How to sell software packages/services

C

clooner

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Jan 19, 2010
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I’ve been lurking on Wickedfire on and off for over three years but never really did anything with it besides build some linkwheels and bought some links and shit. It is just too overwhelming but it is time to stop whining and start making the money. I’ve had some successes but not with affiliate marketing. I am mainly a programmer and currently am developing two software packages.

Package one:
  1. An online service that targets sales people
  2. Monthly subscription model, per user (9,99 USD)
Package two:
  • A multiplatform software package that targets system administrators
  • Monthly subscription model, monthly subscription model pay for usage amount (1,99 per block)
  • Currently paying another programmer to do most of the heavy lifting on this project
Both are targeted at business and both have businesses using the software already. Also both have the ability to whitelist. I’m looking at setting up an affiliate program for both that pays out 100% on first sale and no residual or a 5% on all billing. Both packages have high growth potential. My question is how do I get people interested in starting to market these software packages for me? I have an ecommerce website with a few sales a day that also has affiliate program with a payout of 5% on an average order value higher than 95 usd I expected that to do well but up until this day there are no people that are interested.

Currently I am talking to a large company to start using package one and this is talking up more time than expected. Once they sign up I have a good steady income stream already of this already. Next to this I am finishing up another project and haven’t had the time to work on my own packages as much as I wanted too. After this project is finished I will focus all of my time on these two software packages. Package two is set to launch the end of January/beginning February, depending on the programmer that is working on it at the moment, He said it would take only a month but that is three months ago. Anyway I am hoping to launch soon since I will need to start selling as this is going to be my only revenue stream.

Any help, feedback and suggestions on how to marketed software packages/services are appreciated.
 


Do you currently have a game-plan for getting affiliates at the moment?

I can tell you that you can't simply just have an affiliate program link on your website. You have to hustle to get affiliates. Network, join forums in your niche, and find websites with traffic that has your targeted audience, then approach them to push your offer.

You aren't doing the direct marketing to your customers route, you are looking for affiliates to do it, but you still have to market to the affiliates as well. That's the kicker. It's really not a build it and they will come scenario.

There are tons of ways to get the news out there, press releases, traffic leaks from forums, straight bum rush marketing in the technology niche when a news story in your industry happens.​
 
CCarter, thanks for the quick reply.

I’m trying to mastermind the game plan now, reading up and figuring out what will work by looking at best practices etcetera. The idea of affiliates seemed like a great one but indeed it is not a “build and they will come” scenario, as I found out with my ecommerce site.

My first inkling was going the affiliate route but now it seems futile since if I am the one having to push the affiliates, why not sell directly to my target market?

Maybe I should go and do both, invest 50 percent of my marketing resources to affiliates, the other 50 percent direct and then eventually put more resources on the better performing of both. Or maybe something like dropbox, offer incentives to people who already signed up to contact their friends and invite them over.
 
Never leave your marketing to other people. Even if you go the affiliate route, which I think is a great idea, don't count on it being the 100% money earner. You need to be pushing your product 10x more than your affiliates do.

Also, having a referral program, or even a points program for loyal customers will allow you to dig into people that have already opened their wallets to you. It's easier to keep a customer then get a new one - this old saying is still true for the online world.

I wrote this thread Traffic Leaks to give people ideas on how to acquire customers beyond simple SEO. Some have already implemented some of these techniques and have reported back 100 to 200 daily new visits just off 1 technique and 1-2 hours worth of work. It's just about getting out there and hustling.

My background is in programming, old school, 95 era. But I learned one thing, even if I created the best program/script/website in the world, if no one knows about it, it means nothing. So I dove into marketing and have been swimming in these waters ever since.

Of all the things I learned, there are some simple basics that you have to keep in mind:


1. No one is going to market it and tell your story better than you.

2. Go to your target audience instead of waiting for them to come to you.

​

Here is a quick story about how one dude went on a challenge to make $1000 in 24 hours from no idea, to money: The results of the 24-Hour Business Challenge - LegitAM put me on to the story a couple of days ago. If you look at it from a macro standpoint, it comes down to one thing - hustling.

When I push my products, I'm the #1 marketer, my efforts bring in more sales than all the affiliates combined. I love my affiliates, but at the end of the day, they are just icing on the cake. If I were to rely solely on my affiliates, one day a competitor with better percentages can come along and take them all away and then where will I be?
​
 
Here's another way of looking at it:

- To attract customers, you're marketing a product that you hand-tailored to ostensibly solve a problem in a domain you know a lot about.
- To attract affiliate marketers, you're marketing an unknown business with low sales volume and an unproven product.

Either way, you have to market something, and as CCarter points out, one of those options sounds much easier than the other.
 
I'm also going to cosign the affiliate thing. Both of those are great markets, but you're not going to find affiliates. If you have at least some money to spend I'd start small with paid search and see how contextual works too.

Free trials or a severely limited free tier? It's a pretty clear cut deal here. If you save someone any amount of time they're going to pay the fee and won't even consider cancelling. It doesn't cost you anything and it's the most tried and tested sales tool in the book.
 
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