just some things to think about
while things here are still fresh i wanted to give my two cents about the pricing of widgets. ( I'm speaking to the new developers, not to masters like Martin who already have an understanding of price versus quality. ) What's an acceptable price; how do you set a price the community will find acceptable (keeping in mind that they have the opportunity, if they own dx or another platform, to download widgets for free elsewhere)? What should i sell?
Where i think i'm qualified to make an opinion at the least is, being an independant buisness owner, a self employed designer, and someone who works with contracted developers frequently - i've had some insight into how they price for their time and talent.
Things to keep in mind:
1. supply and demand: Don't set a steep price for something where there exists a slew of other gadgets doing the same thing.
2. price vs value: Walmart versus Sears. Judge from your competition; use the masters as your models. if yours is more functional or is of better quality, you can set a higher value. If it's not - be fair to those who will see it because they may take a lower price for the lower quality based on their taste. i think the aim of this place is to sell unique gadgets, or gadgets that are simply above and beyond in development and function. That should be where your bar is set.
3. you are a buisness owner: you are releasing into the world an application. This is a stand alone program you have put sweat and tears into. You want to include a license agreement to prevent tampering. You'll want to avoid making a series of gadgets that are all very similar or have minor updates to each other all available for seperate sale. If someone buys a fancy clock from you, and you update it to include a fix or bonus feature, will you upload it as a seperate, priced gadget or give them the new download by updating the upload itself so they can keep downloading all concurrent versions? Be fair to people who download your stuff. Think 'Version #' or 'available for seperate download'.
I - an overall price model to consider
You spent how many hours developing the application? How much would you have charged a client hourly to develop it? Devide this by the demand: you are providing something to the masses instead of selling your creation to one person ( if you expect many people to download it you can set a price which will earn you, over several downloads, what you would have charged a client ).
As an example, a fair model might be: you spent 15 hours developing a time zone gadget. If you were an ameuture you'll give yourself 8$ an hour. 15*8=120. 120$? not bad. will 100 people download it? 120/100 = 1.20$. For a buck 20, i'd certainly buy your gadget.
II Accounting for your talent
what if it were more advanced, like an outlook calendar tie-in gadget? you are no ameature, you're a trained developer and this application is really wild. you've spent 20 hours on development, and you would charge 15$ an hour for development. 20*15=300 . that's a 300$ app. Let's go with 100 downloads again. that's 3$ a gadget.
II Residual income
well, Mick, i think my sweat and tears are worth more than 300$ for an application.
Now lets consider residual income - the glory of this website that EVERY ONE OF YOU SHOULD BE EXCITED ABOUT. your downloads won't stop at 100. How many downloads could you rack up over a month? another 100? 200? how about after 6 months? I often find and use windowblinds skins from 2002. When Essorant created Jinx, if he was charging for it, 3 years later he'd still be earning money from me. You have the opportunity to have cascading income through this website. If i sold my calendar tie-in for 6 months at 100 downloads a month, that's 1,800$ !! for only 600 downloads!
so TREAT THIS PLACE WITH RESPECT! ( and, don't forget that depending on what country you're in, a certain level of income within a certain period of time subjects you to income tax and selling apps on a website is no exclusion ).
i hope this helps. By all means if stardock has their own model of recomended pricing please censor the post as required.