If you are going shareware (which from the nature of your question would seem to be the case), advertising is expensive, and you can't compete with the publishers.

Don't spend a lot of money advertising on the download sites. They'll ask you when you submit your software to them. Most people will buy directly from your web-site, so make sure you submit it to as many search engines as possible. Certainly, send a PAD file to every download site you can, but mainly as a way to get more links back to your own site and be easier to find on Google.

Download.com gets about as many downloads as all the rest put together, so if you are going to spend money advertising on any download site, that would be the one.

Good articles and reviews are a much better bet, and don't cost you anything. Listen to Ichiro. Remember to post your product on any news groups or forums that might be interested as well.


For payment systems, Paypal is more popular than credit card.


There are hundreds of download sites you can upload to. Make sure you create a PAD file: link: http://www.asp-shareware.org/pad/ .There is also software that you can use to auto-submit. For example: http://www.develab.net/


For legal issues, you should look for legal advice in your juristiction. You might be able to get free legal counsel at a local community centre or office.




And good luck. Throwing your software out as shareware can be like throwing it in the bin. It's also very hard work. Go for corporate/ publisher funding, that way not only will you probably make money, you won't have to worry about marketting and distribution either.