Price It Right

When was the last time you spoke to someone who actually bought and registered a piece of shareware he was using? Most of us use shareware till it expires and then either look for freeware alternatives or some other similar shareware alternative to use for some more time. Nowadays, with the rise in popularity of open source and donationware-type offerings, people needn't try shareware in the first place.

But this doesn't mean that relatively smaller shareware publishers should shut shop and go get day jobs. It is possible for them - and even you, if you're an independent shareware developer - to make money.

Let me tell you my story.

I've been trying out shareware for several years now. There are lots of utilities we bump into, that seem like the most amazing thing at that point in time and also do change a bit of your life as you use them, but soon after the trial period runs out, we learn to live without it and eventually forget about it altogether. Examples include Babylon Pro, FinePrint, some Alien Skin Photoshop plugins etc. In some cases, I found freeware alternatives that somehow filled the void created by the shareware application - like WordWeb did for Babylon. I haven't found any freeware alternative for FinePrint, but I haven't really missed it much either! And I don't do any Photoshopping anymore so that's that.

These kinds of utilities are neat and they help you a lot, but is the average user actually going to shell out $30 or $50 for them? That's Rs. 1400 and Rs. 2,200 approximately. And its not just for one application - the average Internet user finds at least one or two useful utilities in a week or two. How do you justify that much money?



Recently, I came across another shareware utility called cFos Speed. In just a few days, I was completely in love with it. It's traffic shaping worked wondrously for my broadband connection and uploads and downloads would max out at almost any point in time. I enjoyed the app for a month and then the bitter time had come. I tried to live without it, but I just couldn't. Speed dipped and browsing while downloading was painful. I wasn't enjoying my Internet experience anymore. In any case, I wasn't going to spend $30 or $40 on that. I'd just have to live without it.

Sometimes some shareware works for an additional 30 days (or whatever the trial period is) if it's a newer version. Sometimes, some shareware just works longer if you reinstall it! Hoping I'd be lucky with cFos Speed, I went on the website to download the latest beta. 'twas the season to be merry, and the site was all Christmassy white and snowflakey. But that wasn't what made me pause and gape at the screen - they had a special Christmas offer: cFos Speed for only 9 euro. 9 euro! That's like $11. That's under 500 bucks! The figure was a steal. cFos Speed for under 500 bucks was the best deal ever. I instantly pulled out my credit card and punched in the numbers. I told my friends about the offer and a few of them who's trial period also expired along with mine, went ahead and registered it on that day. I was happy, my friends were happy, the guys who made cFos Speed are happy. One big happy family.

What's the moral of the story here? Cheaper software works. Here's my suggestion to shareware software publishers. Instead of charging $30 and $40 and upwards for downloadable shareware, charge a low amount like $10. More people are going to get attracted by a lower price and will come and pay for it. Fewer people will stop using it or used pirated versions. In either case, you have nothing to lose. If one copy gets downloaded or one thousand, you don't have to put in any extra effort for the additional numbers. Other than a minor increase in bandwidth cost, your cost price remains the same. If your software costs more, fewer people will pay for it. If your software costs less, a lot more people will pay for it, and eventually, you will make more money. Unlike hardware or any other industry, you don't have to put in a new effort into making each product. You develop software only once. Selling it once gets you money, selling it ten times get you ten times the money. But if you price it low, you will sell it 50 times and make that much money. If you price it high, you probably may only sell it ten times. You think Microsoft would make less money if they sold Windows for Rs. 1000 instead of Rs. 4000? On the contrary, they will make more. A lot more. Think about it.