Please read: Selling something is not the same as giving it away

Keeping expectations realistic

from Stardock Forums

I've gotten a couple of thoughtful emails from gadget authors who have been disappointed in how long it takes for a submission to go live on the site as well as how picky we've been.

We've been averaging a couple of gadget submissions per day.  Nearly all, unfortunately, are rejected.

Point #1: You can't charge money for things that are easily available for free

If something is available for free, especially in a lot of different forms, you can't just submit it and charge $5 for it.  You can make the fanciest CPU meter in the world and it's going to be tough to sell that. 

And even if we do accept such a gadget, odds are it won't sell. If something is available for free, especially in wide distribution, why would someone pay for it? 

If there's some Konfabulator widget that does the same thing as yours but yours is $5, nobody is going to buy it.

Point #2: Stores are not the same as skin sites

If you upload a gadget for sale here, you cannot expect it to simply go live in 24 hours or even 1 week.  For liability reasons, gadgets have to go through a much more intensive QA process before going live.  If they are for sale, that process is even more extensive.  I would argue that DesktopGadgets.com has one of the most streamlined on-line stores out there for selling software in existence.  But it isn't an overnight thing.

Remember, when you are charging money for your gadget, you are, effectively, a business.  

Point #3: We don't market for you.

DesktopGadgets.com is a store/distributor.  It is expected that you will promote your gadget yourself.  We can promote it some on DesktopGadgets.com but we do expect users to go out and promote their own gadgets.

desktopgadgets
2,941 views 2 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I'm guessing that Stardock is getting complaints (again).

Isn't it amazing that every time Stardock does something innovative that serves the community there's a contigent of users/abusers who try to take you to task and find any possible flaws in the system.

BTW, I couldn't see Desktopgadgets discussion in SDC. Am I missing something?
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
I don't think it's so much an issue of complaints but rather people not familiar with the difference between distributing something that's free and distributing something that costs money -- particularly software.
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