h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

If you want to provide a try-before-buy piece of software but still encourage the user to actually buy the software, what is the best way to go about this?

Options I have seen are:
* Time limited version
* Limited functionality version
* Nag screens

Any comments or other suggestions?

Try writing software that's just so good that people feel guilty not paying you for it...

Hmm - so Winzip or PaintShopPro then?
Programmers are the worst market for developers - they'd much rather spend two days hacking a shareware app. than pay $30 for it.

personaly, first I'd have the software only works when you enter a key, that way you can get them to sign a guest book or a newsletter, and then you just send the sharewere key via email. atualy limmiting the software has been a concept that anoys most people. if your going to make the shareware version difrent, try showing everthing in garish 60's colours or putting al the menus in french? (just some ideas)

-- DoctorMO --

I paid $30 for a Java chat applet to put on my "Goo Overflow" site, even though a "cracked" version was easily available, just because it was so darn good.

And the same goes for non-shareware apps. I've heard of companies that used twenty copies of Visual Studio, and paid for one.

I like the way many companies are doing this:

* free version - cut down features, no ads, free
* ad-supported version - full features with ads, free
* full version - full features, no ads, costs money

Completely seperate executables, so the free version is quicker to download and takes up less disk-space.

Another common trick is to have freebies or enhancements for registered users only, for example a fully functional DTP package might include 1000 fonts upon registration... Or just a proper manual and installation CD for registered users can work wonders!

Plus, don't forget the classic ploy of only offering support to registered users...

...which works well in conjunction with the "registered users get a printed manual" one, since once they have a printed manual they're slightly less likely to need the support... Especially if you use a premium-rate phone line...

Hmm... I find nag screens and such annoying... better to go for the limited functionality option... or, better still, the advertising with no limitations option. Tricky to implement, I suppose... but it recently persuaded me to buy Opera, after being able to try it for a few days without hassle...

I find making shareware or trialware to be rather pointless as both can easily be cracked. But the day option is probably the best, though limit it for a few days rather than 30 because after 30 people forget about it


CK

Generally I pay the voluntary reg fee on open source projects if it turns out as well as or better than I expected. For shareware versions it's a bit harder-if I haven't used a feature and I'm not sure I want to it's unlikely that I will buy it! If I like something I look through the readme/reg files for a reg option though.


Jesi

I think that Adware is a great idea, but I don't thinks it's so effective for the advertisers (That's why there are so few ads on Opera... and most ads are Opera's own ads...)

I too can point out the 5 or 6 shareware applications installed on my computer that I payed for (Among which Ultraedit is THE #1 shareware i own), but there are another couple of dosens of shareware apps that I use rarely, or I don't appreciate the effort that was taken to create them, so I didn't pay for them...

The best ways I ever saw for convincing registration, in reverse order:
4. Full functionality, but limited save/open option (if it's a proprietery save file, you can have a full save but limited open)

3. Limited use time (Application will work forever, but in 5 minute sessions with save prompting in the automatic shutdown)

2. None resizeable window - Window keeps a costant (say 600X400) window size.

1. Dynamic menus, no toolbars and no key mapping (accelerators) in the unregistered version (dynamic menus means that item ordering in menus changes everytime you open the menu) - This is my absolute favorite as it lets you work as usual, but is also annoying enough and lowers productivity enugh, so that a person who uses the application registers it.

Yours,

Dancer

I should add that this is for a programming add-in, not a full function application. I have read a way of making it so your add-n will run in the IDE but will throw up a message if you compile the app. with an unlicensed version...I'll probably go with that.

While not being sure how best to promote shareware, I can comment on what not to do.

If you are intending to make your application crippleware in any way, make sure that your crippling works properly. This also includes being blatant about how it is crippled so that you don't rub the user up the wrong way.

If you intend to make it some form of expireware, then make sure that there is a good uninstaller for it. There is nothing worse than adding a peice of software to your machine, only to find it wasting your effort (due to crippling) and then becoming unusable and impossible to completely uninstall.

I tend to prefer the model where you actively support the software that is being paid for (which only works if you have multiple pieces of software in production at the same time), combined with opening the source of software that doesn't bring in enough money to justiy supporting it.

Keep the price sensible for what your selling, especially in the market your trying to sell to.

It's no good trying to charge £££ for addins which your potential buyers know they could write themselves if they wanted to.
So you must make it cheaper and easier to buy your version than to write their own.

I may have come across a good example of what *not* to do...

I did a "deep" virus-scan of my machine today, and it found one inactive trojan. It was in the "uninstall.exe" of a piece of shareware I installed a long time ago and forgot about...

I don't know if it was placed there by the author or the distributor, but the intention appears to be to infect only those people who chose to uninstall the package rather than paying for it.

Sophos Sweep for NT cleaned the problem, but I forgot to write down the name of the package, so you'll all just have to scan your shareware directories to be on the safe side...!

I try and stear clear of shareware, but sometimes it is usefull, although I'm very pleased with the way most linux apps don't do any of the fore mentioned. because that would realy be anoying. I supose if making apps is your lifes work and your only going to do that and only that, just for yourself, then it calls for some kind of a charge. (remind me never to say the imortal 'but')

-- DoctorMO --

The only two pieces of shareware I've ever bought copies of are RealJukebox, because it is a nice program and the free version only recorded mp3s up to 96kbps which isn't good enough quality, and WinEdt, which is a very nice frontend for writing TeX documents and had an extremely irritating pop up window in the free version.

I liked PFE myself...

-- DoctorMO --