Indie hacking - in 1995!

Did anyone develop shareware back in the days? What did you do and how successful was it?

My very first "indie project" was me procrastinating learning German in school (in Sweden you have to do a second foreign language besides English) by developing a software on my Amiga to test me on my vocabulary homework.

For fun I released it as shareware - asking to send the equivalent of 5 USD in an envelope and I would return a serial key that would unlock the full version.

Yes - in an envelope! This was the first half of the 90'ies and internet wasn't common at home. Instead dial-up modems and bulletin board systems (BBS) was the way to download or share software.

I did some minor updates, and managed to get one or two people paying. But that's about it and it was pretty silent for a year or so.

All of sudden, seemingly without reason, more and more envelopes with money started coming (being a teenager years old, my mother thought I had done something criminal... 🙄). First a few, then more than 10 per day. I had no idea why sales increased so rapidly after months of almost nothing.

Turned out that a computer magazine had put the software on their disk that was included in their latest issue, and put a review in the magazine. Sales boomed!

In total maybe I earned 700-800 USD over a few months, which felt like a lot for a teenager! But most importantly it made me feel that anything was possible with a computer and a modem (and later; internet connection). Creating things out of thin air with only your imagination - and people would find it valuable and pay for it! Been programming ever since!

Three bottom screenshots are from my software (magazine in Swedish).