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Hi all,

I've been professionally developing an application that, amongst other things, does some nice renderings of volumes (medical or otherwise). I think that a good way to make it known to the public is to offer it as a trial download and also have a forum for fixes, todos etc.

Do you think this is a good strategy? What sort of limitation would you impose over the paid version (limited functionality, full functionality but only for a month, something else?).

I was thinking that, since it is a very visual program, a series of video-clips on youtube would also help. Any other ideas ?


Sorry for being offtopic, in any case I'll let you all know what I'm going to do (maybe you can play with it too!)

there are some youtube clones for biomedical video stuff, where you'll get plenty more praise/attention from the market that really concearns you, send me a mail if you need some pointers. would love to check your app btw :)

ah ok, didn't know that there was a youtube thingie streamlined for biomedical stuff. thanks

I think temporary trials are too easy to circumvent, being unable to render/display/save over a certain resolution could be an ok limitation, or not being able to save quality renders at all.


Ofcourse, there's always the 'plays ASD demos in the background instead of a watermark' option.

Even if I'm more a fan of FOSS, I still want to give my 2 cents.

Crippleware is dangerous as it doesn't allow potential customers to see whether the tool really fits their need.

If the purpose of the application is to render volumes (for use slides or animated presentation), I think rendering a watermark in every image and stating in the license that the free version must not be used for anything other and evaluation purposes, I'd think that would be enough. You can throw in a time-limit, but I wouldn't make it too short (say 6 months or so). If people don't get enough time to evaluate it, they will not buy it.

If it is useful for medical applications, be sure to give discounts to universities and students; people tend to stick to the tools they learned at the university.

YouTube videos are always a good idea. Maybe you could also rent a stand at an exhibition...

And just to get it out of the way: OMG! ASD SOLD OUT!!!111 THE SCENE IS DEATH!

Well-made demonstration videos are always great. Make it interesting! By that I don't mean flashy, simply professional and informative (i.e. not just some camtasia-based boring screencapture accompanied by a badly recorded voice, like it is often seen on the web these days... I always feel the urge to switch off videos like that after ~5 seconds)

[quote]By that I don't mean flashy, simply professional and informative[\quote]
That sentence lacks some words.
Corrected: By that I don't mean flashy -- instead I mean simply professional and informative.

Joghurt: but with the money he gains from the software, he can make the upcoming ASD demos even more awesome!!111

Hi Navis,

A videoclip is good to attract people, but I prefer to put my hands on the app to test it. And I'm not keen on testing a limited application (in which you couldn't tell if something doesn't work because of a limitation, or because it's a piece of crap), so if I was the final user I'd prefer a full version for a short period of time... depending on how frequently your potential customer base will use it, and the amount of free time they're supposed to have, an interval from a couple of weeks (in case of everyday usage) to 3/4 months (in case of sporadic usage) should be ok.

About the forum, again IMO it strongly depends on the target.
If the app is for nerds, go with it... and a dev blog, and twitter, facebook page, and so on.

For a professional target, you don't really all this stuff. Sometimes it's even a bad move, I've seen plenty of forums full of unsatisfied users' requests and angry users, mostly from people who didn't undestand the real target of the app, didn't see a reason for some technical limitations, or from plain trolls. In most cases a support email will do the job (you can always switch to a forum later).

What I really really really really think it's the most important point, is to state in the first page of your project what it's supposed to do now, and the projects for the *near* future, with a release date.

The interwebz is full of project sites where in the first page you read what the developer had for breakfast, you've to follow 4 links to get the latest version (mostly 0.01), and after a dozen more links you can actually read wtf is all about and read a couple of lines about what the project will be supposed to do when it reaches version 1.0 in 2012.

(version numbers apply for opensource projects - in commercial project replace 0.01 with 1.0 and 1.0 with 2.0 - all the other considerations still apply).

btw, who is ontopic anyway?

Looks like it should be very balanced (time & usablity limitations)

but still, how do you make the first step to be known ...

Make a demo about it? ;)

Make a page on wikipedia and link it properly on related articles likes this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_neuroimaging_software

...and get your submission deleted 200 times by wiki admins who wants to climb the ranks

Seriously navis, whatever you choose to limit will prob. suck for some people. Since only serious customers are going to pay anyway (others will crack or leech full version) you might as well make sure to have a really good license instead.

If you decide to cripple the software, a watermark in the final render I think would be good as all functionality will be there. Also easy to manage from a programmers perspective.

navis, i doubt the hospitals and other medical institutions will go for a web search and try out free downloads. i'd recommend that you call every single potentional customer and off a free version shipped directly to them - perhaps bundled with a salesrep. also visit a bunch of conferences on medical software to boost the "hey, i've seen this before"-factor.

oh, and by the way corporate software packages targetted at a narrow commercial audience should have a minimum of software license checks (at least if you ask me). it only adds to the burden of administrators - better have a great legal contract with the buyers (and ofcourse either over price your product or make sure they buy too many licenses :-)

i guess the 'free for personal use'-thing might work.

as for getting customers. first think which customers you wanna reach out to, i assume medical data visualization is quite a small niche and a good way to start. figure out where these people read up on new technology (simply ask a few people working in that area?) and try to plug your product + website there?

And... just tell what the app is about, so we can resell it and get a good percentage :) (and, actually, I'm half-serious here...)

I recommend reading this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Great-Demo-Stunning-Software-
Demonstrations/dp/0595274579
After reading it, I was actually seing the presentation of people trying to sell us middleware in a totally different way, and I also changed the way we were showing the new features to the ussers of our internal tool.

Appart from that, I agree on not using crippleware: the people who evaluate the application should have access to every single feature, else it is not an evaluation at all. Watermarking is generally not a bad idea, but it should not be like a big red flashing logo.

Something to be careful about is to not trigger any spyware/adware/anti-virus program: This mean, don't play with complicated protections of demoscene packers.

A good idea would also be to make some selected people try the application on a variety of systems before going public, this way you make sure it works on the various windows/graphic cards out there, and additionally you will get feedback about the usability (keyboard shortcuts, logical ordering of option in menus, missing tool tips on icons, problems in special setups (dual screen, non latin character sets, large fonts, etc...) - for this kind of testing, just compile each version with a unique hidden number somewhere in the code, so you can identify a potential leak. (for that to work, the testers should not know other testers :p)

Good luck :)

dang, try to read over the typos :S ("users", "OR demoscene packers", ...)

navis: I like a good 'free' version. By that I mean it's a full-featured application, with no time limit, for free. With that I can really learn the software and see how it all works, with no time pressure or annoying nagware.

The key to making that work is to also have a paid version which people will want to buy. Ideally, you get to know and love the free version, but would love some killer features in the paid one.

For marketing, it really depends on your target market. If you're targeting a fairly small group (say for medical imaging), a good way can be to visit some forums and such, tell people what you're doing and ask for feature suggestions and help with testing. That's useful anyway, and it will get people talking about it and enthusiastic. Be careful if it's a 'paid only' application though, some places are very hostile to people using their sites for commercial gain :)

if you have a small target group it could also be a good idea to work directly with a potential customer in the development process. like this you have a better understanding for the needs of your target group and the target group will know your product by word of mouth.

If you have a good product. Charge well from the beginning or it will die. Hand out "exclusive" try-outs to people you will be important customers. Meet them, give them the cd, install the fucking software and setup a hotline. If they like, they buy and will pay well.

Dont think internet will do a jack for you.

thanks all. We've been doing this for a number of years now and so far we (as a company) have been dealing with customers outside the internet. So this is tried path, but I was wondering what if I put it on line as well. Thanks all for your tips ! much appreciated.

When the time comes I'll bring it over here too (as a wild ?! hehe)

having your software cracked and released on the warez scene is another way to get visibility ;D

more seriously, a free/student/evaluation version and a pro version with more pratical features are usually the best soluce imho.

just be sure to make different builds so that the free version doesn't hold the hidden pro features, because if crackers can virtually crack any protection they aren't as expert & patient as Navis to rebuild a missing feature ;)