I have a Windows application I wrote while traveling and I'm planning to sell it online to generate some passive income. I've done professional software development for about 6 years, but always as an employee and always strictly as a developer. This will be my first time handling the end-to-end concept to shipping process. I know there are several guys here with good knowledge of the software world (e.g. oldnemesis), so I'm hoping you guys can drop some wisdom on me if you've self-published software or been involved in something similar.
Assumptions
-I don't expect this program to be wildly popular. It will appeal to a small group and I'd be happy if I could sell 20-50 copies per month at $4.99.
-Because of the program's likely obscurity, I kept copy protection and anti-reversing mechanisms to a minimum.
-There are at least 3 programs available that do the same basic thing as mine, but they are all low quality and cost ~$20.
About the Program
(I don't want to get too specific because I'd like to keep my professional identity separate from the identity that gets girls to fuck him in exchange for blueberries)
-It's .NET 4.0 Client Platform, so it'll work on XP, Vista, and Win7.
-It's deployed through ClickOnce, so it has built in auto-update.
-The installer installs a trial version that's fully functional for 2 weeks, after which they need to register to use it.
-Error reporting is built in, so I get phone home reporting of crashes with stack traces (user can decline this to preserve privacy).
-I'm planning to deploy the .pdb (debug) files along with the binaries so that I can get more accurate crash information, even though it makes it almost trivial to reverse engineer.
-Registration keys are just offline hashes of the user's email address. When user pays, the server generates a key and emails it to the user. User enters it in the program and the program just does the same calculation to verify a match.
-The EULA and privacy policy are boilerplate copied from the Internet (EULA, Privacy Policy).
Plan of Sale
-I have a web site advertising the program's features.
-I will launch a small beta program getting 20-30 people to install and use the application.
-Based on feedback and error reports from the beta, I'll create a release version and begin accepting payment through PayPal for licenses.
-I'll buy Google AdWords to promote the site.
-I'll do SEO myself to increase search rankings or I may hire someone with experience in SEO if I'm not getting results I want.
-Profit!
Anyone who's been through this before have any gotchas to warn me about? Any big mistakes I'm making in the plan I've described?
Assumptions
-I don't expect this program to be wildly popular. It will appeal to a small group and I'd be happy if I could sell 20-50 copies per month at $4.99.
-Because of the program's likely obscurity, I kept copy protection and anti-reversing mechanisms to a minimum.
-There are at least 3 programs available that do the same basic thing as mine, but they are all low quality and cost ~$20.
About the Program
(I don't want to get too specific because I'd like to keep my professional identity separate from the identity that gets girls to fuck him in exchange for blueberries)
-It's .NET 4.0 Client Platform, so it'll work on XP, Vista, and Win7.
-It's deployed through ClickOnce, so it has built in auto-update.
-The installer installs a trial version that's fully functional for 2 weeks, after which they need to register to use it.
-Error reporting is built in, so I get phone home reporting of crashes with stack traces (user can decline this to preserve privacy).
-I'm planning to deploy the .pdb (debug) files along with the binaries so that I can get more accurate crash information, even though it makes it almost trivial to reverse engineer.
-Registration keys are just offline hashes of the user's email address. When user pays, the server generates a key and emails it to the user. User enters it in the program and the program just does the same calculation to verify a match.
-The EULA and privacy policy are boilerplate copied from the Internet (EULA, Privacy Policy).
Plan of Sale
-I have a web site advertising the program's features.
-I will launch a small beta program getting 20-30 people to install and use the application.
-Based on feedback and error reports from the beta, I'll create a release version and begin accepting payment through PayPal for licenses.
-I'll buy Google AdWords to promote the site.
-I'll do SEO myself to increase search rankings or I may hire someone with experience in SEO if I'm not getting results I want.
-Profit!
Anyone who's been through this before have any gotchas to warn me about? Any big mistakes I'm making in the plan I've described?