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Twenty dollars in an envelope

justinjackson.ca

21–30 of 92 posts

Re: Twenty dollars in an envelope

#21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't drink the kool aid. There is still a lot of money being made. You don't hear about it because only an idiot would talk about his/her amazing sales.

Hmmm. Only an "idiot" would talk about sales? Patio11 - http://www.kalzumeus.com/2012/12/29/bingo-card-creator-and-o... Nathan Barry - http://nathanbarry.com/2012-year-quitting-job/ Brennan Dunn - http://planscope.io/blog/giving-up-a-million-dollar-consulta...

Sad that I'm not "idiot" enough for you to mention! ;)

Re: Twenty dollars in an envelope

#22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Forget bad things - it's quaint to think of the days where asking someone nicely to pay you if they like your product actually worked , to the tune of 5-figures. Nowadays you'd just get some kids on the internet explaining how them using your product for free is doing you a favor, "exposure" and the such. > "Had he tried to do it a few years after that, I doubt the results would have been the same." Isn't that beside…

Honestly, I doubt that much has changed except that there are more kids online. It's always been the adults who primarily paid for stuff. Even back then, there were probably lots of kids who used his software for free. Take home message: if you want to build consumer products and make money, target adults, not teenagers.

I'd argue there are WAY more adults online now as a percentage of overall internet users now, than 15 years ago.

Back in 1999 when I first started using AOL, adults would always ask young people for help. Most adults didn't see the value in it, and kids didn't need to see the value in it. The result was a very young population of people using the internet.

Most people over the age of 50, even after 15 years are still so far behind people 30 an younger.

Re: Twenty dollars in an envelope

#23
I sold my paintbox for £12 in 1988. It ran on a BBC Archimedes 310 in the shop window of the computer store where I bought it doing abstract expressionist artwork to show off its various calligraphic and airbrush tools in full colour.

To put this in perspective Photoshop 1.0 was available back then, ran on a more expensive Macintosh and was black & white.

I sold 4 copies and the shop took a cut.

Re: Twenty dollars in an envelope

#24
post #2

I'd be interested in hearing more shareware stories. Did anyone else here have success selling shareware in the 80's and 90's?

I more or less paid for my computers selling a shareware¹ calendar program for Macs. It just let you make a one page calendar² of a month and type things in the days with some simple styling.

I initially wrote it as a birthday present for my brother, who needed something to do that job, then decided maybe some other people would like it. It was popular with teachers. (Writing that I feel like a jurassic patio11!)

I think it was $10, then I raised it to $15. These were pre-internet days, pre AOL even. It was fun getting checks from foreign lands, though it annoyed my bank. They eventually started charging $20 to clear a foreign check, so I had to adopt an unofficial “foreign folk get registered for free” policy and just thank them and tear up their checks when they arrived. I think the last check came in over 10 years after I stopped maintaining the program.

¹ Slightly nag ware. Registered users could make the solicitation screen stop showing up on launch. There was a secret little click dance you could do on the solicitation screen to prove you were registered.

² Pro tip: A “calender” passes the spelling checker, but is a machine in which cloth or paper is pressed between rolls until smooth. You will have to update your software and reprint your paper manuals when you discover this fact.

Bonus Pro Tip: If you try to write a direct SCSI access disk utility, you may accidentally corrupt your only hard drive, not have backups of your source code, and then get to write a block scanner using only floppy based tools to scan the wreckage of your hard drive looking for blocks that might be C source code, collect those together, and reassemble your software sources as best you can. That's ok, version 2.0 is always better anyway, and you will have learned to keep backups.

Re: Twenty dollars in an envelope

#25
post #9
post #2

I'd be interested in hearing more shareware stories. Did anyone else here have success selling shareware in the 80's and 90's?

I don't know about selling, but I had a hobby project, my first in Pascal, that would translate ProBoard (ProBBS, or a PcBoard door program that did fancy things) to and from RBBS (the other open source board software). I uploaded it to a couple of boards, some of which were FidoNet connected. Anyway, a few months later got a call I think from someone somewhere in the Navy that wanted to use it, and asked if I had an…

Whoa! You were 8 or 9?

I ran a little ProBoard BBS for awhile. ;)

Re: Twenty dollars in an envelope

#26
post #2

I'd be interested in hearing more shareware stories. Did anyone else here have success selling shareware in the 80's and 90's?

I used to compile a bunch of tech-product-related coupons and discount codes and tricks for saving money on buying the hot stuff of the day (RAM, DVD-ROM drives, etc) and sell that as a report on eBay.

I always wondered about those. Did they make any money?

Re: Twenty dollars in an envelope

#27
From 2004-2009, I basically built things I could have charged for, but didn't. I was afraid to take money from people.

DHH (et al) to the rescue: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CDXJ6bMkMY

This is where the "Nice little Italian restaurant" SaaS meme was sourced from. He was hilariously spot-on.

I caved and started building things I would charge for. I'm still just part-timing it, but my stuff is growing. And, frankly, I'm not the best Rails/iOS/Java developer out there. Literally if I can do it, you can too.

Great, inspiring article.

Re: Twenty dollars in an envelope

#28
Jason Fried is so cool, he knew how terrible Filemaker Pro was before it existed! (Alright… it was probably 1990 already. Just had to point out the potential anachronism of 25 years ago being 1988 and Filemaker Pro being released in October 1990.)

Re: Twenty dollars in an envelope

#29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hmmm. Only an "idiot" would talk about sales? Patio11 - http://www.kalzumeus.com/2012/12/29/bingo-card-creator-and-o... Nathan Barry - http://nathanbarry.com/2012-year-quitting-job/ Brennan Dunn - http://planscope.io/blog/giving-up-a-million-dollar-consulta...

Sad that I'm not "idiot" enough for you to mention! ;)

How could I forget about Amy! She's one of the first people I saw publish her numbers: http://unicornfree.com/2010/i-made-216668-from-products

Re: Twenty dollars in an envelope

#30
post #3

While the story is lovely, it's also quaint to think of the days when a young kid put his home address on the internet and bad things didn't happen. Also, this is another "right time right place" story - his code wasn't just good, it was one of the few solutions at the time. Had he tried to do it a few years after that, I doubt the results would have been the same.

Assuming he didn't say he was a kid in the text file, how would this be inviting crime in any way, even now? And even if he did say he was a kid, it's not as if giving out his address is making him much of a target. If a criminal wants to find some kids, finding a house with kids playing in the front yard is easier than tracking down an address from some shareware app.
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