Make money with PureBasic, What is The Road for NewBies ?

[hdt888]

Maybe people think I'm silly when I ask questions like this.

I am a person who has switched from another job to PureBasic coding for more than 8 months.
I really enjoy writing software for Windows, because where I live, the percentage of Windows users is slightly higher.
So how should I start from writing small software ( because I don't have enough skills to make complex software ) to be able to earn income from it.

If it is not possible, what should I do next ?.

[benubi]

Good question IMO. I also thought about that for 20 years or so

There can't be an easy or short answer, perhaps there's not even a RIGHT answer to your question

People get very good & complicated software for free nowadays, and since a long time... and sometimes they are ready to pay for the most primitive toys. A typical success story outside of PB is the Angry Birds game; there was nothing special about it (I never played it tho) but the coder(s) made a fortune.

First you could take a look at the most popular and "well known" PB apps, tools and games.
https://www.purebasic.com/showcase.php

I noticed in particular the following:

Apps:
- The most popular I know of (I am perhaps very wrong) is a football (soccer) app used by professional and amateur trainers, in schools or in private to explain and plan games, the rules, make reviews etc this works with "simple graphics" i.e. players are big dots or numbers and the football field isn't that hard to draw by hand or hard-coded. The focus here is on the usability and keeping the visuals simple is even helpful.

2d/2.5d successful games
- Restricted Area
- Breakout

3D/Ogre
- Scavenger SV game (ogre3d) - IMO an outstanding achievement by a "lone developer"

These may give you good orientation on what is feasible and what could be made money with.

From that what I know about user that use PureBasic at work, it seems those subjects are at the center of their PB use:

- Databases/Log files and "e-commerce", schedule/calendars, buy lists & customer things etc. classic things for small and medium businesses
- Presentation software, draw things in 2D or 3D (business, simulations & art exhibitions ...)

But most users that do this are seemingly freelancer and/or external types in the most cases and not totally "embedded" into their company; it's rare that more than three people work on a project using PureBasic or a company uses PB exclusively (exception: Restricted Area game).

There might be an unknown amount of successful PB software out there. For example, I only recently learned that AMOS Basic on the Amiga was much more popular than I knew, MANY famous titles were written with it. I expected them to be exceptional few, but this language was a discrete BIG player.

I never did something successful or made money with PB, but even tho I would try to remember corner stone observations:

- More often than not lesser is more (KISS principle)
- Proximity to & feedback from clients (freelancers from home or on site)
- Dedication + realism + good planning + (self-)discipline (Scavenger SV commercial 1 guy project)

I never asked anyone about the details but essentially I believe freelancers with/within companies will get their money more often and regularly than lone "bedroom cowboys" who have to finance their projects on their own; with the freelancing option you have less risks and already customers/demand for your skills. As a cowboy you are on your own, perhaps in a quest for finding your own gold mine but who knows if you ever get there and what perils lay on your way. You need to have a clear vision of what you want to achieve and where you want to go from there.

PB has a cool lone cowboy & freelancer license; you get updates for life and you are the owner of your software, can use it on multiple computers etc. So there's that lone cowboy spirit in those that are successful with it. I suggest to learn from the others, make your observation about the successful programs and the successful types that created them

[Erolcum]

I think, most of those who read your message have given the blue screen of windows error To give you a better answer, can you share a little more information? How old are you, where do you live? I am not a software developer either, but I know some of them because of my job. Keep your morale high, let pessimism be the last thing you do in this life. First of all, to be a software developer, you need to be patient like a camel and cold-blooded like a snake

[Tenaja]

To make money, it is more important to be able to meet a need (i.e. come up with a good idea) than it is to be a great coder. Also, being resonably good at marketing is more important.

Of course, I am not talking about leaving it bug ridden or not working. I am talking about a decent coder who can git-er-done and is creative and good with marketing will find it much easier to make money than an amazing coder who doesn't come up with new ideas or cannot market it.

So, start with the product idea. Then, if it turns out to be a huge project, just break it down into small tasks. If you start with minimal features and keep adding, you will eventually get it into a big project. Think of--for instance--an accounting program. None of them started out with full BOM's of assembled inventory. They all started with just service industries like charging for coding services. Then, the ones that got big added inventory, then they later added assemblies, then later, sub-assemblies. That's just an example. If you are looking at games, then you start with a single screen like Donkey Kong, then go scrolling like Mario, then ... etc... That;s how you build your coding skills and how you go from something simple to big without trying to jump in too large that it seems insurmountable.

Have fun!

[acreis]

I also have this need.

My idea is to create and publish a useful freeware that attracts many users and then offer a professional version.

The main challenges are:

1 - Publishing with little or no cost;
2 - Not scaring users with false virus messages, a seemingly very common problem with exe files generated by Purebasic.

Does anyone have any suggestions for dealing with these points?

[Erolcum]

You don’t have to make big programs to earn money. I want to tell about a showcase for a software. I work for a company that sells machines that write on the label and apply the label to the product automatically while the product is moving or standing on the conveyor. Our customers are factories. I can say that if we need a software, then we find a programmer that he can write a program about industrial automation. For this reason, he should know rs232, tcp, modbus tcp protocols. To print a label, tcp is enough. A label printer works like a server. So you need to write a tcp client. Network examples are in the examples folder of PB as you know.
There is a need for a small code then I wrote a sample code for a tcp client by extending a code (thread pool) from forum. But I'm stuck with this program to send jobs to 10 printers correctly with a button click and have asked members for help but no response yet. May be you can try to help. People in forum are really good guys
Big software companies that sells their erp solutions, does not like such kind of customer specific programming works. That’s why they give this kind of works to a smaller software companies that has a workers number of 1 generally
Yes you need a network not only tcp, you need to know people and people should know you to earn money.

[TI-994A]

...how should I start from writing small software ( because I don't have enough skills to make complex software ) to be able to earn income from it.

While the premium software market has depleted sharply over the years, demand for custom development is still viable. I started developing commercially while I was only in my mid teens, writing simple contact books, to-do lists, and calendar reminders for family, friends, and even teachers. The random access file system was my best friend. These were mostly written with GW-Basic, TI-Basic, and Applesoft Basic, and they weren't even compiled. But even then, business was good.

Today, thankfully, I'm still able to survive on the same business model, depending on close-knit networking and less-than-savvy clients. Some are simply unaware of alternative offerings, while others might have very specific requirements that must be custom built. For a small outfit supporting a retired couple, that's plenty.

Perhaps an example might clarify this. While there are many ready-made and even free applications for private tuition centres, chock-full of features from student registration, payment processing, class scheduling, course administration, to even web access and cloud storage, I still receive commissions for more simplified systems without all those bells and whistles. The reason being, the staff they hire aren't able or willing to learn such complicated systems while earning a meagre clerical salary. Furthermore, their staff turnarounds are quite high, so constantly retraining them would be quite troublesome as well. So, practical simplicity becomes the order at hand.

If you're planning to develop exclusively with PureBasic, the cross-platform feature would be a major sales point. There are many entrepreneurs who prefer Macs and Linux to Windows, and most of them also love unique one-of-a-kind applications for their businesses. So, that would be a good start.

Good luck!

[ricardo_sdl]

One idea to make money writing software is to have domain knowledge about a business and use it to write the software. If you are a lawyer, engineer, mechanic, teacher, accountant, logistics specialist etc you can look for problems in these areas and create solutions that a computer can help to solve. Good luck!

[BarryG]

One thing I've noticed lately is that lots of users simply don't want to pay for apps anymore. I frequent both r/software and r/windows on Reddit and they're always asking for "free and open-source only", or how they will never pay for subscriptions apps (they want one lifetime license and tech support to go with it), or they don't want to pay more than "a couple of dollars".

It's very depressing that it's come to this these days, and Richard Stallman is the asshole who started this bullshit "FOSS" movement. I bet 100% he was a shit programmer and that's why he started the movement, to get code from more competent programmers without having to work it out himself. I'll die on this hill with this assertion of him.

[TI-994A]

...they're always asking for "free and open-source only", or how they will never pay for subscriptions apps (they want one lifetime license and tech support to go with it), or they don't want to pay more than "a couple of dollars". ...

Hi Barry. From my experience, the adoption of open source software isn't that widespread among smaller businesses. It seems to be a preference of bigger organisations looking to save a buck, and among hobbyists and tech-wannabes. Personally, I have found it very educational to be able to study the structures and mechanics of large-scale applications, and the various programming techniques employed by other professionals.

The current state of commercial software business is caused by many factors. The early models of shareware are among the earliest culprits, and more recently, the overzealousness of Apple and Google to bolster the sales of their smartphones by flooding the market with free apps. These have resulted in major mind-shifts about paid software.

Besides a few giants like Microsoft and Adobe, most software houses are adopting the freemium models nowadays. Even makers of crucial and essential software, like Avira, Malwarebytes, and TotalAV, have jumped onto this bandwagon. Tough market.

Another major instigator for the demise of smaller software houses are the many online freelance platforms. Sites like Fiverr and Upwork have opened up a global supply chain of cheap (and I mean really cheap) skilled developers, from regions including India, Thailand, Vietnam, and even China. Having commissioned some of their services myself, I'd have to say that they're quite good.

Despite it all, we'd just have to be a little more resourceful in procuring clients. Thankfully, there are still many technically-inept potential customers looking for services to simplify their lives waiting to be found (and they need a lot of handholding as well).

Just last year, I wrote a simple responsive web app for a realtor who wanted to maintain the details of the properties he was handling. It was a simple form-based app that stored the address, square-footage, and some other particulars, along with some photos, all stored in the cloud, and of course, accessible from anywhere. But instead of manually searching for the property each time he visited it, he wanted a feature to generate and print out QR codes corresponding to each property, which would be affixed somewhere in the property, and which could then be scanned to retrieve the property details. Very specific requirements, very simple to develop, but a very handsome commission nonetheless.

Seek and ye shall find!

[Piero]

One thing I've noticed lately is that lots of users simply don't want to pay for apps anymore. I frequent both r/software and r/windows on Reddit and they're always asking for "free and open-source only", or how they will never pay for subscriptions apps (they want one lifetime license and tech support to go with it), or they don't want to pay more than "a couple of dollars".

It's very depressing that it's come to this these days, and Richard Stallman is the asshole who started this bullshit "FOSS" movement. I bet 100% he was a shit programmer and that's why he started the movement, to get code from more competent programmers without having to work it out himself. I'll die on this hill with this assertion of him.

Wow
I bet you posted this to laugh at the angry answers (or to convince us not to share code anymore)

[the.weavster]

My experience is similar to TI-994A - bespoke software for a client's particular needs is where I've profited rather than trying to sell a generic app to all and sundry.

[BarryG]

I bet you posted this to laugh at the angry answers (or to convince us not to share code anymore)

It's not about sharing code (heck, I help out people here when I can with my own code), but more about users not wanting to pay for anything anymore.

I was very angry at the time I posted that because I had someone email me and ask for a free license, but I'm glad I finally vented. BTW, I was offering my app at $12/year as a test, so only $1/month, but this person didn't want to pay even that. Cheapskate.

Seems selling to businesses is the better way to go.

[TI-994A]

... Seems selling to businesses is the better way to go.

I couldn't agree more, Barry. Personally, my client base has always been made up of smaller businesses, like LLPs, DBAs, and proprietorships. I've had some dealings with bigger organisations as well, but only for some divisional administrative solutions. It's tough to handle large enterprise-level projects without a sizable team.

Even so, I've been stiffed on payments many a time. I structure project payments with an initial advance paid upon signing (usually about 30%), followed by another payment upon a successful POC and working demo (usually another 30%), with the final balance paid on delivery and implementation. Here's where they tend to default. I've tried pursuing legal channels to recoup these amounts, but ultimately, it's just not worth the time, cost, and hassle.

Such cases were more rampant in the early days of standalone applications, where the delinquent client could continue to use the app without any support. But having learned this bitter lesson, I started adding time-bomb routines within the applications that would disable it completely after some time if the routine was not deactivated.

While this might be a little unethical (and sometimes illegal), it works. With great satisfaction, I must say - especially when they have the gall to crawl back, requesting to fix the issue.

Nowadays, with cloud dependencies, such defaults are much lesser. But it still happens from time to time. That's one of the inescapable aspects of business, I suppose.

[Erolcum]

Is it possible to share the code for a time-bomb ?