Why are you doing this?

First, I (Brian) have a new idea just about every day. Part of my process is to write down new ideas so I don’t forget them. The good ideas I like to share with others in order to vet feasibility or just to get feedback. Six Sites is meant to be extension of what I do already.

Second, I believe that great products can be made quickly and iteratively. In fact, I believe that if you aren’t making products quickly and iteratively you are wasting money. Real users will determine your success, getting products in front of real people sooner will help determine if your idea is on the right track.

I’m a firm believer on focusing on one simple feature that fills a need. Design it to work really well. Build it. Get feedback from real people. Rinse and repeat.

What constitutes a product versus a site?

Who really knows. The way I see it, a “product” is made for someone other than you or your organization. You see a need in the marketplace and you design and build a product to fill it.

How products be free or cost money?

Some products will be free, some will cost money and others will have “freemium” type features. With the exception of Mobile Design, all products will have firm revenue models behind them.

You didn’t posted anything for a long time, what happened?

It’s a bit of a long story, but mostly, clients. When I initially launched Six Sites I got slammed with a lot more client work than I expected. Together with a prolonged breakup with my former company, I felt that trying to make public products would be focusing on the wrong thing and the wrong time.

I kept working on the ideas in the background, but I put them on the back burner for a while to allow myself to clear out a few more pressing issues.

What happened to the original ideas with the weird codenames?

Some ideas made the cut and have been carried forward, others did not. Two of the original six, I really wish I could do, but canned as I felt there was a slight conflict of interest to some of my other activities. I might revisit them one day, and might do for Product Six, but for now I’m focusing on the current five defined projects.

When will you release something?

Soon. Watch each of the product pages for updates on when we plan to launch them. One thing I’ve learned about products is that the right timing is a crucial component of a product launch.

Are you still trying to do six products in six months?

No. One thing that past months have taught me that trying to rush products out the door is bad for the product. Together with the fact that I have to support myself and may occasionally return to client work means I can’t guarantee six products over six consecutive months. That being said all the products are designed to take about one to two months to get into beta.

How can I participate?

Read the site. Register for an free site account and comment on updates. Users where I know their work, or feel they have a passion for the products and are truly willing to contribute to its success will be invited in to collaborate and given a slice of any profit.

Can I invest in one of the products?

Of course. We plan to self fund each product, but if the right investors approach us, we’ll listen to what they have to offer. Contact us if you want to talk more.

Can I steal your ideas?

What do you think? I will always hold back on publicly revealing the secret sauce of an idea, though it will be shared privately with contributors. So no, you can’t steal ideas, but if you really like something you see here, contact us. I’d rather try and see if we work together than against each other. I’m more interested in building cool stuff than make a ton of money.

Why not just use Basecamp, Backpack, Google Code, GitHub or something similar?

I want the option to make private content public. I can’t do publish both public and private content in one spot with most project management tools. That being said, I do plan to use tools like GitHub for version control or Google Code or Groups for mailing lists.

What technologies or frameworks do are you using?

Primarily PHP and Rails for the core applications, though we aren’t ruling out frameworks like Django. On the front end, we’re using Blueprint CSS and jQuery for most products. For many products we are creating our own mini frameworks.

What are you using to power the this site?

Chyrp, a kick-ass microblogging tool.