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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."

2 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. 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.