Xref: utzoo comp.sys.amiga:14641 comp.sys.misc:1174
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!mit-eddie!ll-xn!ames!amdahl!dlb!ardent!rap
From: rap@ardent.UUCP (Rob Peck)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga,comp.sys.misc
Subject: Re: enforcement of Shareware
Message-ID: <311@ardent.UUCP>
Date: 16 Feb 88 21:03:11 GMT
References: <8055@g.ms.uky.edu> <174@piring.cwi.nl> <39450@sun.uucp> <42017@sun.uucp>
Organization: Dana Computer, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA
Lines: 35
Summary: another term in the equation

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