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Ask HN: Getting ready to sell my first piece of software, what should I know?

8 points by leftnode ↗ HN
One of my goals for 2011 was to sell my first piece of commodity software for consumers. As years of hard work would have it, I'm 99% of the way there and that last 1% is what's going to be the hardest.

This is a piece of software that people buy once and then can install on their servers (no SaaS option, yet). It's a web app, but they host it. It's DRM free, written in PHP and customizable.

What should I know about selling it? I have a nice website to accompany it. To help increase sells, I'm going to:

  * have a nice tour of the software
  * full demo
  * small file they can download to ensure it'll run on their servers
  * a way to contact me for support
  * two hours of free support with their purchase
  * Google Checkout and PayPal payment options
What else do you think I should be thinking about when this launches? Getting tracking, reviews, and sales are my primary goals, so what is the best way to accomplish them? What tidbits of information do you have that increase conversions or really help sell your software?

Thank you in advance!

3 comments

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tst_
Who is your customer?
leftnode
Technically competent people who want to start an online community.
brendonwilson
Well, you're missing the primary thing that will be necessary to sell it: marketing. People don't just roll out of bed and give you money because you've made it easy; they give you money because they have a problem, and are aware that you solve it at a reasonable price.

Things to think about:

- How will you identify prospects who might buy? - Where can you potentially reach those prospects?

There's a number of avenues you might pursue in order to get people interested: web based ads, traditional media, web-based lead generation (email marketing campaigns, registration-required downloads), trade shows/events, bylined articles in journals/magazines, etc. And of course, all the usual social-media avenues. Some of these have costs, some are things you can do yourself on the cheap.

These are all avenues by which you can introduce your target market to your product. If they don't know about it, there's little chance to get them to buy it.