Jitbit Turns Five Years (Thanks Ken!)
by Alex Yumashev ·
Jul 6 2010
I just realized, that this June is five years since I started Jitbit Software. Seems like it was yesterday. Actually, I started in 2002 as a tiny custom software development studio, but the "Jitbit" brand is only five.
Thats our website back in 2005. Have a look. We had three products in our line and were making much as ... $700 a month.
The first online order was in July, one month after the launch, which is considered a great success among the "shareware" authors. I guess this was a great motivator for me ("look, there's actual money here"). The order was for Net Profile Switch from a guy named Kenneth. I was so surprised that it worked and it was not some stolen-credit-card-fraudulent-guy, that I looked up the customer's address and even found his house on a satellite map. Thanks, Ken! Thanks for helping us start. Thanks for helping us going all the way from "one-man-in-a-garage" to becoming a member of the Microsoft Partner Program that offers industry-leading products.
Lessons learned:
Forget about software protection - software pirates are your friends, at least when you begin. People who use pirated versions - they never buy. So if you're coding some licensing system - just stop. You'll buy one when you'll start making money.
SEO is everything. Nuff said.
Keep trying. Your product may not work. Jitbit has a dozen of unsuccessful projects that never became bestsellers. Here's one of them. And even if a project has failed - don't abandon it. Make it a free and/or open-source product, let it attract that "link juice" for you. Make sure you get the most even from a failed product.
PS. I guess we should launch some birthday discounts now, shouldn't we? Stay tuned.
Thats our website back in 2005. Have a look. We had three products in our line and were making much as ... $700 a month.
The first online order was in July, one month after the launch, which is considered a great success among the "shareware" authors. I guess this was a great motivator for me ("look, there's actual money here"). The order was for Net Profile Switch from a guy named Kenneth. I was so surprised that it worked and it was not some stolen-credit-card-fraudulent-guy, that I looked up the customer's address and even found his house on a satellite map. Thanks, Ken! Thanks for helping us start. Thanks for helping us going all the way from "one-man-in-a-garage" to becoming a member of the Microsoft Partner Program that offers industry-leading products.
Lessons learned:
Forget about software protection - software pirates are your friends, at least when you begin. People who use pirated versions - they never buy. So if you're coding some licensing system - just stop. You'll buy one when you'll start making money.
SEO is everything. Nuff said.
Keep trying. Your product may not work. Jitbit has a dozen of unsuccessful projects that never became bestsellers. Here's one of them. And even if a project has failed - don't abandon it. Make it a free and/or open-source product, let it attract that "link juice" for you. Make sure you get the most even from a failed product.
PS. I guess we should launch some birthday discounts now, shouldn't we? Stay tuned.