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I'm a programmer always looking for inspiration, and my dream is to make a living writing and selling my /own/ software, from my /own/ computer chair.
Join the Joel on Software community (http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/?biz) would be my advice.
Don't count on donations is my other advice :-)
Selling consumer software: very tough, but can be done by one individual.
Selling to businesses: very specialized, much easier to make your first $100K, but you can't be a one-man shop.
For me, the hard part is coming up with something "worth" taking the time and effort to go through with. I've had some ideas -- but I want to do something unique, that has a chance to really take off. But should I target the everyday user, or should I target businesses (who are less likely to pirate, from what I read)? Should I make something that has the chance to be wildly popular among all computer users, or that is targeted towards a niche audience?
The good thing about knowing how to program, though, is it's essentially all you need (besides a good idea) in order to make a living on your own.
Of course you need some other skills, such as marketing, but it seems to me, if you've got a program that does something that people think is useful enough to pay for, you're set.
Looking forward to what you guys have to say. For what it's worth, I also posted this topic on reddit (http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/8f4dk/any_progr...) about a week ago.
Yes. Join the Joel on Software community ( http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/?biz ) would be my advice. Don't count on donations is my other advice :-) Selling consumer software: very tough, but can be done by one individual. Selling to businesses: very specialized, much easier to make your first $100K, but you can't be a one-man shop.
I'm trying. I wrote AutoScreen ( http://www.16software.com/autoscreen ) about a year ago, and I'm getting 2-3 sales a month -- the majority of those sales seem to come from small businesses -- with $0 in advertising (can't afford it, to be honest). I've been kept fairly busy adding new features for my users, but it's time to focus on another app, because 2-3 sales/month is definitely not enough to survive on. For me,…
I'm trying. I wrote AutoScreen ( http://www.16software.com/autoscreen ) about a year ago, and I'm getting 2-3 sales a month -- the majority of those sales seem to come from small businesses -- with $0 in advertising (can't afford it, to be honest). I've been kept fairly busy adding new features for my users, but it's time to focus on another app, because 2-3 sales/month is definitely not enough to survive on. For me,…
I've been making a living from selling my shareware app EarthBrowser ( http://earthbrowser.com ) for over 10 years now. It isn't easy competing with Google Earth, but it's possible to do a one man shop if you work smart.