I just released a new software called SimpleDb Manager for managing your SimpleDb databases. You can get it form www.sdbmanager.com and try it free for 30 days.
Since it is still in beta, I have reduced the price to $19.99 but only for a LIMITED time. The price will go up as soon as the bugs are ironed out and we get out of beta (very soon).
So what can SimpleDb Manager do for you?
Create and delete domains
Edit-In-Place item attributes (select the cell and start typing or hit F2 to edit)
Delete items (select row and hit the delete button)
Delete attributes (edit cell and delete its content)
Add new items (just start typing in the last row)
Execute queries (type query in query box and click the execute button)
Save connection information for easy management of multiple accounts
There are a ton more features coming, so stay tuned.
I have two reasons to celebrate. Yonkly’s team has doubled in size. That is 200% growth. Yes, we are two people now. Scott Scheper has joined Yonkly and will be bringing a whole lot of experience, strategic planning, vision, direction and eventually a lot of money.
The second reason to celebrate: we finally popped the cherry and sold our first enterprise copy of Yonkly (http://about.yonkly.com). Now, we just have to do it again a few thousand times.
Yonkly is now in private beta, but you can signup for an invitation at http://about.yonkly.com/. It will be coming out shortly and it will be kicking some ass. If you can’t wait, you can always buy the latest version with source code for $399, go to http://about.yonkly.com/ enter your email and you will receive instructions.
I just launched a hosted microblogging platform (aka twitter clone) at www.yonklyapp.com and right now I am looking into different ways to market it.
One approach to my marketing strategy is to use an affiliate program. We have all seen affiliate programs for everything from selling t-shirts to selling domains. The question I struggled with is "how much do I pay my affiliates?" I want it to be fair, competitive and also motivational enough to encourage the affiliates to market it.
I found out that 37 Signals pays 5% to their affiliates that sounds way too low. What would be a good percentage? 15%? 25%? The plan I came up with is a tiered approach which gradually increases your percentage from 10% to 50% - you can read more about it at http://www.yonklyapp.com/affiliates.aspx and maybe even signup to be an affiliate. The best part is that it is recurring.
So if you bring in a 100 customers, you will earn:
$200/month on the first 20 $400/month on the next 20 $600/month on the next 20 $800/month on the next 20 $1000/month on the last 20
That’s a total of $3000 EVERY MONTH. Isn’t that pretty damn good? Or not? I would love to hear your opinions.
I wanted to easily add theme support to yonkly, so that others can install it and modify its look and feel as they please. I also wanted it to be as easy as installing a theme in wordpress.
I created a themes folder under the content folder
Then I referenced my css file in the master page using a helper method
But most of my images are set in the stylesheet, which makes it easier to manipulate different skins
The helper methods above look at the defined theme in the config file (or database or wherever you store your settings) and then return the path to the correct resource.
They are all using the same codebase but have a different theme defined. The trick is in making your HTML css-friendly by naming elements and assigning them classes as well as using Divs and avoiding tables. This allows you to create a stylesheet that radically changes the look of the site. Think of the element ids and classes as an API to your view, that the css can manipulate.
I also added a feature that lets you upload a folder theme as a zip file and have the application unzip it into the themes folder.
It would be cool if we can define a "virtual folder" in our application, so I wouldn’t have to use helper methods. Imagine if you could just say /content/theme/logo.gif and it would just work. The theme folder doesn’t really exist but instead it would route to the correct folder based on a setting. I wonder if I can do that with current routing mechanism in asp.net mvc!!! Anyone?
I just released a new version of Yonkly with a ton of new features.
Widgets
If you are logged in, you can add a widget to your sidebar even place Google ads if you wanted. Take a look at the widget in my profile at http://yonkly.com/eibrahim. To add your own widget, go to settings and click the widgets link then simply add your widget code and hit save
If you want your widget to fit nicely with the rest of the sidebar, click the link "insert default widget" and add your script in the correct place.
Control Panel
If you are the owner of the site i.e. an admin, you will have access to a control panel where you can customize a ton of things
Site Settings
You can modify all sort of site settings such as title, description, keywords, amazon s3 information and so on.
Email Templates
You can customize all the emails that get sent out e.g. "someone is following", "someone joined your group", "thanks for signing up", etc.
Ad Management
Now, you can add advertisements to your site by adding the ads code in the appropriate location. You can add it as a banner in the sidebar or in the message stream.
Here is a sidebar ad, you can also skin to match the site
Here is a banner ad
And here is an embedded ad in the message stream
Theme Management
You can change the theme of the site. For examples, check www.hokietalk.com and www.isweat.com. Here is the theme selection screen
Content Management
See the TOS, privacy and contact us links in the footer, those are dynamically created and you can create other pages as well e.g. "FAQ", "Help" and so on… You simply enter a page name and the content using a rich text editor
User Management
This is just a way to assign/revoke admin privileges to users.
The Future
I am very excited about all the new features specially that the site owner and the user can display ads and make money. I can’t wait to release the new version. Contact me if you are interested in setting up your own microblogging platform.
December 22, 2008 
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