(Community Server related) I want to run this by you

The words "I've been busy" do not even begin to describe what I've been up to. Yet, it still just sounds like an excuse.

Well, today's post is not about politics or religion (not that there hasn't been plenty going on to talk about!), it's about my other favorite subject, Technology, specifically Community Server. The wonderful product that runs this site and has been supplementing my income by way of consulting for nearly a year now.

I mentioned that I was thinking about going full time in my consulting services for Community Server because I thought that there was a market for it. Well, there certainly is, and that decision is 90% made and the day is fast approaching when I will begin doing business under the name of my new company (to be announce shortly) instead of as a simple part-time independant consultant.

Now, I have a few questions for the fine folks that use this product (as you make up a good 50% of my audience)

1.  I know now that there are plenty of people willing to pay and pay well for Community Server Services, but I don't want to cut out the small businesses and upstart non-profit/hobbyist communities by charging more than they can afford. So I'm looking at providing a service where projects of all sizes and budgets can be taken and if not myself, sub-contracted out to experienced and professional CS Developers with the time and availability to take the project at the negotiated rate.
   
   Are there developers with the desire to take part in such work? I can't promise steady full-time work, but certainly occasional supplemental income, at least to start.
   
2. Charging for services is at the least expected, but in the Community Server community, as with any other cumminty supported system, there is an expectation of free software. There are always community contributors who in their spare time develop custom add-ins, skins, modules etc... I myself have done so, and will continue to do so when I have the time. 
   
   But what about charging for professional add-ins, modules and applications? Say for instance someone developed a fully featured calendar application that supported personal calendars, community calendars, recurrences, email reminders, importing, exporting, all the things you would expect from a professional application. Would you be willing to pay for that? What about professionally developed skins? 
   
   It worked for DotNetNuke, I don't see why it wouldn't for CommunityServer, and I think that if there was a potential for profit, you would see a lot more custom development happening around CommunityServer.
   
3. Finally, I'm toying with the idea of writing a technical manual for CommunityServer. I've been asked on many occasions if I could write a skinning document covering the basics of skinning CommunityServer. This is something I could do, if I had the time. Well, with the move to self-employment, I'm thinking I'll have more time (I could just be fooling myself here) and would like to pursue that, but going beyond that, I would like to write out a full manual on not only skinning, but writing your own controls, writing CSModules, even writing full featured applications on top of the CS "Post model".
   
   As with all of the above, this would be a money making venture (hey, a guy's got to support himself somehow!). Would a detailed book on the inner workings of Community Server, and a complete how-to guide be something that you folks would be willing to pay for? 
   
   I of course would release the first Part of the book, covering basic and intermediate skinning, for free :)

That's about it. I'm really excited about this, there is nothing more that I would like to do, than to make my living working with a product I love and use. I know there are others that feel the same way.

So I welcome all input from developers and customers alike.