RE: Opinions Wanted

["Bradley V. Stone" <bvstone@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Neither solution works in today's market.  What has consistently been the
> best solution is to provide a limited capability solution for
> free - purely
> free, no strings, no expiration, no limited users, just free - and then
> charge for more advanced features.

I'm not sure if I quite agree with this.  Years back when I started writing
my software I did just that.. limited solutions.  Example, SPLTOOL.  I
limited it to 30 pages or less you could convert to test.

It worked for some, but for others, they wanted to test a larger spooled
file.  And some super small shops just used the 30 page version because it's
all they needed.  Made sense to me.  Other issues came up with my other
software in how I'd cripple it.  To me, it wasn't worth the hassle.

A few years back I went with a trial key.  30 days, renewable at any time
(so basically try it as long as you want...) and full featured.  Worked much
better.  People could test every piece of functionality they were buying.
Even if it took 6 months of testing it still worked out.  Not every shop has
the time to evaluate software.

Both methods work... I don't think there's any one solution.  It also
depends on the software, it's function, and the needs of the shop.

I prefer the fully functional trial.  When I need software and I test it and
it works, I buy it.  :)  I don't want a crippled version that I buy for a
specific feature, only to find out that feature wasn't what I needed.

Brad
www.bvstools.com