| |
| |
|
softwarecatch.com
|
|
|
|
Benefits of Shareware
Shareware has been fighting the stigma of being misunderstood for decades. While corporate software giants can no longer ignore the marketing potential of a trial version, small software startups are struggling with new listings and bandwidth costs. Businesses and individual consumers need to take a closer look at the benefits of taking advantage of shareware marketing. The concept of a trial version is not a new one. Consumer expectations, and the need for immediate satisfaction have spurned the industry to realize the need for instant software. The availability of file downloads in the Internet era, is spurning a revolution of purchasers who never leaving their homes or offices. As a result, the Internet has taken the proliferation of shareware to a new level. Why the Success? Why developers have succeeded using shareware marketing under poor global economic conditions is fairly obvious. Shareware allows consumers to evaluate an application prior to making a purchase decision. There are no risks to the consumer, if the trial version does not satisfy a purchasers needs, they do not spend the money registering. Evaluating the software prior to purchasing also increases consumer satisfaction as they gain a complete understanding of the software they are ordering and there is little room for surprises. Trying the software before buying is no longer a novelty it is a consumer expectation. Traditionally, because the barrier to entry is fairly low, companies participating in shareware marketing are usually small and willing to provide personalized service uncommon in large companies. Customers often speak directly with developers requesting feature enhancements, thus improving the software for all. Software support forums with users helping other users have become commonplace. These allow developers to focus on future upgrades, while repetitive user issues can be quickly dealt with. Software developers, who market via the shareware method, have revolutionized traditional support models. Many of the shareware directories provide ratings and user assessments. Often the user reviews provide insight to important feature sets. Allowing consumers an opportunity to assess and compare multiple products prior to making a decision. Let us not forget the delivery advantage the shareware model has over the traditional retail counterpart. Shareware allows for instant gratification, there is no need to wait for a shipment because consumers can download and use the software immediately. What does this all mean? Marketing via the shareware method is far less expensive than traditional advertising, the increased customer demands, personalized service and instant satisfaction all provide an added consumer benefits. With Shareware, software developers, have a great method for consumers to evaluate and purchase their software. Consumers can easily determine if the software is suitable. Ultimately, by allowing the software to sell itself, consumers often obtain top quality software that is priced far less than traditional retail applications. About The Author Sharon Housley manages marketing for NotePage, Inc. http://www.notepage.net a company specializing in alphanumeric paging, SMS and wireless messaging software solutions. Other sites by Sharon can be found at http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com, and http://www.small-business-software.net
MORE RESOURCES:
Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Passwords Used In Microsoft Word Documents You would like to protect your documents, wouldn't you? Reasons may vary but the problem is the same - you need to protect your Microsoft Word documents from unauthorized editing or viewing. What document protection features does Microsoft® Office Word 2003, a part of Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003 provide?Microsoft Word features for document protection. RFID: Strengthen the Position for SAP; United States SAP Inc., a global leader in client/server enterprise application software that for years been the backbone to RFID application has seen a 1,000% spike year-over-year in customers, interested in RFID deployment. Navision Attain Database access via C/ODBC in ASP.NET Application Navision Software was purchased by Microsoft and now it is supported by Microsoft Business Solutions together with Microsoft Great Plains, Axapta, Solomon, Microsoft Retail Management System and Microsoft CRM. Navision has extremely strong position on mid-size European and US markets, plus it has excellent manufacturing solution. Screenshots Vista Windows Features Additionally, Vista will include many other new features.Aero Vista will include a completely re-designed user interface, code-named Aero. Microsoft CRM USA Nationwide Remote Support Remember old good days when your company probably had Great Plains Dynamics? If you are in San Francisco Bay Area - you had local Great Plains Software partner consulting company, who served you basically coming onsite and charging you four hours minimum, even if the problem deserved 5-min fix? This was at the end of 20th century and remote support technologies were not very advanced - Citrix was making good progress and taking market over from Symantec PCAnywhere. Today, when Microsoft Terminal Server and Citrix are remote support standards and IT department uses them to host application server for nation-wide and world-wide users, you should probably be thinking of getting remote support for your ERP and CRM systems. Hear It in Digits Music downloads are off the charts! We're listening to digital music in the digital era.The driving force behind the phenonmena is the technonolgy called MP3. How the Firefox: How to... Manual Helped Me A few months back I really got sick of my computer always being slow and having system errors. So I started doing a bit of research and heard of a new browser called "Firefox". Microsoft Blues With the advent of 'Service Pack 2' for Windows XP operating system, Microsoft have really made the forums hum.Every forum on computer problems is replete with complaints that since downloading and installing 'SP2', many 'third party' applications don't work. Microsoft Great Plains - Microsoft RMS Integration - overview Microsoft Great Plains and Microsoft Retail Management System (Microsoft RMS) are originally developed by different software vendors, who had no idea that in the remote future (now) these two applications will be owned by Microsoft and will need to be tightly integrated. Current integration between the two is not an easy thing. A Case Study on Selecting Contract Management Software Professional services firm cuts costs and improves productivity with integrated software system."I could satisfy the government, but I couldn't give managers the information they needed to do their jobs," says Shannon Winston, Controller for Apex Environmental. Linux for Home Users Hey Guys! Don't raise your eyebrows or fear by hearing the word Linux. It is as user friendly as windows. Microsoft Great Plains Upgrade - Version 8.0 Overview for IT Director/Controller If you have Microsoft Great Plains as main accounting and ERP system you need to know some technical details on Great Plains version upgrade and what is going on behind the scenes, which options do you have in case of Dexterity, VBA, SQL customizations, ctree/Pervasive migration to MS SQL/MSDE. As of right now it is reasonable to upgrade to Microsoft Great Plains 8. Microsoft Great Plains & CRM in Transportation & Logistics - Overview Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains and MS CRM (client relation management system) are very popular in various industries and market niches. In previous article we described Microsoft Great Plains implementation for transportation & logistics company. Recovering Microsoft Great Plains Customization - Tips for IT Director Remember nice and prosperous Clinton era? When you implemented innovative those old days accounting application - Great Plains Dynamics. And did a lot of customizations to fit your business requirements precisely. Scrap Booking Online: Word Perfect or Corel Graphics Suite? Scrapbooks are very popular these days. I think that almost everyone wanted to capture family histories and stories in any which way they can. Corel WordPerfect 7 Macro Programming Example Case study: A secretary using Corel WordPerfect 7 is often required to carry out calculations and insert the values into invoices or other documents.She does this by entering calculations into either a real calculator and transcribing the answer, or the Microsoft calculator and copying then pasting the result into the document. Accounts Payable: A Powerful Document Management and Workflow Solution Accounts payable is just one area of office management where problems arise because of the sheer complexity of transactions, and the vast amount of paperwork that is generated.A disproportionate amount of time and administrative resources is consumed just getting invoices approved for payment. PHP On-The-Fly! IntroductionPHP can be used for a lot of different things, and is one of the most powerful scripting languages available on the web. Not to mention it's extremely cheap and widely used. Reduce Pop-ups and Annoying Ads There is many things more frustrating than surfing a website only to have your screen suddenly full of pop-up advertising or a cascade of new windows opening. There are so many intrusive kinds of advertising on websites that there must be a way to deal with them. Microsoft Great Plains Food Processing - Implementation & Customization Highlights Microsoft Great Plains might be considered as ERP platform to build your own custom solution upon or as the assembly place for the existing modules. Microsoft Great Plains has Inventory Control (IV), Bill of Materials (BM), Manufacturing modules, coming from Microsoft Business Solutions directly, plus it has third party solutions, such as Horizon Light Manufacturing.
|
|
Powered By: Free Work At Home Business Opportunity! |
| © 2006 |
