selling software

[meander]

how would i do it? if i make the program myself and want to sell it how would i go about writing a eula and stuff, and then would i have to copyright it and if so how much does that cost? is there anything else i am not thinking about?

[szlamany]

We've been coding for 25 years and selling application software.

We have never copywritten anything - someone could reverse engineer your code "visually" and replicate it differently - making that a wasted effort.

We sell large systems to a small number of customers - so a EULA never was required. We sell the software and then charge an annual maintenance fee to remain "friendly" with the customer. That is usually about 15% or so of the original cost.

For that fee we fix bugs - answer questions and enhance the product in not-so-regular intervals.

We've had customers stop paying maintenance - and when they call 2 years later with a question - it's $200/hr to answer it/fix it/research it - etc.

Have EULA's really helped major software houses protect there software from pirating?

As far as writing a EULA - read some from other products and use that wording - it's all standard boilerplate anyway.

[meander]

so if i only have one program now, i can put it up for like 10 or 15 dollars and thats it? just use the package thing with vb to make an installer? then mail it out to them? no big deal? cool

[LabtroRob]

For small applications, look into the web vendors. They will sell your product, and even advertise it, for a small percentage of the price.

They have many products usually, and its not like they will put up billboards advertising the thing for you, but you will hit a much larger audience then you would by just using your own webpage.

[hellswraith]

www.regnow.com

Then you can get affiliates to sell your software as well, then let them do the marketing for a cut of the profit.