Google has been experimenting with QR codes by linking them to Google Maps listings, and you’ll notice people posting their QR codes on their Yelp listings lately too. Supposedly, Facebook is even tinkering with giving people QR codes for their profiles.

Reading this TC article about Google’s QR codes got us thinking about how a store owner could use them to get mobile-savvy customers (pretty much everyone now?) to fill out surveys or subscribe to mailing lists.

Here’s one way you could use them, but I’m sure you can think of more…

1) Go to your DBStract account, and open a database.

2) Click the social button in the list of options and you will see some choices on qr codes.

3) Now, you can print your image, and hang it on your door.

You might customize your sign with details about the list. “Sign up for weekly e-coupons” or “get our monthly-ish newsletter” or “get event updates.”

Now what?

Anyone with an iPhone, Android or whatever smart phone with a QR scanner app can now go to my form.

On my iPhone, I’ve downloaded an app called Quickmark:

Yes, I realize all my other apps are kids games. Leave me alone.

When I scan that code, it recognizes that it’s a URL:

which is clickable, and takes me to my form:

Now that you have an idea of how this can work, you can do unique stuff, like:

• Place a QR code on your door or window taking customers to a survey where they get special deals for filling it out.
• You could subscribe people to a fun autoresponder sequence, where they get some random trivia about your business, or tips/advice from your employees, every couple weeks. Advice: if you’re going to automate emails, make sure you tell people on the print out. Like, “Get our secret weekly specials”
• Add a giant QR code to the last slide of your powerpoint presentations (you’ll get some subscribers, but more importantly, look super nerdy-cool)

Qr codes are gaining momentum and getting more popular every day, so you see them in the oddest places. We added this feature to help our users make use of this cool technology.

This phasing out will be effective a week from today – Saturday 25th June 2011.

Users now have a choice of two plans:

1. The ‘Key Account‘ – priced at $5.95/month. This includes all the features of the old ‘free’ accounts plus the ability to directly import data in to DBStract from sources such as CSV and XML files AND the ability to test out DBStract’s Integrated Payment Processing with 3 transactions. Key accounts have a free trial period of 7 days.

2. The ‘Pro Account‘, which will continue to be priced at $19.95/month, now features the ability to implement multi-page forms for data capture and will be further enhanced over coming months.

Existing free DBStract accounts which have not been upgraded to either ‘Key’ or ‘Pro’ by  Saturday 25th June 2011 will be cancelled. Following a short holding period, data from these accounts will then be purged from our system.

We would like to take this opportunity to answer two questions that you may be asking:

Why the change?

The main reasons for this change are (a) to enable us to maintain our excellent levels of reliability and responsiveness as our user base grows and (b) to support improvements to DBStract across all levels – user interface & experience, system functionality & platform support.

Sure – we could have thrown advertising all over the interface. But we didn’t want to. And judging from user feedback, you wouldn’t want us to.

Additionally – following the closing of DabbleDB, a number of users have asked if we have any similar plans. Shifting from a ‘Freemium’ model to our new Key/Pro model makes DBStract a viable business and a highly reliable place to build web applications and store data with more features and flexibility than our competition.

If you’ve ever relied on a free service and thought “Let us pay for this service so that it won’t disappear” you’ll understand where we are coming from.

When should I switch to a Key Account? When will I be charged?

The best time to switch to a Key Account is… RIGHT NOW! By switching your account from the free account to the Key Account today you’ll be ensuring full continuity of service. Your credit card WILL NOT BE CHARGED until Saturday June 25th 2011. There really is no reason to delay.

To transition to a Key or Pro account just Login to DBStract, select your new account type, enter your billing details and give yourself one less thing to deal with.

Finally, let us take this opportunity to thank you for being a DBStract customer. If you have any feedback on DBStract please feel free to contact us.

Despite this being a part time activity DBStract has grown in to a platform that supports thousands of users, and millions of data records. Our uptime has been second to none.

In order to move DBStract forward I recently sought business partners and formed DBStract Technologies Inc. I have retained the role of CTO. Nick Kellet is our CEO and Richard Taylor is our CMO.

A number of initiatives are now underway to enhance the DBStract experience including interface re-design; provision of a suite of WordPress plugins; additional tools to allow you to not only capture and display data but to transform and analyze data; integration with a leading Email newsletter service; data capture via multi-screen wizards ; a selection of ‘starter apps’ to allow even quicker deployment of common functions; development of iOS and Android apps.

We expect ‘DBStract 2′ to launch in fall of this year and to become the number one App for making Apps.

Until now, the service has been provided on the ‘freemium’ model: the basic version of DBStract has been provided free-of-charge and the PRO version of DBStract has been priced at $19.99/month.

Effective today, the free version of DBStract is no longer available to new users.

New users have a choice of two plans…

The ‘Key Account‘ – priced at $5.95/month. This includes all the features of the old ‘free’ accounts plus the ability to directly import data in to DBStract from sources such as CSV and XML files AND the ability to test out DBStract’s Integrated Payment Processing with 3 transactions.

Key accounts have a free trial period of 7 days.

The ‘Pro Account‘ will continue to be priced at $19.95/month, already features the ability to implement multi-page forms for data capture and will be further enhanced over the coming months.

So – as an existing DBStract user, how does this impact you?

Well, if you are a Pro user, it doesn’t. You can just keep on using DBStract and can look out for announcements of new functions.

If you are a free user, you are required to upgrade to a paid plan, or to export your data in the next month. Effective Saturday 25th June 2011 all existing free DBStract accounts which have not been upgraded to either ‘Key’ or ‘Pro’ will be cancelled and data erased.

Following this, all DBStract users will be invited to take part in a survey to help shape our future with respondents entered in a draw to win an iPad2.

Further reminders will be sent closer to account transition deadline. In the meantime, we thank you for being part of the DBStract community and for your business.

Kind regards
Roger Stringer, CTO & Co-Founder, DBStract Technologies Inc.

When you first log in, you will notice several differences in how your databases are first laid out, from there, we’ve made several changes to provide a more streamlined experience that we hope you will enjoy.

We have more features coming in the next couple of weeks and we’re quite happy with where DBStract is going right now.

First, for anyone who uses the embedded code to display their forms or tables on their websites, we now have the ability to view stats to see where people are located when they fill out your data.

Second, you’ll notice we’ve redone all our buttons, and we’re happy with them.

Third, we’ve added mailchimp integration to your forms, and as part of that, we’ve also taken the notification settings out of the Edit Table form and made it it’s own section called Notifications. We’ll have more integration options coming shortly.

Finally, the Code page (where you get your embedded code to display on your site) has been redone to be a little more intuitive.

These are the first of several changes coming in the next few weeks, and we hope you’ll enjoy them.