We're celebrating 500 blog posts with a free netbook!
When we started this, we really weren't sure what to do. We knew blogs were an important way to stay in touch with customers. But we're software writers, not literary writers. We weren't sure if we would be able keep it up, what we would really talk about, and whether or not it would be a good use of our time.
But there was one thing we were certain we wanted to do, and that was not to use this blog to post meaningless marketing dribble. It's something we've never really aspired to in any of our communications.
Whether it's on our message boards, Web site, and even our advertising or e-mail marketing, our mission has always been to be frank and informative. We do this because we believe in our product. We believe the truth sells better than any marketing hype.
We also believe our customer recommendations are perhaps the number one reason why this company has been successful over the last 25 years. We knew that blogs were a key way to stimulate that type of word of mouth recommendation by creating and sustaining an ongoing dialog with our customers. I'm very proud to say that as we post this 500th post, we clearly have been able to achieve that.
And not to be self-congratulatory, but it's easy to get to 500 posts on Twitter. It's really hard to get to 500 posts on a blog. Some of our posts are pages long and required research, code to be written and debugged, and multimedia to be developed. Others required getting you involved, because a lot of our customers have written posts. So it hasn't been easy, but it sure has been fun and worthwhile.
The visits to the blog have gone up every year and thankfully show no signs of leveling off. We continue to see more commentary and contact with our customers through the blog and other means of communication.
That's not to say we can't do better; much better. On the occasion of our 500th post, I'd like to open it up to you and give you a chance to win a netbook! Here's what you have to do to enter and win: Share what this blog has meant to you and how we can make it better in a comment on this post.
Here are some ideas to get you started. What would like to read more about? How can the blog serve you better? If you're a consultant, what can we do through the blog to help you sell more of your solutions? If you're a developer, how can the blog help you build more apps more quickly?
Your comment can range from just a few sentences about how a post helped you out of a developer's bind to a 20-page essay on what makes this blog superb. Big or small, I just want to know how we can make, what we've done 500 times now, better and what it has meant to you. It's as simple as that.
VERY IMPORTANT: Make sure you leave your name and an e-mail address where we can contact you if you win. If you don't leave it and we pick your name, you will not be eligible to win. One winner will be randomly selected from the pool of applicants. Deadline for comment submissions is Friday, April 16, 2010 at 11:59 p.m. EST. I'll announce the winner shortly after on the blog.
Note: This contest is open to anyone except employees of Alpha Software or any of its vendors.
Good luck!
31 comments:
The diversity of the posts have inspired me to look under the hood of Alpha Five and truly learn the capabilities of the software. Cheers to all the staff at Alpha Software for making this blog such a huge success it is!
This blog has given me a great resource into the Alpha 5 world. I would love to see more tutorial type posts in the future.
The blog has been a great place to learn about new features in Alpha. The links to the videos are also very helpful. As a developer one area I would like to see covered more is how to distribute applications (both Web and Windows) via CD / Windows installation files. Most of my clients want to run the application at their site but do not have FTP access. I need to know how to send them an installation to update their apps ( and what files to include in that installation).
Brian
sales@qmdata.com
I visit the blog nearly everyday, just to see if a new screencast has been put online, since I like Alpha Five as a developerplatform for Desktopapps quite a lot (didn't have much time to try Webapps yet).Let me say it that way. Alpha Five is like a great tool and I'm stunned everytime you show us a new feature or function, but what really inspires me to create a new app, are the screencasts showing apps(whatever kind of). This being also my only point of critisism, that there are not enough such screencasts. I'm missing a real showcase of apps.
As a recent convert from MS Access I've found the blog to be a great place to learn about Alpha Five, including what it is doing in the market place. I love seeing some of the cool stuff that can be done with it. I'd love to see more posts where developers "show-off" the types of things that they've built in Alpha Five so that we all get an idea of how far the product can go and inspire us all to develop nicer solutions for our customers.
Thanks for all the efforts to those that author. I get excited every time I see a new posting waiting for me to read!
Regards, Shawn (shawn.espenlaub@iinet.com.au)
This blog is one of my favorites as I do have many interests both personal and professional. It is a great source of information. I think it might be interesting to see an article about how Alpha Software uses Alpha Five in it's day to day operations. I like the case studies and the videos that show off all of V10's various features. More posts covering V10's integration with SQL or MySQL would be nice.
Congratulations on your 500th blog post and continued success.
John
jmarra.us@gmail.com
As a new Alpha User. The posts about what people have done with the product is what I look for.
Thanks,
love the blog. trey.heath@gmail.com
I love reading about the new features and it gets me excited about when a new version comes out.
Jason
jbeneteau@gmail.com
This blog have been giving me a lot of info and keep me updated on new things about alpha five, thanks!!
diegotejera [at] gmail [dot] com
I've been looking extensively for a tool to build web applications and in doing so I came across Alpha5. I always check out a tool even before downloading a trial by looking at the support options that are available. I the case of Alpha5 I found a very good messageboard where answers come almost on the fly from both a wide variety of enthousiastic users and support people. Actually I have not seen any other messageboard that even comes close to the Alpha5 messageboard.
But how about the company and it's management, their views, ideas & opinions ? That's were the blog comes in. It actually makes you feel like being a member of the Alphasoftware family! It even gives you an extraordinary view behind the scenes with preview videos of what's coming up! Or it just gives you ideas about new business ventures. If a noticeable app has been created by an Alpha developer it also may show up on the blog. Need to learn more about the product ? If a class is scheduled you'll be the first to know by reading the blog!
A flashy good looking website may appeal to many, for me it's all about the product and the people from the company behind it and that's what the blog gives you!
Frank Bevers
Belgium
Share what this blog has meant to you:
For me, this blog is the place to get the latest news on Alpha, and tips and how-tos for functionality that is, or will soon be, CORE, AND to get it "direct from the horse's mouth". That's not to disparage the forums in the slightest, they are great in their own way, but it's the nature of forums that discussions are often repeated, folks meander in trying to find solutions or go off topic, new users may feel intimidated or overwhelmed, and key posts on core topics may be difficult to find among more niche postings or may be pitched at the wrong level. Here, however, Alpha themselves tag and either write or vet the (initial) posts so posts tend to be complete in whatever they are covering and are not be repeated. Further, the 'short video' format is a great way to introduce and/or highlight features both to new users who may be looking to get a quick idea of 'what this thing is capable of', and to old hands for whom some very useful feature may otherwise lie buried in some unexplored part of the manual. Perhaps more than anything else, for me though, is that the blog posts and videos provide guidance for 'best practice' and a way to get up to speed rapidly (and here's that phrase again) "direct from the horse's mouth".
...and how we can make it better.
- I'd like to be able to download the videos for watching offline. (Obviously if folks are going to do that then there needs to be a naming convention so they can be sure they have the latest versions)
- I'd like a link for bug reporting in the links section (pref so I can report them without having to log in)
- I'd like to see the following covered
- pros & cons of the various SQL backends including best practice/how to set the up and run, say, MySQL and the free version of Sequel Server for use with Alpha
- intro to best practice for how to do backups if you're running a website either locally or through a hosting company (is there a way to take backups without shutting the server down for example? Does Alpha do that or the Sequel back end? etc.)
- good places to get royalty free icons, backgrounds and images for use on web sites or html emails?
- intro to accounting & invoicing
- when should you do it in Alpha; when should you use third party accounting software?
- guide to setting up/integrating third party accounting software (Quickbooks, TAS etc) with Alpha
- is there a 'preferred' accounting software? If so what?
- what do you need to set up in Alpha?
- what choice is there over what is done in Alpha vs what is done in the accounting software? what does Alpha advise as best practice
- can Alpha control hardware via, say, USB and/or remotely over the net? If so, what examples are there of what folks have done with this? e.g. taking measurements/photos, controlling switches/valves etc. and hwo do you do this?
- where Alpha is with regard to smart phones
- brief overview of the types of smart phone platforms
- (Android good for this but can't do that; iPhone good for that but can't do this etc)
- best way to access Alpha data from a smart phone
- which smart phone OSes can handle Ajax? if they can't how do we get v10 web pages to them?
- resolutions - does v10 have a means to quickly view what a web page will look like at a given series of resolutions?
- is there 'an app' for Alpha on the way that runs on smart phones?
Thanks,
Trevor
trevor_a5blog at itcrazy.co dot uk
Congratulations on the 500 posts. I look forward to 500 more! Hope to be able to try you out soon... just need a job.
Matt Hodson
m.mhodson@gmail.com
I am trying to get to Alpha 4.. but this will push me to 5 !!!
First off, what I like about the blog is that you guys write as if we're just chatting. Very often blogs that deal with tech are so loaded down with jargon and techy talk that they're just plain dry and boring.
You guys have a nice style. It's very readable and I say that as a writer who works with a lot of tech guys.
As for improvement - two things. I'm finding more and more that video tutorials and webinairs are the way to go for me. Seeing the software in action as someone talks me through it really makes it stick in my brain.
The other thing is practical applications. I'd like to know how people are using the software. I'm not running a farm, but I could probably learn something from someone who does. Sometimes it's good to step out of your own box and see what others are doing. It can spark an idea for your own business that you wouldn't have thought of otherwise.
Cyn
What we have and "they" don't have is real support. Not only from the Rabin brothers, but the support of it's users. This blog is awsome! Thanks.
Jerry
jevicha2@comcast.net
I enjoy reading the blog and the forum entries. The perspective from the owners and developers eyes is always interesting. The links to reference material and other relevant news articles is always interesting and helpful - I doubt I would ever find them without the blog. It's a great way to communicate with all of the users 24x7 without being intrusive.
Jeff (jeff@medlookusa.com)
I enjoy reading the posts to find out the latest stuff that is going on. It is also great reading some of the stores of others and what different types of businesses that are utilizing the tools developed in Alpha. Keep up the good work and continue to keep us updated on what is going on.
Jeff Ryder
jeff@mylee.com
Some of my favorite posts aren't directly related to Alpha Five the product. I have been inspired to start my own application design business. There are so many programs in my industry that miss the mark.
I think I can do better. Hope, inspiration and vision. I'm one of the many unemployed so why not!
Your blog keeps all of us up-to-date with the latest news and events that will trend all of our development efforts coming down the pike.
I enjoy the videos that help me understand how to manipulate the latest in the V10 Rabins cube, I can do the Rubik's cube, but not the Rabins cube.
But your videos help...
I have been using Alpha Software for more than a decade. I have always been impressed with the software itself, but even more so with the ability to get answers to my questions. The entire user community is great, and the Blog adds that personal touch. Examples, testimonials, new feature demos. They all help me in staying informed and improving my product.
Thanks, Alpha!
Alpha's blog is an extension of the company and the product itself. What I love about the AlphaFive product is how well it is thought out - for making both desktop and web application development easier (than other products) while still being a powerful development environment that allows programmers to build professional, highly functional applications. No other product delivers this combination of power and ease of use. And the blog is a great place for users of the product to collaborate, learn, and leverage the collective expertise of the community. Good stuff. :)
Congratulations on 500 blog posts! I hope for many more posts to keep us up to date with Alpha Software.
Hmm, I left a comment but I don't see it so I'll write it again.
What I like about the blog is that even though you speak tech, you speak it in a very conversational, readable manner. I'm a writer and I deal with a lot of designers and programmers and it's hard to find one that can talk tech that way. So good job.
As for improvements, two things. More and more I'm finding that video and webinairs really help me learn a new software. There's something about seeing someone walk through the steps and hearing it at the same time that really cements it in my brain. So more video and a webinair for training is great.
Also, I learn from others - so I'd like to see how people are using your software to run their business. What's working for them, how is it helping them get the job done. I don't have to run a bookstore to learn something from a guy who does. We're all in this together and some of the best ideas come from outside the box.
Cynthia
boris.cynthia (at) gmail.com
As a 'trialer', I love the how-tos and videos. While I'm sure Alpha are very proud to be getting so many postitive reviews (and all credit to them) I'd rather they were a little less prominent on the blog.
I'd also like to see a few articles covering the basics of getting a commercial website up and running for those of us that have never done that before.
Regards, Jo
jo@php REMOVE computers.com
I suggest the blog be split. Use one blog to post things concerning the product line, customer applications, all things Alpha Five. Use a second to post things about what's going on at Alpha Software. We want to know more about you and the staff. What things are you interested in? What are you reading these days? What trends are you interested in following? You guys are hard working, dedicated, and energetic. But life is not all work, right? What do you enjoy when the next launch deadline permits a bit of time off?
-- tom
I've used Alpha4 since the 1980's and am now looking to move to Alpha5. New since the last time I checked is this blog. I am sure it will be helpful going forward but right now I will need help making the change. I believe the message board is a great tool so I'm not really sure how this blog will help me make the conversion any better. It seems to be information overload.
This is Stephen from above (posted at 1:52 pm on Fri, April 16). I forgot to leave my email:
sppilon at gmail dot com
I really do look forward to the new entries in this blog, especially since I have gotten to know the Alpha team better. I look at each one. The blogs have helped me understand what Alpha is thinking and what you are up to.
As far as improvement, I would like more links to short "how-to" videos or other instructions, so that in 10 minutes or so I can learn how to do something new. The demos of the amazing things that some developers are doing are interesting, but often there is no explanation readily available to show how they did it.
I continue to enjoy the interaction with the Alpha development community through this blog, the message boards and the conferences. The blog is an important part of this relationship.
Crispin (ck@pei3.com)
I'd like to follow up on what Tom Cone said. The Alpha message board is for product support, and is rightly focused on very specific product function questions and issues. I think the Alpha community would be well served if the blog focuses more on bigger picture issues related to the I.T. industry in general. For example, discussions about the latest trends in develpment tools, databases, programming languages and web technologies, and how they could impact Alpha customers, would be helpful. What other software tools do people (including the Alpha development staff) use to do their work? Also, discussions regarding possible future directions for the A5 product, what features should or should not be added or enhanced, would benefit both the Alpha company and its customers.
Lou
loumilone@comcast.net
I haven't made a habit of visiting the blog on a regular basis. Usually end up here because someone has posted a link to the blog in the Alpha Forum.
This Netbook promotion has caused me to rethink the value of the blog.
I will visit regularly as it looks like there is a lot of good info posted.
Louis Nickerson
louisnickerson@hotmail.com
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