最近看的一片英文材料，
共享出来一块学习英语。
1. IntroductionHello! I'm Rick Holzgrafe of Semicolon Software, and I'm a sharewareauthor. I've been at it for over fifteen years now, and my friends all knowbetter than to bring the subject up: once started, I won't stop talkingabout it. How to improve my products, my sales, and my reviews is a topicof absorbing interest to me.
When I meet with other shareware authors, they're just like me. We'reall looking for ways to be more successful at shareware, and we trade ourideas and experiences with each other. I'm going to share some of thoseideas and experiences in this article. Although this is aimed mainly atshareware authors, you may also find it interesting if you're a sharewarecustomer, a commercial
developer, or just curious about the process of makingand selling shareware.
I am not the world's greatest shareware success by a long chalk. But I havebeen at it a long time, and my shareware income now rivalsmy regular day-job income. I didn't start out that way. In the beginningI was lucky to sell more than two copies of my first product in any givenweek. Over time my business improved, and each time it did I tried to learnfrom the experience: what did I do differently this time that made a difference?I've tried to put the things I've learned into this article.
Credit where it's due: Much of the good advice in this article is notmine. It was contributed by other shareware people: most notably Peter NLewis and Jeremy Nelson of
StairwaysShareware, Kee Nethery of
Kagi, TonyaEngst of
TidBITS, and the authorson the Kagi Authors mailing list. Thanks to you all, and of course any badadvice is all mine.
What is "Success"?The first question we've got to answer is what we mean by "success."It can mean different things to different people. I considered myself fairlysuccessful several years ago, when I'd sold some 500 copies of my firstshareware product (an adventure game named
Scarabof Ra). There weren't so many shareware authors back then as there arenow, and few had bothered to write anything ambitious. At $10 per copy Imade a few thousand dollars over the course of about five years: enoughto buy some good software and even a little hardware now and again. I alsoacquired a small reputation and a few nice reviews.
Right there you have several criteria for success. You can aspire to fame,praise, and/or money. There are other possible benefits as well: by choosingyour own projects you can gain experience you wouldn't get in school oron the job. You can make friends, which is good for pleasure and for business.Some of the friends I've met through shareware are among the best I have;some are not only good friends but useful people to know.
I recommend that you take a little time to decide what your own goals are.Some people are more interested in reputation, experience, and friends thananything else: they are the ones giving away good-quality freeware.
Most people will be interested in "all of the above," with a heavyemphasis on making money. (You don't have to be shallow and greedy to wantto make money. No one knows better than a developer how much all this hardwareand software and time costs. Expensive hobbies are a lot easier to supportif they bring in a good income!) The rest of this article is therefore mostlya discussion of how to increase your shareware sales. If you can do thatyou'll not only make more money, but the rest of the rewards you might wantwill come along with the dollars.
A Road MapAfter some thought, I've decided that there are seven keys to sharewaresuccess. But I call them the "Seven P's" instead of the "SevenKeys" because -- well, you'll see. Here they are:
You'll see as we go that there's a lot more to shareware than just writinga good piece of code. In fact, for most of us that's the easy part! I thinkit's best to take the seven points in the order I've given them, but feelfree to use your magic web browser to skip back and forth if you prefer.
