Suggestions on Increasing Customer Base and Longevity of VoxCommando

[MetaCode]

James,

Good afternoon.

I got to thinking about the response you gave to the topic titled "VoxCommando Universal Windows Platform Version" earlier this month. I quote below the specific part that I am going to focus on in this topic.

I'm basically not making any money with VoxCommando and am currently focused primarily on maintaining the software and am not seeking to make any major changes that would cost me a lot of development time since there is no reason to expect that this time would ever be paid back in the form of new license sales.

Although I consider VoxCommando to be far superior to the other giant cloud based options out there, most people would much rather buy an Amazon Echo Dot or Google home device (or use a cracked version of VoxCommando) than to pay someone like me for a software package.  So my motivation to sink a large quantity of my time into development is just not there anymore.

As an individual that wishes to see VoxCommando and you flourish and have a long life, I had the following thoughts that I wanted to share with you and the rest of forum.

• Create website banner for use by third parties to advertise VoxCommando on their blogging and social media platforms of choice - Initially or at a later time, you could tie in affiliate marketing to provide a financial incentive for people to use this.
  
  
• Create email signature (with and without pictures/banner) for use by third parties to advertise VoxCommando in their email program/website of choice - Initially or at a later time, you could tie in affiliate marketing to provide a financial incentive for people to use this.
  
  
• Create a curated marketplace to store vetted VoxCommando commands - VoxCommando is an amazing application that has a lot of potential uses in the right hands. After perusing the forum and from my own personal experience in IT support, I see an opportunity to lower the barrier of entry of non-power users. Just like your wiki is an excellent central source of information to teach users how to use VoxCommando, the marketplace would make it much easier for customers to find commands that fit the task they need performed or make requests. Initially or at a later time, you could tie in affiliate marketing to provide a financial incentive for people to develop and support commands for the marketplace.

There is some work that will need to be done to make these suggestions a reality but I cannot emphasize enough the potential of VoxCommando in the present and future. The benefits will more than justify the time and energy invested.

I hope I am not out of line for creating this topic and sharing these thoughts. The feeling I get from the various topics and posts I have read in this forum is that the VoxCommando community is friendly, helpful, thoughtful, and supportive of VoxCommando and you. I can only speak for myself, but, I know I would be willing to do more to help. Perhaps there are others that would be willing to join me...

Sincerely,

MetaCode

[MetaCode]

Hmmm. Well this is a bit disheartening By now, I would have hoped to see some of the folks that frequent these forums regularly, voice their thoughts on this post.

Sincerely,

MetaCode

[PegLegTV]

In all honesty I think the reason no one responded is the simple fact that it's not our program, we may post commands for others to use, we may help others to give back to the great community, but we did not put in the hard work to create this amazing and unbeatable program.

the fact is jitterjames put in many hours just to create the initial program and interface, then on top of that, jitterjames, nim5ter and kalle have spent countless more hours on top of that helping all of us through any learning curve we may have or had so we can enjoy this program to its fullest, and they always go above and beyond to make their customers happy, including new plugins, remote assistance, and live chatting, etc...

the big hurdle is one thing that no person can jump past is the fact that most people don't have the know how when it comes to computers to learn this or simply don't want to do the work, because they want "Plug n Play" so they go with the echo or google home, the next big thing is that most people don't want to use a full size PC to run voice automation. even if this program could be ported to be used on the lets say a raspberry pi the issue is still the fact that most people don't know how to work with them, or feel its to over whelming to learn.

in my own opinion I think the best of both sides of the spectrum are needed to make something that the other company's can't keep up with, it would need to be a pre-made device with a great microphone array, then it would host a web interface that you could reach via the devices IP address. you would need to have some type of a data base for basic commands (Whats the weather, What time is it, etc) to make it simple to add commands. then you need a stable speech engine that has as many languages as possible, and no audio recordings leaving the device. this of course is just the bullet points. I'm not a programmer by any stretch and that sounds like a giant project and major undertaking to me.

jitterjames has created a great program that my family and I use everyday, from having it check that my system backups run every night, waking us up with the weather and sunrise effect from our smart bulbs, reminding my kids to brush their teeth before school, as we are getting ready up stairs while they are down stairs eating breakfast, along with reminding us of our calendar events, and so much more, I still add new commands all the time and still talk about it with friends and family (I'm sure they are tired of hearing it lol).I'm in the process of making a new set of commands for my garage as I have added a walk-in door sensor, an overhead door sensor, smart switch and still waiting on my monetary relay for my garage door opener, I could use vera for my scenes but I prefer VC to handle it, so I can keep everything together.

yes I do wish jitterjames could keep adding on to the program and expanding its capability's but at the same time I fully understand and respect his stand point. I would love to see a autoremote and Join plugin but at the same time there are other ways to get around not having a plugin so its not a deal breaker, and most of the VC users don't use either of those services so its not something that would be practical for jitterjames to invest time into.

when I created my youtube channel I created videos around VC and using the cheep smart products because I'm a cheapskate and wanted to show others that you can create a smart home with out breaking the bank, I even created a video series teaching people how to create a remote app for android and VC using Tasker but had very little traffic and most comments on the thread actually came from jitterjames himself, hence my comment earlier about people wanting "plug-n-play".

if people fully knew what they where giving up when they go the route of Plug-n-play ie. Amazon Echo then maybe they would start to look at something they can create them self, I recently started using a program called PiHole on my network to block ads and while doing some research on it, I came across a thread of people trying to figure out why amazon was pinging their network up words of 40,000 times so yeah I'm glad that I do a lot of work my self


Thanks jitterjames, nim5ter and kalle for the great product and great work

[MetaCode]

PegLegTV,

Hello and thank you for the in-depth and thoughtful response to my post.

I think you may have misunderstood the meaning I was trying to convey when I said I was hoping more folks would voice their thoughts on the topic. My intention was to get a conversation started with anyone that wanted to pitch in. If JitterJames desired to follow through with any suggestions that came out of the topic, I completely understand it would be his call to make. I never intended to imply otherwise. After seeing how helpful everyone is in this forum, it wasn't a stretch for me to believe it would be worth trying to rally the troops and brainstorm some ideas to help JitterJames get more financial fulfillment out of VoxCommando.

On the issue of people wanting Plug-n-Play virtual assistants in IoT type standalone devices, I can't disagree with you there. But...that is just one market segment. VoxCommando represents another market segment that contains IT professionals, power users, do-it-yourselfers, businesses, and even regular PC users. Just from my time in IT, I can tell you that voice control software like VoxCommando is not commonplace in matters of support, system administration, or workflow streamlining. So there is an opportunity to further saturate that market segment with the right advertising and packaging. We could even win over some of the users of the Plug-n-Play IoT type standalone devices with the curated marketplace suggestion I made. Those customers not willing to learn the inner workings could still benefit from VoxCommando with pre-made commands provided via the marketplace that could come very close, if not, surpass what the Plug-n-Play virtual assistants of the world can do. Keep in mind what I am suggesting is all within the market segment and operating environment (Windows PC) that VoxCommando currently resides in.

I applaud the efforts of you and all the other folks in this forum that have made VoxCommando an integral part of the daily life and I encourage you not to feel disheartened because a lot of people out there don't realize what a gem VoxCommando is. That is why we are here, right now. To come up with more ways to show them what they are missing. There is more than enough enthusiasm and expertise in this forum and the VoxCommando Team to make that a reality. Teamwork, people. Teamwork! 

Sincerely,

MetaCode

[PegLegTV]

Metacode,

hey thanks for the response,

it looks like I misunderstood what you where trying to say, and part of that might have been me reading the original post you had quoted, and taking the other thread into mind, it seemed as if you where looking to rally troops trying to convince jitterjames to expand else where, that's why I mentioned the raspberry pi  ,

you have a good point with trying to catch the IT professionals, power users, do-it-yourselfers, and businesses, I think the biggest hurdle would be showing them that this is not your run of the mill Cortana, echo or google assistant, this is something that can do anything your mind can up with... well almost anything. I think a big plus is if we could create some basic businesses task such as writing basic text to excel sheets, showing the automation of basic pc uses, like opening program x,y, and z when working on a project instead of clicking all those programs individually. for example

I pull sports highlights for a web company form time to time and when I pull the highlights I use VC to open all the programs that I use and have it resize all the windows so they are layered the right way, along with telling me if I need to write comments for the photos or if it is just photos (comments are base on a text file existing) it also writes to a text file when I start, take a brake and when i'm done, it also emails the company to let them know that the images are being uploaded to them.

it's a small amount of time but it adds up, and you know what they say Time is Money$$

[MetaCode]

PegLegTV,

You are very welcome.

Thank you for the opportunity to clarify what I was trying to initially convey and for your thoughts on what could be done to showcase the value of VoxCommando. I can't count the times I have wished I had a way to cut down on the manual repetition in my daily IT workflow. Generating emails, generating Excel reports, creating change requests, etc. Hence why I set out to find a way to speed up my ability to interact with my PC and how I found VoxCommando.

Here is a great example of someone who paired up Cortana with their own application to enhance Excel. There are more examples on the channel of that YouTuber for those that are interested. I can see VoxCommando being an enabler for all sorts of tasks and functions that could be created by the VoxCommando Community.

Your examples are wonderful and I definitely relate with the last line of your previous post. Streamline your workflow enough and you find yourself banking all that extra time that would have otherwise been stolen from you. Do enough banking of extra time and you will more than pay for the cost of a VoxCommando license.



All,

I know I am not a regular here and I certainly don't have the number of posts to earn me any kind of rep in this forum, but that won't stop me from encouraging you to take a moment and ask yourself "How can I help?" It doesn't have to be much and no one is asking for you to send in more money. We live in an age of influencers and evangelists. I already see a lot of energy in the forums when it comes to helping out folks with VoxCommando or other matters. If we direct a portion of that energy in a consistent and meaningful direction, I am pretty sure we could raise the public's awareness of VoxCommando and grow the community. A win-win situation for everyone involved.

Before someone asks "MetaCode, you are pretty gung-ho about doing this...what's your angle, bro? ," I will say I have the same thing to gain as all of you do. Ensuring VoxCommando stays around for a long, long time. I know JitterJames said he would support it for a long time for the reasons he stated (see link in my initial post of this topic) despite the lower than desired sales, but why not improve the odds of long lasting support by having the community take some action as well? I searched the forum for any similar topics to see if the subject was ever approached and I couldn't find anything so here I am. And no, I am not affiliated with VoxCommando or the company that owns the software.

Sincerely,

MetaCode

[Kalle]

Hi MetaCode and PegLeg,


I also think that most users want Plug'n Play (who doesn't want that?) and that's why most people think that Echo and Co. is the better alternative. Everything has its rights to be there, but it is a misconception that with the connection of Echo and Co. everything would be done. Absolutely, if you want to know what time it is or how the weather will be - but try to play your music or movies from a computer or NAS with one of the devices, no chance. This is just one of many examples that are not possible with the Echo and Co. - or maybe only with a lot of effort.


I have tested most of these devices and have to admit that I use an echo dot in combination with VC (with the "AlexaToVC" skill) and sometimes I am reminded where the biggest problem of these devices is - everything is cloud based - and if you don't have access to the internet (e.g. because your provider has a technical problem) it's really frustrating because you got used to the little helper. If I only use VC I don't have this problem and this is also a big advantage of VC over Echo and Co.


A big hurdle for VC is still the microphone question, but James has answered with the "VoxWav" app which runs on a smart watch and can replace a microphone, but also I am still looking for the perfect, almost invisible, wireless microphone for VoxCommando and am waiting again for a device I hope to get it from.
I've been there for many years now (since 2010) and I've always wondered (especially at the beginning) why none of the big companies became aware of VC and realized the great potential - I have to absolutely agree with MetaCode - there was a lack of advertising, but here I have to say, advertising is expensive and it's a risk to spend a lot of money.
I would wish VoxCommando got more attention and James could live off the licenses without doing any other work.



You have, as far as I understood it, talked about a command database - I imagine this to be very difficult - a command usually consists of several phrases, some of which contain payloads or are optional - I was surprised myself how many ways of expression there are to switch a light on or off - but in principle there are only three magic words: Location / Device / Action - where everything can vary in order and it is possible to build a huge sentence construct around it.
Personally I find the example configurations for Kodi, Hue and so on very helpful - a basis on which everyone can easily build commands.
Also the Wiki documentation is a great place, but I think most users ignore it or don't know it exists.


Kalle

[MetaCode]

Kalle,

I am happy to see your participation in this topic. Welcome!

Personally, I feel we are all walking a fine line with how bold companies have become with our private information and these cloud based virtual assistants. I am not going to go into tin foil hat territory but I have to say that companies are only going to get more hungry for our data in order to squeeze as much profit as possible from us. Just like Apple is using the "We respect your privacy and will not make you the product" marketing approach, so can VoxCommando appeal to the privacy conscious customers that want a virtual assistant but don't want to worry about their personal information. You make a great point about depending on the Internet to even have these cloud based virtual assistants work.

The quest to find the perfect way to capture your voice so the software will hear you properly. I know what you mean. Hopefully, you find what you seek. It is great we have a few options today to choose from to get us one step closer to that ambient virtual assistant.

The advertising I am suggesting doesn't have to be expensive at all. I am suggesting we start with a grassroots movement to rally the existing VoxCommando community (people that want to be influencers/evagelists for VoxCommando) and come up with some ideas to get the ball rolling (e.g. LinkedIn, Youtube, blogs, Twitter, Email signatures, Forum signatures, etc.). Everything has to start from somewhere...

The curated marketplace or command database as you called it would be a place where interested VoxCommando community members could create, maintain, and support commands for regular every day users. How the commands are structured and function would be up to the command maintainer to decide but could very well be robust enough to accommodate a large range of user needs and scenarios. The forum is loaded with useful information and command suggestions but one has to search for them. My suggestion focuses that information in an organized, curated fashion, and opens up the possibilities for additional income for several parties. Reducing/eliminating this barrier to entry will be key in appealing to the less technical customers we would want to win over.

I am grateful to see some of the regulars wanting to participate in this topic. Thank you, PegLegTV and Kalle. Keep the thoughts and ideas coming, folks.

Sincerely,

MetaCode

[MetaCode]

All,

It has been a few weeks since I started this topic and despite having some great interaction with a few of the forum regulars, I had hoped that James would have participated in the conversation as well. It is possible he hasn't seen this topic but since there hasn't been much activity topic activity as of late, I don't think this topic would have slipped his attention. Regardless, the effort was made to try something in order to give back to him for all his effort.

I don't plan on adding any more posts to this topic as that would only serve to annoy folks.

Keep on spreading the word about VoxCommando and keep on creating awesome things.

Thank you for lending me your attention for a brief spell.

Sincerely,

MetaCode