Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!aurora!labrea!agate!ucbvax!cartan!skippy!koonce
From: koonce@skippy (tim koonce)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.m6809
Subject: Re: Marketing Programs
Message-ID: <1554@cartan.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: 5 Feb 88 06:53:58 GMT
Sender: nobody@cartan.Berkeley.EDU
Reply-To: koonce@bosco.Berkeley.EDU (tim koonce)
Organization: UC Berkeley Math Department
Lines: 47

>I'm still trying to decide how to distribute my program
>(shareware, PD, sell it (thru whom?)).


From what I've seen and heard, how to distribute it depends on what
you want out of it.

For the Color Computer market:

Shareware will likely _not_ make you any money at all.  In any
shareware situation, only a small percentage actually pay for the
program.  In the PC market, where a few thousand copies are likely to
get distributed, you will see some money, since that small percentage
still amounts to a few hundred people.  For the CoCo market, shareware
distribution is comparatively light, so you're not likely to see more
than a dozen or so (if that many) people actually pay for it.  I may
be overly pessimistic about this, though.

If you want to get lasting fame and see lots of people using your
program, shareware or PD (or "freeware", which means you copyright it,
unlike PD, but don't request any money) is definitely the way to go.
Mike Ward has become quite a celebrity (so to speak) because he
released "MikeyTerm" as freeware.

If you really want to make money, write for another computer.
However, if you would like to see a modest return, write a _good_
program, market it through one of the better-known companies, and
convince them to sell it for a fairly low price.  If it's priced like
your competition, you may not sell as well.  Most people that have $99
Color Computers are a little unwilling to pay $200 for a word
processor.  Figures I've seen and heard suggest typical incomes from
Color Computer programming significantly below minimum wage.  Not a
way to get rich.  Not a way to make a living unless you're _real_
good.

These are opinions and hearsay, of course.  I decided to try to market
my program, figuring that getting some money (most of which will go
back into my computer in the form of a hard drive sometime, assuming I
make that much) was important enough that I could live if my name
didn't become a household word in the CoCo community.

                                  - Tim


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