Go to http://www.tucows.com/ and look up free software called Spyware Doctor 3.2 for Windows. You can download it free, you along with the 500,000 other consumers who download it every week! OK, now go to http://www.download.com and check on the number of downloads for the AVG AntiVirus Free Edition. This title was downloaded 1,126,408 times last week and similar astounding quantities every week!
Consider this: what if you had some popular shareware title that users downloaded over a half million times every week? Can you see a way to make some money here?
What do shareware developers know that most people don’t? Here are some ideas: 1. To achieve big download numbers try to develop an application that has mass market appeal. However, even niche market applications can do very well.
Secondly, if you find a niche market and a title you wish to develop make sure it out-competes and out performs the nearest competition. You want a product that is so far better than the shareware that’s on the market that word of mouth promotes it for you.
Remember two things. First, software is a digital product. Your cost per unit is zero because sites like tucows and http://www.download.com/ are only too happy to provide the bandwidth resources so that millions of people can download your software.
With over ten million people having downloaded Spyware Doctor so far you can see that the traffic to a site like www.Download.com is enormous putting their Alexa traffic ranking around 89. Post your shareware to similar shareware sites to have a chance of having your title downloaded a lot.
My research showed tens of thousands of such sites but there are probably more. Just type in free downloads or free software as a search term in Google, Alexa or Yahoo.com . You could not spend enough money to get anywhere close to that level of traffic. So, why bother? Why even have a web site?
Shareware Millions Most people are unaware of all the ways someone can make money giving away free software. Here’s some ideas Thomas Deedy told me about that might surprise you as much as it did me.
There are a multitude of ways you can make some money. One of the biggest is by offering users support services. The key here is to carefully and meticulously develop a database covering every possible support issue. This database is installed into a trouble-shooting solution key for the technical people handling support.
You can actually sell support by the minute, hour or for an annual fee. You can install your trouble-shooting tree on a site accessible only by support staff. The database of solutions keeps growing until there is virtually no problem that a mildly technical support person can suss out by following the support issue tree.
As users call in with support issues they are added to the trouble shooting menu that is shared by all support personnel. Once the support tree has reached this stage the overhead cost of providing support drops very low. For example, you could charge $10 per issue to users. But, since all issues may only take a minute or less to locate and deliver from the support tree this is nearly pure profit.
Some support services even use 900 numbers and charge per call. Or, they precharge for X number of hours of support. It is like a reserve account and users use it if needed.
On an expensive program you could sell a support package that includes video and troubleshooting software. For a shareware program that might sell for $2500 at retail you could easily sell this package for $250.
So, imagine you’ve got a valuable business application that should sell on the open market for $2500 but since it is free around 250,000 people download it. If just 2% of those people decide to opt for the support package @ $250 you’d have a winner.
That works out to 5000 orders for the video and trouble-shooting software @ $250 each or $1,250,000!
The video/support software concept makes it possible to automate your support business. This work can be outsourced to save you time and aggravation.
Sound interesting? Why not visit www.elance.com or www.Vworker.com? You can enter a project proposal free of charge and have professional coders bidding to work with you within 24 hours. Outsourcing to coders in other countries can be very reasonable.
Once your shareware has been created and tested you own the rights. That means you can license the program to other companies to collect royalties on all their sales or agree that you will provide support services and keep 100% of the revenues from support.
I believe shareware development may be one of the best ways to build a million dollar revenue but you need few technical skills to succeed.
While you can make money providing support many simpler program make money in other ways.
Many programs are offered on a free trial basis. After 30 to 40 days the program requires you to register and pay the license fee or it expires. Or, you can set up a “DONATE BUTTON” and collect donations. As an incentive offer your users unlimited access to any upgrades plus some support for their modest donation.
————————————————————————————————————————– ” Please support my efforts to provide users with support and improve this software with a small donation. In return, you’ll receive a link to an extensive tutorial, help files and you’ll be advised when you can download the latest updated version of XYZ software. You’ll receive lifetime updates all for your small contribution of $10 or more.” ————————————————————————————————————————–
It is easy to setup a donate button using PayPal. Set up three buttons if you like starting with $5 and go on up.
You can be sure a substantial number of people will contribute $$ but the capturing of the user’s name and email address may ultimately be worth more than the donation. Anyone who can build a massive opt-in emailing list has the potential to earn roughly a dollar per name per month. Major players like Mark Joyner built lists of around a million names. A single email to his list could generate hundreds of thousands of dollars in sales.
My Advice: Get started on this project right now but avoid creating software that has too narrow a market. You want the most universally needed application you can imagine. You want to create a title that nearly everyone on the Internet knows they need and really wants. You could look at the download numbers and identify a massively popular program and then improve upon it (if that’s possible) by making it more powerful, easier to use or with special features that no other software has.
Other ways to make money with shareware:
1. You’ll want to create a full version and a basic version from the start. Deliver the full version but make it function with an unlock code. Then, when users pay for the upgrade just send them the unlock code.
2. Build an email list by offering something to your customers like an e-zine with insider user tips. Or, simply bribe them by offering them another of your software programs free when they register their copy of XYZ software that they just downloaded. As I said, above, owning a massive opt-in email list can be worth a fortune.
3. I created a free lesson creator and reader for students. Then, I set it up so that teachers could purchase a much more powerful lesson creator which would enable them to create Advanced Lessons that they can sell on my site. I share the revenue from these Advanced Lessons. See www.Tutorbug.com
I hope this has been helpful and that you realize that coders can do all the technical stuff for you. If so, you may just have found the perfect way to become a shareware millionaire.
Before you spend big bucks creating software consider becoming a shareware posting agent to earn a fee on every paid upgrade. Click on shareware posting agent for complete details. Check here for free reprint licence: How To Make Money Publishing Shareware.