🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <819129630snz@wash.demon.co.uk>
   John Washington <john@wash.demon.co.uk> writes:
> 
> Perhaps others have different views.  I've not put out any
> shareware since having a Demon a/c.  Should I switch to
> doing shareware?

The odd things I've released have been free, although generally with the 
requirement that the user drops me an email to say they're using it. Even 
so, I've had very few "registrations", and generally they tend to come 
when the user needs help (it's often fairly obvious they've been using it 
for a while before that point). So I doubt very much whether I could make 
any money out of it.

That said, a lot depends on your target audience. If the audience is the 
"end user" then I would say that without significant incentive to 
register you won't get anything. If your target audience is developers, 
then you stand a much better chance; such people perhaps value the work 
put into a product more highly (or maybe they're just more honest?). This 
view would tie in quite well with Tim's SmofList paying far more than 
make_get - I don't think many people would doubt that SmofList has far 
fewer users. Given that make_get generally has a significant impact on 
phone bills where it is used I find this "human nature" a little 
disappointing. However, speaking realistically, it does indicate that 
attempting to make money is probably an optimistic venture.

With all that in mind, why bother at all? I sometimes wonder myself :-) 
However, I know I have gained far more out of the "Net" than I have put 
back, so I don't see that I have lost anything. There are people who just 
take - there always are. I feel better in myself having put something 
back. Then there's that knowledge that when you die there'll be some 
people around who you've never met whose lives have been changed for the 
better because of something you did. You see, I'm just a romantic at 
heart :-)

Mark.
-- 
int MeaningOfLife (void) { return 42; }   // mcr@holly.demon.co.uk
function MeaningOfLife :integer; begin MeaningOfLife := 6 * 9 end;