Description:
Software Industry News and Software Marketing News for software developers, shareware authors, software publishers, online marketers and user groups.
Monthly newsletter details the latest industry news and promotes innovative marketing ideas for marketing online.
Contents:
Software Marketing News - September
Welcome to the September issue of Software Marketing News, an independent voice for software developers. An HTML version can be viewed at http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com/author-resource-newsletter70.html .
Computer Outlook
Back in July I was interviewed for the Computer Outlook radio show, the host John Iasiuolo was great. He is a supporter of both user groups and software developers. If you have a new release get in touch with him about the possibility of an interview. http://www.computeroutlook.com
Search Phrases
OneStat reported that most people use 2 word phrases in search engines. Of all the search phrases world wide, 28.91 percent of the people use 2 word phrases, 27.85 percent use 3 word phrases and 17.11 percent use 4 word phrases. Less and less people now use a single keyword for search. http://www.onestat.com/html/aboutus_pressbox45-search-phrases.html
New Tools - Tech Preview
Permutator
Permutator creates permutations (good word ;-)) of keywords and keyword phrases. It acts as a keyword 'tumbler' to give users all possible combinations of keyword phrases. I found the tumbler not only helpful with capturing the long tail, but helpful for locating keyword rich domains. http://www.boxersoftware.com/thepermutator.htm
Studio v Greenbox Logo Maker
Wow! All I can say about this software is it is very cool. I am what many would consider graphically 'challenged', the Studio v Greenbox Logo Maker provides design elements along with a variety of effects that can be applied. You can literally create a professional looking logo in just a few minutes. I really am impressed by this software, and the best part it is only $ 29.95!
http://www.studio-v5.com/greenbox/index.htm
NEW Add Social Bookmarks to Website
Social bookmarking has quickly become a popular way for frequent Internet users to share their favorite websites with the public. Having a website added to a bookmark directory can increase web traffic significantly. Bookmark chicklets are a newer creation that help remind those viewing a website to add it to the social bookmarking directories.
The free web based tool makes creating the chicklets is instantaneous. For more information or to use the tool visit http://www.feedforall.com/social-bookmarks.htm.
NEW RSS2HTML Web Templates
If you are struggling with page layouts and converting RSS to HTML webpages, you will be heartened to learn of a new rss2html web template directory. A subscription to the directory is available for just $ 29.95. http://www.feedforall.com/rss2html/index.htm
GotVMail
With GotVMail's virtual phone service, your business can have all the advanced capabilities of large corporate systems at a fraction of the price. Customers and prospects can reach you and your employees no matter where you happen to be -- in the office, at home, in the car. You check your voice messages and faxes online and have both sent to email. You can customize your main greeting to prompt callers to choose phone extensions to reach you, your employees, or the department that can best take care of their needs. GotVMail works with any phone -- landline, cell, VoIP, even PDAs. There is no equipment to buy, no long-term contracts to sign and service plans start at just $9.95 a month. http://www.gotvmail.com
Conferences
European Software Conference -
I will be attending this year's European Conference in Cambridge England, Nov 4-5, 2006.
I will be speaking along with Dave Collins on two sessions, one on SEO and the other on Critiquing Websites. I'm looking forward to meeting a number of European developers. I know of a great group already planning to attend.
A conference keynote speaker has just been announced. I do plan on recapping the conference on the SMR website so stay tuned!
http://www.euroconference.org/
ISDEF /SWRUS
ISDEF will be held October 5–8 in the Holiday Inn Moscow Sokolniki. There will be a "preconference in the Ukraine". The Ukraine event will be held a few days before. If interested contact Mykola Rudenko for details.
http://www.isdef.org
Grand River Schmooze
A Grand River Shareware Schmooze is planned for October 20-22, 2006 at the Airport Hilton in Grand River, Michigan. http://www.grandriversoftware.com/schmooze
Software Success
This month's Software Success story is about HC Top Systems. Read how this company grew into a money making machine. Top Systems was founded in 1997 when it obtained the republishing rights for WinZip. Today Top Systems is a Software Publisher in Europe. Top Systems works closely with the developers to market and sell their software, in Europe. http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com/software-success-11.htm
AISIP Interviews
I interviewed Michael Halls about his acquisition of the AISIP (Association of Independent Software Industry Professionals). Michael provided his thoughts regarding the future of the AISIP (http://www.aisip.com ). http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com/aisip-michael-interview.htm
Software News
Top Systems has acquired bhv GmBH & Co KG, a European software publisher (more details in this month's software success story).
Giving
Every year we donate 100% of all sales that occur on Sept 11, to a charity, and while you might not want to do something that radical consider this a time of year to reflect and give to those who might be in need.
With Sept 11, around the corner there is no better time to do this:
Harold Holmes of Lincoln Beach Software is riding in the Gateway MS150 this month and is currently offering a free software product for any direct donations of $20 or more. The MS150 is a 150 mile bike ride that raises awareness of Multiple Sclerosis and raise money to fight this debilitating disease. If you would like to help this cause please go to http://www.lincolnbeach.com/ms150.php for more information. To take advantage of this offer you must donate between now and September 15th.
This cause is near and dear to me, as my son and I are doing a 3-day 50 mile walk for MS Sept 8-10, 2006 and are still in need of donations. If you love SMR and wish to donate http://tinyurl.com/zga5q we sure would welcome the help!
New Concept
AdLandmark - pay per download on smaller download sites (minimum .10 per download). I really have not had the chance to evaluate this, they did tell me they can detect completed downloads, though I'm not sure how, as you still host the file. Hopefully in the near future I will dig into this more and determine whether it might be something worth doing.
http://www.adlandmark.com
Deals - Icon Bargain
Icons-icons.com is extending their August sale just for SMR readers. They are offering all their icons sets for only $29.95 each, and the matching backgrounds for $9.95. You can get the special extended sale prices, through September 8, at this private icons-icons webpage: http://www.icons-icons.com/SMR-special.php
Article(s)
Credibility Online
Credibility online is becoming more and more of an issue. Anyone can have a blog or post to a forum and anyone can edit wiki entries. Web surfers are beginning to comprehend that just because it is in print does not necessarily mean that it is true.
http://www.feedforall.com/questioning-credibility-online.htm
Compelling Articles Make Great Copy
Articles are excellent tools to generate web traffic and product interest. Writing articles may sound easy enough, but it is important that you write the proper types of articles to attract interested readers. Follow these simple steps to create compelling and interesting content. http://www.small-business-software.net/articles-for-content.htm
Convert RSS2HTML
Many webmasters have realized the benefit of using RSS to dynamically update websites. This means that the website content automatically changes when the RSS feed is updated. This allows for webmasters to serve dynamic content or a mixture of static and dynamic content on their website. http://www.feedforall.com/converting-rss-to-html.htm
RSS Feed Tips to Help Search Engine Optimization
RSS feeds are a great communication medium, and when properly managed, web feeds can bring in significant Internet traffic. RSS feeds should contain compelling themed content with episodic titles that are united in common broad theme. Use RSS feeds as an online marketing and search engine optimization tool. Just as optimizing an HTML web page will increase exposure, so too will an RSS feed that is properly optimized and promoted will also increase your exposure. Use these simple tips to improve your web feed exposure. http://www.feedforall.com/feed-tips-seo.htm
Search - Google
Google appears to be getting into the shareware business, well freeware anyway. Now you can offer private-labeled email, IM and calendar tools to all of your users for free. The web tools are all hosted by Google, and I am unsure whether that is good or bad. Chalk up more aggregate data to their already growing repository. https://www.google.com/a/
Trademark Violation
I posted this in the SMR blog http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com/blog.html but I found it so innovative I felt it worth reposting:
Ok so this women purchased a bunch of googlesomething.com domains and attempted to sell them to Google for a large sum of cash, thinking she would make millions. When the Google trademark lawyers came calling you would think, like many of those before her she would back down and turn tail. She did counteroffer the domains at a discounted rate, these offers could have been her demise, because when she actually went to court her actual defense was ingenious.
The domain poacher told the court she had been planning a dating site and the domain was intended as "Go Ogle" rather than "Google". Because she had offered to sell the domains the court ruled in Google's favor. Still, her ingenuity was rather impressive!
If you know someone who would like to subscribe to Software marketing News please have them send an email to webmaster(at)softwaremarketingresource.com with "subscribe" as the subject line.
Software marketing resource is an independent voice for developers. We welcome any suggestions and feedback on our blog, articles, newsletter and website.
Thank you for your continued interest in SMR.
SIC Recap - Overview of Recent Software Conference
An HTML version can be viewed at http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com/author-resource-newsletter69.html .
This issue of SMR is a little different than the normal. The following is a recap of the recent Shareware Industry Conference held in Denver. It is my belief that SIC is the best and oldest conference around for independent software developers. Each year it is better and better. Read the review and consider attending the 2007 SIC.
SMR Sponsor
Avanage provides all the tools and expertise you need to start accepting payments online and to increase your internet software sales. Sign up with Avangate today! 4.9% + 2.5 USD commission!
When will I learn! I never manage to book flights at a reasonable hour! We arrived in Denver at 2:30 AM (Denver time, my internal clock was set on Boston time and thought it was 4:30 AM!). Needless to say, we did not run into the usual cluster of SIC attendees in the lobby.
SIC OVERVIEW - WEDNESDAY
After a few hours of sleep, I made my way downstairs to the registration area to begin preparing for the flood of attendees. The usual crew was kind enough to assist the board in preparing name badges and goodie bags.
Registration opened at 3:00. The initial buzz amongst attendees was about the AISIP http://www.aisip.com . The AISIP is an independent software organization started a little over a year ago by Sue Pichotta. Just prior to the conference Sue sold the AISIP to Michael and David Halls. While most developers adore Sue, they are very interested in seeing what kinds of things the Halls will do with the AISIP.
I have interviews planned with both Sue and Michael, that will be posted shortly. The interviews will hopefully provide additional insight into the future plans for the AISIP.
Wednesday evening the welcome reception was hosted by Protexis http://www.protexis.com . The reception was on the 12th floor and provided sweeping views of the mountains and landscape. As the event was sponsored by Protexis, I felt it prudent to get a better idea of what services Protexis provides. Glen Haley, was a bit of a tease, as he explained that Protexis has ecommerce and software delivery services but also indicated they would be making some big announcements in the future. I tried to pry but didn't get very far, so look for future announcements from Protexis!
One of the best things about the conference is that you have the opportunity to put a face to the online personalities from the software newsgroups. Often the appearances of individuals contrast their online persona. Others are exactly what you expect. And each and every year I really enjoy catching up with people like the Thorntons http://www.thornsoft.com and Joost from HC TopSystems http://www.topsystems.com .
Of course there are also post-conference regrets. While I saw Loren and Kim Brewer from Wingeniuty http://www.wingenuity.com I did not really have the opportunity to catch up with them.
SIC OVERVIEW - THURSDAY
Throughout the course of the conference I thoroughly enjoyed seeing developers who I've come to know online. Seeing the eSellerate crew, Mike Burda and Patrick Smith hang up their tye-dye for the Digital River brand caused a chuckle or two.
I chatted with Dave Hamel about his new project Permutator that "captures the long tail" which is a mini-obsession I have. He provided a copy of his Permutator program and I'll be reviewing it in the September issue of SMR. I also really enjoyed seeing Darcy and Art Araya from SaltyBrine Software http://www.saltybrine.com they are just such a fun couple. In fact Darcy put together a great movie of the Shareware Industry Awards Banquet for those who missed the event (see the link below).
The session that I enjoyed participating in the most would have to be the website critique session with Dave Collins of Shareware Promotions http://www.sharewarepromotions.com and Ben Weintraub of Merit Software http://www.meritsoftware.com and myself. We collected business cards from "victims" in the audience, who wanted to have their websites critiqued. We drew the cards out of a bowl, and the selected websites were critically reviewed by the panelists.
Dave took on the role of Simon Cowell. Dave nailed the accent and wasted no time in declaring which websites were utterly rubbish. The comments made were taken in the spirit they were intended, and I hope to see attendees who have improved their ranking and doubled their sales as a result of the criticism.
Because of the sessions incredible popularity I thought that I would mention that Dave Collins has an in-depth website review service available. The service is far more extensive than the quick reviews we performed. Details can be found at: http://www.sharewarepromotions.com/website_review.html . The impact of a poor design on sales can be significant, a critique can often result in both higher conversions and increased web traffic.
I had a great chat with Nick Bradbury creator of FeedDemon (HomeSite and Topstyle) http://www.bradsoft.com . Nick is always fun to chat with. Though he is is less of a control freak than I am, we both share a common paranoia (some would call it a concern) about Attention Data http://www.attentiontrust.org. It was a great discussion and I'm looking forward to hearing more from Nick about his activities as they relate to Attention Data.
Once again, Digital River http://www.digitalriver.com was gracious enough to host Thursday evening's reception. I have to say for a large company Digital River has a great sense of humor! This year's Thursday evening event was a blast! Digital River's theme was "Rev Up Sales" the reception was centered on a race car theme. They had a professional photographer and attendees could don a racing suit and be photographed. Additionally they had arcade style driving/racing games and remote controlled race cars.
However, all of that paled in comparison to the main event. Digital River had motorized toilets! Racers would don a racing jumpsuit mount their toilet bowl, and race the opposing team in 4 laps around the race track. Racers would then quickly change out of their racing suit with the assistance of the pit crew. The next racer would suit up and ride their portable mobile potty another four laps.
Each team was comprised of four racers and each racer was required to complete four laps in their special Digital River racing jumpsuit. The team who completed the race laps and removed the racing suit first, was the determined winner. A good pit crew was critical to success. It was a really humorous event. Some software developers found the toilet bowls quite difficult to manage and crashed their tanks. The event really gave new meaning to porta-potties. ;-)
Other respected developers took their races quite seriously and the looks of concentration on their faces are evident in the photo collages that are popping up on the web. Great event DR!
SIC OVERVIEW - FRIDAY
Mike Dulin from Shareware Radio http://www.sharewareradio.com interviewed me about the conference and our applications. I have to say he was really great. He immediately put me at ease with initial chit chat and did a great job directing the conversation.
The ASP attended the conference in force and it sounds like the ASP leadership has lots of ideas about PAD security. I hear that there will be news about this shortly.
Friday morning gave way to bleary eyed attendees eager for more. I participated in another session with Dave Collins. Dave had this fancy powerpoint presentation that was really quite impressive.
I love that people like Edwin Siebsma attend and companies like WinZip frequent the Shareware Industry Conferency. WinZip is probably one of the best known and most traditional shareware applications and they support the conference each and every year. Even as the conference grows into something much more than what was once though of as traditional shareware, the roots are not forgotten.
Throughout the conference hospitality suites were open, allowing attendees to interact on a personal level with vendors. The hosted hospitality suites included:
TUCOWS - http://www.tucows.com - Tucows is hosting a very fun contest and were demoing Vlog-It, a very cool program for recording and editing video. The contest runs through August 10th, and there will be 30 winners announced!
CNET- http://www.download.com - Cnet has a new tracking program that is available in their Premium Reporting Center. CNET trax allows tracking of page views, initiated downloads, completed downloads and buy now button clicks.
Digital River - http://www.digitalriver.com - Digital River took a different approach to their hospitality suite, they were "educating" developers with different educational stations. I heard great things from developers with regards to the information they received from the various experts and stations.
Avanquest - http://www.avanquest.com - The suite was used for one on one meetings with attendees interested in expanding their European distribution opportunities.
Plimus - http://www.plimus.com - Plimus hosted a suite, though I did not really have the opportunity to connect with them.
Massages by Dr File Finder - http://www.drff.com - Mike Callahan's daughter Kadee and a college friend provided massages free of charge to travel weary attendees, the rooms atmosphere and candlelight soothed souls and was also well received.
Friday night was exhibit night where vendors show off their products and services to attendees. Massive food displays, various cook to order pasta dishes, a carving station with a huge leg of beef and heaps of finger food greeted attendees.
Attendees collected stamps on their "Colorado map" from each of the exhibit booths. A completed map meant you would be entered into a drawing for 3 Creative Labs Media Player's, donated courtesy of Microsoft http://www.microsoft.com .
SIC OVERVIEW - SATURDAY
The late nights and early mornings were beginning to show on the faces of some attendees by Saturday morning. Saturday's session continued, it was clear that Dave Collins from Shareware Promotions http://www.sharewarepromotions.com was a hit with attendees. Dave sessions were crowded and attendees really enjoyed his sessions.
I did an impromptu session with Ronny Karl from SurfWare Labs http://www.surfwarelabs.com and I have to say he was a great speaker. I learned about the conversation rainbow and really appreciated the personal stories that he added to the presentation. Ronny and I gave homework to attendees, they were asked to meet 5 people they did not know prior to the conference and make an effort to help 2 of them. The session was really all about stepping outside of your comfort zone. Even those that have attended multiple conference took advantage of the educational sessions with Rich Holler honing his networking skills. ;-)
Home
|
