How to Make Money from Your Software Product – Updated to 2023

Software monetization guidelines aren’t designed to help you get rich quick, though that sometimes happens. These guidelines will help guide you toward a sustainable monetization strategy.

Though these guidelines are designed with software developers in mind, if you follow the essence of these guidelines, they can also be applied to mobile apps and even blogs.

The Real Picture

The reality is that software and apps probably aren’t a one-way ticket to financial freedom. It happens occasionally, but there’s a lot of competition out there. The vast majority of software revenue goes to a small percent of developers, and that will probably never change.

That being said, when you do things right, you can turn your software into passive revenue generators. If you launch your software effectively, it can continue to operate and earn income for you while you move on to your next project.

If at first you don’t succeed, don’t get discouraged – just read our blog.

Build Traffic

You need a marketing arm that includes a website, at least one social media account, paid advertising, and perhaps some affiliate marketing thrown in for good measure.

Traffic equals users, and the more users you

have the

easier it will be to monetize your software.

If you’re new to

software monetization

, then brace yourself for small

conversion

numbers. It takes lots of visitors to get only a few click-throughs and downloads.

Assume for the moment that you’re using advertising to power your software; you’ll need to know that an even smaller number of users will click-through any advertising.

Promote with Mobile

Ads power the internet, from Google and Bing to Facebook and Twitter. Ads help you build your traffic, brand awareness, and

audience

. These all build revenue.

When you promote with ads, you’ll want to find out where your audience spends their time. These days, most people spend their time on mobile devices. Soon, over half of all searches will be mobile.

This means you need to – at the very least – include mobile as one of your major advertising and marketing channels. Find out which network is appropriate for your target audience and use it. Additionally, your website should be responsive or adaptive so that users stick around to read about your product.

Mobile

spend

is increasing year over year, so even if you’re developing a desktop product, you’ll want to target mobile.

Analyze Traffic

How are you marketing your software? Through an app store, software directory, or pay-per-install programs?

Track the number of downloads your program gets. If you’re using a pay-per-install program, track your customer’s journey. Find out what they like and add more value to that.

The internet is chock-full of metrics, so you can track your customers through software directories, websites, app stores, pay-per-download networks, affiliate programs, advertising programs, and so on and so forth.

Focus on Optimization

The common wisdom tells you to “create value first,” but once you’ve got value, it’s all about the numbers. Analytics give you those numbers and tell you something more important: what users want.

The best way to earn loyalty is by selling users what they

want but

giving them what they need. A user may want to get rich quick, but what they need is a solid monetization plan, so you sell them a get-rich plan that works practically.

Don’t compromise your product’s value with poor advertising or over-optimization. Instead, realize that your numbers tell you how you can adjust and optimize your product to provide users with a more palatable product. You can still provide the same quality – just adjust the appearance so that your conversions increase, your customer base builds, and your revenue goes up.

Allocate Wisely

No one has infinite resources, so at a certain point, you’ve got to choose. Where do you put your money and time? Building traffic with advertising? Optimizing your current funnels? Improving the quality of your product?

The call can be tough to make, but if you must make a decision, choose

traffic

. You are always free to improve your product and your funnels later on, but if you’re not getting traffic, you’re not getting money.

This can be a tough decision to make, because many developers take pride in their work and don’t want to put out an inferior product. But without incoming traffic, you won’t have anyone to look at your software updates.

Allocate your resources in that order:

1. Traffic Building

2. Product Improvement

3. Funnel Improvement

Why does product improvement come second? Simple. Your product quality dictates how long your users will stick around. In other words, quality products

creates

quality customers.

Improving your funnel through analytics, funnel customization, advertising optimization, and marketing adjustments will help boost the numbers of your existing conversions.

But that only comes after you’ve got a valuable product and an engaged customer base.

Best Ways To Make Money With Software

You created a great application; it has amazing features, is easy to use, and bug-free. Now you need to let the world know about it!. Send your software out to market requires careful planning and the right tools to make your application stand out. This guide will give you what you need to know to effectively market your software.

What is software marketing?

Software marketing is the group of tools and methods used to promote, advertise and increase the distribution of a software product.

Any software you develop you’re bound to have competition, if not right away, shortly after launch. For an application, with the millions of apps populating the app stores, the task of drawing attention (and sales) to your application gets harder.

There are many methods to market software, but the most popular is inbound marketing, a way that aims to draw customers in a natural way by appealing to their intent and interests.  A characteristic of inbound marketing is that focuses on provide value, a real benefit for the user.

Outbound marketing is geared to a general public without or with minimal targeting involved. For example, online banners, text ads can be forms of outbound marketing. Usually, for software campaigns you’ll find a mixture of both methods.

Why Develop a Software Product?

Many organizations will hesitate to see the value in developing their own software product, such as an application or widget. In reality, there are a number of reasons why develop an app or software product can increase your bottom line.

  • Users want access from anywhere, anytimeThe digitalization of our world means your users want to reach your company online at anytime. Take for example, banking accounts. Account management applications went from a “nice to have” feature to an essential add on for any bank.
  • A custom app or software can solve specific business problemsThe app is tailored to what your users need, and addresses your brand’s specifications. It solves a specific problem for your users, increasing their engagement with your brand.
  • Because your software is unique, it will have features that are not available to other organizations in your industry.
  • Most software applications reduce your workloads by allowing users to self-service. Otherwise time consuming or tedious tasks for your staff, can be now carried out by the users. This frees your staff to focus on more core-business tasks.
  • While developing your proprietary software may seem more costly than simply buy an off the shelf product, in the longer term you end saving costs. You are investing in your own business model and can even market the solution.

The App Market

Want to know more about the applications market? Here are some mind-blowing statistics:

According to Statista, the total revenue in the app market will reach  $437.80 bn in 2022.
The revenue is growing at a CAGR 2022-2026 of 6.58%
The top segments by revenue are Books and reference, Entertainment, Business and Education.

Statistics of Revenue by Segment

Application marketplaces statistics for 2022

Apple and Chrome store are the most popular application marketplaces where you can market your new app. The app economy is based largely on these two platforms.

Here is some data on application marketplaces for 2022:

Google play store statistics

  • Google Play has $2.39 million apps and over 400,000 games
  • Free apps are 96% of the Google Play Store
  • Games are 15.6% of the Google Play Store.

Number of total Apps and Games on Google App Store

Apple store statistics

  • Apple App Store has 3.6 million apps and almost a million games.
  • Games are close to 22% of the app store
  • Free apps are 92% of the Apple App Store.

Statistics of total number of Apps and Games on Apple App store

Other app stores

Recently, both companies added more entry-barriers to developers, and disabled millions of applications from their stores, in order to improve quality and data privacy.

This situation drove some organizations to look into alternative app stores, such as the Windows Store, and China’s own app stores, like MyApp and Huawei App Market.

How To Monetize Your Software With Monetization Platforms

Monetization platforms are an excellent way to increase your software revenue. They monetize your software for you, so you can focus on your core business. These platforms, such as CodeFuel, both monetize and promote the application and software.

So, how do you leverage monetization platforms to your advantage? Here are some steps you can follow:

1. First, choose the platform

When choosing the right solution for you there are a number of factors you need to consider:

  •  What are the features and benefits of the platform? 

Some of the features you may check include:

  • Monetization
  • Promotion
  • Multiple advertising options
  • Analytics
  • Advanced API
  • Cross-platform compatibility
  • Integration with existing solutions

2. Check it includes the right tools for the job

Besides features, there are some tools that can help you monetize your software or app:

  • Search monetization
  • Targeted advertising
  • Advanced analytics

3. Evaluate and improve

After you choose your monetization platform, picked the right tools and started your campaign, you need to monitor and test how it is doing.

Leading monetization platforms come with the analytics feature that make this task easier. Track conversions, downloads and abandonment rates. So you can optimize your application functions, usability and features. You can use your monetization platform to develop the entire conversion funnel automatically.

4. Promote your software

That’s a key part of an effective monetization platform. Leading platforms such as CodeFuel, integrate with ad networks and pay-per install networks, which will promote and advertise your software in the relevant media your users frequent.

Ways To Make Money With Your App

Selling The Application

Charging users for the application or software is one of the earliest software monetization models. App and software developers and publishers set a price for the product and users to need to pay if they want to use it.

This method works best with publishers with an already built brand and audience. Unknown publishers can have difficulty justifying the user the need to pay for the app. After all, there are thousands of free applications.

Freemium

You may recognize this monetization model by its other name: “in-app purchases,” as it is one of the most popular.  How does it work?

You offer your software or app for free but with limited features. Users that want access to extra features must pay to access them.

Games use this quite frequently and very successfully. For example, gamers who want certain power-ups may purchase those extras for real money.

This allows developers to distribute software for free, vastly increasing the number of downloads. But developers still make money in the process. Though turning freebie-seekers into paying customers can be tricky, the effort often pays for itself in dividends.

In-app Advertising

This is another standard monetization model, which you’re probably familiar with. Ads are placed inside apps, either on a piece of the screen real estate or between screens (interstitial ads).

These ads earn income per thousand views or per click. Revenue then varies based on the ad network, the type of ad being displayed, the audience, etc.

This monetization method is second in popularity to the freemium model. And these two methods are sometimes combined: users can pay to remove ads, for instance.

To earn money with in-app or in-software advertising, you need a lot of users for your app. A more significant percentage of users convert on advertisements than on freemium upgrades, but the revenue per conversion is less.

Paid Products

With so many free apps and software programs online, it’s hard to get people to purchase an app. Customers who will spend five dollars on a latte won’t spend two dollars on an app. And, chances are, you’ll be competing against an app that’s free or freemium.

However, when you’ve got the clout, marketing resources, or market share, this is a top monetization strategy. If, for example, you’re the only company offering a niche product, then charging for the product may make sense. Also, if your company already has a reputation and a solid following, you may be able to charge for a piece of software or an app.

Game sequels or high-quality products are examples of software programs that may benefit from this approach.

Paid per Install

Pay-per-install is trending as one of the most effective advertising, distribution, and monetization methods.

This approach is ideal for making money with software distributed on desktop platforms. CodeFuel’s InstallFuel, for instance, supports Windows and Mac OS X. There are also options for mobile developers.

You integrate your software with a smart installer to monetize with a pay-per-install program. The best intelligent installers aren’t just scripts. However, they’re complete platforms that allow you to customize the installer to meet your needs.

You can tailor the look and feel of an installer, pick and choose the products you promote, and advertise your software through the network’s partners. Analytics gives you a 360-degree view of downloads, conversions, and more.

Affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing isn’t just for websites. Developers can design software and apps around affiliate deals. This can be one of the most lucrative ways to make money from an app or software program. But it can also be challenging and limiting.

In other words, if you want to develop a software program and earn money from affiliate deals, you’ll need to design your software for that purpose.

Travel apps and websites are good examples of affiliate marketing programs to earn money. Websites such as Orbitz and apps such as Hipmunk are simple to travel programs, but each sale earns developers a commission.

As you can probably guess, this can be a virtual cash machine once it’s up and running. But it’s also tough to integrate it with a pre-made software program or app. A language-learning app or video game may better suit in-app advertising or a freemium model.

These are the top five monetization models, though other creative methods of earning revenue include selling analytics or code. Subscription models, when appropriately implemented, can also be a lucrative method of earning revenue.

The significant benefit of all these models is that they operate relatively independently. Once you have an app up and running, you only need to tweak your monetization program and update your app from time to time. Developers can stack up to their apps over the long run: the more apps you release, the more money you’ll make.

All You Need to Know About Software Bundles

Software bundling is a great strategy to reach more users for your software and meet your business goals. How does it work?

You choose another company with a recognized brand or a successful (complementary—not competing) product and negotiate a partnership. When users download the product, they also download yours, getting a  deal. 

What are the benefits of software bundling?

More Downloads

When you partner with a recognized brand with a solid client base, you drive downloads to your software. Because the other company will promote their software, you’ll benefit from the combined efforts of promoting the bundle.

You will also get more downloads because your clients will feel they get a two-for-the-price-of-one deal.  Most bundle strategies offer the package at a better price than the two solutions on their own. Other strategies offer unique features not included in any of the separate tools.

Increased Reach

Creating a bundle also extends the reach of your product since your audience will include your partner’s client base. The other brand’s clients will know about your product via their email lists, social media channels, or website. Additionally, when the news about the bundle spreads, you can attract a wider audience.

More Sales

Finally, more downloads mean more sales. But this is not the only benefit. Users that download the bundle will know your brand better and may become interested in other products you have to offer. Finally, the expanded brand awareness can translate into more sales in the future.

Tips To Increase Your Software Downloads

Developing your software product can bring significant revenue for your company if you do it right. An effective development and marketing plan can help your success. Here are some best practices and tips to increase software downloads.

Build a product that brings value to users

If you want to increase your software downloads, you need to create a good software package that solves your target audience’s needs.

Some best practices you may want to follow include extensive testing to ensure the usability and performance of your application, and refine targeting to adjust your software accordingly.

Focus on your marketing

Carefully target your marketing efforts to your audience. Produce content and ads that specifically target to your audience’s intent and needs. The more tailored your marketing, the higher its effectiveness. Creating a buyer persona can help pinpoint your marketing further.

Run PPC Ads

Monetizing through ads, specifically pay per click advertising (PPC) can be a very effective way to increase your sales. PPC is cost-effective since you only pay for ads the users click on. Google Adwords, Bing and monetization platforms like CodeFuel, can help you place your ads exactly where your users are.

Include a smart installer

How fast your application downloads is key to your users’ experience. If the download takes too longe, users may bounce and look for another solution. By including a smart installer, you can make the download process more effective. Not only your downloads will go faster, but you can use it to monetize your software.

9 Ways to Improve Your Software Monetization

1. Focus on your niche, then build your conversion funnel.

Your audience is unique to your business, and they usually prefer some online media channels above the others. Figure out the type of websites and social networks they visit, and map your niche. Then, you can build a conversion funnel based in solid data.

2. Trust the numbers

We  cannot stress enough the importance of basing your marketing efforts in hard data. Everybody, including experienced marketers have opinions and biases. Basing your marketing and advertising decisions on a hunch or what you think it may work for a campaign, it can be inaccurate. Data-driven decisions, based on analytics and user testing can help you find what your audience really wants and how to give it to them.

3. Test, test, test.

Your audience’s interests are always changing, so keep up with their dynamic demands requires adapting constantly. What can you test? Your product design and usability, your user experience, based on the latest user trends. Also test your ads with A/B testing. The data you collect will help you refine your product and pinpoint it to your target audience.

4. Personalize as much as possible

One of the key of a great user experience is personalization. When you develop an app or an extension you can gather user data (under consent). This data can help you understand what your users want, refine and personalize not only your application but your marketing efforts as well.

5. Understand how digital advertising works

The digital world is always evolving, and you should be aware of the latest news so you get an advantage. Learn which monetization options are the best for your product and audience. For instance, you may use an ad network to promote your software or you may use a more complete monetization platform such as CodeFuel to monetize your application.

6. Use display and native ads

Display advertising is increasing. According to eMarketer research, the digital display spending from programmatic advertising, will include 90% of all digital ads in 2022. This means a 29% increase from 2020. You should take advantage of this to use display advertising for your own benefit. Display ads integrate more naturally with your application and your content, enhancing the user experience.

Statistics of Digital Ad Spending worldwide

Source: Statista

7. Use software advertising platforms

Monetization and promotion platforms such as CodeFuel, enable you to centralize your marketing efforts from a single solution. This reduces your marketing costs, enables you to forecast your ROI and gives you insights to optimize your product and strategy.

8. Automate

Automation is the mark of an effective digital marketing strategy. It is useful for tedious and repetitive tasks that can hinder your productivity. Automation is also useful to keep up with the dynamic digital marketing landscape. What can you automate?

  • Content posting on different media channels.
  • Collecting data for analytics.
  • Real-time bidding
  • Optimizing campaigns.

9. Check out your competitors

It is always useful to know what your competitors are doing. Track your competition, after all, they cater the same audience. Automated data collection can help you understand what is working for them so you can replicate for your business.

Streamline and maximize your income with Codefuel

Promoting and monetizing your software can be a hassle if you want to do it by yourself. That’s where CodeFuel comes to help. CodeFuel is a complete, all-in-one monetization platform that you can leverage to maximize your income as a software publisher.

The platform uses machine learning and advanced analytics to deliver contextual, intent-based ads to users, enhancing your user experience. By improving the experience, your brand gets more exposure and engagement, increasing conversions and downloads. Advanced monitoring and analytics makes tracking performance and metrics a breeze. Start monetizing with CodeFuel today, sign up.

CodeFuel – How to Monetize Software

It’s exciting times at CodeFuel. Not only have we just launched our brand new look website, but we are also proud to release our new monetization video.

The video starts with the question: “What on earth is monetization?” and then quickly takes you on a whirlwind ride showing you how to monetize software or apps.

On top of trying to be the next Steven Spielberg, we at CodeFuel have been busy redesigning our website, which includes a new logo, new look, and feel, as well as lots of new information from the industry’s leading software monetization platform.

Our website includes a new How it Works section, explaining just how we can help you can make money with your software. This section includes information on how simple it is to monetize your app or software. Simply, sign up at CodeFuel and one of our monetization experts will be in touch to discuss your business needs.

Once you have selected your preferred monetization solution our tech team will guide you through the simple integration process. Then once deployed, you’ll receive monthly payments. CodeFuel offers a range of business models including  Pay Per Install and Revenue Sharing.

Software Monetization Solutions

CodeFuel provides software monetization solutions for developers, publishers and advertisers worldwide, empowering digital businesses to make more revenue from installs, traffic, display ads, and search.

Our suite of free monetization solutions includes InstallFuel, a smart installer that offers targeted recommendations during installation, and MobileFuel, a new set of monetization solutions for Android app developers – including in-app search feeds that can be easily integrated to fit apps.

SearchFuel is a range of customizable search boxes and other search-based monetization tools. CodeFuel’s search tools are enhanced by its long-term relationships with major search engine providers including Microsoft’s Bing, with which Perion recently signed a new three-year agreement.

Monetize, Optimize, and Analyze

If all this wasn’t enough, the new site also boasts a new cloud-based Control Center that serves as an analytics hub for developers, providing detailed data on revenue, traffic, and installs, as well as real-time reports and A/B testing.

The Control Center also features an updated user interface, revenue analysis, and performance by applications, customizable dashboards, and a campaign manager feature to optimize product inventory and manage capabilities.

Pay-per-Sale or Pay-Per-Lead? – How to Choose the Best Sales Affiliate Program for You

Pay-per-lead affiliate programs offer revenue each time you refer a potential customer to a merchant, while pay-per-sale affiliate programs only offer a payout when a sale is made. Each type of programs has its own benefits and these may be more suited to certain monetization strategies than others.

Many major affiliate networks, such as ShareASale or Commission Junction, offer pay-per-lead affiliate programs in addition to the more common pay-per-sale programs. At the time of this writing, ShareASale offers more than ten times as many pay-per-sale programs as they do pay-per-lead programs. However, with almost three hundred programs on ShareASale alone, there are still many options.

Which is Better?

Each type of program has its own pros and cons. Which one you should use is often determined by the type of sales vehicle you have (for example, website, email newsletter, or mobile app), how much traffic you get, your income goals, and so forth.

Where to Find Pay-Per-Lead Affiliate Programs

Pay-per-sale affiliate programs can offer leads for as little as $0.01 or upwards of twenty dollars. Higher commissions are possible, but extremely rare – at least in the case of network-managed affiliate programs.

Affiliate networks and affiliate tracking software that run pay-per-lead programs include ShareASale, Medley Affiliate Network, ClickBank, and others. Some merchants manage their own affiliate programs, using proprietary affiliate tracking software or licensed software such as Post Affiliate Pro.

Another option that hasn’t been fully tapped in the affiliate space is local lead generation. Most of the major affiliate marketers tend to focus on highly competitive niches, which means that local areas have yet to be fully saturated.

Like large national or international companies, local companies will also pay for leads. Local lead generation can often earn more per lead and is often less competitive.

Where to Find Pay-Per-Sale Programs

Pay-per-sale programs dominate the affiliate marketing industry. Some affiliate networks operate exclusively on a pay-per-sale model, while those that offer both always offer more pay-per-sale options than pay-per-lead options.

There are a few reasons for this. Pay-per-sale programs require no up-front investment on the part of the merchants. That is, they don’t need to pay for leads that may or may not convert. A pay-per-sale program only takes money out of a completed purchase.

Also, pay-per-sale programs are less risky for merchants. With an increasing amount of online fraud, false online traffic, and false leads, merchants have ended up paying for leads that don’t convert. This is one reason that pay-per-click affiliate programs have become so unpopular.

Since virtually all affiliate programs offer predominantly pay-per-sale compensation models, a simple Google search will reveal the top affiliate programs and merchants relevant to your niche. And that’s one of the best ways to determine which type of compensation model is best for you.

Focus on Your Niche to Find the Right Compensation Model

It’s always best to start with your niche before finding a compensation model that’s right for you. Start with your content or sales vehicle and then find affiliate programs and merchants that have relevant offers. If some of them offer pay-per-lead programs, then it’s worth experimenting with those to see if they work with your sales vehicle.

Pay-per-lead programs are attractive because they rely on lead generation for revenue instead of completed sales. In many cases, they make more sense for both merchants and affiliates: larger purchases and longer sales cycles don’t always result in an immediate purchase.

This means that if a customer returns too late to complete a purchase, the affiliate doesn’t always get credit or compensation for that sale.

If you feel that this is the case for your merchant, or if your audience is less likely to complete a purchase soon after click-through, then you may want to test out a pay-per-lead affiliate program.

Though leads can pay less than a commission for a purchase, for the reasons mentioned above this type of compensation model may end up generating more revenue.

If, for example, your content tends to cater to an earlier part of the sales funnel, then a pay-per-lead monetization strategy may work more effectively for your audience.

This type of crowd may be less likely to immediately convert, but they may still become a follower or customer of your merchant. If you focus on a pay-per-lead model, you could end up generating more revenue and higher quality traffic for your merchant.

To find the model that works best for your situation, it may be prudent to split-test both compensation models. Since so many factors go into the conversion numbers and revenue output it’s often impossible to find the most effective monetization method without testing.

Though pay-per-lead affiliate programs are less common than pay-per-sale programs, they are still a viable option for certain niches and audiences. Explore options by finding relevant merchants, affiliate programs, and affiliate networks, and then narrow down your options with analytics and testing. 

Software Monetization Solutions You Should be Using for Your Business

The software can be a powerful product to promote for your business. Whether software development is the primary focus for your business or an ancillary product that provides additional value for your customers, it can create a strong revenue stream to help you grow your business.

However, selling software isn’t the only option for making money on it. Just as you can monetize your website, you can also monetize your software to generate some strong passive income. Your success depends on the monetization options you choose and how well you employ them. Here are a few software monetization solutions you could be using for your business:

Smart Installer

The speed of your software’s download is essential to its success. If the software takes too long to download, customers will abandon it, and you will lose a sale. One way that you can ensure the process is a little faster and easier for your customers is by using a smart installer. This technology helps guide the installation and speeds it up.

A smart installer is also one of the top software monetization solutions. It displays offers to customers while they are downloading your software.

Advertisers may pay you just to show these ads, or they may pay you based on the clicks that the ads get. It doesn’t really matter which option you choose. What matters the most is selecting offers that are relevant and useful to your customers. The more useful they are, the more likely that your customers will click through on the ad. High conversion rates will inspire confidence in advertisers and will generate more income for your company.

Browser Extension

One of the offers that you may show customers during the installation process is for a browser extension. These tools are displayed just under the current web address that a person is looking at, and they provide additional functionality like quick bookmarking or monitoring data. They are useful tools that can enhance the browsing experience for your customers.

You can make money from browser extensions by showing ads with them. The extension can include display ads, text ads, or pop-up ads, depending on its design. Just like with the smart installer, showing relevant ads is key to their success. You can increase the exposure for your browser extension – and make more money – by promoting it in your smart installer for your software.

Bundle Deal

You can get more exposure for your software and monetize it by creating a partnership with another business and offering a bundle deal. With a bundle deal, you offer your software with another software package (or several), and you offer a lower price or some other incentive for downloading them together.

You make money by charging the other business for the opportunity or by earning a commission for each sale. You must select a partner software package that enhances your own and adds value for your customers.

The key to success with bundle deals is having enough clout to make other businesses want to partner with you. You should already have a large customer base and a strong marketing plan in place to be as attractive as possible to partner businesses.

Search Feeds

You’ve probably already seen search feeds on websites. These little tools make it easy to search without having to leave the site you’re on. In addition, they offer website owners monetization opportunities since these owners earn a commission each time someone conducts a search in the feed.

You can use the same strategy for your software. You offer your customers additional value by allowing them search capability without having to leave the software, and you’ll make money at the same time. It’s a win-win situation for your customers and your business. You can also customize most search feeds so they look like they are organic to your software.

Advertising

Advertising is perhaps the most common way to monetize any online or digital property. You can add advertising to your software in several ways.

You can include display ads, text ads, pop-up ads, start-up ads, and more. The key is to ensure that these ads seem organic to the experience and do not distract from the software. If they do, they can be intrusive and cause customers to form negative impressions of the software.

When you are ready to start making passive income with your software, you should consider a wide variety of software monetization solutions. The more solutions you employ, the more revenue potential you have. Employ solutions that enhance one another while also offering additional value to your customers.

With the right choices and the right marketing, you could even generate even more money from your advertising than you do from the software. Make the right choices, and you could have passive income coming in for years.

Simplify Your Software Distribution with These 4 Tips

Developing software that your business clients can use is one of the best ways to provide value for them and to establish yourself as a valuable resource or authority in your industry. The software doesn’t have to be a huge, comprehensive suite. It just needs to provide a specific solution to a specific problem in order to be successful.

Developing your software is just stage one of the process. You also need to develop a marketing and distribution plan to drive sales and ensure your success. Here are a few tips for how to make software distribution easier and help meet your sales goals:

Use an Installer

Downloading software can be a laborious process – more so the larger the software package is. Clients may lose their patience with the process if the download takes too long or uses up too many resources on their computers. This can lead to a bad reputation for your software, which can hurt sales and hurt your overall business.

Using an installer can help you make the process easier and speed up the pace of the download. In doing so, the installer will increase the completion rates for your downloads. Tools like InstallFuel provide these benefits and also allow you to monetize your software.

You can display special offers during the installation process, either for your other products or for products and services from advertisers. The installer is customizable so you can get the look you want for it and can make it display what you like during the download process.

Sign Up for a Browser Extension

Browser extensions can be powerful advertising tools. People download them to make searching the Internet a bit easier while they are online.

However, they can also display special offers during the installation process or during regular use. If you sign up as an advertiser, you can get more exposure for your software. If your software can be downloaded online, the browser extension can also encourage more downloads.

Explore the available options to sign up with a browser extension that will reach your target clients.

Signing up for the right extension can make all the difference to your success. Research thoroughly and read reviews from other businesses.

Check the stats on users and their demographic information.

Create a Bundle Deal

A great way to increase downloads of your software is to bundle it with other programs or apps. You can do this by creating a partnership with another company. It’s best not to approach your direct competitors for this partnership. Instead, focus on those that offer complementary services.

For example, if your software helps businesses handle project management, you might approach a company who offers software for record keeping or payroll (if that’s not included already in your software package).

By partnering with another company, you get more traffic and customers thanks to the exposure and reputation that the company already gets.

By creating the bundle, you also encourage more downloads by making the software available at a discount. Just be sure that you’re using an installer to make the download process fast and efficient.

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is a great way to increase software distribution. By offering affiliates a commission for software sales, you gain access to a large network of promoters. The better the commission you offer, the more advertisers will agree to promote your product.

Find the sweet spot where you can offer the largest commission while also retaining the margin you need to stay profitable.

Sign up for large affiliate marketing sites to gain access to the largest number of advertisers.

Create professional marketing materials for those advertisers to create brand consistency and to make it easier for them to get the results you need.

Make sure your site is optimized for sales so that you can convert the traffic that is sent your way. The better the affiliate marketing program you create, the more downloads you will get and the more successful you will be.

Software development and distribution can be a successful branch of your business.

With the right software, you can raise your business profile and generate significant revenue.

Creating the right marketing strategy is essential if you want to maximize the potential for your software. In addition to the usual methods – such as content marketing, e-mail campaigns, search engine optimization and social media marketing – you can take advantage of these tools to drive downloads and make the distribution process a little easier.

An installer can help speed the download process and increase completion rates, and browser extensions, bundle deals and affiliate marketing programs can help you increase download rates. Don’t limit your efforts to only one of these.

Take advantage of all the tools available to you to create a multi-pronged strategy and maximize your results.