作为独立制造商，您应该制造哪种产品？

There are many types of products you can make. Here are some of the most common examples that can be easily built as a single person business.

您可以制造许多类型的产品。 以下是一些最常见的示例，这些示例可以很容易地作为单人业务建立。

信息产品 (Infoproduct)

One of the easiest ways to make a product is to group a set of information at your disposal, organize them appropriately and pack them.

制作产品最简单的方法之一就是将一组信息归类到您手中，适当地组织它们并包装它们。

Generally speaking, any kind of knowledge is good for this. You may think that you do not have credentials, or you do not know enough about the topic, or you are no one compared to the authority of the industry, but if you think you have a set of skills that millions of other people do not have, or a unique point of view on the subject, then you definitely have something to say.

一般来说，任何种类的知识都对此有好处。 您可能认为您没有证书，或者您对该主题的了解不足，或者您与行业权威相比没有人可比，但是如果您认为自己拥有一套技能，那么数百万其他人不会在这个问题上有独特的观点，那么您肯定有话要说。

Among these millions of people that know less than you on this topic, there will be a few thousands who will look online every day searching how to do this thing you can do, and among them a few dozen willing to spend money today.

在数以百万计的人中，对这个主题了解得比您还少的人中，每天都会有成千上万的人在网上寻找如何做您可以做的事情，其中​​有几十个人今天愿意花钱。

A product can take on various shapes, and depending on them, the price at which you can offer it will vary greatly.

产品可以具有各种形状，根据它们的不同，您可以提供的价格也会相差很大。

电子书 (Ebook)

The first kind of product I talk about is an ebook. It can be distributed on various platforms, such as Amazon Kindle or others, or you can sell it on your own website.

我谈论的第一种产品是电子书。 它可以分布在各种平台上，例如Amazon Kindle或其他平台，也可以在自己的网站上出售。

Depending on the distribution system, the format changes. For example, a Kindle book is very different in terms of format and layout from a downloadable PDF.

根据分发系统，格式会改变。 例如，Kindle书的格式和布局与可下载的PDF有很大不同。

An ebook is perhaps the easiest starting point for anyone who wants to start with a product, since it is much easier for an author to write, compared to the complications given by other communication systems such as audio and video, but one must not underestimate the commitment needed to build a quality ebook. It’s not worth it copying a simple blog post and making a 10-page ebook, as many do looking for shortcuts to success.

对于任何想从产品入手的人来说，电子书可能都是最简单的起点，因为与其他通信系统(如音频和视频)所带来的复杂性相比，作者的写作要容易得多，但一定不要低估打造高质量电子书所需的承诺。 复制许多人寻找成功捷径的简单博客文章和制作10页的电子书是不值得的。

在线课程 (Online course)

More advanced compared to an ebook is an online course. Platforms like Udemy allow anyone to create a course and sell it to audiences from around the world. Typically, an online course is composed of video lessons, perhaps quiz-based, textbooks or other useful material.

与电子书相比，更高级的是在线课程。 像Udemy这样的平台允许任何人创建课程并将其出售给来自世界各地的观众。 通常，在线课程由视频课程(可能是测验)，教科书或其他有用材料组成。

An online course is much harder to achieve than an ebook, and it’s even harder to keep it updated because to update an ebook it’s enough to edit the text and publish a new version / edition, while for an online video tutorial if you want to add a phrase to a video, you need to re-record the video, prepare the recording environment, and so on.

在线课程比电子书难得多，而且更新它甚至更难，因为更新电子书足以编辑文本并发布新版本，而在线视频教程则要添加视频中的短语，您需要重新录制视频，准备录制环境等。

A substantial difference between ebook and online course is the relationship with your customers. If there is really little expectation of interaction with the ebook, for the online courses the student expects an interaction with who has created the course.

电子书和在线课程之间的实质区别在于与客户的关系。 如果真的很少希望与电子书进行交互，那么对于在线课程，学生希望与谁创建了该课程进行交互。

So if the ebook writer can think of making a writer’s life, isolated from the rest of the world while writing his books, for an online course, it is necessary to plan the student support part from the beginning.

因此，如果电子书撰写者在撰写书籍时可以想到与世界其他地方隔绝的作家生活，则可以从一开始就计划学生支持部分。

Typically, the pricing difference between ebook and online course is obviously remarkable, and this greatly affects the marketing techniques that you will use, as you’ll have more budget for getting new customers.

通常，电子书和在线课程之间的价格差异显然非常明显，这会极大影响您将要使用的营销技术，因为您将有更多预算来吸引新客户。

软件 (Software)

If you are a programmer, you tend to opt for a business that revolves around software written by you. I did the same and I tried practically all the possible options on my skin, so besides a brief description here I also include my personal opinion.

如果您是一名程序员，则倾向于选择围绕您自己编写的软件开展业务的公司。 我做了同样的事情，并且几乎尝试了所有可能的皮肤选择，因此，在这里除了简要说明之外，我还包括我的个人看法。

iPhone / iPad / Android应用 (iPhone / iPad / Android apps)

Everyone has at least one idea every week about a new mobile application. On the other hand, having these devices with you is really easy to find with a need not met by existing apps. It is definitely a very attractive business and certainly also “cool”.

每个人每个星期至少都有一个关于新移动应用程序的想法。 另一方面，与现有设备一起满足这些需求确实很容易找到这些设备。 这绝对是一项非常有吸引力的业务，当然也很“酷”。

It is really difficult, if not practically impossible, to emerge on the app store, considering the number of apps released every day (and especially games). Success stories are true, but are more unique than rare, and often a “overnight success” has been achieved thanks to months if not years of hard work, often by a large team with extensive resources available. And as I often read online on specialized sites, not always - even if your app sits on the charts for weeks - the invested resources are paid back.

考虑到每天发布的应用程序数量(尤其是游戏)，要在应用程序商店中出现(即使不是几乎不可能)确实非常困难。 成功的故事是真实的，但比罕见的更独特，而且通常要经过数月甚至数年的努力才能取得“一夜之间的成功”，这通常是由拥有大量可用资源的大型团队完成的。 而且，正如我经常在专门网站上在线阅读一样，即使您的应用程序排在排行榜上数周之久，也并非总是如此-所投资的资源会得到回报。

Occasionally, the independent developer app turns into a success, but is increasingly rare and is like winning the lottery.

有时候，独立开发者应用程序会成功，但越来越罕见，就像赢得彩票一样。

Unfortunately, due to the crowding of the store, often an app has the launch of the first version as the only time it has the ability to scale the charts, but the problem is that the launch must be very well orchestrated and it is not easy to have all the right cards on the table.

不幸的是，由于商店的拥挤，通常应用程序只有在首次发布版本时才具有缩放图表的能力，但问题是发布必须精心策划，而且不容易在桌子上放所有正确的卡片。

The app business has the main disadvantage in distribution as the major players keep close control on the market, deciding what can be done for the platform, and they can change the game rules as they like. App releases and updates subject to review, which means that the release cycle is slowed down. In addition, you do not have the ability to get in touch with your users if they are not the first to contact you.

应用程序业务在分销方面存在主要劣势，因为主要参与者对市场保持密切控制，决定该平台可以做什么，并且他们可以根据自己的喜好更改游戏规则。 应用发布和更新需要接受审核，这意味着发布周期变慢。 此外，如果您不是第一个与您联系的用户，您将无法与他们取得联系。

My view is that the app business can be a great business, but one that requires a lot of effort, the app doesn’t always work in isolation, so you will need a server-side platform as well, and the ecosystem on both Android and iOS requires testing on so many different devices and so it’s also quite expensive, considering that every year new models are released, and you can not test your apps on just one or two devices. Also, it takes a lot of luck (or very high marketing budget) to emerge.

我的观点是，应用程序业务可以说是一项伟大的业务，但是这需要大量的精力，应用程序并非总是孤立运行，因此您还需要一个服务器端平台以及两个Android上的生态系统和iOS需要在这么多不同的设备上进行测试，并且考虑到每年都会发布新型号，而且也不能仅在一两个设备上测试您的应用程序，因此这也是相当昂贵的。 而且，这需要很多运气(或很高的营销预算)。

桌面应用 (Desktop applications)

Apps for Windows or OSX are one of the fields that has been declining in the last few years, as mobile grew. A lot of work is now being done more and more through smartphones and many people do not feel the need to use a computer. This does not mean that the industry is dead, indeed the desktop computer is used to work, and there is always a need for applications to perform any kind of work on the computer.

随着移动设备的发展，用于Windows或OSX的应用程序是近几年来一直下降的领域之一。 现在，越来越多的工作通过智能手机完成，许多人不觉得需要使用计算机。 这并不意味着该行业已经死了，确实使用了台式计算机，并且始终需要应用程序在计算机上执行任何类型的工作。

More and more often, a Mac app has the iPhone and iPad counterpart (or Apple Watch) so we do not always have to consider these as isolated sectors, but users can reach our multi-platform product from different traffic sources.

Mac应用程序越来越多地具有iPhone和iPad的对应版本(或Apple Watch)，因此我们不必总是将它们视为隔离的扇区，但是用户可以从不同的流量来源获得我们的多平台产品。

Desktop apps have traditionally been distributed independently on developers websites. Only in recent years we’ve seen the introduction of the stores, such as the Mac App Store and the Windows Store. These bring the same concepts behind the mobile apps stores to the desktop, with all the pros and cons: distribution and eyeballs vs less freedom. It’s also true, however, that on the desktop we can still have a dual distribution, selling our app through our website and at the same time keeping in the store.

传统上，桌面应用程序是在开发人员网站上独立分发的。 仅在最近几年，我们才看到商店的介绍，例如Mac App Store和Windows Store。 这些将相同的概念带到了桌面上的移动应用商店中，各有利弊：发行和眼球与更少的自由。 当然，在台式机上，我们仍然可以进行双重发行，既可以通过我们的网站销售应用程序，又可以保留在商店中。

There are fewer users on the desktop than mobile, but you can have a much higher price tag, as the market value of a desktop app easily goes up to 50-80$, a price unlikely paid for a mobile app.

桌面用户少于移动用户，但价格却要高得多，因为桌面应用的市场价值很容易达到50-80美元，这是移动应用不太可能支付的价格。

Desktop and mobile apps both have a problem: they run on computers and devices on which you do not have any control, and if there is a technical problem, you often have no idea how to solve it, and you need to spend quite a good amount of time fixing problems and providing support technical.

台式机和移动应用程序都存在一个问题：它们运行在您无法控制的计算机和设备上，并且如果存在技术问题，您通常不知道如何解决它，并且需要花很多钱解决问题和提供技术支持所需的时间。

CMS的插件或主题 (Plugins or themes for a CMS)

CMS means Content Management System, a software that allows you to easily create and manage websites. WordPress is the most famous open source CMS, it powers 25% of all websites, with an impressive 60% CMS market share.

CMS是指内容管理系统，该软件可让您轻松创建和管理网站。 WordPress是最著名的开源CMS，它为所有网站的25％提供支持，并拥有CMS令人印象深刻的60％的市场份额。

There is a truly massive user base for this software, and you can provide these users with additional features through plugins, or create themes that modify the site’s graphical interface.

该软件拥有真正的庞大用户群，您可以通过插件为这些用户提供其他功能，或创建修改站点图形界面的主题。

The most popular plugins have been downloaded tens of millions of times over the years, and there are many themes that have had a tremendous success.

多年来，最受欢迎的插件已被下载了数千万次，并且有许多主题取得了巨大的成功。

Plugins usually have a free and pro version, or a free version which you can expand through addons, some free and some paid.

插件通常具有免费和专业版，或者是免费版本，您可以通过插件扩展它们，有些是免费的，有些是付费的。

The themes business on the other hand is almost always based on commercial themes, sold through dedicated marketplaces, like ThemeForest.

另一方面，主题业务几乎总是基于通过专用市场(例如ThemeForest)出售的商业主题。

Of course, there are other business models, for example you can have free themes that upsell commercial themes or you can have a paid plugin, even though this means creating a personalized customer acquisition channel, as the WordPress plugin directory only accepts free plugins.

当然，还有其他商业模式，例如，您可以拥有可追加销售商业主题的免费主题，或者您可以具有付费插件，即使这意味着创建个性化的客户获取渠道，因为WordPress插件目录仅接受免费插件。

WordPress is not the only CMS, of course. Two words on working on other CMSes: generally the model is the same, each CMS has a more or less evolved ecosystem of plugins or themes. While most CMS users are on WordPress, it is also true that competition is huge and for every successful plugin, in the same niche there are 100 plugins that have failed and are used by very few people or abandoned.

当然，WordPress不是唯一的CMS。 关于在其他CMS上工作的两个字：通常模型是相同的，每个CMS都有或多或少的插件或主题生态系统。 虽然大多数CMS用户都使用WordPress，但也确实竞争非常激烈，对于每个成功的插件，在同一细分市场中，有100个失败且很少有人使用或放弃的插件。

It is therefore possible the idea of ​​looking for a less popular CMS and developing products around it.

因此，有可能寻找不太流行的CMS并围绕它开发产品。

In all cases, your software runs on a site that is always different from any other site, a site can run dozens of plugins that may interfere with yours, and in any case if something goes wrong is the fault of your product, and you will have to spend a lot of time providing technical support and debugging customer sites (even non-paying customers, in the case you’re providing a free product as well).

在所有情况下，您的软件都在与其他任何网站都不一样的网站上运行，一个网站可以运行数十个可能会干扰您的插件，并且在任何情况下如果出现问题都是您的产品的错，您将必须花费大量时间提供技术支持和调试客户站点(即使您还提供免费产品，即使是非付费客户)也是如此。

Also consider that having a CMS-based product implies always having to release updates that fix issues or introduce support for new platform versions.

还应考虑拥有基于CMS的产品意味着始终必须发布修复问题的更新或引入对新平台版本的支持。

萨斯 (SAAS)

So far I’ve talked about software you make and your customers download and use on their devices, or on their sites.

到目前为止，我已经谈到了您制作的软件以及客户在其设备或站点上下载和使用的软件。

A SAAS is different. It’s a software that runs on your own servers, and users access this software using the browser. This model has the advantage that you control 100% where your software is running, so you remove all the issues related to distributing a product that runs on other computers or otherwise interacts with other products.

SAAS是不同的。 它是在您自己的服务器上运行的软件，用户可以使用浏览器访问该软件。 此模型的优点是您可以100％控制软件的运行位置，因此可以消除与分发在其他计算机上运行或与其他产品进行交互的产品有关的所有问题。

A SAAS is usually paid monthly, unlike the typical app you buy once.

SAAS通常按月支付，这与您一次购买的典型应用程序不同。

One big advantage is that problem solving is immediate. If you release an app and it crashes, you’ll need to release an additional update, but it will need to be approved (which may take days) and people will need to install the new update before they can use the app again. Meanwhile, 1-stars will pop up.

一大优势是解决问题是即时的。 如果您发布某个应用程序并崩溃，则需要发布其他更新，但该更新需要获得批准(可能需要几天的时间)，并且人们需要先安装新更新，然后才能再次使用该应用程序。 同时，将弹出1星。

In the case of a SAAS, a bug is immediately resolved with loading the new code on the server and it is immediately resolved for all users.

对于SAAS，通过在服务器上加载新代码可立即解决错误，并为所有用户立即解决。

There is a limited number of browsers you need to support (2-3 are the most popular), and it is easier to handle the differences than the multiple environment where you could run your desktop or mobile app.

您需要支持的浏览器数量有限(最流行的是2-3种)，并且与可以运行桌面或移动应用程序的多种环境相比，处理差异更容易。

Some disadvantages of a SAAS based business:

基于SAAS的业务的一些缺点：

• there is no distribution system like in the case of App stores or CMS plugins or themes, where you have directories and users go to these directories, so you have to do 100% of the marketing on your own
  没有像App Store或CMS插件或主题那样的分发系统，您拥有目录，而用户进入这些目录，因此您必须自己进行100％的营销
• unlike deployed applications, there is a single point of failure, so you must ensure that your service always works because everyone is connecting to your site. If there is a hardware or network issue, none of your customers will be able to take advantage of the service that your product performs, so you’ll need to really think about availability and get the technical aspects sorted out
  与部署的应用程序不同，它只有一个故障点，因此您必须确保服务始终有效，因为每个人都在连接到您的站点。 如果出现硬件或网络问题，您的所有客户都将无法利用产品执行的服务，因此您需要真正考虑可用性并整理出技术方面的信息。

• it’s definitely more difficult to sell a subscription service than a single purchase, and you have to deal with churn, the percentage of users that every month decide to stop paying you

  出售订阅服务绝对比一次购买要困难得多，而且您必须应对流失率(用户流失率)，每月决定停止向您付款的用户比例

SAAS平台的附加组件 (Add-on for a SAAS platform)

This model combines the creation of plugins with a SAAS managed by someone else. Examples are Shopify, Salesforce, Atlassian, which provide a service to their own customers and have opened their platform for independent developers to provide additional functionality to their product.

该模型将插件的创建与其他人管理的SAAS相结合。 例如Shopify，Salesforce，Atlassian，它们为自己的客户提供服务，并为独立开发人员开放了其平台，以为其产品提供附加功能。

There is usually an official marketplace, so distribution and marketing are easier, and your add-on usually runs on your server (not always), so the same considerations made for the self-owned SAAS apply too.

通常有一个官方市场，因此发行和营销都比较容易，并且您的附加组件通常在服务器上运行(并非总是如此)，因此对自有SAAS所做的相同考虑也适用。

The model can be very lucrative because usually such platforms are used by business users who already pay a certain amount to the platform, and if they are looking for your app is because they need some specific kind of service that does not yet exist on the platform they are using.

该模型非常有利可图，因为通常此类平台供已向该平台支付一定金额的业务用户使用，并且如果他们正在寻找您的应用，则是因为他们需要平台上尚不存在的某种特定服务他们正在使用。

翻译自: https://flaviocopes.com/products-types/