How should I implement a full-featured grace period or N-uses scheme to maximise sales of my small $5 social network Windows application, while encouraging continued use of a limited version by users who are never (not yet?) going to pay for it?
Grace-period options:
- Use-limited. After 20 uses, cripple it.
- Calendar days time-limited. After 30 days after first-use, the software is crippled.
- Actual use-days time-limited, eg. 7 days. If used for seven days over the course of 7+N days, cripple it after the seventh day.
- Time-limited. After 20 hours of use or play, cripple it.
- Combination of the above with progressive crippling and optional nag screens.
- Nag screens, which I am averse to.
Crippling software is not favoured by all (especially the open-source camp), but I have to base my decision on happy users and making a living, so I have compiled the findings I side with on limiting software below.
My trialware conclusions so far:
- Focus on making your software good rather than spending time on thwarting crackers. If it is popular enough, it will eventually be reverse engineered.
- Let the client enjoy the full functionality of your software...for a while. Dependent users are more likely to buy.
- Crippled software can sell 5 times more than software with donation nag screens, assuming it is any good.
- Make paying as easy as humanly possible.
- Perceived value counts, but keeping the price low may lead to impulse buys.
- Pricing is really hard.
- Offering a 100% no-questions-asked money-back guarantee will lead to more sales.
I intend to cripple my demo version, but I do want trial users to experience all the features. It's a smallish consumer application with a potentially large user base, so I'm looking at pricing it at ~$5, but I don't know. It may be worth $50 to some users or $1. I'll leave pricing for later. This is about crippling software.
An answer supported by real-world data grouped by software type would be more helpful, but any thoughts on this are appreciated.