10 Tips on "How to Profit from Software Piracy"

Aug. 21, 2007 - PRLog -- These 10 Tips represent the best advice on how to use software licensing to drive revenue instead of driving your customers away. The evolution of the Internet has created greater methods of distribution and increased the likely hood that a unique business model will explode. Simply being creative when it comes to how you sell and market your goods, or in this case how you license your software, can allow a small or mid sized brand to really compete with the big boys.

This article is based on an series of interviews I did in June and July with various analysts and members of the press core. The focus is on how you can use Uniloc softANCHOR to not only protect your software and its licensing, but to also create new revenue opportunities. This approach is meant to tackle piracy through embracing it (or at least part of it). For the full details on each of these tips, visit www.softwareCEO.com.

Software Piracy Tips

1. Don't believe that all piracy is bad. Bill Gates discussed how India's piracy ultimately created a huge market for Windows in a recent Time magazine article. You too can benefit from piracy.

2. Don't believe all the industry reports on piracy or guess how bad yours is. If you're going spend any effort on it, start by figuring out just how bad yours really is.

3. Don't stop people from using your product, just give them a chance to pay for it. If your licensing is harsh or your evaluations result in pain, trust me, no-one is coming back for seconds.

4. Base every decision you make regarding your license on the principle of fair use. Be nice to your users.

5. Reward consumers for sharing your software with others. If you wanted your software pre-installed on all the Dell laptops shipped in Q1 '07, you'd be paying a pretty penny. How about creating an affiliate program that gives your users an incentive to distribute to legit version of your software instead? Would you like that warez site that has been driving you nuts for years to host a link to the fully licensed version instead of the cracked version? Encourage them through an affiliate program.

6. Reward peer-to-peer networks with affiliate programs the same way you tackle the issue with warez sites (see #5.).

7. Don't punish your users for using more than one or two computers. Most people install software titles on 2+ computers within 1 year of buying the license, and its not motivated by theft.

8. Don't punish your users for changing or upgrading hardware. Uniloc has a fantastic system we call "Tolerance" to recognize hardware upgrades and update a computer fingerprint. Remember, it's all about happy users.

9. Throttle back on licensing terms over the life cycle of a product. This is another Uniloc term we coined. It involves increasing the overall availability of seats per license over time. This allows users to re-install on their new laptop during month 15, as well as allowing the old version of your game to be installed numerous times. If you're not selling it, turn it into marketing fodder for the next one.

10. One call to tech support can eat the profit margin on one or many sales. Empower your users to self serve. Most people are used to the I-tunes model of self service, and if they aren't they would still prefer to learn how to do it then call your help desk. Just give them the tools.

Website: www.caseypotenzone.com