gordan@maccs.UUCP (gordan) (02/11/88)
If you want to read a version of this message without all these annoying Control-L's send $ 15 by e-mail Thank you. -- One foot on a banana peel The other in the Twilight Zone
dick@slvblc.UUCP (Dick Flanagan) (02/13/88)
In article <8503@sunybcs.UUCP> ugpete@sunybcs.uucp (Peter Theobald) writes: > How many times have you read this on the net: > '...<stuff about how OTHERS don't pay for shareware>... > I, however, am sending in my money for <program x> just as > soon as <condition y>' > [...] > How many people have ACTUALLY sent money? Not Real Soon Now. PROCOMM -- $25 \ ARC -- 35 > utilities for IBM PC-types PICNIX -- 15 / The best money I have ever spent on software--bar none--period! If I use it regularly, I pay for it! Dick -- Dick Flanagan, W6OLD GEnie: FLANAGAN UUCP: ...!ucbvax!ucscc!slvblc!dick Voice: +1 408 336 3481 INTERNET: slvblc!dick@ucscc.UCSC.EDU LORAN: N037 05.5 W122 05.2 USPO: PO Box 155, Ben Lomond, CA 95005
cmcmanis%pepper@Sun.COM (Chuck McManis) (02/16/88)
In another article kudla@pawl18.pawl.rpi.edu (self proclaimed pirate) writes: > And I made money off my own "MacDoodle 1.3", which I took in about > $50 for. This is a joke right? What do you charge for your time? It took you less than an hour to write MacDoodle? More clearly stated, you should probably said "I got some money for 'MacDoodle 1.3'" because the word "made" implies that more money came out of the result than went in. Take the hours you spent in design, coding, testing, and debugging. Multiply this by $n where n is what you could have made writing code for anyone else (my guess is that n ranges from 5 to 175 depending on the code/employer) and then subtract this from revenue (in this case $50) then say : printf("I %s $%d from MacDoodle",(result < 0) ? "lost" : "made",result); --Chuck McManis uucp: {anywhere}!sun!cmcmanis BIX: cmcmanis ARPAnet: cmcmanis@sun.com These opinions are my own and no one elses, but you knew that didn't you.
rap@ardent.UUCP (Rob Peck) (02/17/88)
In article <42017@sun.uucp>, cmcmanis%pepper@Sun.COM (Chuck McManis) writes: > printf("I %s $%d from MacDoodle",(result < 0) ? "lost" : "made",result); > --Chuck McManis I do agree about the marketing concepts mentioned previously - you gotta spread it around wherever possible to let people know it exists. If shareware, in whatever form, turns out badly for some folks, perhaps they'd consider writing a magazine article describing the software and thereby get other people excited about it. A well written article that makes a project (product) sound like a necessary part of someone's toolbox may be accepted by a magazine. The magazine, in turn, may well allow the little 'about-the-author' to contain a plug about how and where to get the software. Since you'd be marketing it yourself, you could offer the stuff at very low cost and still make a buck or two. And the name recognition you'd get is not a bad side effect either. Give 'em something useful in the article (or if on a disk-based magazine, a limited but functional version of the software/tryit-then-buyit), and leave 'em wanting more (and a way to get it). The response you get should be a direct indication of the level of interest in the project (whether by inquiry or by orders), or perhaps a measure of one's own marketing ability in selling the idea. (If it is difficult to interest the public in an idea, it may be equally difficult to interest a distributor/sofware-publisher in having them invest in it). BUT, if YOU like the project and get only a few folks responding, and THEY like it a whole lot as well, then you've made some friends who have common interests. And just having someone to talk to about what interests YOU can mean quite a lot. Rob Peck ...ihnp4!hplabs!ardent!rap