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From: mlinar@eve.usc.edu (Mitch Mlinar)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac,comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: A Solution to the Shareware Dilemma?
Message-ID: <6973@oberon.USC.EDU>
Date: 15 Feb 88 22:28:35 GMT
References: <8502@sunybcs.UUCP>
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Reply-To: mlinar@eve.usc.edu (Mitch Mlinar)
Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
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In article <8502@sunybcs.UUCP> domino@sybil.UUCP (Michael Domino) writes:
>As a programmer I have always agreed with the shareware philosohy:
>give users a reasonably priced product, let them try it out, and,
>if they find it useful, send the author a relatively small amount.
>Cuts out the middleman, makes the software market a more dynamic
>place, more responsive to the needs of users.  OK.  The problem is,
>of course, that it doesn't work too well.  It's just too damn hard
>for the user of a shareware product to go through all the trouble of
>addressing an envelope, writing a check, finding a stamp and then
>remembering to drop the whole thing in a mailbox.  The independent
>
>  ...............
>
>The point of all this rehash is that it occured to me that what
>shareware developers need is a way to make payment for their pro-
>ducts just as easy and convenient as ordering from an ad or a
>catalog...a co-op of some sort that would maintain the toll-free
>line, MC and Visa accounts, so that users could just pick up their
>phone, blurt out their account number and ease their consciences
>with little effort.  Members of this organization would receive
>periodic payment with a statement, and maybe even a list of buyers
>to notify their users of upgrades, new products, etc.  Maybe this
>organization could publish its own newsletter with that kind of
>information...there would have to be a percentage deducted from the
>payment to support the service, but 80 or 90% of something is a lot
>better than 100% of nothing.  How to remind users to call in their
>payment?  Create a standard piece of code that would put a notice
>up x number of times each time the program is run, with the phone
>number, and emphasize how easy it is and how much better you'll
>feel by supporting such a worthwhile product.  Make it humorous.

Since mail does not seem to be getting through, I will post on this.
Since I own my company (very small) which happens to sell software (not
for IBM-PCs though), I agree that such a service would be a big boon.
However, what you fail to realize is that marketing/advertisement accounts
for somewhere nears 80% of the cost of product.  This tends to bother
some authors who feel they should get 50 to 80% of the cost, not the
pretty much standard 10% (or less!).

Another problem is capital investment: you need to have some money to
advertise before you sell one disk - a minimum of 3 months for high-profile
magazines or 6 months for lower profile.  Don't expect any return during
this time.  Now, you give me a new product to sell, and it takes 3 months
of $1000 ads (total for SMALL ads in various magazines) to sell your
$30 program.  And your program may not sell - so who is liable for the loss:
you, this company you propose, or the "consortium" of authors where everyone
shares the risk.  I don't know how to solve all this, but I do know one
thing for certain: only 1 in 15 of those programs will be a REAL success,
and less than 1/3 would break even.

So, although I like your idea, you would be hard pressed to find anyone to
do this.  I would, provided I could reject programs immediately or after
a period of time with no break-even.  I would also need to pay for ads,
two phone answering people (to cover 16 hours of incoming calls that I
experience now), and all the other things that go with it.  Even 10% may
be too large for such a low cost program.

Any counter suggestions?

-Mitch