Successfully Selling Your Software

I've sold software for a long time and I actually had a company that put me through college (and paid for all of the bills of living as a bachelor). Here are some of the tips I picked up for successful software selling practice.

1) Your Product Matters. Create software that people actually want or need. If you can find a niche that has little competition but is in high demand then you are in a great position to generate revenue. Unless you have a lot of money to back the product, competing against several existing companies isn't a good idea.

2) Remove the Bugs! If your software doesn't work for 80% of the people that download it then 80% of your market has already been lost. Why should I spend the money if your software works half the time? Make sure you test your software on ALL operating systems you are releasing it for. Try installing and/or removing different updates to your released OS then testing your software again. I may not have the same updates installed that you have. I recommend VMware for this task

3) Read, Re-Read and the Read Again! Any output generated by your program (such as alert messages, error messages, documentation, etc.) should contain no spelling errors or grammar errors. If you can't spell or write what does that say about your software? Get someone else to read your documentation, does it make since to them? Ask them to follow one of the steps and see if they are successful, if not, maybe you need to rewrite. As a general rule, assume the user is stupid.

4) Promote your Software. Being a successful software developer/company is 80% promotion and 20% coding. If you spend all of your time creating your software and none of your time promoting, no one will know your software exists. I've seen horrible software become renowned simply because of incredible promotion tactics (take a look at Java and for some of you, Windows).

Advertise on shareware sites and check your return on investment. If it costs $200 to get a top spot on a popular shareware site and it produces 8 software sales at $50 you've already made your money plus $200. If, however, you spend $200 and produce 2 sales at $50 the site doesn't generate a feasible ROI. Try another site or method.

Each software title that you create should have a keyword/phrase associated with it. Promote that keyword/phrase in Google and try to obtain top 10 positions for that keyword/phrase.

5) Give Registration Incentives. Offering a discount for ordering within the next 30 days or 10 uses can create a buyer out of a “tester”. This also causes people to register faster thus increasing the monthly revenue (so long as you keep downloads rising - see above).

6) Your Website! is the most critical part of your software business. Make it easy to navigate, easy to submit support tickets, easy to download your trial software and pleasing to the eye. Your website reflects your entire business and a professional looking websites ensures customers that they are buying from a reputable source. Create a good showcase for your software, people like details before they buy. Be honest about your software.

7) Network with other Software Developers. Contact software developers that are selling related software but not competing directly with your software. Exchange links and traffic with them.

8) Offer a Newsletter! Getting members to join a newsletter is an excellent source of downloads and traffic. I’ve seen companies request an email address before downloading and a subscription for updates newsletters. Both work well and allows you to contact members when new software is released or updates generated.

9) Excellent Support, Excellent Sales! Offering great support gets people talking which gets you more sales. Answer all emails and all tickets. Don’t be rude and no question is too silly.

10) It takes time! No website, developer or business was a success overnight. Just because you put your product on the internet does not mean that people will be able to find it. Constantly work on your website, promotion and products. Remember, it is 80% promotion and 20% development. If you are spending 80% of your time developing then the chances of people finding, downloading and buying your software are slim.

If you have any comments to add please do so.