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My only advice would be to studiously keep up to date with a certain widely distributed serial number database and build in a block list for hacked passwords.
Then release a .01 update evey month.
I feel for OSX shareware developers because as a user I have found that alot of things I used to depend on shareware to do now there are freewares to do it.
Its really amazing the amount of good freeware avaible for OSX compared to OS9 and thats got to make it tuff on developers.
Good Luck.

For most shareware, I find $20 is too much, if only on a psychological level. Depending on how good of quality the shareware app is, it COULD be worth $20, but $18 "feels" less to a lot of people... $14.99 even "feels" less.

I was recently buying a used oscilloscope, for example, and the guy wanted $40 and I told him I would give him $35, because I didn't want to take out 2 $20s from the bank and have nothing left over ($5 is a meal for me).

No, I don't think they would.

I paid $20 for XPostFacto because the ability to run OS X on my old Powermac 7500 was greatly helpful to me... I would have paid $40 for it, if that's what he was asking or $10, and would have been grateful. But, since GIMP is free, even though it's a pain to use sometimes, I wouldn't pay more than about $10 for a similar graphics program (unless it was REALLY cool in some way).

in general, when i find something useful i'll drop $10, maybe 15. more than that, and it better be something that absolutely outshines all competition.

I generally pay for the shareware I use. I gladly paid $18 for DVDPedia but I find it absurd to pay $15 for Sidetrack. I guess it depends on how useful the software is and how much the competition prices their products. $20 I'd pay only for the likes of GraphicConverter.

mo' ron wrote:

No, I don't think they would.

I paid $20 for XPostFacto because the ability to run OS X on my old Powermac 7500 was greatly helpful to me... I would have paid $40 for it, if that's what he was asking or $10, and would have been grateful.

UM............XPostFacto is freeware.

Do you mean to say you donated $20 or did you get ripped off?

I rarely pay for software.
No, I do not pirate - but I prefer free (Open Source) software out of principle, so I would rather use that when I can than use shareware that I pay for and never get access to the source.

I use to use shareware - and pay for it. I paid for Audion, I paid for DragThing, I paid for some print driver that would spit out html to a file (it was nice, but php is so much more efficient at this point), I paid for BBEdit (not really shareware I guess), lots of games from the MacAddict CD's, AppleScripts that did useful things, but I don't use shareware anymore - the sucky thing about Shareware is that you can't modify it unless they provide the source (rare), you upgrade your OS and then you find you need a new version, and that costs AND doesn't work the same as the old, you have a problem and wether or not the developer fixes it or not is always a big questionmark, etc.

Open Source software just doesn't have those problems - don't like the new features, build the older version. Change platforms, usually just a recompile. Got a problem, you can fix it yourself - or find a fix on the web - if the developer is unresponsive.

I hate to break it to you - but Shareware is really hard to make it in, it always has been - and OSS just makes it all that harder because OSS has numerous advantages.

Think Escape Velocity.

Everyone wants everything for free.

Last edited by EricT1999 (2005-01-29 10:05 pm)

i do pirate.


however i also purchase if... and only if... the program is worth what is being asked.... for instance.. i've bought several useful pieces of software...
including...
graphic converter(after pirating for almost a year),
tex-edit (the author of this app runs on the "old values" of shareware... no license codes needed, just a checkbox to check if you purchased it.),
carbon copy cloner (freeware/donationware [donated over $60] ),
snapz pro, (pirated for 2 months)
usb overdrive, (pirated for 6 months)
and a few others.

i've also bought a few games that i have really enjoyed...
Avernum 2(author uses codes, but doesn't blacklist known serial numbers),
BOA(same author as avernum 2),
Dragon Alpha(i'm beginning to think this was a mistake, as the author stopped developing this game and then promised to develop a new one and never did.),
Pillars of garendall, (pirated for 2 weeks)
Myst IV(not shareware), (pirated for 2 weeks)
UT(not shareware), (pirated for 1 month)
UT2k3(not shareware), (pirated for 6 months)
and some others i cant recall at the moment...  i've also registered a few haxies and other utilities...
however...

i am much more likely to donate money to freeware developers(or shareware devs who trust their users)  than to devs who release unneeded updates every few days to do nothing but blacklist known numbers... this only adds to the bloat of the software and shows that the developer of the software does not trust the users of the software to make the "right choice"

note:where i have added "(pirated for X time)" is the time i used known numbers before i decided to purchase... some things took more time to convince me that i wanted it than others... some things sat on my hard drive without use for months before i tried them out. the varied times show you the main problem with time limited "demos"/"shareware"
i always buy operating systems. as well as web services.
95% of the people who use computers pirate one thing or another, some without even realizing it. erict1999... have you ever pirated anything?

Eric, I'm with those who say that it really depends on the app. I'm faced with that very choice right now. I've grown addicted to NewsFire for RSS feeds and really do love the program. However, they just jumped from 0.61 to 0.9 and the only discernible new feature is a registration process. They now want $20 for it. As much as I love NewsFire, I don't think that $20 is a fair price and they probably aren't going to get my money, especially with Safari bringing RSS reading to the table in a few months. If they had asked either $10 or $15, it would have been more palatable, but $20 is just too much for me to stomach. I'm going to keep using 0.61 until I make a decision (could be months, I dunno). What upsets me the most is that their website shows no apparent way to contact them or give feedback. It also gives no information about the app beyond that first page and the release notes. It feels sneaky to me and this latest version jump and the registration requirement upsets me more. Maybe they were planning all along to charge for it, I don't know. I would have appreciated more information about the subject, though.

Sorry to turn your topic into a bit of a rant, but that is just my latest experience with shareware and registration. I have purchased several apps, including Fetch and CSSEdit. If I don't want to buy something after the trial period is up, I don't buy it and I don't use it. My apps folder is littered with expired shareware that I don't use (note to self: clean that out). If your product is a good product and works exceptionally well, then people should be willing to pay for it. "Should" being the operative word

I for one respond to emails within a few hours and fix a bug and provide an immediate download of the corrected problem to the customer.

I think a problem is that people expect beyond exceptional software for their money. As a whole, it seems individual efforts on software are very mature and professional compared to ten years ago. People would probably pay $30 for my app if it was a store, maybe the lack of a physical product is pschologically detrimental.

Excellent looking program, iMike. Infact, looks like Apple made it. How did you go about getting in a magazine?