There is so much you have to understand as a uISV. You’ll be wearing a couple dozen hats — search engine optimizer, marketer, blogger (you’re marketing, right?), tech support, customer service, webmaster, accountant, payroll, banker, purchasing, etc etc for quite a while (until you no longer need the role or decide to outsource it). Oh, and I hear there is some development involved too. With this many things on your plate, you can’t afford to spend time worrying about irrelevancies. Yet a lot of people get caught up with them, and they’ll happily munch your time without providing any return.
I read (through the indispensable PlanetMicroISV‘s feed from WorkHappy) that Microsoft wants YOU to set up an account with adCenter this Christmas. So much that they’re prepared to stuff $200 in your stocking (in credit, naturally) if you fork over the $5 opening fee. Ho ho ho, does that sound tempting. I categorically refuse to use YSM again (“Like AdWords, except inferior in every way — price, performance, features, reporting, and workflow”) but maybe MS can separate me from some of my money. I think I’ll give them 4 months at $50 a month or so to see if I can get positive ROI. If yes, they get kept for the long term. If not, its an experiment that costs me a cup of cocoa.
