Why Squidoo matters to micro-ISVs

Yesterday I wrote I thought Squidoo.com was a hot opportunity for micro-ISVs.

Here's a for instance. Let’s say you are Andy Brice, whose U.K.-based micro-ISV sells PerfectTablePlan software. Good product, very narrow niche: its for doing seating plans at weddings, etc. Let's say Andy takes a shot at this Squidoo thing. He builds a lens about planning a wedding reception. He already has a bunch of links, knowledge and experience on this. He talks about his product too.

Now please resist the urge to snicker at table seating software: according to a quick Google I just did, "2.3 million couples wed every year in the US. That breaks down to nearly 6,200 weddings a day."

I wish I had that size market!

But, Andy has a problem - common to many micro-ISV's. They've solved one of those umpteen million problems the human race has come up with that make up the Long Tail, but no one knows that this solution exists.

By "buying" the problem at Squidoo through sharing his expertise, Andy would get a lot attention: much more than a micro-ISV usually gets. That attention would translate into increased sales, and the revenue generated by various links would not be bad either.

Knowing Andy a bit, he’s not going to do a half-assed job of it, or “reaggregate” a bunch of existing stuff in the hopes of making a quick spammy killing. He’ll do the right thing, and people planning weddings (or a couple dozen other things) will thank him for his efforts. They will like him, and on this topic, listen to him.

And that will be all he needs to move his micro-ISV up a big fat notch.