The Business Master (4th Edition)

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YOUR OWN PRODUCTS Many early users of my programs have asked questions about how to get their products into the market, and I have some answers for you: Shareware Marketing The shareware market is a fascinating corner of the free enterprise system. The general concept is that you make a disk, and allow people to sell or give away copies of it. Shareware distributors sell thousands of copies, BBS users download thousands of copies, and so your product eventually gets into the hands of tens of thousands, even possibly millions of users! You get no money from all this distribution. All you get is exposure. Within your disk is a commercial, hopefully causing people to want to send you money. This is like network television. The shows are free, but the commercials pay for the programming. There are several ways to write your commercials. The old standard is to ask a "registration fee." This means, you have allowed end users to try your product, and if they like it, they are honor bound to send you money for your efforts. Today, with somewhere around 85,000 shareware programs, this is not particularly effective. You can give perks for registering, such as printed owner's manual or a fancier version of your material, but this too, falls short of making a fortune in most cases. What does seem to work is to pitch another related product. For instance, Let's say you have written a disk about care and feeding of parakeets. We recommend that you give the disk away and let people copy it. In that disk, you might want to write an ad for another disk you have created about taming and training parakeets. The only way people can get the taming and training disk is to send you $29.95 plus postage. I think you get the idea.... First, let me tell you that shareware marketing does work, but on a smaller scale than most shareware authors hope for. You probably won't make a million dollars, and it won't happen overnight. But, this is a good way to bring in easy rainy day money, or make sure you have extra money coming to you in your retirement! Interestingly, if your knowledge is in a very specialized field, you are not necessarily limited in the amount of money you can make. specialized knowledge is very valuable. If you can start someone on a new career, or can explain a technique that can save a small (or large) company lots of money, you have a product that will bring hundreds of dollars for each copy. Hobbyists in any field have been known to spend way too much to get exactly the knowledge they want! And many shareware distributors have learned that even very obscure titles sell well, because specialists will seek these titles out! For instance, PET, a shareware disk for veterinarians is a good seller. HYDROFLO, which has something to do with designing pipes and valves for fluids, has always been a good seller! AND HOW DO YOU GET THE DISKS TO PUBLIC? This is amazingly simple. All you do is make copies of your disks, and send them to shareware distributors. There are usually 50 or so advertising in the classified ads section of COMPUTER SHOPPER magazine. The distributors are hungry for new products and will be quite happy to review your disks. If they feel that your material is interesting and reasonably well done, and many shareware distributors will take almost anything that works, they will list it in their catalogs and start sending out copies to buyers. The distributors don't send you any money, and you don't send them any money. Whatever money you make, comes from your advertisements within your shareware disks. And your costs? Only the cost of a few blank disks and the postage to mail them. You can send just to a dozen shareware distributors, or to hundreds. Of course, the more you send to, the sooner you'll start making real money. Here are some good distributors: GEMINI MARKETING INC BOX 640 DUVALL WA 98019-0640 PC-SIG 1030D E. Duane Ave. Sunnyvale, CA 94086 PD SELECT BOX 1884 GASTONIA NC 28053 PUBLIC BRAND SOFTWARE BOX 51315 INDIANAPOLIS IN 46251 ATTN R. JOHNSON OR D GARNER REASONABLE SOLUTIONS 2101 W MAIN ST MEDFORD OR 97501 SOFTWARE EXCITEMENT! 6475 CRATER LAKE HWY CENTRAL POINT OR 97502 SOFTWARE LABS 3767 OVERLAND AVE #112 LOS ANGELES CA 90034 BOSTON COMPUTER SOCIETY 385 Elliot Street Newton, MA 02164 FREE BOOTER SOFTWARE BOX 19624 PORTLAND OR 97219 SIZZLEWARE P O BOX 6420 LAKE CHARLES, LA 70606 Perhaps you want to start big. The more distributors you send your disks to, the more exposure you'll get and the more money you'll make right from the beginning. We have a current mailing list of over 300 good shareware distributors. This list is on a disk in plain ASCII format, along with a small program which will print them onto labels. The cost is $29.95, and we include free postage to anywhere in the world. To get your MAILING LIST OF SHAREWARE DISTRIBUTORS, send $29.95 to: Attn Gary Smith OEC Systems 4646 N. Shallowford Rd. Atlanta, GA 30338-6304 1-800-444-2424 or 404-394-1000 (Please specify if you need 3.5" disk size.) Although there are some organizations for shareware authors, you don't have to join any. This is not a union shop. Anyone can participate without a license, without paying dues or fees, and without waiting! On the other hand, if you want to fully immerse yourself in the shareware world, if you want to learn all you can about the business, you might like to join the Association of Shareware Professionals. The cost is $50 for the first year. There are several benefits. They can duplicate and mail your disks to distributors and BBSs for you (for a price). They have an ongoing conference between shareware authors and distributors on CompuServe. They have rather strict rules with which your shareware must comply, essentially forcing you to turn out a professional, financially effective product. Using the ASP name and logo adds a professional flavor to your shareware. Write to them for details: Jan Abbott - Executive Director Association of Shareware Professionals 545 Grover Rd Muskegon MI 49442 AND HOW MUCH HOW SOON? I can't give you figures set in concrete, but here's some ideas. The worst case I have heard of is a guy who makes $10 or $20 per month in registrations of his product. Is that ok? Would you settle for the price of a nice meal or a new pair of shoes every couple of months for something you did in your spare time? (and of course the time required to copy and mail 1 or 2 disks a month) On the other hand, another author is making $5,000 per month. There are a few shareware authors who have made over a million dollars, but they are by no means average. My guess is that the average author has to put out 10 good products over the course of perhaps three years before reaching an income of $15,000 per year. But there is no ceiling. You can keep improving and writing more! Regarding time, you can't be in a hurry. It takes a while for a distributor to print up new catalogs including your new disk. It takes a while longer to get these catalogs to the public. It takes another while for the people to order your shareware disk, and then even more time before they decide to send you money. You really shouldn't expect to start taking in much for about one year. We have one new product, which did not bring a single registration for 3 months. Eventually, checks started coming in regularly from that product. Late breaking news: Some shareware authors report good and relatively fast results by uploading their programs to several major BBSs (electronic Bulletin Board Services). Of course, the big national ones like CompuServe, Genie, Delphi, and America On-line are the best. A company called Megapost offers this service for you. For approximately $90 per 100 kilobytes, they will upload your shareware to many of the big BBSs. You can write to them for more information: MEGAPOST c/o Andrew M Saucci, Jr. 641 Koelbel Ct. Baldwin, NY 11510-3915 Of the big boards, CompuServe is probably the biggest. An account now costs only $7.95 per month and includes unlimited access time. However, many services are at extra cost. One of these services is downloading files. The cost is $12.40 per hour if you have a 2400 bps modem, but it seems well worth it. Hundreds of people download Another Company programs every month. CompuServe has a forum called SWREG, where members can register products via modem. The author is notified and sends the registered version directly to the CompuServe customer. Then, a month later, CompuServe pays the author 85% of the registration price. This is excellent for overseas customers, who merely have the registration price deducted from their credit card accounts, yet the program authors are paid in US dollars. We sent a registered program to a Russian CompuServe member yesterday. What Should I Create? HERE ARE SOME THINGS THAT NEED DOING: Tutorials in playing all standard musical instruments. How about a tutorial in reading sheet music? Illustrated, disk-based cook books are sure to be a hit. Car repair manuals. All aspects of home sewing. All crafts and hobbies. Anything about animal care, training, breeding. Of course, the first few people who put art, drawing, or cartooning lessons on a disk will do quite well! Anyone want to tackle the subject of television repair? How about computer repair? Or how about a general course in electronics? Chemistry? Biology? Anatomy? Herbal medicine? How about making a clip-arts and clip-sounds library for use with The Multimedia Workshop, as a separate and independent shareware release? An illustrated separate, independent tutorial on the use of The Multimedia Workshop. Probably just about anyone can write something better than this text-only manual you are presently reading! PITCH We have a disk-based book about shareware marketing. It covers all the inside tricks and successful design, mailing, advertising and registration strategies that I have learned through personal experience, plus considerable research of the results gained by many other shareware authors. It uncovers all sorts of important information ranging from toll-free 800 phone numbers to registration delay screens, to bulk mailing rates. Also, a thorough study of what works and what doesn't. Plus a chart of 10,000 shareware disks sold, broken down into categories to illustrate what topics the American public is interested in. It is called SUCCESS WITH SHAREWARE. You can succeed without Success With Shareware, but why learn the hard way, the costly way, the time-consuming way, when you can have your own copy of SUCCESS WITH SHAREWARE for $29.95?! To get your copy: Send $29.95 (postage included!) to: Attn Gary Smith OEC Systems 4646 N. Shallowford Rd. Atlanta, GA 30338-6304 1-800-444-2424 or 404-394-1000 (Works in any IBM-compatible computer) (Please specify if you need 3.5" disk size) And of course, there are other marketing strategies besides shareware. You can sell your disks directly to retail stores, you can advertise through the mail, you can teach courses or workshops and sell your disks to your students. My own favorite way is shareware, however, because in terms of numbers of people who can gain from your work, nothing else comes close. Sure, by direct sales you might sell thousands of copies, but your shareware product will be seen by a million people! The point is this: Why keep what you know bottled up inside yourself, or teach it to a handful of students? Why work very hard to write a manuscript only in hopes that you can interest a publisher, and then hope the editor doesn't trim it to pieces? Through shareware, your story WILL be told, and it will be told YOUR way to a huge audience! _____________________________________________________________ end of chapter.