I have started marketing a software program that for now is a free beta version, available to the general public on my website. I am really just trying to get users to get word-of-mouth publicity and hopefully feedback on the beta version.
I am using the GoDaddy Quick Shopping Cart website, and one way to download the software is just to order it with the website template, which requires submitting an email address and shipping address, and then I email the program to the user. I thought that people may not want to submit all of that info, so the program can also be downloaded elsewhere on the website, which doesn't require submitting personal contact info.
So far 2/3 of the people who have downloaded the program use the second way and do not submit any contact info, and 1/3 have used the way requiring contact info (some of which is clearly fake, although the email address is legitimate).
I realized to my horror that one of my competitors could be downloading my program (which is copyrighted, and has a copyright legend on it), or someone else could be getting it to do harm- being new at this, I just worry about not knowing who's getting the program, although I want users.
Risky/dumb not to require basic contact info from my customers now? (Once I have a decent number of users, I'll eliminate the "no contact info" method of downloading.)
Thanks.
