Free advert-ware , any ideas
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I'm considering releasing a software package as freeware but with banner type advertising emblazened on the main screen. I expect and hope the software to be a "popular" general windows user www application. Has anyone had any good or bad experiences doing this, Or any advice (non-technical) to offer . Regardz Colin Davie
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I'm considering releasing a software package as freeware but with banner type advertising emblazened on the main screen. I expect and hope the software to be a "popular" general windows user www application. Has anyone had any good or bad experiences doing this, Or any advice (non-technical) to offer . Regardz Colin Davie
Colin, Considering the general meltdown in banner advertising, I think i'd make sure there was some economic reason to purse the "bannerware" concept. Could be you add the banner advertising capability to your software only to find that either people won't advertise, or the rates are so low you don't make any money at it. (hmmm, maybe I'll start a discussion topic on this
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Colin, Considering the general meltdown in banner advertising, I think i'd make sure there was some economic reason to purse the "bannerware" concept. Could be you add the banner advertising capability to your software only to find that either people won't advertise, or the rates are so low you don't make any money at it. (hmmm, maybe I'll start a discussion topic on this
David, Thanx for Replying, Two thoughts that swayed us towards this when we had first planned this, 1. The number of users will greatly increase if the App is free. 2. If we were to get folk using one part of our software, it'll be easier to market another App in the future. In Reply to: >> or the rates are so low you don't make any money at it.>> Either we don't have enough copies of the software in distribution or the App Isn't good enough. but: >>only to find that either people won't advertise,>> That I have no reply for. Thanx Again, Regardz Colin Davies
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David, Thanx for Replying, Two thoughts that swayed us towards this when we had first planned this, 1. The number of users will greatly increase if the App is free. 2. If we were to get folk using one part of our software, it'll be easier to market another App in the future. In Reply to: >> or the rates are so low you don't make any money at it.>> Either we don't have enough copies of the software in distribution or the App Isn't good enough. but: >>only to find that either people won't advertise,>> That I have no reply for. Thanx Again, Regardz Colin Davies
Colin, Hey, I'm not trying to rain on your parade ... I just want expound my highly biased and ill-informed view :) Banner advertising inside an application has a number of pretty serious limitations that make it less valuable for advertisers than web ads: 1. You have no idea how long the ads will run, so you can't really advertise a special, sale, or anything time sensitive. Geez, you couldn't even advertise a product or model year of car, because in 3 years people would be still be seeing the 'new' 1998 Corvette, or Visual Studio 5 ads... 2. People may not be able to take immediate action on the ads. The user might not be connected to the net, and therefore couldn't link to the advertisers web site. 3. You can't do the amazingly powerful, DOJ attention getting cruise missle ad targeting that ad companies like DoubleClick pride themselves on. You might do this: 1. Put the banner ads in and offer a version without banner ads for some reasonable fee. Some percentage of users would upgrade (although I doubt I would) 2. Ask users to register. Get their email addresses and develop some kind of meaningful and valuable newsletter. Email sponsorships are much more valuable than banner ads anyway, and you don't suffer the same problems as you do with "bannerware" You application obviously solves some problem, and you can likely come up with a weekly or monthly newsletter that speaks to that problem. D
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Colin, Hey, I'm not trying to rain on your parade ... I just want expound my highly biased and ill-informed view :) Banner advertising inside an application has a number of pretty serious limitations that make it less valuable for advertisers than web ads: 1. You have no idea how long the ads will run, so you can't really advertise a special, sale, or anything time sensitive. Geez, you couldn't even advertise a product or model year of car, because in 3 years people would be still be seeing the 'new' 1998 Corvette, or Visual Studio 5 ads... 2. People may not be able to take immediate action on the ads. The user might not be connected to the net, and therefore couldn't link to the advertisers web site. 3. You can't do the amazingly powerful, DOJ attention getting cruise missle ad targeting that ad companies like DoubleClick pride themselves on. You might do this: 1. Put the banner ads in and offer a version without banner ads for some reasonable fee. Some percentage of users would upgrade (although I doubt I would) 2. Ask users to register. Get their email addresses and develop some kind of meaningful and valuable newsletter. Email sponsorships are much more valuable than banner ads anyway, and you don't suffer the same problems as you do with "bannerware" You application obviously solves some problem, and you can likely come up with a weekly or monthly newsletter that speaks to that problem. D
David, My own views are just as highly biased and ill-informed . :-o And I welcome any form of debate or feedback . As Its a www.Net type Application, I can upgrade the adds as often as I wish, And due to the nature of the software it's "{ Auto-geographically aware }", So I can distinguish between a user in Toronto and a user in Vancouver, etc. If it were not for these factors I wouldn't consider it. Hey and as I ain't based in the USA I don't have nightmares about the DOJ, Like a lot of American developers do. :-) But >>>2. Ask users to register. Get their email addresses and >>>develop some kind of meaningful and valuable newsletter. >>>Email sponsorships are much more valuable than banner >>>ads anyway, and you don't suffer the same problems as >>>you do with "bannerware" You application obviously >>>solves some problem, and you can likely come up with a >>>weekly or monthly newsletter that speaks to that problem. is a darn good Idea, Myabe , if its possible for us to eliminate the Banner Adds for those Users Who have registered for the e-mail news letter. Eg. Select your prefered form of exploitation :-) Regardz Colin