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Member 10214013 wrote: I have some programs that do some pretty unusual things.
While your programs may do unusual things, the thing to consider is do they do things that people want? Is there actually a market for your programs? What you are potentially considering here is setting up as an ISV - while this can be rewarding, it's not without its risks.
When you run a business (certainly here in the UK - and I suspect the US is the same), you need all sorts of indemnities - and these cost money, so you already have costs being incurred. You will also need a business name, and you're going to need copyrights and trade marks - it's worth getting a good legal team to conduct searches for you to make sure you aren't infringing on patent, copyright or trade mark. If your programs are so unusual, you may want to consider patenting - again, costing money.
I haven't even touched on marketing. Don't attempt to do this yourself. Get a professional.
Now, what about after sales support? Are you going to offer that? Have you considered selling an annual license at a lower price and offering a support contract (that's where you really make the money)?
Are you going to be doing this "on the side", or are you intending this to be your main business? If so, do you have the funds behind you to support you while you aren't bringing money in?
Are you the right person to run a company? If not, do you know someone who is business savvy who can do the day-to-day while you concentrate on the technology? If you want to retain total control, are you prepared to learn how to run a business, and willing to give up programming time for day-to-day administration (trust me - this is the hardest part)?
I hope I've given you some things to ponder.
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I think the question to ask is not how to sell software but just how to sell.
With sales comes support, convincing someone that they need something they did not know they need etc.
If you are prepared to do all of that,there are lots of books out there on selling, you will know how to sell your software.
I stopped trying to sell my software as soon as the rather slimy salesmen started to contact me with their offers(it almost makes me shudder thinking of some of their offers) - quite simply I am not interested in the whole turgid area of sales so I concentrated on opensource.
Good luck if you want to go into sales and don't let it destroy your creativity and humanity 
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
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I'd just like to say, 'Tim Berners-Lee'.
As for software, I tried going local in 2009, giving demos to businesses and so on, but there was no way they'd bite in the crash climate.
The product was (is) a webcam application with face detection that snaps a picture when it sees a face and uploads it to ftp.
The idea being that it uses hardly any resources, but if somebody breaks into your house or hotel room, you'll see who and when.
Didn't catch on. But it was a wonderful tool for interviews (it fitted on a netbook, Linux or Windoze) where I could give demos to the interviewers, and it was good for my CV too, so it wasn't a total loss.
It really did the trick at my present job, and I now do Windoze and Linux robotic programming for a good salary in a solid company.
I'll settle for that. 
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Sounds like the path I have followed - the software I wrote in my spare time got me my current job too.
So you are correct - although there may be no direct sales there may be other pleasant consequences.
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
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Simon O'Riordan from UK wrote: The product was (is) a webcam application with face detection that snaps a picture when it sees a face and uploads it to ftp
Great idea. However your experience reminds me of mid-80's when I was trying to sell people on this crazy idea called "voicemail". I had an Apple II with an AppleCat modem with DTMF and a 128K RAM card for storage. Most common comment was, "Why should I spend $2000 for something I can do with a $100 tape answering machine?"
They just didn't get it. However the Telco's were better positioned than me to finally roll stuff like that out, but I just look back and shake my head at how ubiquitous voicemail is nowadays.
Psychosis at 10
Film at 11
Those who do not remember the past, are doomed to repeat it.
Those who do not remember the past, cannot build upon it.
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Yes. My last fig-leaf is that I haven't open sourced it yet, but in any case it's pretty simple to implement.
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You post it up on Pirate Bay and watch the cheques come pouring in...
Or at least, someone posts it up on...
Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it. --- George Santayana (December 16, 1863 – September 26, 1952)
Those who fail to clear history are doomed to explain it. --- OriginalGriff (February 24, 1959 – ∞)
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I live in America, a country with great national parks, wonderful bookstores and libraries, well organized sports teams, and hey!, this is where the internet was invented (even if it wasn't invented by a foolish man from Tennessee.)
The first internet was run from a hut on a Cornwall beach back in the 1850's
It linked from that hut to India, Australia, America, Asia, and all over Europe, down cables laid from the hut to the rest of the world.
It used a hardwired system to link millions of connections so that anyone could send a message to anyone else.
It was digital.
It was run using a language invented by a Briton, a language still used today.
It was Fast and fairly robust and took on so quickly that a lot of rival companies went bankrupt.
(The US had The Pony Express but that didn't last long thanks to those Damnable Brits and their superior technology).
The Telegraph was a wonderful thing.
Why do Americans think they invented everything?
They have invented virtually nothing.
All the major inventions were British.
We were just crap at making money from them.
---------------------------------
Obscurum per obscurius.
Ad astra per alas porci.
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur .
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Indeed, one Gentleman (Alexander Bain[^]) used teh Telegraph to transmit pictures.
Since one of these would at some point of been of a Cat, and another of a Unclothed Lady (it is a law of nature, I fear) you could well argue that it was the first use of a primitive forerunner of t'interweb... 
Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it. --- George Santayana (December 16, 1863 – September 26, 1952)
Those who fail to clear history are doomed to explain it. --- OriginalGriff (February 24, 1959 – ∞)
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In the Olde Tyme Days we used to duplicate the disks and hang them on hooks in baggies at the local computer store. Sadly those days are gone.
Then there was start your own company and find a software publisher like Hayden or Ashton-Tate. Sadly those days are gone as well.
Then there was the hope that you'd be bought out by some larger company that wanted to Embrace, Extend, Extinguish. (you know who I'm talking about)
Today I'd say you'd at least have to purchase a domain name and put up a web site. PLEASE don't come up with a goofy name and then fill your pages with how it slices and dices and will restore your virility and forget to mention what it does. I've seen too many of those.
If you have a working prototype, maybe go to Kickstarter and ask for funding to at least get the name out there and have money to pay for a well written user manual and/or packaging.
Psychosis at 10
Film at 11
Those who do not remember the past, are doomed to repeat it.
Those who do not remember the past, cannot build upon it.
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I like your poetic answer.
Yeah, I agree with your comments.
I wrote my question hoping to obtain wise answers that would help me develop real insight.
Which is exactly what I've been getting and trying to do. Now I have to be sufficiently wise enough to understand what has been said and to make a few business decisions.
One conclusion: I'm not open to being bought out my America's biggest companies. But I might go for selling out to a slightly smaller firm. Less money, I know. That would be okay.
I have two products, each is completely unique, with no competition at present. Only one is camera ready complete, which is all I need.
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Serendipitously this link appeared in my newsfeed Crowdfunding[^]
Psychosis at 10
Film at 11
Those who do not remember the past, are doomed to repeat it.
Those who do not remember the past, cannot build upon it.
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You definitely need a website; and so that people can find you, you need to read up on SEO (search engine optimization).
Think up some key words that describe you product, Google them, and check out who your competition is. If you can create a page that will "rank up there", then you will get noticed.
Google has guides to help you with making your pages "search friendly" (SEO is actually not that difficult).
Further on, there are some really simple and economical ways to create an e-commerce site, with shopping cart and a link to PayPal that can be managed by a one-man operation.
(I'm currently supporting someone else's desk-top app that is sold on the internet; so I know it works. Anyway, most users can't tell the difference between a desktop app or a "web app" since almost everyone has a full-time internet connection these days...)
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Member 10214013 wrote: I live in America North America, a country with great national parks, wonderful bookstores and libraries, well organized sports teams, and hey!, this is where the internet was invented (even if it wasn't invented by a foolish man from Tennessee.)
Sorry, but America is a whole continent. 
Regarding your questions, if you have only done programming, and never ever attempted being a sales man, then you will face tough times, my recommendation is to get a team that's well balanced to sell, promote and develop your solutions, it doesn't have to be a big team, just around 4 persons will suffice, but they must be motivated and tough, because, most likely, at the beginning there won't be any money.
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RafagaX wrote: America is a whole continent
Two whole continents and several nearby islands (some a little too nearby).
This space intentionally left blank.
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FWIW from WikiPedia :
"...Gore's legislation also helped fund the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois, where a team of programmers, including Netscape founder Marc Andreessen, created the Mosaic Web browser, the commercial Internet's technological springboard. 'If it had been left to private industry, it wouldn't have happened,' Andreessen says of Gore's bill, 'at least, not until years later...."
There's lot more in WikiPedia regarding Gore's involvement and a lot of credit given to him by many in the industry.
Again, FWIW.
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None of what you say involves Al Gore sitting down and thinking "Hey!, why don't we develop inter-machine communications so people can communicate over a network."
That's the key component with regard to the internet and that was the work of others, such as Mr. Andreesen.
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Member 10214013 wrote: But ah, how does one sell software these days?
Same way one sells a car. Same way software was sold in 90s (social media is just another media.)
Member 10214013 wrote: I tried to do business with MS, they made the right noises for a while but, no, turns out they were just kicking the tires. And really, I'm just not a Microsoft kind of guy.
The most likely way to succeed at sales is to have someone that is actually a salesman do the selling. And if you have a really good salesman then you will have sales.
And none of that of course has anything to do with being a good programmer.
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I once read somewhere (but I don't remember who said it) that, if people know you they will listen to you, if people trust you they will buy from you.
You will still need to be out there where people can see you (even if it's just digitally).
You will still have to sell a sales team on your product before they can sell it for you.
Unless someone sees an opportunity that your product provides for them to make money.
Try to get people talking about you and your product (good, bad or indifferent).
modified 31-Jan-14 18:17pm.
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Kanye is threatening...[^] (image)
If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.-John Q. Adams
You must accept one of two basic premises: Either we are alone in the universe, or we are not alone in the universe. And either way, the implications are staggering.-Wernher von Braun
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.-Albert Einstein
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He's got my vote to leave! 
The difficult we do right away...
...the impossible takes slightly longer.
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I hope he doesn't end up in Kenya.
"Bastards encourage idiots to use Oracle Forms, Web Forms, Access and a number of other dinky web publishing tolls.", Mycroft Holmes[ ^]
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d@nish wrote: I hope he doesn't end up in Kenya.
I hope he does. 
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No! That would be worst punishment for being anagram for this name.
"Bastards encourage idiots to use Oracle Forms, Web Forms, Access and a number of other dinky web publishing tolls.", Mycroft Holmes[ ^]
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