The software giants don't do everything and don't always produce the result that we want. At least if you're like me, and you're not where you would like to be (profitwise).
The fact is that there are tons of small software companies looking for niche markets with products that do some very unique things such as: gather auction data from ebay, send masses of mail (not intended for spamming), keep track of your bowling league stats and so much more. The majority of these are marketing their stuff as shareware.
If you haven't heard that word before, it means that you can download software and test drive it for a short time (generally a month). If it does what you want/need done then you must register (pay).
Pricewise most of it is far less expensive than the major vendors, though it is usually more specific in it's purpose. In other words they don't try to be everything to everyone.
The good part is that when a company narrows its' focus the results can be very impressive. If you're not selling fluff you can get a lot done.
Of course, when you look for something among hundreds of producers it can get a little complex. There are dozens of sites that host these programs and put them in categories to make them easier to find.
If this sounds interesting try a few of these links to get started. When you get to the site and find something that looks good just follow the links, download it to your hard disk, double click on it and follow the installation program. The next thing you know you have a new program.
Sometimes they download as zip (compressed) files which means you need a program (winzip if you us windows) to unzip (uncompress) them. The evaluation copy of winzip (free trial) is at-
http://www.winzip.com . Click on download, then evaluation.
Listed below are download sites with an unimaginable quantity of shareware.
http://www.bluechillies.com
http://www.download.com (the largest)
http://www.simplythebest.com
http://www.jumbo.com
http://www.shareware.com
http://www.sharewarejunkies.com
http://www.downloads.asp-shareware.com
http://www.tucows.com
http://www.galttech.com
http://www.superfiles.com
http://www.freewarefiles.com
http://www.passtheshareware.com
and on and on and on...
or go to your favorite search engine and type in shareware.
Copyright 2004 Dean Walden
Dean Walden is the author of '50 Shareware Reviews' which is an ebook with reviews of 50 shareware programs. The ebook gives the site name, the cost, a rating and size. To learn more or purchase go to
http://www.freewebbook.com/sharebok.htm
