New Author Tips

Are you thinking of joining the ranks of the trialware commercial software developers? Here are some important tips:

• If you're starting out, chances are that you are a very small company. There's nothing wrong with that but don't advertise it. Marketing 101: don't volunteer negative information.

• Don't refer to your software as "shareware". Most people associate "shareware" with someone writing software in their bedroom. No large companies refer to their software as "shareware" for a good reason. Call your software "trialware", "trial", "trial software", "software", "demo", anything but "shareware". The term "shareware" is also very non-descriptive, and could very well confuse many of your potential customers because they can't readily understand what you are referring to. "Shareware" sounds like software to be shared, as in pirated. Not a very smart business decision to suggest people pirate your software.

• Your software downloads should be trialware, i.e. time or feature limited in some way. Donationware and nagware methods just don't work.

• Don't ask people to "register" your software when you want them to purchase it. Just ask them to buy it. Large companies ask you to purchase their software and (maybe) register it afterwards.

• Get your own domain name. Nothing spells amateur better that trying to sell software off a free web page.

• Don't use those annoying pop-up ads on your web pages. They are infuriating and will turn customers away.

• Never send unsolicited bulk e-mail (spam). If you use a mailing list make sure it is opt-in only and have some sort of confirmation/authentication feature.