it hits the top of Hacker News.
I wonder why the PDF looks that way? It seems designed not to be printed.<p>And there's also no ebook available, just the PDF, so if you want it on the Kindle you have to convert it yourself.<p>It's like they try to nudge you towards buying the thing. Which, of course, isn't a bad thing but I wonder if it's intentional.<p>It's a pretty old book though so I doubt this strategy will work but I might be mistaken.
This release gives 37Signals a number of advantages. 1) Free press towards the 37Signals brand and 2) a product that they're proud of and which indicates the future quality a customer can expect from them.<p>This will benefit them far more than any lingering sales revenue might have. 37Signals seem to consistently do this sort of thing right.
Awesome! Whatever their motives* this is a great resource. If you object to the email address I am sure you can unsubscribe later.<p>Oddily many paid ebooks are available free via the authors blogs. LeanPub and others make it really easy to roll up your blog into an ebook and then easily sell it via the usual channels.[1]<p>*Motives - boost awareness of brand to extend userbase, collect email addresses for future marketing campaigns, getting ready to release a paid version of a new or existing book, generosity etc<p>[1] - Podcast that talks about lean publishing...
<a href="http://www.leanblog.org/2012/02/podcast-140-leanpub-com-part-1-peter-armstrong-scott-patten/" rel="nofollow">http://www.leanblog.org/2012/02/podcast-140-leanpub-com-part...</a>
First read this book about 3 years ago and immediately started telling people about it. Really spoke to me.<p>With this free release I have started emailing people about it all over again.
I don't know about others, but personally it sucks when some product for which I paid, is now available for less or even free.<p>Specially in case of electronics, you buy something when its new. The next month you meet some friend with the same piece, which he got for fraction of price. And more disturbing is that at that point of time, your piece is older and his is new.<p>Here I am not talking about this case in particular, even I am happy to get free Getting Real.