| Shareware or webapp+adsense? |
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Carhana Darkeyes
New Poster
Cash: $ 0.45
Posts: 2
Joined: 16 Sep 2006
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| Shareware or webapp+adsense? |
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Good afternoon,
I am a programmer and I am interested in making money online.
On the internet there is tons of $20 shareware that I could program in a few days. The shareware business looks like a good one. Some shareware programs that I think might be interesting to develop:
- A program for finding duplicate files on your computer. There are several of these on the internet, I believe I could make one of comparable quality.
- A program for creating photo slideshow screensavers. There are also several of these on the internet, with varying degrees of power and features. I believe I could make a program for doing simple slideshows and sell it for a competitive price.
Then I have another idea. There is a website called http://cooltext.com that lets you create logo images instantly. According to the site, it gets 20 million hits per month, and $20,000 revenue per month from advertising. (http://cooltext.com/Advertise)
There are other sites that are very similar to cooltext.com. I believe that I could make an "instant logo creation" site that is much more powerful then all of these with a lot more features. The plan would be to hope for traffic and earn money from advertising. I would be very happy to start out making only a fraction of the reported revenue price of cooltext.com 
My gut feeling is that selling shareware will make more money.
The downside of shareware is that I will be dealing directly with customers and the big headache of that is customer support. Since my shareware shop would be a "one man company", I am not sure that I would be able to provide timely answers to customer inquiries, especially since my current life situation allows me internet access only a few times every week. Maybe I could get a friend to read and respond to customer emails once a day.
The downside of the webapp approach is that hosting might get expensive since I might need a dedicated server.
I am interested in your thoughts on these two approaches. Which do you think is more profitable? Do you have any other ideas for shareware or webapps?
Any helpful information will be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!
Carhana Darkeyes
Female Half-Elf Rogue
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Sat Sep 16, 2006 12:38 am |
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coaster
Senior Advisor
Cash: $ 1357.80
Posts: 6686
Joined: 11 Oct 2005
Location: Wisconsin
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That's wonderful that you've discovered something that excites you and you're looking to find ways to make it generate income for you. Just a couple of comments on your approach: you mentioned several examples and said you could create something like that just as good as that. You won't find customers beating a path to your website unless you create something that's either head and shoulders above everything else of similar nature, or you create something that's totally different and also helps people do something they need to do. Google would be an example of the first, and Gopher the other (both being search engines....I don't think Gopher exists any more.) And it's very difficult to do either. So, good luck, but be prepared for lots of blood, sweat, and tears.
~Tim~
Eye Candy : Why Whimsy
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Sat Sep 16, 2006 1:33 am |
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pronet
Full Member
Cash: $ 2.60
Posts: 55
Joined: 26 Aug 2006
Location: Texas
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Sooner or later it is going to be made
illegal.
pronet
IMPERIA Invest IBC - Endowment May Change your Life!
https://www.imperiainvest.net/memberarea/?ref=pronet
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Wed Sep 20, 2006 6:31 pm |
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Carhana Darkeyes
New Poster
Cash: $ 0.45
Posts: 2
Joined: 16 Sep 2006
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What do you mean, pronet?
Carhana Darkeyes
Female Half-Elf Rogue
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Fri Sep 22, 2006 10:24 am |
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fultron
Preferred Member
Cash: $ 3.50
Posts: 103
Joined: 15 Sep 2005
Location: NJ
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quote:
Originally posted by pronet
Sooner or later it is going to be made
illegal.
What exactly is going to be made illegal?
Saving Money
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Fri Sep 22, 2006 5:13 pm |
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pronet
Full Member
Cash: $ 2.60
Posts: 55
Joined: 26 Aug 2006
Location: Texas
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quote:
Originally posted by fultron
quote:
Originally posted by pronet
Sooner or later it is going to be made
illegal.
What exactly is going to be made illegal?
I was referring to a post sending $1 to xamount of members
removing one name from the top to add own name. I forgot
who made that post.
pronet
IMPERIA Invest IBC - Endowment May Change your Life!
https://www.imperiainvest.net/memberarea/?ref=pronet
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Fri Sep 22, 2006 6:17 pm |
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