Should I Provide Free Installations To Customers?

Robert Plank You might like to think that when you put out a web-based script for sale you hold a monopoly on who and who can install it. Not true. Even if you make the thing the easiest script ever installed, you will be dealing, not necessarily with newbies, but with people who aren't as technologically skilled as you. These people can type, work a web browser and navigate your interface, but they don't know how to setup a database, set permissions on files and so on, and don't care to.

This is where you come in. People who are too afraid of installing your script are leaving space wide open for you to swoop in and build a steady stream of income around this need. Installing a script (especially your own) could quite possibly be some of the easiest money you ever make in your programming career. That is, if you do it right.

There are a couple of things that you need to do as a script installer, that actually are pretty much common sense.

Tip #1. You need to be fast. This means if someone puts in a request to do an install, do the install as soon as you get it.

With most scripts installation is 5 minutes or less so this should be no problem for you. If you don't check your e-mail every day, it's possible to setup forwarders or filters on your server that can send an SMS to your phone and page you immediately. Believe me, people love it, especially on the Internet where the expected wait time for stuff is 24-48 hours, when they give up their money and 5 minutes later, their script is loaded and ready to go on their server.

Tip #2. Charge a lot! Even though you're only putting in 5 minutes of work, the work you are doing is invaluable for the customer. It's better to think of it as a fee than an "hourly rate." Do not charge $5 or even $10 for an install job. Do $25 minimum. $50 is a good number if you can get away with it.

Doing install jobs for Lightning Track, my first "big" script, the price was $50 if you were setup on a familiar web host like Host4Profit or ThirdSphere, and $75 if you were on some unknown host since there were a couple of unexpected things that could come up for example on Windows-based hosts, or hosts without easy to use control panels.

People will pay, and will be satisfied if the service is timely and reliable.

Tip #3. Use a form. Have a special page prepared with details the person can fill out, like your web host's name, your domain name, FTP login and password, control panel username and password, mySQL username and password.

Most "FormMail" type of scripts allow you to create as many HTML form fields as you like - and different types... radio buttons, text boxes, dropdowns, etc.

(You only need to do this if you have more than one install request per month. I've found with the majority of products I sell, I end up giving a URL to a simple feedback form containing only a "comments" field. If the demand goes way up and you need to make the form more detailed to save you time, do it. But if you have other stuff to do when setting up your product don't let a simple form hold you up.)

I've found that most people who are smart enough to ask for an install include this sort of information already but this will keep you from someone who has absolutely no clue from e-mailing you back and forth or calling you on the phone. Let them know which fields are optional so even if they don't know their mySQL password, you can check in the control panel and set one up if you have to.

So you should definitely NOT provide free installs to customers because your time important. With paid installs there is no way you can be "swamped" - at $50 per install, 10 install requests a day means $500 for 50 minutes of work total.

If at some point you decide even THAT work is too repetitive, you can always hand the install jobs off to some trusted associate, doesn't even have to be a programmer, just someone skilled enough to add a database or do whatever your install instructions require. Finding a person willing to make $50 for 5 minutes of work is not at all hard.

About the Author

Amazing Private Label Articles For You:
http://www.articleseller.com/Spyware.html