This is in reply to : Snake eating it's own tail?

First,

Let us give credit to the developers who set the precedent of sharing knowledge and assisting others early on..(years back). I think it's safe to say that if they hadn't set this precedent we might not have this great ebb and flow of responses like we do today.

Second,
Smart developers/ businesses (I think most ZC developers) gives away scarcity to sell the even more scarce resource more often. What I mean by this...A good developer understands that by giving away some scarcity  (knowledge, open source app, resources, tips), he increases his following, professional position, client trust, etc. This leads to the sale of more of the most scarce resource. This would be a developers billable time.

Do you think that a person like Gaev is getting less business because he has over 1200 ZC posts? Many of these posts are him helping other developers like me AND new beginners just learning to declare a variable. No, he is definitely not getting less business.

Let's take this to a more macro level. John Resig, creator of jQuery. I think it's safe to say that he is making more money now after giving away, creating jQuery then he would have keeping this tool to himself and sharing it with only his clients or his employer Mozilla. Don't you think? I know this is sort of a ridiculous example. But it gets my point across.

I think that Gaev and other ZC developers alike have learned to take the broader view in regards to getting ZC jobs. By all of us adding a wealth of content to the forums the Zoho Creator products grows in popularity which in turns brings more business to all the developers. Yes, I am sure there are times where a new developer that hasn't "paid his dues" gets a "Marketplace" project when maybe he isn't the best developer for the job. But, most savvy prospects can review work and see ZC forum posts to discern who's right for the job.

Zoho Creator has invested much time, money, resources into creating a "one stop shop" for Zoho Creator. ZC apps, wiki, forum, marketplace - these are all a click away. For this reason the opportunity cost for a developer to share his Zoho Creator knowledge isn't as high.

In contrast a Web Designer/Developer on his own would need a strong presence on many job boards, a nicely setup blog with tons of traffic from potential clients, a group of Twitter users (who have their own target audience) periodicially RT'ing your good ZC forum posts, as well as many other intangible assets.

Here's how I think the Zoho Creator community is setup.

 The first group of people are DIY'ers. They are almost always NOT a developer working for/as a development company. They are simply men and women looking to solve a business problem. They ARE NOT competition for developers and are sometimes future business! So it makes sense to help them. Many of them are the type who will NEVER use a developer and THIS IS OK TO ME. However, on many of my Zoho Creator poject starts the first 10 minutes of the conversation is about the Zoho Creator application they started but got stuck somewhere on.

The second group of people on the forums are people who are "kicking the tires" of Zoho Creator to get an idea about Zoho Creator's capabilities. They might be an employee or IT worker for a business.  These people are SOON TO BE OR FUTURE BUSINESS AS WELL. These are the sort of people we as third party developers need to engage with a lot to show/ convince them of how Zoho Creator can solve their problems.

The third group is the developer community.. They help other DIY'ers, "tire kickers", and other developers with their projects.

Stephen Rhyne
Owner
Rhyne Design
@srhyne