PrivaZer is free for all /// but how could we earn money ?

Here is the PrivaZer Team and we need your opinions.

PrivaZer has now 100,000 users (in only 9 months)
and it is time for us to work even harder to improve and add new features to our tool.

But, at the same time, we have a lack of time due to:
- new family responsibilities (babies !)
- professional obligations (we all have a job)

so that we can no longer spend hours working late in the night to deliver new versions, replying to emails 24/7, questions on forums, and offering a high-quality product, as we did.

Donations so far : $1500 (not enough to work full-time on PrivaZer)

Discussions on Wilders :
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=341840
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=341796&page=5

We believe in free software
and would like to keep PrivaZer free for all
but how could we earn money now ?

 

Personally, I'd pay a reasonable amount ($15-$25) for the ultimate cleaner - with lifetime updates. Not rally a fan of yearly renewals.

PD

 

I like the approach Alexandru has taken with his Windows Firewall Control. http://www.binisoft.org/wfc.php https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=293143

It is a free product but with a small fixed donation of ten dollars you unlock additional features.

 

I used PrivaZer for some time and find it cool. You deserve to be supported by all these options.

 

This is the dilemma faced by all companies. I personally think that you can learn from companies like Piriform and also to some extent from Malwarebytes.
Both these companies have highly successful free products with also a paid product with added features.

Firstly it would be a good idea to make the software free for personal use rather than "free for all" like all the major companies.
So essentially this would mean different paths for the home and the business versions.

Then without diminishing the features of the existing freeware throw in some added extras like scheduled clean-up,network clean-up and obviously priority support.

Perhaps also cut a deal with google or any other company to offer a toolbar (please no babylon!) or browser with the option to OPT-OUT in the freeware. This again is done by Piriform.

last but not the least I cannot stress the importance of an active forum.There is nothing like word of mouth advertising for the technically inclined to their non-tech counterparts.

I personally must have installed the free version of CCleaner and Malwarebytes on hundreds of PC's.

Hope this helps. Thanks

 

Why do you only now notice that funds are running out? The software - as I have noticed - seems to be quite efficient - so people might be willing to pay, let's say for an annual subscription, just like Jetico's BestWipe. After all, there is no such thing as a free lunch. Also, I believe you should become more transparent. You should disclose who exactly is behind the company (Goversoft LLC) and inform why PrivaZer was registered anonymously. "We are an international team" - as you state on the PrivaZer website - probably is not sufficient. This all is not very confidence inspiring.

 

I would recommend annoying advertising like toolbars, pop ups and a fat flash banner ...

Joking aside, I vote for donations.

 

Just a few thoughts...I'd offer two paid models as I'm a firm believer that sales increase when people are given a choice. For instance maybe offer a fairly low cost 6 month or year long license and as an alternative offer a lifetime license. Don't make the decision difficult...as an example, 6 month license for $4.99 or a lifetime license for $7.99. The lifetime license is obviously a better buy. But the focus is not so much "should I buy or not" but rather, "which of these two should I buy" and you give people an easy answer in the higher priced product. This sort of marketing is used all the time.

Another thing, maybe offer trialpay or give people the option to complete some polls to get a license. I noticed bits du jour has the poll option and I know there are companies that offer people pay to complete polls. Although it may not pay much it could be a way people could get your product with money being paid to you as the end result.

I'd also offer a freeware model which can be unlocked to a full featured version. Scheduled scans & priority support are a good start for the payware model.

 

Have a Free Edition and a Professional Edition.

Free Edition:

• Keep the features you already have, add small improvements here and there (UI, Bugs, Improve a feature, etc.)
• Display a donation button, ask for a max of $10 (Nothing more)
• Offer an optional offer/cut a deal with a trusted third party (Bundled Toolbar, Chrome Browser, Other Browser, etc.) - Mentioned here: https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=2207973&postcount=5
• Display a simple, small button that asks to upgrade to Professional Edition
• Offer updates, but not as frequent.
• No Customer Support

Professional Edition:

• Add a real-time component and keep it light (A set and forget background cleaner)
• Add more/other features that you see fit for a professional edition, that wouldn't be included in the free edition
• No donation button
• Charge the lowest of $15, quite possibly charge $25 as the highest (I wouldn't charge much more than that) - Mentioned here: https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=2207962&postcount=2
• Offer 1 PC, 1 Lifetime license (User must pay for each machine they own), or go with a plan such as this - Mentioned here: https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=2208193&postcount=13
• Include Customer Support (Questions & Answers, Troubleshooting issues, Tutorials, Weekly Newsletters, etc.)
• Offer frequent updates

Also to consider:

• You could also include an Enterprise/Commercial Edition (Yearly or Lifetime costs), if you want to get into the business realm of customers. Governments are in high demand of a cleaner such as yours, since they deal with sensitive information.

• If you decide to offer licenses to business's, offer multiple PC packs (Examples: 20 PC's for $500, 50 PC's for $1,250, 100 PC's for $2,500, More than 100 - Knock off $300 or more to save the company money on commercial licenses)

• Also, search other companies that offer a similar product such as yours, see what they offer and see what they charge - Always offer a better deal than your competitors

• Advertise like crazy (Across the web) - Let people find out about you

• Find sponsors for your product

• Advertise on your website (Not too much, but enough to bring some extra money in)

• Offer a user appreciation program - Offer banners that users can use to post on their website, blog, etc. (Anything to get the word out)

• If a professional edition will eventually be offered, participate with websites that offer Giveaway's, Discounts, etc. (This can also help maximize your user base)

It's up to you on how you want to do it, but the above approach is what I would do if it was my product.

Please keep us up to date on what you decide to do and what your approach will be.​

 

For honesty,s sake i would say it is extremely difficult for paid cleaners to cut a niche in the market seeing as there are so many good free cleaners out there,but even saying that i would say reputation and proven reliability are always a good base stone to construct on.

As i have mentioned there are literally hundreds of cleaners out there with varying degrees of efficiency and the usage numbers of privazer are steadily rising in number.
My advice would be to keep the free version running and then slowly implement new features into a paid product,but again the big problem is innovation and i find a lot of the cleaning software companies tend to repeat themselves.

 

What RADEON0101 mostly said

Except lifetime licences have a nasty habit of going wrong for vendors.

You could start off by charging $10-$20 say initially. Major upgrades $5-$10. Minor upgrades & bug etc fixing = Free.

Most people, on here anyway, Detest toolbars etc, myself included. BUT, if you included one from a non dodgy vendor, if they exist & had a VERY clear warning BEFORE installing it, with a VERY clear option to refuse it, that Actually works, then that would be acceptable, & fair to you.

All the best

Of course Wilders members should get it Free for testing

 

surely

 

I am with Paul. However I think few modifications would make it profitable for your guys and less annoying to end users.

Have users buy a lifetime license for ~$20. This license would be valid for lifetime but you could only upgrade product for 2 years. After 2 years you would have to buy upgrade valid for 1 year at a cost ~$5.
That way end user can buy product one time and use it for lifetime. However if you guys make significant upgrades then we can buy them if we want to.

This is the same licensing that the company behind email client The Bat are behind. And they have been around since 1997.

 

In my opinion, cleaners and or maintenance suites usually don't do so well when they come with yearly costs. Eventually, companies like this end up offering a free version, Discontinuing their product or end up falling apart all together...Simply because the product did horrible in sales (Just by offering yearly costs).

Now, I'm not saying all products of this category do bad on yearly costs, because there are some out there that are still doing very well to this day....Just not many.

This is why PrivaZer must be careful, if they do decide to charge on a yearly basis (It's like playing a game of Russian Roulette, you don't know if you'll survive or not)

For a cleaner and or maintenance suite, I think a lifetime license is the best option

What I'm basically saying is - People aren't in need of a yearly cost cleaner or suite.

It's usually AV's, Internet Security suites, etc. that tend to do a lot better offering yearly costs, because it is in more high demand than anything else.

If PrivaZer were to offer yearly costs, it would be much wiser to offer such a thing to the Enterprise side of things. Especially ones that deal with sensitive information (Governments, etc.).

Plus a thing to note, business users don't mind spending the yearly costs, because they can afford it.

Go lifetime or go with a plan like this in a paid version...

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=2208193&postcount=13

 

A few thoughts:

Many software developers would love to make their pet project a full time gig that pays all the bills. That doesn't necessarily mean that a project really is a full time gig or will remain so for long.

Making projects open-source and encouraging others to directly participate in the development, testing, and support can cut down on the personal load. This may be undesirable to those hoping to acquire significant income from their pet project, but it is something that is good to carefully think through.

You listed three options but there would be numerous potential flavors of each and you should break those down.

- Donations: With public credit, without public credit, various levels of anonymity, various ways to ask with differing levels of overtness/nagging
- Advertising: Just at your website or advertising in the program? Privacy/security friendly advertising (text/images, no third party ad network communications, purely passive so nothing is revealed to advertisers) or something that would put users at some risk?
- Paid version: One time or subscription? A model that revolves around remote server license verification or one that doesn't and is far better for privacy and control? Various levels of payment anonymity.

Your software falls within the security/privacy space therefore some people, and hopefully most people, will be very demanding WRT to how you do things. Remember that this is a wonderfully good thing even though it may also be a PITA. This is the way people *should* be when it comes to security/privacy apps. Therefore, things which some would consider minor in other contexts should be offensive to your users. The bundling of additional software with your installer would be a good example. This is frequently done in an unsafe-for-the-user manner, the bundled software itself is frequently unsafe-for-the-user in various ways, and even when one or both of those don't apply it would for many people reflect poorly on you. Not that I would vote for them, but I think it would be better for an installer to include clear and transparent affiliate referral links or simple text/image ads rather than bundled software itself.

 

I too. And we all remember how many very nice softwares were discontinued for financially problems. SSM for exemple..... only one in a long list. We love free software, it's naturally, but many good programs died for this.

 

I agree with @arsenaloayl.

 

Lifetime, is a lifetime. It's what I expect when I buy (or given) a lifetime license. This includes updates. Lifetime could be a program that is selective in handing them out, for example as a reward; as CloneRanger mentioned to Wilder's members for testing. You could offer lifetime licenses as a limited time promotional item once a year (or other periodicity) or just once in awhile.

The basic product as it is now continues to free. To get new additional features you have to pony up. Most of the prices mentioned thus far seem reasonable. You could follow this model: Paid version are be good for updates until then next major release version, for example; you are covered with version 1.0, 1.5, 1.67, etc up to 2.0. At 2.0 you would have to pay a reasonable upgrade fee to be eligible for continued upgrades. The software would stay fully functional, but not upgradeable, so users can continue to use it. You could also set a time limitation on how long that upgrade offer is good for, in this example, say version 3.0, 3.5 or 4.0 after which full price must be paid. There are variations that can be used and you would have to make exceptions, say for example you went from 1.0 straight to 2.0 wth no minor versions.

From time to time you could also merge some of the premium features down to the free version.

A donation menu item somewhere for example on the help menu. I dislike constant reminders and normally a program that does this is quickly relegated to the trash bin. I have no qualms about donating. I was an extensive use of shareware back in the day and always paid for software I used more that 30 days.

 

LOL you misspelled my nick,but thats ok as long as you agree with me!

 

As many people have said, a free version and a paid one. For the paid one i would go with very low prices. as long as you get the volume you will be fine. Probably like 5$ a year.

 

@arsenaloayl
Typo there.

 

I like this approach also if you want to go the donation-ware route. Your software could leave the Quick cleanup for free and unlock the Normal cleanup for a donation, add Shellbags to Normal, maybe a nag screen on the free version. $10 lifetime is a good price point for this type of thing IMO, not too high or too low, easy for a lot of the 100K users to budget. Going the paid route with variable license terms is a major complexity in your accounting, licensing strategy and user tracking software, and as you are already set up for donations it would be much simpler to go that route. Check out WFC, Sandboxie, Malwarebytes and Hitman Pro for ideas on the free to $$ transition.

 

We will check them out. Thanks

 

Yeah, I'd go along with that option too, for same reasons.
Otherwise I'd say donations.

 

I'm curious to see what the game plan is here, PrivaZer has a ton of potential, would love to see it grow.