ETS: A Shareware Success Story  By: Val Patterson Believe me, being happy working forever in the big corporate world is an American illusion. If I could help just one person persuade himself to leave his corporate life for working at home, my time for writing this small article would be well spent. I quit my most recent corporate job around October 1991. It was the first time that I didn't even give two weeks notice. I was really pissed off about something big, but that's not what I want to talk about. I am now a successful Shareware Author 9 months later. I want to tell you how this happened... I have always maintained two state of the art laboratories at home, because that's what I like to do. I'm not saying you have to have two labs, but you need an excellent, orderly, clean work area to do excellent work... that's all. This will make more sense to you in a minute (if you're a fast reader)... Oh, by the way, when I type three dots like this... it means you're supposed to pause and think about what I just said. (but you don't have to...) Anyway, I was writing this really nasty bit of code to turn my old company's TEXT software product into a GUI product, just to send it to them and piss them off, because one of our customers told me that our commercial product looked like Shareware. (all TEXT) It was really hard to write that code, and during the couple of months, the code 'kinda evolved into a GUI Library. This was about 3 weeks before Christmas, and my wife Mary Jane asked me if I could write her a program to address her Christmas cards which would look as good as the ones we always do on Ventura Publisher. I said yeah, piece of cake, so my first program came out. Laser Printer Envelope version 1.00 around December 20th or so. She liked it, I liked it, and we had been downloading games and stuff from BBS'es for about a few months.. So we decided to upload it to a BBS and charge money for it, (like Shareware) to see what happened... I'll tell you what happened. We put our FAX number on the program so people could contact us quickly. People contacted us quickly. We got so many complaints that it got to be fun! I'll bet there wasn't a thing anybody liked about LPE 1.00 except they liked the GUI. Quickly, Jan 1st, version 1.01 was released, then 1.02 a few weeks later, then 1.03, 1.04. (you get the picture). People wanted every feature known to god and science. Some suggestions were very very good, some we read 25 times and couldn't understand. Then the money started coming in. This was the beginning of the fun part. We always frame the first check for any new product, and on the wall I can see that the first check for LPE was Jan 1st 1992. I quickly wrote 3 new games, called the PIRADA series, to have more fun and start a few more products to sell. The 3 PIRADA games were uploaded to AOL about Jan 15. First check for PIRADA was Jan 28th. The PIRADA games are cute, and took a ton of work, but they just haven't received a lot of registrations. Then a real nice guy named Mark Selman called me and asked me to a 4-UP style program for a Court Reporter client of his. I had been using another popular program for a while ( I won't tell you the exact name, but it has a "4" in the name, with some other letters... ), and I always wanted to make one in my style. So I did and I liked it. So did a lot of other people. Except this one guy in California. Apparently his program started with the first two letters of my program, and I got a letter from his company telling me to change my name so I did. ASCII-PRINT PRO was born. First version was kind of a "meal-call" for all of the voracious BBS'ers out there to tear apart and give feedback. The feedback never stopped. We get several suggestions a day. By version 1.04, the program was getting there, and soon-to-be released 1.05 will be killer. Anyway, the checks started coming in from the first, and have not stopped. I know you are curious as hell about the exact amount of the checks and how many orders received, etc. In a minute. I'm coming to that. I'll tell you exactly, because I know exactly. Anyway, COURT REPORTER PRO was our next release, and by version 1.08 I was proud of it. In my opinion, (biased) for the money, it blows the other competition out of the water. (Don't be misled, I happen to be one of the most humble guys you will ever meet...) One thing in this business I have learned is that if you think you are writing crap, you ARE writing crap. Mary Jane quit her job to work full time for ETS (our company) about June 1992 or so. Hours are 7am to 4pm 7days per week. The programming never stops. We are constantly upgrading, taking bug reports, fixing, it's endless. What a fun job, though. My commute is now about 20 feet. I have only used one tank of gas in my Blazer since Christmas. ( ONE TANK ). Boy what a differance. I don't come home from work with a big chip on my shoulder, like I did with corporations. I don't wake up at 2:00 in the morning and dream about work problems any more. You know what it's like, that's why I am telling you all this. We live in a quiet condo complex in the burbs of Salt Lake City. Sort of like an urban forest, but not like back East. Our two cats have become no help at all, so we have to do everything ourselves. They told me not to spoil cats, but hey. Here's the fun part: If you are considering starting your own shareware business, and you think you have what it takes: here are the facts (in my opinion). Being a Shareware Author is ALL GLORY, MEDIUM PAY, and ALL WORK. You won't make as much money as you did at your corporation for quite a while, but you will have tons more fun! Having fun is a lot more fun than not having fun. (I guess I'll leave that last sentence in... ) ETS, inc. registration history since starting company Jan 1 1992 ============================================================== MONTH GROSS NUMBER OF ENDING SALES REGISTRATIONS LANDMARK ======== ======= =============== ============== JAN 1992 $ 220 22 LPE RELEASED FEB 1992 $ 620 62 PIRADA RELEASED MAR 1992 $ 590 59 APP RELEASED APR 1992 $ 970 97 MAY 1992 $1,155 115 CRP RELEASED JUN 1992 $1,245 85 UPGRADES RELEASED REGISTRATION COSTS: PIRADA $ now "BANNERWARE" LPE $ 9.95 APP $ 14.95 CRP $ 49.95 Not a lot of money, but very rewarding work. The best thing in this business is the nice comments and letters which you get from the customers. It's great. Now that the really nasty letters have stopped, "the sailing is smoother". Now that you see that you can make a little money in Shareware, let me give you some advice. I really believe in what I am going to tell you, so listen up! I am not afraid to be wrong, so if you disagree with my advice, please write (or FAX) me a real nasty letter. Val Patterson's Rules for Writing and Marketing Shareware. 1 - Listen to your customers. Absolutely. No Exceptions. 2 - Do what your customers ask. ( unless it's big-time wierd ) 3 - Keep your registration price as LOW as POSSIBLE. Many customers write to me about how happy they are about the low prices! 4 - Never write in TEXT mode. Graphics and Mouse always. 5 - Never use any function keys other than F1 = HELP. 6 - Never use CNTRL or ALT keys in your programs unless your company has reached the $1,000,000 per year gross mark. At that time you can CNTRL-ALT-SHIFT your customers into oblivion, because they are now your slaves. 7 - Use the longest descriptions you can in your menus. 8 - Never release a program which contains a bug you know about. 9 - Never support Hardware older than about 3-4 years old. ( NO CGA, HERCULES, Dot Matrix Printers etc. for NEW programs.) ( If your program originally supported these, you MUST continue to support these forever. You are already doomed. sorry. ) 0 - IF your program comes with several files... START ALL THE FILES WITH THE SAME FIRST 3 CHARACTERS. NO EXCEPTIONS TO THIS RULE. 1 - Only 1 .DOC file should come with your program, and make it short and to the point. ( I hope the guy who ships 442k of .DOC files with his program eventually reads this. ) 2 - Never name a file: README.DOC, because it will UN-ZIP over the 1,500 README.DOC ancestors in your directory. This should be obvious, but let's get a little creative, people! 3 - Never make a command line interface program which uses more than 2 parameter options. Your customers will be highly miffed after having to read the 442k of .DOC files to find that ONE switch. 4 - Always upload your shareware to EXEC-PC, Channel 1, and Compu- Serve. The Compuserve users are more fussy, but register more. The EXEC-PC users are all rich SYSOPS who will glean your program and transport it magically all over the globe. EXEC-PC works! Channel 1 is just a great BBS. If you want to have some good fun, upload your shareware to the SDN Network (Ray Kaliss). He will send your shareware around the globe 15 times for $35.00. It's hilarious to get the bug reports from England and Germany. They're so serious! Just kidding, SDN really gets you worldwide fast. If you are feeling generous, upload to AOL. You will get a lot of downloads. Don't hold your breath for the registrations. 5 - Get a customer support FAX and BBS. This will bring you more money in the long run for sure. I know you are afraid, I was too. The customers will think you are a successful company. You ARE a successful company when you have a FAX and a BBS. Get a high-speed modem for your BBS, everybody knows v.32's now cost $279. Don't ever look cheap to your customers. 6 - Never charge for shipping and handling in your shareware price. People are not stupid. You are to charge $54.95 + $4.95 shipping. 7 - Never charge extra for 3 1/2 inch diskettes. You will look stupid. Everybody knows 3 1/2 bulk cost 40 cents, and 5 inch cost 25. 8 - Ship all orders the same day. No exceptions. (never wait for checks to clear, mad customers buy only once). My mail order experience: (not just shareware) over 2,000 checks without a bounce. Don't make all of your customers suffer for that one guy in 4,000. 9 - Try to release many different kinds of programs. Don't be a "One-tune-Joe" forever. Half of our business is from repeat customers. 0 - Don't join the ASP. There. I said it. I am waiting for the nasty letters right now, dear reader. If you need to belong to a "good-ole-boy" club there's always the KKK. Don't worry about me, I am already going to hell anyway. Well, there it is. I have spent an hour just rambling, and I am NOT a writer. Like I said at the onset: if I could help just ONE person consider being a Shareware Author, this hour was well spent. If you feel a strong pull towards doing this kind of work right now, stop everything you are doing, put this down, and make yourself a promise to do it beginning today! If you feel lukewarm or nothing, keep your job, don't even think of leaving! That's all, except since Diana Gruber asked me to do this article, and she told me that I could say anything I wanted... one more pointer: If you have cats, don't throw away one of those crummy little 20 page magazines... (like the C++ monthly journal) because they make EXCELLENT cat scatters! CIAO! Val Patterson ETS Inc. 1115 East Brigadoon Court Salt Lake City, UT 84117-4969 Voice: (801)265-2340 8am - 3pm MST only Fax: (801)265-8921 BBS: (801)265-0919 14400 v.32bis FORVAL Editor's note: Like all the other controversial, opinionated articles in STARgazer, Val Patterson's opinions are his own, and do not represent STAR. Opposing viewpoints are welcomed -- write to STARgazer.