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How to actually "go" shareware?
Author
Okay, I need some help here, or advice. As some of you may or may not know, my game "Liberty-X" is finished (well it may be tweaked later but we''ll see). So i''m looking into maybe selling it online. Okay so, I go through, and get web space, a domain name, and I sign up with someone like RegNow... So how do I offer my game for people who''ve already paid, to download my game, like what do I do? I''m thinking of doing the demo/full-version way, so I can put the full version on my site, but then how do I allow only people who register to download it?
Any helpful hints, tips, suggestions, advice, will be greatly appreciated.
Keith Weatherby II
uhfgood@artoo.net
Hey Uhfgood, this is Supernova. 
To answer some of your questions though, you can use a registration code scheme where when the customer buys the game they get the code emailed to them. All the payment processing services I know of support this. That would require either giving them one or more registration numbers, or giving them code that generates a number.
You can also go with a demo/full game scheme, where the customer downloads the full game. The only services I know of that will let you do this (host the full version on their servers, which is very secure) are RegNow and DigiBuy. RegNow charges less for this though. That''s a pretty brief overview of how people can buy the game, but the important thing is to upload it to as many download sites as you can
Here''s a list of registration services and their pricing:
http://www.blackcatsystems.com/regservices/
Good luck.
To answer some of your questions though, you can use a registration code scheme where when the customer buys the game they get the code emailed to them. All the payment processing services I know of support this. That would require either giving them one or more registration numbers, or giving them code that generates a number. You can also go with a demo/full game scheme, where the customer downloads the full game. The only services I know of that will let you do this (host the full version on their servers, which is very secure) are RegNow and DigiBuy. RegNow charges less for this though. That''s a pretty brief overview of how people can buy the game, but the important thing is to upload it to as many download sites as you can
Here''s a list of registration services and their pricing:
http://www.blackcatsystems.com/regservices/
Good luck.
Author
Thanks for the reply man, i''ve been considering regnow anyways so that sounds like a good deal. Of course I still have to make a demo (which may only take a few minutes) get web-hosting and setup my website.
As far as marketing is concerned, I plan to put it on as many download sites as possible and post it as many places as I can find. Who knows maybe I can make enough to offset the costs of my internet access.
Thanks again,
Keith Weatherby II
uhfgood@artoo.net
As far as marketing is concerned, I plan to put it on as many download sites as possible and post it as many places as I can find. Who knows maybe I can make enough to offset the costs of my internet access.
Thanks again,
Keith Weatherby II
uhfgood@artoo.net
For web hosting you can try..
http://datapacket.net/hosting.htm
If you look now they offer hosting at 49.95 a year, for unlimited space and bandwidth.
I have no idea if they are any good.
John Hsia
[edited by - z3lda on July 24, 2002 9:58:12 PM]
http://datapacket.net/hosting.htm
If you look now they offer hosting at 49.95 a year, for unlimited space and bandwidth.
I have no idea if they are any good.
John Hsia
[edited by - z3lda on July 24, 2002 9:58:12 PM]
Remember, "unlimited bandwidth" is usually a lie, since a host can''t afford that. I can recommend my host though, www.dzones.net which has pretty decent pricing, and a lot of features.
I''d also recommend my hosting, http://www.cedant.com
They''re phenominal. Amazingly helpful tech support, speedy responses and I''m yet to see a downtime (2 years hosting).
They''re phenominal. Amazingly helpful tech support, speedy responses and I''m yet to see a downtime (2 years hosting).
Check out www.digitalcandle.com too for distrubution services...they take only 10% and offer alot.
Btw Keith, did you ever find out about if egamezone.net''s site was going to be used?
Thanks.
Btw Keith, did you ever find out about if egamezone.net''s site was going to be used?
Thanks.
Author
Haven''t yet, my artoo mail is kinda on the fritz...
When it pops back up i''ll send LaMothe an email.
Keith
When it pops back up i''ll send LaMothe an email.
Keith
Just jump in and don''t look back =P
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Hi,
I was recently thinking of a method of only letting paid customers download the full version, and this is what I have come up with..
People like Kagi and RegNow will accept long lists of registration keys and send them out as needed, but instead of reg keys, I would use a long list of username/password combos, which will grant the user access to a protected folder on my site (do some research on ".htaccess" and ".htpassword" security on WeberDev.com).
The beauty of this system is that my host supplies me with user login details, so it''ll be easy to detect if a particular username/password gets into the public domain and downloads the game frequently.
Does this sound feasible?
Cheers
Matt
matibee.com
I was recently thinking of a method of only letting paid customers download the full version, and this is what I have come up with..
People like Kagi and RegNow will accept long lists of registration keys and send them out as needed, but instead of reg keys, I would use a long list of username/password combos, which will grant the user access to a protected folder on my site (do some research on ".htaccess" and ".htpassword" security on WeberDev.com).
The beauty of this system is that my host supplies me with user login details, so it''ll be easy to detect if a particular username/password gets into the public domain and downloads the game frequently.
Does this sound feasible?
Cheers
Matt
matibee.com
This topic is closed to new replies.
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