How can I sell software over the net?

[Starriol]

I'm gonna finish soon a new & revolutionary Palm software that I need to sell over the net.
It's the first time I'm gonna sell soft online.

I need good tips about the whole bussiness, starting from how to get the money delivered to how to get listed at download.com and sell though them, BIG etc.

Any has any ideas about books or sites about the subject or wanna help by giving tips?

Thanks!

[JiriNovotny]

Hi Starriol,

This is my business so I guess I can help you!

Books:
"Micro-ISV: From Vision To Reality" is a book for small Independent Software Vendors (=ISV), I actually haven't read it but I've heard that it is good.

Payment Processors:
I can recommend you BMT Micro (BMT Micro Software Registration Services - extremely friendly and helpful guys) and Plimus (Plimus - Next Generation Software Registration services and eCommerce).

Shareware Authors Organisations

• ASP - Association Of Shareware Professionals - costs $125 bucks / year
• OISV - free membership
• AISP - costs like $30 a year, I am unsure though. It is cheaper than ASP

(Just google these :-)

There are also some groups to be found at Google groups, but they are not as helpful as the ASP and other organizations with their newsgroups.

Download Sites
Biggest download site is Download.com and another huge one is Softpedia.com. There is also Tucows.com out there, but I do not like them very much - they are big though. There are hundreds of download sites, so maybe you would like to buy RoboSoft, it costs like $125, and can submit your program AUTOMATICALLY to all download sites. If you join ASP you get $25 off too, I think.

If you have any questions please feel free to ask, but I suppose that you can find all you need using these resources. Many, many people (including me) went through the same path. When it comes to marketing, basically you just have to do some SEO, send out a press release and use AdWords optionally, so that's it for starters.

[Starriol]

Originally Posted by JiriNovotny

If you have any questions please feel free to ask, but I suppose that you can find all you need using these resources. Many, many people (including me) went through the same path. When it comes to marketing, basically you just have to do some SEO, send out a press release and use AdWords optionally, so that's it for starters.

What's a SEO and how do you say I use AdWords? Don't know what those are.

Thanks a lot man, you've been very helpfull. I'll check out those sites when I get home.

[Blueskied]

SEO = Search engine optimization. Putting keywords on your web page like "Palm tool" to get found through Google & co.
AdWords - The advertising links that appear when you search something in Google or on lots of websites. Just take a look around here.

[JiriNovotny]

Yup, AdWords are paid ads at google.com - www.adwords.com

[Brutha]

PalmGear.com: Download Palm Software for your Treo 650/600, Tungsten, LifeDrive or other Palm OS Device is a big site for selling/buying Palm Software online.

[andrew]

Yes I'm in the same business, and you mentioned Press Releases. Is there a formal way to go about this? And how do you "send it out"?

Thanks.

[Phil Newton]

There's a guide to press releases at the ASP website which might help. There are a quite a few companies that will take care of the whole thing for you, which might be worth a go if you're just getting started.

I also recommend joining the ASP if you're serious about shareware. I joined ages ago but left when university took priority. I never realised how much I was missing until I left.