Q: What’s the easiest way to charge money for software?
A: Build software that helps people make (or save) money.

Spending money on software becomes a lot easier leap for customers to make if they can say, “I make money when I use this software.” Or “When I finish using this software, I get paid.” Or “This software saves me X hours a week.” (Time is money, right?)

People are willing to pay for Basecamp because it’s part of the project management and billing story (and sometimes part of the sales story too, for example: Basetwo Media or Element Fusion). People are willing to pay for Blinksale because it’s part of the invoicing story. People are willing to pay for TextExpander because it saves them X hours/week (in trial mode, the app even highlights the amount of time it saves you every week).

It’s a simple concept. But it can also be a helpful guide for where to focus efforts if you charge for software.