Yesterday I linked to a Marco Arment article that referenced David Smith’s podcast Developing Perspective. David Smith (affectionately known as Underscore David Smith because of his Twitter handle) was working on a new service called FeedWrangler when Google announced they were shutting down Reader. His timing was perfect. For $18 per year you can have your RSS feed delivered to most any news reader, including one he wrote, and have an independent developer dedicated to making a better product working on it. I’m happy to pay my $18 per year.

But what David is doing now is really smart. He recently released PodWrangler, a podcasting app. He made some of the features available for free and more paid, but if you subscribe to FeedWrangler you get the entire app for free. I downloaded it this weekend. A very solid first release.

The business thinking here is brilliant. Get your customers locked in and provide those willing to pay an annual fee more value for their money. I hope it works for David. More of us need to find business models that keep us in business.