I write software … I have done so for many years, and I’m pretty good at it.
I wrote my first software program when I was 10 years old. It was written in BASIC and was part of a science project I was working on. The challenge was to classify an insect based on a set of Yes / No questions prompted to the user. It worked, it was fun, and I was hooked …
Some 30 years later I still enjoy writing software … and now I make money doing so … 
For the past 15 years, I have been writing software and marketing it and selling it as shareware or trialware. (See the FAQ posting on What is Shareware ?)
During that time I have learned a lot. There have been many successes and there have also been failures. In my opinion it is good to fail from time to time. It means you have tried things. If we never failed and only succeeded at everything we did then we would have to question whether we could have done more … did I try hard enough on that one ? What if I had risked a little bit more … tried something out of my comfort zone.
So … yes … I’m quite willing to admit some failures on my journey through the world of writing software and selling it on the internet.
That journey is an ongoing one, and it’s time to share some of the successes and failures with you. A quick bit of organisation on this site :
- Postings such as this one are categorized as Musings
- There will be FAQs, How To articles as well as Technical articles
Feel free to comment and ask questions …
I have been asked that question a lot over the years. The term Shareware has been used, mis-used, abused and bandied around as a bit of ‘buzz’ over time.
I had to explain it to my parents (who are not technical people by any stretch of the imagination) when I told them what I was doing. Of course they had read the occasional media piece which mentioned the word, but they just didn’t grasp the essence of it.
Shareware is simple … it is a generic term for a method of marketing software …
The term shareware is synonymous with trialware and try before you buy.
All three refer to the fact that you, as the potential customer, get to download the software and try it out before you actually commit to spending any money.
The ultimate goal for most (not all) software authors is to get people to buy their software. It’s the simple old commerce thing … I’ll provide you with something useful … you may me some money to compensate my for my thought and hard work.
Without large marketing budgets and the ability to get boxed software in pretty packaging in front of retail consumers, authors who write software need a method of getting there software purchased by the end user.
Most users would not be happy to pay money for something that :
- Is not a household name
- Is not proven and reliable
- May not do what they want
… unless of course they could try it out for free before having to commit their hard earned cash.
Software developers, there are many resources you can find on the Internet which will help you with developing and marketing your software :
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