I'm a programmer, I have published some sharewares, you can find them
at supercoolbookmark.com .
but at present I fall in puzzle, I don't know what kind of shareware
can earn more money.
Could you give me some suggestions? Many Thanks!

BTW, I don't like to write the following softwares
1. Spyware Cleaner
2. Anti-virus
3. Clone DVD
4. Backup software
5. Registry Tools
6. BitTorrent Tools
7. Video and Audio Tools

It may not be 'what kind'  but 'what time':

in the 1980s and early-to-mid 1990s shareware was considered to be a
concept for independent software writers to receive a degree of
remuneration for their labor. However, after that the shareware model
began to degrade as the term was used by commercial startups offering
(sometimes substandard) commercial software and labelling
non-functional or limited demo versions (known as crippleware) as
"shareware". As a result, the term shareware has shown reduced usage
in recent years, replaced by either "demo" for trial software or
"freeware" for full editions
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shareware

A lot depends on audience. A lot of sophisticated audience
turned to Linux and with it to GPLed (free) software.
From your too brief description, it looks like all you tools
can be done with GPLed programs on Linux.
e.g. for audio/video
http://www.tucows.com/Windows/AudioVideo/

With 'truly cool'   new 'linux for human beings'
http://www.ubuntu.com/
this trend will increase. In this growing model authors/companies
make money from support.
http://www.reallylinux.com/docs/freesoftware.shtml

If you want to stay with pure 'shareware model' and make money,
----------------------------------------
 you may have to find
a niche with has specific unmet need. Perhap a some professional society,
or other group with own magazine/website which can act as a 'user group' and
discuss what is need, what OS they use and what they are willing to pay for. 


 More (untested) suggestions 
http://www.nstarsolutions.com/sarg/


Here (in responses) are some 'Have you considered)
http://www.reallylinux.com/docs/freesoftware.shtml



I suggest you consider other open source business strategies as well,

http://management.itmanagersjournal.com/management/04/05/10/2052216.shtml?tid=85

http://www.sanisoft.com/openmodel.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_Service

Some succesful companies use 'dual licence' model
http://www.oreillynet.com/onlamp/blog/2004/04/why_mysql_grew_so_fast_news_fr.html

Of course, it also helps 'being best' and make software which everyone needs :-)

good luck
Hedgie

---

Request for Answer Clarification by mycwcgr-ga on 11 Jun 2006 16:22 PDT

No,no, I only want to write some sharewares for more money, I'm not be
interested in Open Source and Free software, and also I can only work
in Windows OS. At present I plan to write a kind of shareware, but I
don't know what kind of shareware I will do, and I don't know what
kind of shareware people mostly need  and will to pay for it,could you
tell me?

For example, I find that many people need a Random Number Generator
software to generate lottery numbers and I made it , so I earn money,
you can find the software at
http://www.supercoolbookmark.com/random/index.html

---

Clarification of Answer by hedgie-ga on 12 Jun 2006 05:14 PDT

mycwcgr-ga

   If you want to stay with limitations you now enumerated,
I think this part of my answer/advice  still  applies:

If you want to stay with pure 'shareware model' and make money,
----------------------------------------
 you may have to find
a niche with has specific unmet need. Perhap a some professional society,
or other group with own magazine/website which can act as a 'user group' and
discuss what is need, what OS they use and what they are willing to pay for.

  Group may be small (people who are selling (real eststae.., design
cooling/heating system,   ...)
who are doing something by hand, and would prefer to have a program,
doing it, or complementing exisiting program.

Problem which I see with your programs is that they are not unique 
and do not have well defined user group.  Even in Windows world, there are
hundreds of calendars, calculators, editors,..

Few people need random number generator, and those few who do, and do not
know how to write a short script is small; they are scattered and hard to address.

Let's be reasonable here: I can do another search, in addition to one i made
on more general original question.  I cannot (for even more then $50) guarantee
to find topics which will  make money. I can find some advice, but you have
to do the work. Work is market research, marketing, and only 20% is programming.

So, you can ask for refund, or indicate more exactly what you expect, and what
can be found for $5.

Hedgie

Thanks for your answer.

I've just seen a GA question that might be an idea for a product.

The poster is storing files with very long names in directories with
very long names. The directories are getting steadily deeper.
They are determined to continue doing that, but are looking for a
'Windows Extension' that will prevent them 'hitting the wall'.

Personally I think they are barking up the wrong tree, some APIs
support file names up to 30,000 Unicode characters
( CreateFile: 
  <quote> if the file name is prefixed with Windows NT: You can use
paths longer than MAX_PATH characters by calling the wide (W) version
of CreateFile and prepending "\\?\" to the path.
  </quote> )

However one can be sure that few developers will code for that, and
anyway there are loads of APIs that would never support such a
construct.

It struck me that what the user really needed was some sort of 'one
file' archiving system that took ridiculously long path names and
stored/retrieved data to/from a temporary file that normal Apps could
work on.

I've not really thought it out, but it got me wondering.

Another thing you could do is look for existing products that strike
you as a good idea, but are not well implemented. Poaching is mean,
but that's life.

Hedgie made some good points, you missed the meaning of the last one,
there is a school of thought that writing open source for free, but
selling support and customization for sensible bucks will provide the
income stream.

Also there might be money to be made selling Linux images with Open
Office specifically set up to be installed straight onto specific
computer models.
It is only a matter of time until large (and small) users decide to do
away with heavy licence fees when all they want is a bog standard
workhorse.

Thank you very much!

I think that "The poster is storing files with very long names in
directories with very long names" is a good sample,could you give me
more samples?

BTW, I think that Free Open Source and Get Money from service is not
my need! and I don't like Linux

I'm afraid I'm just a commentor - one of the 'Peanut Gallery'

Researchers names are in blue

To be honest, you are asking: 'where can I find a goose that lays golden eggs ?'

I watch Shareware NGs and the same type of question often comes up
- it never gets an answer that the poster wants
- new product ideas are fairly rare

Maybe have a look at sites like rent-a-coder, I've seen non technical
people asking for odd things.

One thing I do know is that developing a software package requires at
least one enthusiastic user.

I can tell you one application that I need -- not for myself but for my son.

I have it on Linux. My son needs it on XP and no one makes it.

It is a full-fledged, powerful alarm program.  In Linux, it is called
Kalarm.  It takes a very large number of time settings over a very
large time period.  I currently have 27 settings, 2007 renewal of ham
license, 2010 renewal of driver's license, and can set things as short
a time as 1 minute from now. It pops up a always-on-top warning 
window, and includes alarm sound of your choice I use an ahem sound,
sounds to my wife just like me cleaning my throat.

For example, here in Mexico we get irrigation water every 4th Friday
at 6 am.  it keeps track and recurs exactly every 4 weeks, so I can be
ready by cleaning the canal ahead of time.

One can set automatic recurrences by minute, hour, day, week, month, or year.

If you have the computer off when that time comes, it remembers, and
pops its warning window as soon as you boot the next time.

All I have been able to find for XP is some date book, of little
value, and there is shareware that will run just like an ordinary
alarm clock and will play a CD in the CDROM at that minute. Some have
suggested some sort of built-in calendar program, but that is nothing
at all like this, and is much more time consuming to set up a
time/date. My son is in medical school and has no time for Linux nor
complex one-at-a-time calendar set ups.

I suspect there is a large market, based on the response to those
simple alarm clocks.

Under the GPL one can use the existing source free.  If you managed to
port it to Windows, you must supply the derivative material with it, 
but since few users can compile extensive programs, there is no danger
of your customers taking it and selling it from you -- even though
legally they could.

Of course, since a lot of Linux was reverse-engineered from existing
proprietary programs, one could also reverse-engineer kalarm, and
write it from scratch, thus have full copyrights on it.

If you have ever once used Kalarm, you would not ever want a program
or OS that does not have it!!!!!!!