An add-on can be very quick and easy to develop and requires no demo version or distribution. Designing an add-on is simpler than creating a whole new product because you are building on an existing framework, and often little programming is required. Best of all, you can release an add-on with little risk, and if it succeeds, you can release additional add-ons for the same product. It is possible to eventually be earning more income from add-ons than from the original product.

Even if you sell upgrades or use a subscription model for your existing products, there are compelling reasons to release add-ons as well. First, with minor modifications, you may be able to sell the same add-on for every version, especially if it is only a data file. Also, it gives you a whole separate product to sell in addition to upgrades. Since an add-on doesn’t require a separate demo version or uploading to shareware sites, you can release many add-ons in the time it takes to develop a full version upgrade.

Additionally, you can release multiple add-ons to target specific segments of your market. Split your market into pros vs. beginners, male vs. female, seniors vs. youth, etc., and target specific add-ons at those groups. If you find that one of your games is being played heavily by a certain demographic, consider releasing an add-on for that specific segment. For instance, you can release an expansion pack of insanely difficult levels for experts plus another one of super easy levels for young children. You may also find that many parents will impulse buy a child-oriented add-on for their kids.

Take some time to think of creative ways you could develop a simple add-on for your best product. If you can think of something that might only take a week to create, but you imagine that only one in ten previous customers would likely buy it, would it be worthwhile? I released an expansion pack of 20 additional levels for my game Dweep over a year ago. The pack took only 5% of the time it took to develop the original game, but it was earning 25% as much money as the original and outsold all of my older products by itself. Sales of the original product increased significantly after releasing the expansion pack. I expanded this success by releasing a second expansion pack and then putting both expansion packs together with the original product to create Dweep Gold. That has worked tremendously well, and Dweep Gold is now selling many times more copies each month than the original game did. Now I'm designing all my future products with expandability in mind. So if you're looking for a fast and easy way to increase your sales without taking the time to develop a whole new product, consider expanding one of your existing products. The risk is minimal, but the payoff can be significant.

Steve Pavlina is President of the Association of Shareware Professionals and CEO of Dexterity Software, an on-line game publisher dedicated to releasing retail-quality games through shareware channels. You can find Steve interacting with Dweep addicts at www.dexterity.com.

Copyright © 2000 by Steve Pavlina