I made more than my day-job salary for quite a while with shareware. I wrote a pop-up blocker and privacy suite.
If I were doing desktop apps again now, I would go after a niche business market and not use the word shareware per se. I would also take any idea, and hold it against the "should it be a web app" lens.
There are expensive specialized pieces of software in various niches that are not well suited to the web due to data privacy, the UI required, or other reasons.
These niches can be tougher to see as an outsider, but great to target and build for--customers with budgets and IT departments that don't allow piracy can also be a great thing.
edit: Also, check out the Association of Shareware professionals. http://www.asp-shareware.org/
They typically do an end of year thread where members post their revenues--very eye-opening.
If I were doing desktop apps again now, I would go after a niche business market and not use the word shareware per se. I would also take any idea, and hold it against the "should it be a web app" lens.
There are expensive specialized pieces of software in various niches that are not well suited to the web due to data privacy, the UI required, or other reasons. These niches can be tougher to see as an outsider, but great to target and build for--customers with budgets and IT departments that don't allow piracy can also be a great thing.
edit: Also, check out the Association of Shareware professionals. http://www.asp-shareware.org/ They typically do an end of year thread where members post their revenues--very eye-opening.