If you have a little computing experience and either know or are willing to learn a programming language – or know a knowledgeable computer buff who does – you could create and sell shareware

Firstly, why do many computer users prefer to download and buy shareware instead of commercial software? Here’s why:

Value: Commercial software can cost ten times as much as a comparable piece of shareware. The extra money for commercial products goes into the manual, CD, box, advertising, delivery, wholesale and/or retail mark up. None of these costs is involved with shareware.

Speed: Large commercial software firms spend months developing their products so that they are sometimes almost obsolete as soon as they are released. But a shareware author will often release new software within weeks or even days.

Support: Obtaining technical support for commercial software often takes a long time and can be expensive. But most shareware authors offer unlimited e-mail based technical support. The customer can expect to receive an informative reply directly from the people who know how the software works.

The first thing you need to do is create a piece of software. Here’s what you need:

An Idea: It’s good if you’ve got a completely original one, otherwise it should be a new way of approaching an old problem, or something quite specialised.

Try and avoid competing head-on in a field which is already well catered for by the big companies – you will spend all your time trying to keep up with the competition instead of innovating.

For example, you might have an idea for a new mailing list management program or appointment-management program, which are purpose-designed for a particular industry.

A Computer: Most of the time you will be editing text and most Macs or PCs can do this easily, even if they are not the fastest.

A Development Tool: For example, Metrowerks CodeWarrior, Apple Xcode or Windows C/C++ development tools available from Borland, Symantec or Microsoft.

Tutorials: For Macs, the CodeWarrior development system comes with some excellent sample online books. For Windows, try ‘Programming Windows’. For general programming guidelines, check out ‘Writing Solid Code’ and ‘Code Complete’. You can find more information using an Internet search.

Once you’ve written a program, you need to turn it into something that can sell, i.e. a product.

First of all, test. Test every aspect of your software as you write it. Don’t wait until the end to see if it actually works.

Once you can’t find any more bugs, find some beta testers by advertising on newsgroups or mailing lists. Software should be tested under all platforms for which you claim compatibility, even if their market share is small. Many bugs only appear under particular versions of the operating system and with ‘real world’ use.

Next, you will need clear, comprehensive documentation, in the relevant formats for Mac or Windows. You might also want to produce a tutorial or FAQ’s (frequently asked questions). These can all be published cheaply online.

You will also need a way to collect payment. How are you going to encourage people to pay for the software? What are they going to get when they do pay? The answer can range from pure shareware (where payment is based on trust), through crippleware (important features missing), demoware (save and print disabled), expireware (time limited version) and many other variations. Consider the decision carefully – it will largely determine your level of income.

Once your product is available you need to ensure you maximise its earning potential. This is done with good marketing. Be patient. Don’t expect to make money overnight. It can take time for your program to get disseminated through the Internet, talked about, recommended and purchased.

You’ll need to do some publicity. Think about all the ways in which you heard about the software that you use. The most valuable publicity machine is word-of-mouth, so make sure your product is reliable and you treat your customers well. You can use paid-for advertising if you wish, but budget ways of gaining publicity include sending your program to magazines for reviews, sending press releases to relevant websites and mentioning your software on bulletin boards and forums.

You should also try to get your product listed or mentioned on dedicated shareware sites or other places that likely users will notice it. For both Macs and Windows, use Download.com, Tucows and VersionTracker. Other good Mac places are Info-Mac, AMUG and MacUpdate. For Windows, look at SimTel.Net and WinSite. (You can find these and many more places with an Internet search.)

Every serious shareware operation needs a website, where users can download your shareware and which will also act as a form of advertising. You can begin with a free site, perhaps one that comes free from your ISP. But, once you are up and running you should invest in a properly-hosted domain name. Make paying or donating easy. More people will pay for continued use of your shareware, or upgrades, if they can do so online using a credit card rather than having to mail a cheque. You can use PayPal or a similar service to do this.

With shareware, a good overall strategy is to be persistent and think of your product as a long term project. If you stop promoting and/or upgrading your product, your income will eventually dry up. So you should listen carefully to user suggestions, implement the best ones and introduce new versions periodically, as well as creating more shareware programs which will appeal to the same user. This is the best way of getting your customers to keep paying for your shareware, and of recommending your products to others.