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#1 How to make a good shareware[ZT]
http://www.dextronet.com/blog/sh ... re-part-i-the-plan/
Part I, The Presumptions
If you’ve decided that you want to create shareware application for Windows and make some money, very well! But keep this in mind - it’s not easy. You will either make nothing or small cash, or big bucks. Unfortunately, even the middle level is very hard to reach. It all depends on hundreds of small factors (software name, website URL, your ecommerce partner, your help file, and so on) that multiply.
So what are the ideal presumptions for making a good software?
1. Good organization
2. Strong will and motivation
3. Coding skills
4. Designing skills and esthetic feeling
5. Basic knowledge of webdesign and web technologies
6. Time (at least a hour a day)
7. Internet connection (non dial-up)
8. and the most important… good ideas and agile mind - lack of insight can ruin it all
You will also need good website. It’s not important if you make it yourself , buy one or use template - you just must be able to modify it and keep it cross-browser compatible.
If you lack coding skills or basic XHTML knowledge, I strongly suggest you to read a few books covering that topic first.
Currently the best language for software development is probably Delphi. I wouldn’t recommend you go .NET yet as many people still don’t have the large NET Framework. Personally I still use Visual Basic 6, and I’ll migrate to .NET later. Coding in C++ is pointlessly painful and mostly really unnecessary (although the Borland C++ Builder ain’t bad) - why should you take a cannon to kill a mosquito?  You will just spent more time coding and the final product won’t be much better. Java is practically out of question. So to sum it up, just grab a RAD (Rapid Application Development) IDE.
Next thing you’ll need is the plan about which I’ll write in the next post.
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天理路上甚宽，稍游心，胸中便觉广大宏朗；
人欲路上甚窄，才寄迹，眼前俱是荆棘泥涂。
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2005-12-21 07:34 PM |
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网普科技
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#2 Part 2, The Plan
Part 2, The Plan
Before releasing a product, you’ve to do a lot of things. Let’s name them first (in the appropriate order):
1. Get Idea
2. Do a market research (*)
* If you’ve changed your mind, go to 1
3. Download all similar products and carefully review them (*)
4. Carefully write down complete description of your product (*)
5. Design GUI
6. Code (and test) your application
7. Create help file
8. Create website
* Create newsletter (*)
* SEO (*)
9. Chose e-commerce partner (BMT Micro, Plimus, RegNow, RegSoft etc.)
10. Set price
11. Implement protection
* Integrate it with your e-commece partner
12. Create license
13. Create setup file
14. Publish the software on your website
15. Create PAD File (*)
16. Submit it to download websites (*)
17. Announce it on newsgroups, forums, make press release (*)
Plus these recurrent tasks:
* Loop: Actively market it
* Loop: Actively improve it, release new versions
* Loop: Do technical support and answer emails (+ deal with refunds, newsletters, etc)
The points marked with (*) are optional, but very helpful. Of course, if you are just hobbyist aiming for extra $50 a month, you can skip good half of these steps, but most of them are unavoidable if you want to be successful. You also have to deal with taxes, but that’s a regional thing so you’ll have to deal with that yourself. I will try to cover all the steps in this plan in the upcoming posts!
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天理路上甚宽，稍游心，胸中便觉广大宏朗；
人欲路上甚窄，才寄迹，眼前俱是荆棘泥涂。
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2005-12-21 07:35 PM |
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网普科技
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#3 Part 3, The Idea
Part 3, The Idea
Importance Of Decision
Before creating an application you need to decide whether you really want to create it. Very high amount of various projects is never finished for various reasons, and a lot of applications fail even when they are finished - they simply do not fulfil the author’s exceptions.
If you are not enough strong-willed you will probably find a put-off during development and stop the project. It’s not that hard to prevent - you must be certain that your application will have certain level of success. If you are blindly coding something without any research it is no wonder that you stop before completion (and find yourself a nice plea). So, how to prevent that?
Easy Application To Finish
Easy application to finish is an application that you love to make. Even if it will be total flop you will finish it. Such applications are often of a higher quality, but it’s not a rule of course. However, frequent problem is passion vs. commercial success - you want to make something that’s great for you, but it’s not useful for vast majority of people.
A nice compromise is to create something that you are going to use every day, because the software will usually have much higher quality in the long run. When I’ve been coding Swift To-Do List, I was very excited to use it in the future. Coding some of it’s parts was not enjoyable at all, but that was no problem for me.
Hard Application To Finish
Hard application to finish is application that you hate. You will never use it and you don’t enjoy it’s creation. Only motivation here is the money. But is it enough for you?
Do not know what software to create at all?
Go to Softpedia.com, Download.com, Snapfiles.com and look around. Do you see something that looks successful and you would like to make it? Great! But before doing that keep in mind that you’ll have to give the users a good reason for using your software and not the original one. Make list of all things that the author is doing wrong and do them right. Make list of things in the software that could be improved. Choose better name, etc.
You can also try brainstorming, ask your friends or relatives what piece of software would they like to use, and so on.
But keep in mind that unique software is probably total hit or (much more likely) total flop. It’s of course possible to target a small niche with high priced product, but that’s not very typical for shareware software.
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天理路上甚宽，稍游心，胸中便觉广大宏朗；
人欲路上甚窄，才寄迹，眼前俱是荆棘泥涂。
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2005-12-21 07:36 PM |
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celn
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2006-1-3 10:33 AM |
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茱莉娅
THE BODY SHOP美容顾问
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2006-1-3 10:33 AM |
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