Protecting your Rev apps - freeware options

[kee nethery]

It is my experience that "try before you buy" software can be extremely 
profitable. The successful authors have a mindset that fosters 
profitability. Here is what I have seen that works.

1. Go for the biggest potential audience you can find.

Screen savers can be purchased by anyone so, 100% of your chosen 
computing platform is your potential market. Screen savers are not 
technically challenging so there is lots of competition. Alternatively, 
the market for a midi controller for a specific keyboard is limited 
people who have that keyboard on the computing platform you have 
chosen. That market might if you are lucky be 0.01% of all people on 
your platform. But then there will be little competition in that market 
space. Assume you sell to 1 person out of a thousand who tries your 
software

something that the majority of the computer users could use:
(total computer owners for your platform) * 100% /1000 = a substantial 
number
versus something with a very limited audience:
(total computer owners for your platform) * 0.01%/1000 = a number small 
enough to count on your fingers

2. Focus on gaining users, not on limiting usage.

An hour spent promoting your software to magazine editors and user 
groups is more profitable than an hour spent on encrypting your 
software from pirates. You want people to use your software whether 
they pay or not. You want feedback. You want your app used by many many 
people and you want them to help you figure out what combination of 
features is compelling for them and their friends.

If you give away your first release, make sure you gather the emails of 
all your users. You want to query them, get their feedback, and 
eventually market your 2.0 release to them. Make sure your first 
release free software expires periodically so that they have to 
download the latest version and you get to keep track of them. You are 
trading free software for market data and market share. When your 
market is big enough, stop releasing free versions and release a 
professional looking version that costs money. Let the free versions 
die off and make it easy for free users to grab the latest version that 
costs money.

3. For your try-before-you-buy software, think addiction.

You want your software to be compelling enough for people to spend 
their valuable time getting to know it, how it works, all the cool 
things it does. You also want them to get hooked on it. You want them 
to get to the spot where they cannot imagine removing it from their 
desktop. I do not believe that time limits are a good thing. If I have 
a limited number of days to try out some software, I know that I should 
not get too attached to it because odds are I will not end up buying 
it. If it has functionality forever, then it's worth exploring and 
using. So how do you give it away forever and make money on it? 
Remember, the drug dealer's motto, the first one's free. Let people get 
some value from it on an ongoing basis but if they want to go over a 
threshold, that is when they need to pay.

For example, a free server product that works great and is completely 
free for 20 users. You want to add the 21st user, that will cost you. 
But then, you already have 20 users who utilize the server and 
convincing management to pay for it is no longer an issue.

How about another example, a midi controller for a specific keyboard. 
Maybe your software manages 20 midi sequences and the total play time 
for all sequences together is 10 minutes. A musician can do a great 
deal in 10 minutes with 20 sequences but if they want 21 sequences or 
more than a total of 10 minutes, they need to pay. But then if they 
need to exceed those limits, they already know they need the software.

4. Have other people want to promote your product

Adobe products have plugins. Everyone that sells a plugin is also 
selling a customer on the advantage of using the Adobe product it runs 
under. Same with the flying toaster screen saver from years ago and 
many other products, Konfabulator, Watson, Hypercard. If your product 
can be extended and enhanced by others and they too can earn money by 
promoting your product, your product will get very wide adoption if 
others have financial incentives to promote it. To do this you have to 
make it extremely easy for novice programmers to build a plugin. 
Writing a plugin has to be easier than writing an application. Give 
lots of examples and provide lots of support and promote the folks who 
build plugins.

5. Summary

The really successful products combine all these attributes plus, they 
are something innovative such that there is no effective competition. 
Yes there is a good living to be earned from try-before-you-buy 
software. The major focus has to be outward; what product idea is going 
to  have a huge potential audience, be easy to promote through existing 
channels of information, can have a feature set that will cause people 
to find value and get addicted, and will help others with less 
marketing savvy make money from their coding efforts. The best product 
does not win, the best marketed product wins.

Just my opinion,
Kee Nethery