1. 1 Common Myths and Misconceptions about Consumer Shareware

2. 2 Myth #1 Get the user “addicted” to your program and then ask them to buy At the end of the trial period, users love the program so much that they will have no choice but to buy

3. 3 Fact A trial version’s “half life” is one day Over 75% of registrations happen within two days of download No significant “jump” in registrations at the end of the trial period

4. 4 Myth #2 Rich functionality speaks for itself An attractive interface is not too important

5. 5 Fact Users generally only use the program’s most basic functionality before purchase A high quality interface convinces users your software’s functionality is high quality If you do not have the skills to design a good interface, hire a professional

6. 6 Myth #3 Use gentle reminders to encourage users to register Provide generous trial periods

7. 7 Fact “Nice” programs do not sell as well Ask for registrations early and often Make sure the user has an incentive to register and register early “What you are selling is merely the difference between the shareware and registered versions, not the registered version itself” Steve Pavlina, Dexterity Software

8. 8 Myth #4 Shareware users always evaluate the trial version before purchase

9. 9 Fact As many as 20% of your customers can be convinced to purchase immediately Encourage “impulse buys” through well placed buy links on web sites and product cross-sells Get the sale as early as possible

10. 10 Myth #5 There are only two types of customers: those who are honest and those who aren’t

11. 11 Fact There are two types of customers: those who are honest, and those who are honest when it is more convenient to be honest An easily found, widely available crack can impact sales by 30% or more

12. 12 Myth #6 Offering free lifetime upgrades will increase sales

13. 13 Fact Free lifetime upgrades might kill your product Your past customers are one of your most important assets

14. 14 Myth #7 Focus the majority of your marketing on the United States - most of your sales will come from the USA.

15. 15 Fact These days, Europe generates nearly the same amount of downloads as the United States Combined, Europe and Asia / Pacific generate more downloads than the USA

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17. 17 Myth #8 The majority of my potential customers use a dial-up internet connection

18. 18 Fact 75% – 80% shareware downloads are done over broadband connections When you ignore Region 4 (all countries but USA, Canada, Europe, Japan, Korea, Australia), 85% of shareware downloads are done over broadband connections

19. 19 Download Speeds for Shareware PercentileDownload Speed Kb/s 520 1041 1577 2095 25101 30105 35111 40122 45180 50243 55334 60430 65534 70663 75799 801020 851342 901811

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21. 21 Myth #9 Spend a lot of effort putting your file on every download site and every search engine – everything helps!

22. 22 Fact 99% of your sales from download sites and search engines will come from the top 25 sites Spending a lot of time putting your software on small download sites and search engines is generally not profitable Alexa Rankings (www.alexa.com) are a good way to determine the popularity of a website Focus on sites that have an Alexa ranking of 40,000 or lower. Consider using a submission service such as SharewarePromotions.com, Rudenko.com

23. 23 Referring Sites Percentage of Sales Site Percentage of Sales www.google.com 32.85% www.download.com 19.81% www.snapfiles.com 4.35% www.softpedia.com 4.35% www.google.co.uk 4.11% www.google.de 3.86% 5star.freeserve.com 3.86% downloads-zdnet.com.com 3.62% search.msn.com 2.90%

24. 24 Questions??? David Halls Director of Development, Emetrix A Digital River Company http://www.emetrix.com david@emetrix.com