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Article:
  The Do's and Don'ts of Shareware, Part 1
Subject:   Costs are much lower!
Date:   2002-10-11 16:52:15
From:   anonymous2
I am a long-term Mac shareware developer and have notched up over $300,000 in sales over the past 6 years. In my experience, Sanford is way out of line regarding costs:


* You DON'T need an accountant. Just register in your country of residence as self-employed and learn how to fill the forms in yourself.


* You DON'T need an attorney. With the proper disclaimers, no one can or will sue you. Every heard of someone suing Microsoft because their software is buggy?


* You DON'T need a fast Internet connection. It is nice to have, but I manage my entire business by 56k dial up for minimal costs.


* You DON'T need to spend $40/month on Internet hosting. A simple FTP access web hosting account somewhere like www.pair.com can costs $6/month, plus domain name fees.


When I got started, my expenses were maybe $20/month in total. If it was a lot more I probably would not have bothered, since I was a poor undergraduate student. It is definitely possible to start much smaller than Sanford suggests.


(He's right about a lot of other things though!)


An anonymous Mac shareware developer