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I've been generating income from http://aminosoftware.com http://aminosoftware.com going on 11 years now. There have been updates with every release of SQL Serv

by paltman 10y ago

I've been generating income from http://aminosoftware.com http://aminosoftware.com going on 11 years now. There have been updates with every release of SQL Server and a handful of bug fixes over the years but it's amounted to about 10 hours of work per year. Niche was key for this to work.

danielbarla 10y ago
As someone who has a (very) niche product, I'm just wondering: what channels worked the best to get knowledge of your product to the right people?
- charlesdm 10y ago
  I put up a test page for a niche C++ library I had developed, but haven't actually gotten around to selling it. I do keep getting a lot of e-mails from people who are interested in it though. But making sure the thing compiles on a lot of target platforms (especially Linux) is a hassle. So, what I've found, is that people need to be able to find you (duh). Try and figure out what the most likely search terms are for the problem they are solving and make sure you rank well there on Google. That'll get you 90% of the way there. Which product are you selling?
  - pc86 10y ago
    If you wait until it's perfect you'll never sell a single copy. My advice is to launch it, get the money going, and use that to refocus your efforts on the edge platforms on which it won't compile.
- paltman 10y ago
  People find us 100% through Google
sheeshkebab 10y ago
good ole mainframes still run half the computing world... we'll leave javascript to hipsters and stick to copybooks insteads :)
- pc86 10y ago
  They run a hell of a lot more than half.
pc86 10y ago
Have you thought about allowing payment through the website? Making someone email you (a VA?) seems like an unnecessary hurdle.
- paltman 10y ago
  We used to have that but it only accounted for a small fraction of sales. Our customers are large enterprises that have a quotation/PO invoicing cycle that pay by check or wire.

by paltman 10y ago

danielbarla 10y ago

As someone who has a (very) niche product, I'm just wondering: what channels worked the best to get knowledge of your product to the right people?

charlesdm 10y ago
I put up a test page for a niche C++ library I had developed, but haven't actually gotten around to selling it. I do keep getting a lot of e-mails from people who are interested in it though. But making sure the thing compiles on a lot of target platforms (especially Linux) is a hassle. So, what I've found, is that people need to be able to find you (duh). Try and figure out what the most likely search terms are for the problem they are solving and make sure you rank well there on Google. That'll get you 90% of the way there. Which product are you selling?
- pc86 10y ago
  If you wait until it's perfect you'll never sell a single copy. My advice is to launch it, get the money going, and use that to refocus your efforts on the edge platforms on which it won't compile.
paltman 10y ago
People find us 100% through Google

sheeshkebab 10y ago

good ole mainframes still run half the computing world... we'll leave javascript to hipsters and stick to copybooks insteads :)

pc86 10y ago
They run a hell of a lot more than half.

pc86 10y ago

Have you thought about allowing payment through the website? Making someone email you (a VA?) seems like an unnecessary hurdle.

paltman 10y ago
We used to have that but it only accounted for a small fraction of sales. Our customers are large enterprises that have a quotation/PO invoicing cycle that pay by check or wire.