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From: scotty@l5comp.UUCP (Scott Turner)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga,comp.sys.ibm.pc,comp.sys.misc
Subject: Re: Shareware is a HOAX Re: Another View on Shareware
Message-ID: <111@l5comp.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 9-May-87 20:34:16 EDT
Article-I.D.: l5comp.111
Posted: Sat May  9 20:34:16 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 10-May-87 11:43:04 EDT
References: <18006@sun.uucp> <795@looking.UUCP>
Reply-To: scotty@l5comp.UUCP (Scott Turner)
Organization: L5 Computing, Edmonds, WA
Lines: 51
Keywords: shareware
Summary: Non-flame rebuke on shareware as a hoax.
Xref: mnetor comp.sys.amiga:4694 comp.sys.ibm.pc:3923 comp.sys.misc:569

In article <795@looking.UUCP> @looking.UUCP (Brad Templeton) writes:
>Oddly enough, the less you charge to register, the fewer registrations you
>will get.  (I guess people figure they won't get anything for a cheap
>registration, or that it isn't worth the time.)
>
>One program with a 25 cent registration made the author 50 cents.
>On the net, we see a $5 registration making $10.
>A program with a $10 registration made $310.
>A program with a $50 registration made $600.
I know of a programmer who asked $15 and got >$2000 for his Amiga program.
He even got a commercial firm to pay into 3 digits to distribute his program
with their product.

From observing shareware it seems to me that there are three paths to making it
work:

1. Know the right people. The only way that programmer got included with the
commercial product was through a contact with the commercial programmer.

2. Being in the right place at the right time with the right product. I call
this "luck" as it takes a pile of it.

3. Giving people something for their money. As the commies will tell you,
human nature is such that MOST people will not do Y to get X if they can get
X without doing Y. Our "buddies" (Hey Gorbachev wants us to think they're our
buddies right? :-)) in the USSR solved this delima by introducing the D factor.
Do Y and you get X, don't do Y and you get D (usually D := Dead;). PC Write
fills in D with user support. Most shareware authors though don't supply a D
factor and hence get very little for their effort. They decide to be like Lenin
and depend on the D factor not being needed, maybe in another universe fellas.
Do also note that a D factor of "Send me your HARD earned money and I'll
register you as a user and let you know about future updates" don't hack it.
After all, they got the original some how. Most people are smart enough to make
the connection that if they hang around the same place they'll get the updates
too :).

>All these amounts less than 1 or 2 days consulting fees.
Quite frankly most shareware authors would be doing good to get THAT much in
consulting fees. If they could they'd be consulting!

>The conclusion -- Shareware is a hoax.  Only a very, very few make money
>from it, and their programs would probably have sold far more as
Shareware isn't a hoax. It's just that most people treat it as "Money for
nothing" by providing no D factor or a rather limp wristed one.

Scott Turner

L5 Computing, the home of Merlin, Arthur, Excalibur and the CRAM.
GEnie: JST | UUCP: stride!l5comp!scotty | 12311 Maplewood Ave; Edmonds WA 98020
If Motorola had wanted us to use BPTR's they'd have built in shifts on A regs
[ BCL? Just say *NO*! ] (I don't smoke, send flames to /dev/null)