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Selling Software - Shareware, Piracy, and Profit?

Posted by Cliff on from the this-part-of-the-industry-is-not-for-the-faint-of-heart dept.

qjereq asks: "A few months after being laid off from a large corporation early last year, I decided to create some image browsing software to sell on the web and, perhaps later, in stores. Unfortunately, besides competing with hundreds of other similar shareware and freeware products, I have found that the bulk of my product's downloads come from pirate web sites. I have tried unsuccessfully to make my software hack-proof. I have also looked into selling the product in-stores, but I have only heard bad things about this including the possibility of having to eat the cost of returned merchandise. I am running low on cash and am on the brink of giving up, but I know that the product is good. Do any Slashdot readers have any success stories about how they were able to make money by selling software? My product is currently sold as Shareware. Should I consider a combination of Freeware and a Full Version? Is it worth the hassle of trying to get onto store shelves? Help."

3 of 105 comments (clear)

  1. Re:It's a good price... by cymen · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Have you thought about targeted digital photography neophytes? Forums, tutorials (I see you have some already), and other material could draw these people in. I've participated in a number of forums at various digital photo websites and it has been fun. I liked the photo of the day and the themed monthly group photo assignment the most.

    On a side note, what might help draw these people to your new site is your participation in other sites and usenet groups. If you know how to do this right, which I think of as being an active and useful member of the community (not spamming), you will get click throughs to your site (best with your website's URL in your sig). This is a fine line to tread and it does take time.

  2. I buy shareware... by singularity · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I am one of the people that pays for shareware on occasion. At present, I have at least ten pieces of shareware on my computer that I have paid for.

    Requirements for me to pay for shareware:
    1) Best in class: I paid my $29 for iCab. Why would I do that when I can get it for free? Simple - iCab offers the best feature set for a web browser. I have yet to see any web browser that offers the filtering powers iCab offers in an easy-to-set-up manner.

    2) Great software: I am currently shopping for an OS X IRC client. Right now I am using iRC which is good, but not great. It is shareware, but I am not going to pay for it since I can easily imagine a better client out there.

    3) Annoying, but not obtrusive reminders: I paid for GraphicConverter for OS X because it has a simple "Click Here to Run the Program" dialog box when you start it off. it reminds me every time I used it without paying for it just how often I was using it.

    4) Full feature, unlimited demo: At the same time, with GC, it offers all of its features for as long as you want to put up with the nag screen. Since I use a program for a couple of months before deciding if it is worth paying for, a timed demo never gets my money (it stops working before I get a chance to fully evaluate it in my day-to-day life). Not giving me the full features also prevents me from fully evaluating my need and, as a result, will never get me to pay for something.

    5) Professional company/website: I paid for a shareware type of BBEdit, and paid for the MissingSync. The web sites for these companies offered a lot of help and support, and made me confident that I was not going to get ripped off. Since I hate PayPal, any shareware that only uses that form of payment will not get my money.

    6) Unique and worth money: I paid for the MissingSync because I needed it to sync my Clie with OS X. It was the only software that would allow this (PalmDesktop now offers this built-in). If a piece of shareware competes with a freeware alternative, the shareware software had better be significantly better than the free alternatives.

    7) Good upgrade policy: This is a big one. GraphicConverter and others allow free upgrades for a *very* long time once you pay. I am not going to hand over money for v2.1 of some software if I know I am going to have to pay for v3.0 in three months and then v3.5 three months after that. I would say that, in general, I am willing to pay for a paid upgrade every two years or so.

    --
    - (c) 2018 Hank Zimmerman
  3. Re:hack proof by Olathe · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I suppose you could make it incredibly trivial for crackers to break, but hard for the average user. Maybe, in the binary, put "Copy protection: y". How many average users would be able to edit a binary without ruining it ?

    Then, if a cracker posted it for bragging rights, people could laugh, removing that incentive.