Taken straight off The Register.
The corporate anti-spyware market is predicted to explode over the next four years extending to more than 540m seats in 2009, a 30-fold increase from an estimated 16m seats in 2005, according to a study by analysts the Radicati Group published this week.
Security concerns - including regulatory compliance risks posed by spyware threats - and the effect of spyware on worker productivity are driving the growth in the market. Radicati's Corporate Anti-Spyware Market, 2005-2009 report also indicates that the cost of managing spyware is quickly rising as spyware programs become increasingly devious. It reckons the administrative cost of dealing with spyware-infected computers will reach about $265 per user in 2005.
Spyware refers to a class of invasive program that generates pop-ups, hijacks user home pages or redirects searches in an attempt to either monitor user activity or bombard surfers with unwanted messages. According to a December 2004 study by analyst IDC, the need to identify and eradicate these parasitic programmes will drive anti-spyware software revenues from $12m in 2003 to $305m in 2008. IDC reckons two in three PCs are infected with some form of spyware.
I am amazed sometimes by the number of shareware authors that expect their software to 'sell automatically' as soon as they appear on 700 download sites. In a sesnse this is a beliefe that stems out of the intense faith that these talented technical professionals have on their software which I suspsect is a good thing: Shareware authors are usually people that enjoy what they do and they love getting excited about it.
However, after the 'inetersting' moments of development come the 'dull' state of affairs that comes under the name of 'marketing and promotions'. (As a matter of fact marketing should have played an important role in the actual creation of the product as well, but thats an entirely cup of tea). Sadly, the truth here is that nothing will come for free. Apart from simply ensuring that your software is well represented in download sites it is essential to invest, in time, design, money and patience in building your software sales and ROI to a maximum.
Unfortunately this sometimes requires a complete change in the state of mind of the author. Changing your attitude isnt easy, but you have to be open minded to say the least.