Since officially releasing the DM Albums™ plug-in for WordPress at the beginning of December, I have been amazed at the response from users. Perhaps most shocking is that it appears that people actually are using the plug-in and had been looking for something similar. Between direct downloads from the main DutchMonkey Productions site and the downloads through WordPress directly, there have been almost 3000 downloads in just over a month.

I firmly believe that the best way to improve a product in a meaningful way is through feedback from the user community so I openly invite users to contact me with problems or suggestions. One of the most rewarding experiences of my career in software development has been working with the users who have contacted me. It’s only natural that most people contact me with problems (who in their right mind drops someone a note to say they’re happy?), but their eagerness to work together with me to solve their problems and to make suggestions has been wonderful.

DM Albums™ has been particularly well-received by photographers and artists because it seems to be one of the only blogging tools that provides an easy way to display high-quality images in-line with the post. Visiting their sites and seeing how they’ve chosen to use and configure the plug-in has been another of the most rewarding experiences I’ve had in this field.

I don’t really have a point other than to say that the open-source community is great, and it’s no wonder that some of the best software available is open-source. The downside of these types of projects is that there seems to be little or no opportunity to actually make any money with this - not because I want to get rich, but because it is so rewarding that it would be great to do it full-time.

I feel like the Underpants Gnomes in South Park:

Step 1: Build DutchMonkey Products

Step 2: ???

Step 3: PROFIT!