

Ask HN: What are the best places to publish/sell downloadable software? - ujjwalg

Hi,<p>We recently finished our suite of applications for test preparation developed on Adobe AIR platform. We are selling them on our website and have submitted them on adobe AIR marketplace for publishing which is pending approval. I was wondering what other places HNers use to publish/sell their software? Amazon starting selling downloadable software but it is still work in progress. Any suggestions will be highly appreciated.<p>Thanks.
======
Adrenalist
I don't have a lot of experience in selling software online, but as a
consumer, these are the places that I'd be looking to find niche software.

1\. Your own website (with Google AdWords campaign)

2\. CNET Downloads (if you have a free trial version)

3\. snapfiles.com (if you have a free trial version)

4\. eBay store

5\. Amazon store

Really, it seems that you'd want to push ALL traffic to your own domain where
you can completely control prices, offers, wording, etc.

EDIT: I just checked out your site [<http://www.watermelonexpress.com>] and it
seems like you've already done a lot of the leg work. The problem that I see
is that this market (test prep software) is saturated. I think an aggressive
AdWords campaign would be your best bet.

~~~
ujjwalg
Thanks for the info. Trial versions for desktop app are currently being
developed and we will upload them on the websites you mentioned once they are
done.

I was trying to figure out Amazon store for software, but it seems to be not
working for everyone at this moment. The list you provided is good. It seems
like there is no complete list for these stores. We will make one, once we are
done with finding all and post a link on HN for everyone to use.

------
k0ban
Another option is to use PAD. That stands for Portable Application
Description. Read FAQ here <http://www.asp-shareware.org/pad/padfaq.php>

Once you got PAD that describes your software, you could use PAD submitter
tools to submit it to a lot of shareware sites.

HTH

~~~
ujjwalg
This is really helpful. Thanks a lot.

------
kyro
Off the top of my head, YC company BaseShield has a Windows app store. I'm not
sure if they're open to app submissions, or handle purchases, though.

