You know what I'm talking about. You don't just own the business, you ARE the business. Every little thing, from writing the code to answering the phone to sweeping the floor to dealing with the taxman. Being a shareware author is no picnic, and the range of knowledge required to bring a product to market successfully can be daunting.

You know how to write the code, you've gotten comfortable with dealing with customers, you've finally mastered filling out the tax form which makes coding in assembly look like a walk in the park, and suddenly a new question springs out and bites you on the ankle - wait a minute, this customer is in Cuba, I'm not allowed to sell my program to him! What do I do to prevent this? Help, my programs' unlock code has been released on the Internet, its open season for piracy! Copyright, how does it affect me? Do I really need a EULA and what should be in it? If I sign a reseller agreement am I giving away rights to my program? Can I use the Amazon logo on my site? Why should I deal with distributors and give away a percentage of my hard earned profits? Shareware download sites, do they really work to sell my software?

Working in customer support for Revolution, I get asked these sorts of questions quite often. While I don't have all the answers, I can offer some suggestions which may help the new author, just setting out on this exciting journey with Revolution. Here are a selection of things which have come up recently in one way or another, and some of my answers. Please remember, these are just my opinions! If you're unsure how to proceed you should consult an expert, or even a lawyer.

Selling worldwide and legal restrictions on countries you can trade with.

If you sell your software from the US, you will come up against this. Any software written in Revolution also has to deal with this, since it is a part of our licensing agreement. The full list of US trade embargos can be found here. Whatever you think about this - and a debate could fill a book - to comply with the law you have to take reasonable steps to prevent this from happening. How, you may be asking, can I possibly stop anyone in these countries from buying my software on the Internet? The simplest way is probably to edit them out of your webstore country list. Pretty much any standard webstore technology will present your customers with a country list to pick from at some point, and if it is a required field, and it does not contain Cuba, a customer in Cuba cannot make a purchase. Of course, they can enter a fake address, and then its up to the card processing company to detect that and decline the card. You have done what you can.

If you have a different answer for this, why not post it here:

Trade Embargoes, good or bad?

Lets have a debate!

How do I tackle Piracy?

A big question, with many ways to answer it. My approach tends to be pragmatic. As a one man band, you have limited time, and you need to make the very best use of it that you can. Taking the pirates on in any meaningful way could use up all of your programming time and effort, with a very poor return. You will get much more return on investment by creating interesting new features that honest people will pay for, than by spending hours creating "uncrackable" registration systems which are just an exciting challenge for the pirates. Create a simple registration system that keeps the honest people honest, is easy to use, and makes it absolutely clear that your program is not free, and write off piracy losses as one of those things that in this day and age you can do little about. If you offer value for money, and for the average user its less effort to pay than to attempt to circumvent payment, you will make sales. You can even view having your program pirated as a sign that you have arrived! People want your program!

What do you think? How do you tackle piracy?

Copyright and your EULA

The answer to do you need an End User License Agreement is yes, you do. Does it need to be complex, long, and unreadable? No, not really. The purpose of the EULA is to define your relationship with your customer, set out what you are giving them, what your liabilities are and what they may or may not do with your software. This is where you protect yourself from for example being sued for a million dollars if your software fails in some way and the customer decides that his businesses collapse is due to this failure. This is where you set out that your software copyright belongs to you, and they may not copy the source code, slap their name on it, and market it as their own. Alternatively, if you are a fan of open source, this is where you tell end users that yes, they can use the code, and set out any restrictions you may wish to impose on that. If you have fairly standard software, and are planning to market it in a reasonably standard way, there is no need to write your own EULA from scratch, there are plenty of good ones out there you can read and modify as you see fit. Always a good idea to get it checked by a lawyer, but there is really no need to spend big bucks on this. Its been done before, check out what others in your market area feel is necessary and decide if that will work for you.

Your thoughts on EULAs and copyright

Resellers and distributors

You probably won't come up against this until you've been trading for a little while. Then perhaps someone will approach you and ask if they can resell your software, or you may decide its time to try and get listed in Amazon, or sold on the shelves of your local computer store. You make the approach and come away stunned at the percentage they are asking for. How can they justify taking 50% or more of your sale?? Why on earth would you do that?

The bottom line is volume and market penetration. 10% of something is better than 100% of nothing. If the distributor really is going to sell your software by the thousand, and sell it into markets that you cannot reach by yourself, then it could be worthwhile. However, be cautious, read the contract carefully, and don't be afraid to negotiate. Don't necessarily accept the first deal they offer you. If you don't ask, you won't get. Ask questions about how much they sell of this type of software and where. Do you already sell direct into those markets? How successfully? Be wary of giving away exclusive rights to sell your product in a given market, you need to be confident of return before you tie your hands.

Don't confuse the low volume, one off reseller, with a distributor. You'll probably be approached by these fairly regularly, they have a customer who wants to buy your software through them and they come to you for a quote. Developing relationships with such people can be beneficial, and a modest discount is appropriate. A good way to motivate resellers can be to offer a sliding scale discount - if they regularly bring you business, consider giving them a bigger discount.

Share your experience with distributors, big and small

Shareware sites

There are thousands of them out there. All of them claim to be the best, and bombard you with emails suggesting you sign up to their premium program, only a few dollars a month, get great positioning, a lovely award logo you can display on your site (which links back to our nice shareware site), and a pound of tea...

So, do they really work? Is it worth paying? Should you link back to them from your website? These are questions similar to the "how long is a piece of string" question.

First off, I'm a huge fan of the PAD file system. Instead of spending literally days updating software on every site, just update your PAD file, upload it and you're done. Not only does it save you time, but now those shareware sites will come and find your program and list it automatically, instead of you having to go searching for them. Of course, they will also start sending you emails...

I have a handful of sites that in my own personal opinion I feel you should target and might consider paying for exposure on. Beyond that, your aim should be to get listed for free on every (reasonably reputable) shareware site on the Internet. They may only send you one referral a month or even less, but if you are on enough sites it all adds up, and, in general, the more links to your site, the higher you will rank in the search engines.

Whether or not you should link back to them from your website is a great topic for debate. One the one hand, a page full of links leading away from your site could be detrimental to sales. You've gone to great pains and expense to bring in that customer and get him/her looking at your beautifully designed website, thinking about your product, finger hovering over the buy button... and then their attention is caught by a pretty logo, they click it, and whoosh, they're gone. Cruising some shareware site where, horror, they are seeing all your competitors products and might even buy one of them!

On the other hand, having lots of relevant links can boost your ratings on those all important search engines, gets you better positioning on the shareware site you've linked to, builds trust and relationships...

I'd love to hear your comments on this issue. Do you have a favourite shareware site?

So there you go. My 2 cents worth. Let me know what you think, share your own experiences and ideas, I'll see you on the forums!