Depending on who is the intended market – all home PC users on the one hand, a specialty business clientele perhaps on the other – you can find customers a number of ways.
First you will have your own contacts. Use them!Then you can use low-barrier-to-entry sales channels like eBay (see our report on eBay for getting started).
You can and should send your software to relevant online journalists to consider reviewing and writing up – especially if you are focused on a special industry or region where a large percentage of people are likely to read the same things. In the paper industry for example there are only about four or five magazines everyone reads, so a review in one of them is likely to get a tremendous amount of attention.
You can also post free or trial versions of your software on the major websites people use to find such items, and let the market find you.While there are many places to do this, one of the best was and remains CNET’s Download.com (http://www.download.com).
If you visit and look at the download statistics, the numbers can be staggering – there are products with download numbers in the tens of millions! Of course there are also some with numbers in the thousands or less.
The way to get your software onto Download.com?Upload.com/Download.com
Why, logically enough, Upload.com (http://www.upload.com)!
CNET makes it very easy to participate and you can choose from a combination of four programs to list your software.
© Copyright 2006 by Michael Rasmussen and Jason Tarasi - All Rights Reserved.
1. Listing Packages – multiple levels of listing and posting privileges for your software ranging from free to “basic” and “premium” options. Basically you select a package, pay a monthly or annual fee, and agree to a revenue share with them much like a sales commission.
2. Merchant Services – an enhancement to your listing package(s) this enables ecommerce and other useful things to make your software commercially viable online. As of November 2005 CNET charges a flat 8% for a wide variety of powerful tools.
3. Pay Per Download – borrowing a model you may be familiar with from Google’s AdSense and similar programs, this is a way to “compete” though bidding for a Top 5 or Top 10 position, ensuring higher visibility and more downloads.
4. Button Program – a way to link your sites and potentially others’ sites directly to your product listings on Download.com.While there are many competitors to Download.com none get anywhere near the traffic, and CNET has become a major “review” brand unto itself (look at software boxes the next time you’re in the store – plenty of them tout high-star ratings from CNET).
Selling Your SoftwareIf you use a system like Download.com to distribute your software you can handle purchasing directly through them.
If not, or if you have other reasons to use a separate payment system, you can sell software directly, through various third parties, through a PayPal store, on eBay and other auction sites, or by placing ads in publications (online or off) that are likely to reach your intended audience.
If your software works with something else or is an add on to something else, you could explore creating an OEM (“original equipment manufacturer”) relationship, where your product would be bundled with others. On a per sale basis the compensation will be much lower than the retail market but volume can easily make this a more profitable route for the right kinds of software.
Regardless of how you choose to sell, remember that software is a product sale, so be sure to take into consideration sales tax, particularly if you are delivering the software to the same state in which you reside or have your business entity registered.
© Copyright 2006 by Michael Rasmussen and Jason Tarasi - All Rights Reserved.Talk to your tax professional for more information.
Once you have your initial software out there, you’ll need to think about support – how much to offer – whether to offer – whether to charge for it. This is a critical issue in software and worth some time to think through.