ShareWare OnLine 2

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ ShareWare OnLine 2 / ShareWare OnLine Volume 2 (CMS Software)(1993).iso / music / 1sboard1.zip / 1LVLWARE.DOC next >

Wrap

Text File | 1993-01-30 | 25KB | 561 lines

1-Levelware(tm): A Marketing Method by Daniel Farfan of Automated Education Inc. P.O. BOX 42284 Phoenix, AZ 85080-2284 January 27th, 1993 Introduction ------------ This document defines the latest marketing method developed exclusively for the computer industry. As you read this, you will hopefully see the dawn of a new wave of public offerings from computer experts otherwise hopelessly bound by current marketing methods and business practices beyond their control and reach as well as a chance for YOU to benefit regardless of your computer experience from the ever increasing computer boom. It is time everyone can stop watching from the sideline and start profiting. Definition ---------- 1-Levelware(tm), in its simplest terms is a fusion of Multi-Level Marketing and Shareware. 1-Levelware(tm) is distributed freely as complete programs without artificial registration incentives such as feature limitations or expiration dates. Upon registration, the user becomes eligible as a DISTRIBUTOR to receive monetary bonuses for future distributors who they directly sponsors. Registration ------------ Registering a piece of 1-Levelware(tm) makes you a DISTRIBUTOR for THAT 1-Levelware(tm). This is the only method to be eligible for bonuses. Payment in full to Automated Education Inc. must accompany the registration form. The program register.exe is on the distribution disk (or in the archive) to automate the proper completion of the form. Register.exe will prompt for information and let you validate the information about your sponsor (see Appendix A for a glossary of terms). ONLY AUTOMATED EDUCATION INC. CAN ACCEPT REGISTRATIONS. DISTRIBUTORS MAY NOT. NO ONE MAY ACCEPT ANY MONETARY COMPENSATION OF ANY AMOUNT FOR THE DISTRIBUTION OF ANY 1-LEVELWARE(tm). THE PACKAGE ----------- Each 1-Levelware package (disk or archive) contains the following: 1. Programs and Data 2. User Documentation ( X.doc ) where X is the name of the 1-Levelware 3. Registration Form ( X.reg ) 4. Registration Program ( register.exe ) 5. Catalog of Current Offerings ( catalogY.AEI ) where Y is the version number and AEI is Automated Education Inc. 6. One Page Advertisement ( X.ad ) 7. 1-Levelware explanation ( 1lvlware.doc ) THE FORM -------- Several information sections appear on the registration form. The main sections at the top are for YOUR information and your SPONSOR'S information. Be certain that all information is accurate. It is very important that if you download the 1-Levelware from a bulletin board that you provide that information. 1-Levelware distributors 'register' bulletin boards that they upload to in order to ensure proper credit from downline registrations. The computer and family information will provide Automated Education an opportunity to forward future 1-Levelware titles that might interest you. There is a section to order additional 1-Levelware free of charge. Of course the registration process is the same for all of these titles as well. Finally, the form provides a place to list the bulletin boards you want to upload this 1-Levelware to. This is very important. In the event disputes over the placement of 1-Levelware on a bulletin board or other media open to public access arise, the existence of this 'registration' with Automated Education will be the final evidence determining bonuses. CONFIRMATION ------------ A Registering Distributor will receive confirmation in the mail after the data is processed by Automated Education. Notification of bulletin board acceptance is given at this same time. After such time, the new distributor is eligible to sponsor others and receive bonuses. FUTURE VERSIONS --------------- Future versions will be made available to all distributors for half of the new version's registration cost. Of course additional bonuses can be earned distributing the new version to NON-distributors. That is to say, EVERY distributor has the right to purchase upgrades for half price. Notice that a half price next release policy means that only half as many NEW registrations are needed to start profiting. See below for more details about BONUSES. Sponsorship ----------- Sponsoring is the act of passing the complete 1-Levelware disk or archive to someone else WHO REGISTERS AND BECOMES A DISTRIBUTOR. People who receive 1-Levelware who have not become distributors by registering yet are called "potential distributors". Any distributor may sponsor anyone. Anyone may register any 1-Levelware and in the process become a distributor for THAT product (see below for exceptions). POTENTIAL DISTRIBUTORS who pass along 1-Levelware give up their right to any bonuses that may otherwise have been awarded if they had registered. In this instance a new line of distributors and downline is begun. Thus, potential distributors must register, receive their distributor status and THEN sponsor other individuals to be eligible for bonuses. There are no sponsorship limits. If 1 person is sponsored the bonus will reflect such. If 500 people are sponsored, the bonus will be 500 times greater. It is as simple as that. Distributors are not limited to sponsoring people they personally know. A distributor may upload a piece of 1-Levelware to a bulletin board WHERE IT DOES NOT EXIST YET AFTER APPLYING FOR THAT BULLETIN BOARD WITH AUTOMATED EDUCATION INC. Everyone who then downloads from that bulletin board is a "potential distributor" and any bonuses from those registrations will be paid to the distributor responsible for getting that product onto the bulletin board. It is that simple! A distributor in good standing will be given the option to upload later versions of 1-Levelware to every or any bulletin board registered to them. This option requires the distributor to register for the new version and expires 30 days after the new version notification is sent to the distributor. Any older versions left remaining after the 30 day period will be replaced by Automated Education Inc. and the original sponsoring distributor will lose the bonuses from future registrations from that bulletin board. Distributorship --------------- Distributors operate independently from Automated Education. They are in no way considered employees at any time. They are not allowed to misrepresent Automated Education Inc. or 1-Levelware in any way. Breaking any of the distribution rules as defined in this document is considered copyright violation and will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Any violation terminates a distributor's status and makes them immediately ineligible for bonuses or distributor status for any other 1-Levelware by Automated Education Inc. ... forever. Becoming a distributor by registering is in no way implying any promise to sponsor others. No sponsorship quotas exist or ever will. Each distributor may participate at the level they wish. A distributor may sponsor someone the day they receive confirmation of their registration in the mail or 3 years later. NO ONE, including Automated Education Inc., has the right to pressure a distributor into sponsoring others. Any such attempts should be reported to Automated Education Inc. IMMEDIATELY. Automated Education promises to NEVER reveal the names, addresses, other personal information or status of any distributor to anyone (except as possibly required by law) for any reason. Distributor's information will not be sold as mailing lists at any time to anyone for any price... ever. No one may enter any 1-Levelware into any shareware catalog or submit any 1-Levelware to any shareware company for inclusion on any shareware disk offers of any kind without prior written consent of Automated Education Inc. No one may advertise in electronic or hardcopy print other than the .ad file provided without the prior written consent of Automated Education Inc. Automated Education reserves all copyright protection on all of its products and all trademark protection on the term 1-Levelware (tm). At no time may any distributor change the name of the archive or programs in order to upload multiple copies of any 1-Levelware to any bulletin board or other public access mechanism or for any other reason. This policy is enforced by Automated Education registering bulletin boards to distributors. Bonuses ------- A Distributor who successfully sponsors another computer user is contributing the the success not only of that 1-Levelware product and Automated Education, but also to this exciting new marketing method. In exchange for the contribution, they will receive a bonus check from Automated Education. The check will equal the number of downline distributors sponsored for the bonus period times 25% of the full registration fee they paid. That's right! One fourth of all the registration money is SHARED with those who register. For example: Sally, who is a registered distributor for "The Sound Board" tells her friend Sam about an entertaining program she ran across. Sally describes the program. Sam is interested in seeing it. Sally passes it to Sam. Sam tries it on his machine. Sam likes it. Sam registers Sound Board for $20 thus becoming a registered distributor himself. Sally's bonus from the transaction for the 5 minutes of her time is $20 * 25% = $5. Notice that Sam may chose to sponsor others or not. SALLY gains nothing either way because her bonus is already secured ... hence the name, 1-LEVELware. Incentives ---------- Of course there will be people who do not register. This is true for shareware today. The equivalent also happens when a distributor in a MLM signs up but never sells any product. This is nothing new. There are people who will go as far as to outright steal copies of software costing as little as $10 or as much as hundreds of dollars. This is an inevitable fact of life. Someone may chose to not register and NOT use the 1-Levelware ever. This is a perfectly legitimate scenario. It is when the product is used without registration when the copyright laws have been violated. It is NOT a violation to pass the product on to others when you yourself do not use the product and therefore never register. The interesting twist to 1-Levelware is that if someone declines to register and passes it on to 5 people who registered, the original person not only lost MONEY, but also, they put MORE money in the pockets of the manufacturer (in the form of unpaid bonuses... thank you very much). A number of "incentives" have been tried during the short history of microcomputers to limit software piracy. COPY PROTECTION --------------- Copy protection schemes devised in the 1970's and 1980's offered a challenge to users saying "Steal THIS if you can". The response was quick and sure. Technique after technique was figured out, documented and made public information. Special software was written to disable many forms of copy protection. The protection itself created a significant demand for the unprotected version as well as the software to break the protection! Bad deal all around. Nowadays enlightened manufacturers have realized that copy protection did not solve anything. If anything it made matters worse. Today, the incentive to purchase a legal copy has shifted to two main things: 1) Extensive and fancy documentation 2) Technical phone support The irony of both of these is that while they are both necessary, they are needed LESS when the product is EASY TO USE and functions as expected! So the "better" the product, the "worse" these incentives operate. In addition, they each add a good deal of overhead which EVERYONE pays for in the price although only SOME ever use the manual and far fewer use the technical phone support. Shareware --------- Shareware sprung up in response to the astronomical cost of bringing product to the market and keeping it there. The middlemen and the money they will make from someone else's hard work is frightening - literally. Shareware is distributed freely by bulletin board, archive, catalog or hand-to-hand in order to keep overhead low with the notice that registration "is expected" or "is appreciated". Shareware incentives range from a fully functioning version to sleeping guilt free at night (yeah, right). MULTI-LEVEL MARKETING --------------------- One solution to the retail nightmare facing non-software manufacturers is Multi-Level Marketing. By this method, people sign up to be distributors in order to sell products and sponsor other people to become distributors who sell the company's products and sponsor other distributors, etc. The company supports this method in a number of ways. The main one is attractive bonus plans that recognize the distributors ARE the sales team and the ONLY way the product is sold. MLM companies pay their distributors bonuses for their downline's sales often as far as 6 levels deep (hence the 'MULTI' part of MULTI-level). This simply means Sally sponsors Sam, who sponsors Greg, who sponsors John-Boy and Sally gets a percentage of even John-Boy's sales (and then some) given that a lot of (sometimes complicated) conditions are met. The conditions usually are wrapped around selling certain volumes of the actual product. But notice the key element of the incentive to participate... money. Not FROM you, but TO you. 1-LEVELWARE ----------- 1-Levelware combines the best of both worlds. The MLM Method: 1) Shares the wealth with the distributors. 2) Pays more to distributors who distribute more product(s). 3) Encourages and rewards individual initiative. 4) Relys heavily on word of mouth and hand-to-hand. 5) Reduces middlemen and advertising and thus overhead. The Shareware Method: 1) Freely distributes computer products to as many people as possible. 2) Offers high quality computer products for less money than traditional retail outlets supply. 3) Relys heavily on word of mouth and electronic distribution. 4) Reduces middlemen and advertising and thus overhead. 1-Levelware is an idea whose time has come. Whether you are a computer user or a developer, you have much to gain from participating in this computer industry marketing revolution. REGISTER TODAY! Questions and Answers --------------------- Q: Why not use simple shareware? A: I am not against shareware. You can argue all day long about the success or lack of success of shareware. You can argue all day long about the 'right' incentives or the 'wrong' incentives to provide for registering. The bottom line is that the registration and distribution are what the manufacturer is looking for - EITHER ONE. In the absence of one, the other will do. Some in the world of psychology will argue that "Money is not a motivator". Judge for yourself. Are you more motivated by the chance to SPEND money or the chance to MAKE money? Anyone coming across 1-Levelware has an opportunity to financially benefit regardless of age, social status, hobbies, lifestyle or experience. That is NOT true for the shareware RECIPIENT. They are asked to PAY for the software (fair) and then receive absolutely nothing for the favor of distribution to a friend (unfair). Now, you tell me which method is truly SHARING, 1-Levelware or so called shareware? Q: Why not Multi-Level Market software? A: I am not against MLM. There are several factors that are necessary to fuel an honest MLM "machine". The first is SALES VOLUME. In order to make money with MLM, as a distributor you must sell, sell and sell some more and sponsor more to sell who will duplicate themselves as you have. In order for the company to pay the bonuses many levels deep, they must raise the prices. The usual wholesale to retail markup is 40% and there is still plenty of money built into the wholesale price to pay the hefty bonus plan and of course the manufacturer. You can argue, "Sure they raise the prices but they give the money back to the distributors". TRUE. I'm not saying this is good or bad. I am just stating the facts. The volume is acheived in part by selling products with a substantial EXISTING DEMAND. If the distributor has to CREATE demand, it is likely too much work and too difficult for most people and therefore too difficult to MLM. As much as I'd like to think otherwise, there is NOT a pent up demand for any software to meet either criteria. Software that is in big demand is sold by titan software companies who obviously have profited greatly from the retail system in place (else they wouldn't be titans). They have no problem spending millions of your retail dollars on advertising, middlemen and other overhead. Not only are they spending your money on advertising but they are counting on you to make them more money by telling your friends how great their latest products are. Notice "counting on you" does not equate to "paying you". Which is interesting if you think about it. You are paying them to advertise by spending that extra money when you purchase the product, and then you are advertising for them for free when you speak favorably about the product to people you know. Which of course you wouldn't have been able to do if you wouldn't have paid them for the priviledge in the first place. 1-Levelware instead rewards your contribution the old fashioned way... with money. The next MLM ingredient is CONSUMABLE products. Would you rather MLM a bar of soap or a radial tire? Another bar of soap is needed 2 weeks from now, another tire in 3-5 years. Another computer program... maybe never. Of course in the future, who knows? There may be droves of people DYING to get our new programs [smile]. For now, 1-Levelware will do. Q: Can anyone offer 1-Levelware products? A: Certainly. However, 1-Levelware is a trademark of Automated Education Inc. and as such may only be used with prior written consent. A 1-Levelware program to manage a 1-Levelware company is currently under development and nearing commercial availability. Registration of this specialized accounting 1-Levelware will include limited rights to use the name 1-Levelware. Automated Education is also taking high quality submissions from all sources that we will market as 1-Levelware. Q: How does that work? A: Someone submits a FINISHED product including documentation to our address. We evaluate the product and accept or reject it (with reasons). If accepted, the end distributor registration cost will be negotiated. The author will commit via contract to: 1) Support the programs technically with bug fixes and version upgrades. 2) Continue support for 1 year after the latest registration. 3) Answer user's questions AT LEAST by postal mail. Automated Education will: 1) Bundle the program and data with 1-Levelware forms and documents into a single package 2) Make it available to the public via electronic bulletin boards and/or catalog and/or any means mutually approved by the author and Automated Education 3) Process all registrations and collect all monies 4) Send bonuses to distributors 5) Maintain all accounting information 6) Provide registration and distributor reports to the author and 7) Mail the author a monthly check with user comments received The cost for this service is 50% of the registration fee plus disk mailing supply, postage and handling fees (when a disk must be mailed to fill an order for MORE 1-Levelware). The distributor gets 25%, Automated Education gets 25%, the author gets 50%. Compare that to the dismal response you've gotten from shareware... the choice is clear... 50% of a lot of money is better than 100% of a little or no money. Think about it. It is that simple. Now is the time for thousands of worthy programs, programmers and even users to have a fighting chance for financial success. Register today! Automated Education, Inc. P.O. Box 42284 Phoenix, AZ 85080-2284 ZW2.18@8PRN⌠TXT p