The iPhone is an unstoppable force. SuperLame will begin it’s next step forward, moving into the mobile space. Mobile as a platform has been growing without letup ever since the iPhone was first debuted back in 2007. SuperLame was launched to the public back in 2009. Since then, we’ve added a number of new features and grown in scope from the original idea.

The idea started as a small personal project, something that I wanted to do for my own personal use. The basic idea was to add comic balloons to images. To the best of my knowledge, and extensive google searches, I couldn’t find an app, web or desktop, that did what I wanted, and did it in a simple, elegant way. This was the beginning of what’s now the SuperLame web app.

Recently there have been a number of quality iPhone apps that allow people to do the same, or similar, things to what SuperLame as a web app offers to it’s users. My plan has always been to improve functionality, and offer this app to as many people as possible. This is where mobile will help expand the platform.

Between good press and a community of thankful, loyal users, SuperLame has expanded well beyond a small web app built in my basement office for my own personal use. People from South and North America, to Europe and even Japan. It seems like people from all around the globe are interested in adding comic bubbles and balloons to their photos.

The iPhone is the largest single smartphone platform currently available. It’s supported by some of the largest communications carriers in the world. Carriers in the US, like Sprint, have been clambering to get their hands on the iphone, while some of the largest international carriers have had it for years, like O2 in Europe. This means more people will be able to use the new mobile app than ever before.

We look forward to providing the best, most unique mobile app experience to people all over the globe.

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Unfortunately we had to start with replacing some of the fonts in the app due to the “good” folks at BlamBot, who before today didn’t know SuperLame even existed. You see, we contacted them to see if they’d like to make some kind of trade for some of their pro fonts to help make SuperLame just that much better. However, instead of any deal, they responded with a bill. They’ve said that even though SuperLame is non-profit, the fact that we embedded a couple of their free fonts into our app means we owe for distribution and embed licensing, at $400 each font.

Well, I don’t have that kind of scratch, so I’ve had to replace those fonts with some “real” free fonts. While they may not look quite the same, everything still functions and we’ll try to keep up the high quality you’ve come to expect from SuperLame.

Thanks for your support and for choosing SuperLame for all your comic balloon needs

Spread the word (Balloons)!

Check it out and let us know what you think. http://apps.facebook.com/superlame

So, what’s all this gonna cost you? How about a million dollars? No, too high? Ha, now anything lower will sound good! Muwah, ha, ha, ha! Okay, you know what, how about you just donate something, $5 or more a year and we’ll give you all of these great extras, plus any and all the new features we continue to add and come up with. That’s it, whatever you want to donate, starting at $5/year. Don’t let that stop you from donating more if you really want to however.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. What’s this service called? Well, “SuperLame! Friends Plus”, or just “SuperLame! Plus”. It’s like friends with benefits or something along those lines. Let us know what you think.

Right, and finally, we’ll be trying to give back to those that help us. You help us, we help you. You see, in addition to getting all the great new features for donating, you’ll also have the opportunity to get promotion of your own on SuperLame! That means, if you opt in, you can get your site, blog, pictures, name, art, product, whatever, promoted on SuperLame! We will have exceptions and we are partial to pictures and photos.

Thanks for using SuperLame! for all your comic balloon needs!

So, we’re looking at areas to continue SuperLame! while making at least enough money to run it. We want to know what you, the user, thinks about some of the options. Here’s a brief description of some of the options we could try.

SHOP

Create and sell branded and custom products, like t-shirts, stickers, photo prints, etc. We have recently launched a limited shop on SuperLame! Optimally, finding a company, something like CafePress, to partner with, and have products manufactured/made/printed on a per order basis.

FREEMIUM

You’ve probably seen a number of businesses take this model lately, at least in the web 2.0 world, (Flickr, Picnik). The idea is to offer a completely free basic or at least limited version of your product/service. Then, offset that by charging a small monthly/yearly/whatever fee to people willing to pay for an enhanced or improved experience with more features in a premium version.

DONATION

Offer everything for free and hope people appreciate it so much that they support it out of the kindness of their hearts. Also, begging can’t hurt.

AD SUPPORTED

You may have noticed some people around the internet using “banner ads”. These can be placed everywhere and anywhere. Most of the problems with these are the yielding of a very small income to large annoyance ratio.

SPONSORED

Find companies and individuals selling or promoting something. Sell them the opportunity to customize the SuperLame! site/app with such things as, custom backgrounds, limited edition features (special speech bubbles, extra fonts, etc.), initial branded pictures and photos to play with.

These are some of the we’re currently looking into at SuperLame! and we’d really like to hear from the community as to what you would like us to pursue. I have to say, we’re currently leaning toward the Freemium model. If you have any other options we should consider or advise please don’t hesitate to comment on this post or contact us. Thanks.

At the moment you can buy a t-shirt with your custom made SuperLame! picture on it; t-shirt with the sweet SuperLame! icon logo on it; stickers with your custom made SuperLame! picture; or stickers of the SuperLame! icon logo. That’s just what we have right now, we’re going to try and get even more stuff to offer as soon as possible.

All you’ve got to do to get your own custom printed stuff is: 1) Create a SuperLame! comic picture. 2) Once you’ve saved it, click on the ‘shop’ icon on the top of the page. 3) Choose the stuff you want, fill out your shipping/billing info and payment info. 4) Wait for your awesome stuff. 5) Receive and enjoy your new awesome stuff.

Sorry international visitors, but the service is currently limited to the United States.

What do you think of the new logo? Leave a comment.

The coolest part was that she actually mentions what I wrote about the development process. If you didn’t already know, the SuperLame web tool was made using only the trial version of Adobe’s Flash CS3, within the first eight days to be precise. I’d really like to add features and continue to make improvements, however, the trial has ended and like she said, I’m hoping to pay for the full version of Flash with donations. Heck, even if you’re someone in a postion to donate Flash that would be awesome too. Maybe Adobe is reading this right now and wants to support SuperLame with some free software, eh? I’m just throwing it out there. Oh, and thanks to anyone that donates and helps support SuperLame.

A big special thanks to everyone at Geekbrief!

Labs will also have various SuperLame! Experiments we do that may not necessarily be implemented into the full functionality of the site anytime soon, if ever. In addition we’ll try to provide some tutorials, examples, and source for certain projects when we can. Sharing is caring baby!

So, if you’re interested in the future of SuperLame! or some of the inner workings, give it a look. Hope you enjoy the new SuperLame! Labs. Later.