I’ve posted a new poll to the site asking if you’d rather make $20,000 by selling 1000 copies of your software for $20 or 2000 copies for $10. Please take a moment to vote for your preference.
I’ve also started a thread in the Sales and Marketing forum in the microISV forums to discuss why you prefer one choice over the other.
I’ve posted a new poll to the site asking if you’d rather make $20,000 by selling 1000 copies of your software for $20 or 2000 copies for $10. Please take a moment to vote for your preference.
I’ve also started a thread in the Sales and Marketing forum in the microISV forums to discuss why you prefer one choice over the other.
1000 @ $20 for two reasons - If it’s the same software, the 1000 copies represents more growth possibilities in the future, Second, fewer support requests!
Not a very interresting poll. More insight would be provided by something like:
1 copy @ $20,000 vs. 1000 copies @ $20
Many people reading this blog fit the “shareware to the masses” model. Although this is a viable business structure, few really realize just how many copies of software they have to sell in order to make going into business for themselves worth it. You have to sell a lot of copies of $20 software to offset a $50K-$80K programming job.
There is another group which hopes to make a living by hitting fewer “homeruns”, each of which having much greater economic implications. Landing a single customer a year is just fine if you are making $200,000 on each sale.
Don’t ignore the perspective of this second group. These people will be the one’s who go beyond the status of the typical struggling shareware developer to become successful small business owners.
mslyh,
Thank you for your comments, you make some good points. I intentionally made the poll vague so that you would interpret it in your own way. You seem to be approaching it from the money angle, which is great.
There is a good discussion going on in the forums by people who are approaching the question from different viewpoints. I encourage you to join in the discussion.
January 18th, 2005 at 11:08 am
1000 @ $20 for two reasons - If it’s the same software, the 1000 copies represents more growth possibilities in the future, Second, fewer support requests!
January 20th, 2005 at 1:18 pm
Not a very interresting poll. More insight would be provided by something like:
1 copy @ $20,000 vs. 1000 copies @ $20
Many people reading this blog fit the “shareware to the masses” model. Although this is a viable business structure, few really realize just how many copies of software they have to sell in order to make going into business for themselves worth it. You have to sell a lot of copies of $20 software to offset a $50K-$80K programming job.
There is another group which hopes to make a living by hitting fewer “homeruns”, each of which having much greater economic implications. Landing a single customer a year is just fine if you are making $200,000 on each sale.
Don’t ignore the perspective of this second group. These people will be the one’s who go beyond the status of the typical struggling shareware developer to become successful small business owners.
January 20th, 2005 at 1:47 pm
mslyh,
Thank you for your comments, you make some good points. I intentionally made the poll vague so that you would interpret it in your own way. You seem to be approaching it from the money angle, which is great.
There is a good discussion going on in the forums by people who are approaching the question from different viewpoints. I encourage you to join in the discussion.