Tips & Hints for
Shareware/Freeware Authors

General Information: Tips and Hints

Tips and Hints

• The Different Types of Software
  All about Shareware, Freeware, Postcardware, Public Domain, etc.


• Inquiry: Shareware Payments
  What are the preferred payment methods? Here are the details.


• Secure Registrations
  All about where to store the registration keys and how to handle them. Also some tips about how to prevent hacking, cracking and patching.


• Version Numbers
  All about the layout of version numbers.


• Writing Good Documentations
  The most important parts of every good documentation are explained here.


• Shipping Checklist
  The major steps you have to do each time you release a new version.


• What is good Software?
  Some ideas about what makes software a good software.


• Registration Codes
  What are the possible ways of creating registration codes? Here is the answer.


• Crippleware
  Does it work? How can I cripple my software?


• Interface Design
  How to make your software the best...


• Copyright
  Is it legal to put a "Copyright by..." message in your software? Here's the answer.

Any new tips, hints or other interesting things? Or do you want to write your own article to be listed here? Please let me know! Just send an e-mail message to mkahlert@kagi.com.

Related Pages

• Successful Shareware
  Another great collection of tips and tricks from Rick Holzgrafe (rick@kagi.com) of Semicolon Software.


• Writing Excellent Read-Me Files
  A nice discussion by Tonya Engst (tonya@tidbits.com).


• Hookware
  For an excellent discussion of the various kinds of incentives, their effectiveness, and their cost to the developer, see Kee Nethery's discussion of Hookware.


• Why Do People Register, Does Crippling Work, Does Anybody Really Know?
  The experiment from Colin Messit is a good source about crippling software.

Please Note

Although all possible care has been taken to ensure that these infos and hints here are as reliable as possible, we can accept no responsibility for loss or damage, whether real or consequential, arising from its use. I can accept no responsibility that all information here is correct. I mainly collected these tips from many different sites, from mailing lists, from other authors, etc. By using these infos and hints you explicitly agree to hold the author(s) blameless for any such losses or damages.