1. Making Money with EUPHORIA
- Posted by Shawn <pringle at techie.com>
Sep 24, 2005
-
Last edited Sep 25, 2005
There are several models for making money with software. Any comments?
shareware: Share it and beg for registrations in the Help Box.
cripple ware: Like shareware but provides incentive (like EUPHORIA)
open source: give the software and the source and pray someone hires you to
improve it.
trying to sell online
trying to put it into the distributor-retail chains around the country.
Tell me, what are your experiences with these methods.
Please no moralistic flames. I would only like to hear people who tried to
profit from thier software. Authors of EUPHORIA itself are invited.
Shawn
2. Re: Making Money with EUPHORIA
- Posted by Patrick Barnes <mrtrick at gmail.com>
Sep 24, 2005
-
Last edited Sep 25, 2005
On 9/25/05, Shawn <guest at rapideuphoria.com> wrote:
> posted by: Shawn <pringle at techie.com>
>
> There are several models for making money with software. Any comments?
>
> shareware: Share it and beg for registrations in the Help Box.
> cripple ware: Like shareware but provides incentive (like EUPHORIA)
> open source: give the software and the source and pray someone hires you =
to improve it.
> trying to sell online
> trying to put it into the distributor-retail chains around the country.
>
> Tell me, what are your experiences with these methods.
> Please no moralistic flames. I would only like to hear people who tried =
to
> profit from thier software. Authors of EUPHORIA itself are invited.
Well, the biggest difficulty with making software is that on the
internet are MILLIONS of people who are doing the same thing. If you
make a widget that does $thing, there will be possibly hundreds of
people out there with software that does the same thing. Some of them
will be like you, trying to profit from it, while others release it as
freeware for kicks or are involved in open-source projects.
The key problem is: With the internet users have ready access to
alternatives, so if they initially don't like the idea of paying you
money for your product, they can simply google for another person's
free program.
My recommendation would be multi-pronged...
1. Find a problem that doesn't have a solution yet. Everybody and his
dog have written FTP clients, instant messengers, games,
anti-vir/anti-bug programs... Find a program you can write that
addresses something that not everyone has done already.
Minimise the number of competitors.
2. Find a problem with the right target market. Lets say you write
your widget, and get 400 users interested in using it. If you have 400
teenage girls interested, you won't get anywhere NEAR as many sales as
if you get 400 small-businesses interested.
Your best market will be small business, because they don't have the
rigid IT policies (so are able to easily purchase new software) that
large companies do.... and *possibly* something that a family would
use, not just the 14 year old girl.
3. Don't give the user too much OR too little for nothing. Lets face
it, everyone uses winzip... how many pay for it? I would suggest
crippleware as an ideal model, with a few caveats:
* Don't do time-limits, watermarks, no save option or anything that
reduces productivity with the free version to zero. I install a lot of
software at work, and I refuse to touch any shareware with a
time-limit... with all the time I spend configuring things to work
correctly, why would I want something that just falls apart?
* Try to show the user just how fantastic the full version really
is... I think an ideal thing in a user application would be to
grey-out any menu items that do not exist in the free version, with
[full version only] beside them. A splash screen advertising the full
version when the free one is run is feasible, but let the user click
past it whenever they choose.
* Don't make the free version TOO fantastic, or nobody will even think
of upgrading. One possible solution is a size-limit on documents, and
definitely limit things like any export functions the widget might
have.
4. There is more to sell than just the product. The biggest concern of
businesses is support. Who will tell them how to use the system?
Remember, they're your primary target market.
Remember, you'll be competing against the OSS and freeware solutions,
so support is an easy way to differentiate.
I would suggest including in the full-product's price 12 months of
free phone tech support. Make online training available to anybody who
has a full version of the software. Sell *inexpensive* support
contracts to customers who've already had the software for 12 months.
5. Don't be evil. This is a given... no spyware, adware, anything like that=
.
--
MrTrick
----------
3. Re: Making Money with EUPHORIA
> There are several models for making money with software. Any comments?
I've looked into. I just don't think I've written anything of my own
that would turn a profit. The few truely useful apps I've written were
for other people/companies, and I was paid for the time to write them.
On average, for typical apps, I charge $10 per hour, and log my hours.
With Euphoria, Win32Lib and EuSQL, I can turn out an app in roughly 5
or 7 hours.
The app I've been working on lately is for work, and will be free. It
sucks, and they won't pay me for the time I've worked on it. But I'm
the one that bitches that the current version works for crap and
offered to write a new one. Its on hold right now because I'd like to
use the new Euphoria multitasking and I'm waiting for an "official'
release.
If you do write some useful apps, just charge for downloading a copy,
and maybe a discount for future releases. PayPal has their IPN system,
which is Instant Payment Notification. It allows a CGI app to know
when a user has made a payment and automatically download the file.
I think the easist thing to do would be to offer "demo" versions of
your apps, with limited or missing features. Release these for free,
and charge $20 or $25 for the "full" version, or maybe $15 for the
"better" version and $25 for the "complete" version. This is pretty
much what Rob does. You can get Euphoria for free, but for a small
(less than $50) price, you get the "full" version. You could also off
discounted upgrades. I'm sure PayPal's IPN has support for this, too.
The only reason big companies charges hundreds of dollars for apps is
because a) several people write them, b) they're usually "suites" of
applications, and c) they don't want just anyone using them (such as
$2,500 corporate versions).
Eventually I'll charge for my software, when I finally write good apps...
~Greg
4. Re: Making Money with EUPHORIA
trying to put it into the distributor-retail chains around the country.
Now that's the way to go, just come up with a good idea, and get a
publisher behind it. Then all you need is a good investment from
either the publisher or from outside investors.
Dan
On 9/24/05, Shawn <guest at rapideuphoria.com> wrote:
>
>
> posted by: Shawn <pringle at techie.com>
>
> There are several models for making money with software. Any comments?
>
> shareware: Share it and beg for registrations in the Help Box.
> cripple ware: Like shareware but provides incentive (like EUPHORIA)
> open source: give the software and the source and pray someone hires you =
to improve it.
> trying to sell online
> trying to put it into the distributor-retail chains around the country.
>
> Tell me, what are your experiences with these methods.
> Please no moralistic flames. I would only like to hear people who tried =
to
> profit from thier software. Authors of EUPHORIA itself are invited.
>
> Shawn
>
>
>
>
5. Re: Making Money with EUPHORIA
Shawn wrote:
>
> There are several models for making money with software. Any comments?
>
> shareware: Share it and beg for registrations in the Help Box.
> cripple ware: Like shareware but provides incentive (like EUPHORIA)
> open source: give the software and the source and pray someone hires you to
> improve
> it.
> trying to sell online
> trying to put it into the distributor-retail chains around the country.
>
> Tell me, what are your experiences with these methods.
> Please no moralistic flames. I would only like to hear people who tried to
> profit from thier software. Authors of EUPHORIA itself are invited.
>
> Shawn
>
Ah. You forgot the route of clandestinely building it into a highly efficient
operational infrastructure, and being the only person who can support it.
Then there's always trading your micro-economy bucks for Frito's and cheap beer.
--"ask about our layaway plan".
--
