Hi, i've been a hobbyist c++/delphi programmer for 10 years by now, and i've managed to build some nice projects along the way, the thing is, id like to sell some of that code or at least the binarys files, but i have no idea where to start. I live in a (very) small town, so i dont think i can sell my code very on my own. I need to sell on the internet, but they dont seem to have a site specialised in this sort of thing, witch is rather sad. What's worst is that im a total noob we it come to marketing and making web page, stuff like that. I also think ill need a licence for my projects but have no idea how it work. I dont want to sell my stuff at an outrageous price, 5-10 bucks would be enough. Any help/suggestion greatly appreciated.

What kinds of things exactly are you looking to sell? Are we talking finished games here, or middleware? Or is it just random stuff you've fiddled around with? If you're looking to sell a game or other completed project, there are companies such as Plimus or BMTMicro that can handle the e-commerce end of things. But if you've got a hard-drive full of just random code of the hobbyist variety, you're probably not going to get anything for it at all. Code itself is cheap as dirt and just as plentiful; the real value comes from software engineering. If you want to peddle code (middleware) you're going to need to do so with the same kind of consideration to market factors and need-fulfillment as any other kind of software. What does your library offer over competing products? What will make you competetive? What can you offer in the way of support, in the case of bugs or technical problems? Even with a well-designed product, there are going to be glitches, and if someone pays your company money, they are going to want assurances that your product is quality, and is backed by competent technical support.

Code isn't like oranges. You can't just dump a sack-ful of it on a website somewhere and expect somebody to buy it.

What JTtippetts said. With so many freelance coders, outsourcing companies, already available middleware and relative easy to replicate all but most revolutionary of technologies, selling code is really a marketing job, not a programming one.

As with the other replies, I question the likelihood of the code in question being all that unique. I mean no offense but everything has been done just about. But, if you really have something unique, I would suggest releasing it LGPL with a "contact you" for commercial usage dual license. The idea being that if you really have something useful, they can/will start using it under LGPL and commercial results will likely want to use it if it is good.

Well, for the code in question, i have 2 finished games, a chess game in 3d witch look really nice with ai and networking support, a card game(skip-bo), that is networked too, and also a BIG library that those 2 games use, that contain 4 independent module (dlls), an opengl 2d/3d engine witch handle all the hassle of starting up a new opengl project, wich even have a 3ds plugins importer/exporter for 3d models, a networking library, a simple FMOD sound library (ok, this one is not exeptional), and the more important, an sdk i've made wich contain like 15 differant class that encapsulate pretty much everything not handled by the 3 aboves, (File IO, Drive IO, registry, timer, bit array and bit tester, string and string list, compression, encryption, ect...). Using the sdk in a c++ project is almost like using c# code. In fact, those library contain pretty much all of the best code i've written in 10 years, that's why id like to sell it for a little profit if possible. Maybe i should just make a web site and put this code open source, but then im afraid that someone could steal it from me and make money when im gonna make nothing out of it. Im in the process of writting an help file for the project, but im not done yet, still if you want to understand better what it does take a look at this http://www.freewebs.com/vortex666/Vortez3DEngine.chm , i only started the sdk so far, the rest is empty but it will show what the libs can do. The "Files and Drives" is the most completed(and usefull) one.

Well, for the code in question, i have 2 finished games, a chess game in 3d witch look really nice with ai and networking support, a card game(skip-bo), that is networked too

If you think they're worth selling, pursue a game publisher. There are a few articles out there that you can find on this, however I'm not an expert at it so that's all I can really say there.

and also a BIG library that those 2 games use, that contain 4 independent module (dlls), an opengl 2d/3d engine witch handle all the hassle of starting up a new opengl project, wich even have a 3ds plugins importer/exporter for 3d models, a networking library, a simple FMOD sound library (ok, this one is not exeptional), and the more important, an sdk i've made wich contain like 15 differant class that encapsulate pretty much everything not handled by the 3 aboves, (File IO, Drive IO, registry, timer, bit array and bit tester, string and string list, compression, encryption, ect...).

Not to rain on your parade, but you've got some really tough competition out there. Nevertheless, I'm not trying to discourage you from selling anything you make. If you really want to do this, you have to realize that it'll probably consume your full time. If I'm going to buy anything from you, I need to be confident that you are going to continue to update and maintain the product (or code and libraries, in this case). If you aren't going to be *very* actively developing the code, don't bother charging anyone for it. There's tons of competition out there, and some awesome libraries where I can get that same functionality (and more) for free, where the libraries are being updated and maintained by several respected industry professionals. Many of those things you've mentioned are things most developers aren't too interested in (FMOD (dude, it's already a library...), file I/O (there's boost, and the standard c++ library, etc.), timer (again, boost, standard c++ library, etc.), bit array (again, boost, standard c++ library, etc.), string (again, boost, standard c++ library), compression (boost, etc.), encryption (boost, etc.)). That is, they are interested in that kind of functionality, but there's tons of libraries that already do all that for free. I'm not trying to be cynical or harsh. Rather, I'm trying to get you to think of why I should use your product over these free, well supported, well documented alternatives. If you're going to get into the money business with your code, you've got to think about your competition.

Maybe i should just make a web site and put this code open source, but then im afraid that someone could steal it from me and make money when im gonna make nothing out of it.

That happens sometimes, but not too often. If someone is going to make a substantial profit from your code, their product would have to become pretty popular. And if it became pretty popular, you should know because you'd hear about it. And if you check it out and it turns out they've stolen the code from you, then bam, lawsuit. But very, very few people would directly rip your code and make a straight profit from it, and even fewer will make any kind of profit that anyone should care about it. And the few, if any, that do, well, you'll probably find out and be able to sue them anyway. But open source code isn't about being paranoid about who's making what money. It's about furthering the technological industry.

<grammar Nazi>it's which</grammar Nazi>

You got a point, but mine can be used in other language like delphi for example.

Damn, never been good in grammar, im french, (french grammar is probably the most horrible of all languages on earth...) Now i'll have to correct about 100,000 instance of "witch" to "which" in my sources code...

You got a point, but mine can be used in other language like delphi for example.

Good, you're starting to look at what features people will want and what may push them to choose your library over another. Now keep thinking about it and make a list of everything. It'll help you know how to market your product and what kind of improvements might be necessary.

Damn, never been good in grammar, im french, (french grammar is probably the most horrible of all languages on earth...) Now i'll have to correct about 100,000 instance of "witch" to "which" in my sources code...

Ha, you're fine. French is very different grammatically, so it's understandable there's some mix ups. I just kept having visions of witches on broom sticks flying around while I read your post