Guide To Buying Software The Smart Way
If there is a software purchase in your future, you can save some serious money buying the software the smart way.
I purchase thousands of dollars a year in software. (Please don't tell me wife... she thinks I have it under control :) I learned years ago that it can pay off big time to be smart about buying software. I have literally paid pennies on the dollar for legitimate version of software. On average I save anywhere from 30-50%
Research The Reviews
You may want to do some research on the software you are looking at. A good way to do this is by reading reviews and opinions on what other people feel about the software. You can frequently find out many hidden issues or features of a program that you did not know about before hand.
It is likely to make you change your mind or want the software even more. An easy way to find software reviews for the program you are looking at is to use google. At google.com search for "+softwarename +review". That is put in the plus sign (+) and then the name of the program and plus sign with the word "review" after it. You are likely to come up with a list of reviews to read from. Just be sure you read these reviews knowing that some of these may simply be nothing more than affiliate promotions of the product. If the reviews go on and on, raving about the product or are identical to other reviews, there is a pretty good chance it is not an unbiased review.
Professional Reviews
To get a professional's view of the software, go to zdnet.com. The "ZD" stands for Ziff Davis. They are the publishers of some of the top computing magazines in the world such as PC Computing and PC Magazine. At ZDNet.com enter the name of the software in the search box to get the reviews. These reviews will tend to be more thorough as they will tend to test the software to its limits. They also may make mention of other programs which compete with the software. This might lead you to a program which is even more suited to your needs.I personally look at some of these reviews with some suspicion also. After all, some of the bigger software companies spend millions of dollars a year with the very companies that are reviewing them. It is just something to keep in mind when researching.
Try Before You Buy
Before you go dropping your hard earned money on software, you may want to make sure that the software is right for you. After being satisfied with the reviews, the next recommended step is to get a free trial version of the program when available. It is very common for most programs to allow you to try their program for 30 days to get a feel for it. When this option is available I always start off by doing this. Typically the program will allow you to do most things with it until the trial period runs out then it may become disabled. This is a fair system which can give you a good idea about the abilities of the program. Many times you can pay for the program from inside the program itself. It may simply send you a registration code via email that "unlocks" and registers the program for you.
Do You Really Need The Latest And Greatest?
Before I get into the specifics of how to hunt down the best deals going, you really should think about one thing. Do you really need the latest version of the current software?
Sometimes by "making the sacrifice" of buying a slightly older version, you can save significant money. Online retailers do not want to be stuck with older merchandise. Once the new versions come out, they start slashing away at the prices of the older version to get rid of them. It wouldn't hurt to go to the software makers web site and see what the difference is between the soon to be "obsolete" version and the newer one. You can usually find a page similar to "What's New" which will tell you specifically what changes were made in the newer version. If the new features don't matter much to you, you could possibly save considerable money by choosing the software that was perfectly good just 6 months ago.
Coming Up Next
All right, you have finally decided on the program and version you want... now what? In the next article in this series, I am going to get into the real nitty gritty of getting terrific deals on software. This will include some little known tactics to get software at prices that can't be beat.
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