20.12.08
Software marketing news includes follow ups to the recent controversial articles that discussed Digital River and Tucows, the newsletter also includes details of the latest conferences, marketing news and opportunities for the software and shareware industry.
RSS
20.12.08
Software marketing news includes two articles related to affiliates and Google Adsense , information on industry awards, search engine tools and tips. Collection of great online resources for webmasters and developers.
RSS
20.12.08
Software marketing news includes three articles detailing software promotion, software successes and information on the Digital River purchase of Element 5 / ShareIt. Includes conference information and details relating to software marketing.
RSS
20.12.08
Software marketing news includes two new software success stories, information on conferences, developing with .NET, user group marketing opportunities, an article related to finding software forums and much more.
RSS
20.12.08
Software marketing news includes an article on website globalization, information on industry related conferences, an interview with Adam Stiles about a new ebook Shareware Blunders, Google, Overture, Find and Pay Per Click advertising updates
RSS
20.12.08
Presentations, pictures, news and information related to the recent shareware industry conference. The conference issue of softwaremarketing news includes a conference overview and related conference information.
RSSUsługi związane z szeroko rozumianą reklamą w internecie pozycjonowanie Kraków , tworzenie stron www, tworzenie sklepów, indentyfikacja wizualna.
20.12.08
User group donations, information on RSS feeds and Google AdSense, software awards, software meetings and related news for software developers, shareware authors, publishers and user groups.
RSS
20.12.08
Information on RSS, blogs and forums. Top reasons to post in forums, interesting ideas on deciding company and product names. Articles and software conferences in the near future. Along with information on tracking referrals from downlaod sites.
RSS
20.12.08
This months Software Marketing news, provides an overview of the ISDEF conference, information on ecommerce management changes, marketing tips, search engine information, and related software marketing information.
Software Marketing news strives to be an independent voice for software developers, discussing important, relevant issues.
20.12.08
This month's Software Marketing News has been posted. SMR is an independent voice for developers and covers issues relevant to software marketing, publishing, and even issues related to programming.
This issue includes:
Article Syndication - The Key to Content - an article discussing using RSS feeds as a means of complimenting website content.
Bad Marketing Blog - blog that discusses what not to do!
New Software Blog - software developer profiles
Software Essays - submit your favorite software essays for 2004 for a new compilation
Digital River Purchase Prices - find out what DR paid for various properties
Golden Hour - download to sales statistical analysis
Linked In - virtual business networking
Why Use Emetrix - service above and beyond
RSS Feed Creation - tool to create RSS feeds
Product & Technology Reviews - getting rid of clutter
Dr File Finder - more reviews
Software Success Story - Jim Mayall of Microvision Development's story
ThreadWatch - stay on top of search engine news
Google Purchase - Keyhole searching
Froogle - changes at Froogle
MSN - new news from Microsoft
Quotes from Google's Founder - interesting tidbits from Google's founder
EuroConference - this weekend in Strassburg, France
20.12.08
The December issue of Software Marketing News, an independent voice for software developers has been posted.
This month's newsletter includes:
Violence in Software Games - an article addressing violence in games
Do I Need a Feed - an article addressing how to determine if you need an RSS feed
Registration Service News
asknet AG, a global leader in outsourced electronic software sales and distribution services announced the creation of its U.S. subsidiary, asknet Inc. and the formation of its North American team.
Digital River has acquired BlueHornet, a company specializing in e-mail marketing services.
Software Industry Call for Presentations.
The Shareware Industry Conference attracts software developers, and publishers with a common interest in software development marketing and distribution.
Software Success Story
This month's software success story is Alawar Entertainment. Alawar Entertainment was founded in 1997 by a group of Novosibirsk State University's students.
Conference News
Software Business Magazine has set the dates for their 2005
Awards
The 2005 SharewareJunkies.com Awards have been announced.
Product / Technology Reviews
Internet Business Promoter - Getting the word out about new sites has becoming increasingly more difficult, as the web has become more cluttered. The site submission services appeared expensive or of questionable character and as result we decided to have a look at Internet Business Promoter.
ActivateSoft.net
I recently investigated various options related to software protection and tracking. One of the individuals I spoke with was Anton Baranchuk from ActivateSoft.net. ActivateSoft.net is an anti-piracy service designed to verify software licenses and limit the spread of illegal copies.
EuroConference
Collection of photos from the European Shareware Conference
Microsoft Opportunities
Do you want to help Microsoft design software for shareware developers?
New Sites and Services for Developers
Box Coop - High gloss, full color boxes on heavy thick paper.
Shareware Statistics - A new system is now available to English speaking software developers.
SharewareBlogs - A new portal to advance the Shareware Industry has just been announced.
Search Engine News
Overture will continue to provide its sponsored search results to MSN sites in the U.S. and Canada, Europe and Asia.
AdSense - Internet search giant Google Inc. filed a lawsuit against one of its AdSense Online clients
Google DeskBar - An API for Google Deskbar so that programmers can add their own tools to Google Deskbar.
Google Adwords - Google Adwords rumors are that they will ban affiliate links in Google Adwords!
Software Marketing News tries to keep developers informed about important industry changes. Software marketing resource is an independent voice for developers. Please help us spread the word.
20.12.08
Hi,
Welcome to the January issue of Software Marketing News, an independent voice for software developers. An HTML version can be viewed at http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com/author-resource-newsletter49.html .
I've always been a firm believer in looking forward rather than back but with all that is going on, the horrible devastation in SE Asia and ushering in the new year I think that it is important to reflect and learn from the past.
First off I would like to commend members of the software community who have stepped forward and pledged revenues to aid victims of the recent tsunamis. Hats off to Nick Bradbury who prompted the effort. I know many other have donated and contributed as well.
Details: http://nick.typepad.com/blog/2004/12/disaster_relief_1.html
Reflections
1. Registration Services - In the beginning of last year I made bold predictions related to all the registration service shakeups. Many of those predications came true. The Digital River purchase of ShareIt / Element 5 however, still came as a surprise. The field of competition has narrowed in 2004. With some notable events such as Steve Kiene stepping down from management at eSellerate. eSellerate is positioned to give Digital River a run for their money. eSellerate has managed to establish what I believe to be, one of the best affiliate channels and programs available for developers. Plimus has gained customers and popularity. Sparks flew from SWREG with the announcement that Cyrus former head of Digbuy would be the new SWREG CEO, but little has happened in that area recently.
(see predictions for more on registration services)
2.) What is Working? It is important to review web logs and website statistical data. Don't just compare results from previous months, but take a look at what has worked over the past year by comparing statistical information from last December to this December. What areas have improved? Has search engine traffic fallen? Is it time to refresh keywords, and title tags? As search engines and technology changes, it is improtant to compare and track statistical information.
3.) Software Community - The software community is truly becoming global, with conferences focussed on software marketing occurring on 3 continents in 2004. It is clear that this trend is just the beginning.
4.) Blogs - It would be impossible to reflect on 2004 without mentioning blogs. With blogs giving voice to independent software developers and an added distribution channel to developers in 2004. While blogs were "IT" in 2004 I believe RSS will hit a homerun in 2005. (see predictions)
5.) Growth - Last but not least - thank you all - in the past year we have tripled the number of subscribers to SMR news! Thank you for helping us spread the word!
Predictions for 2005
1.) Ecommerce - Ecommerce will likely become a commodity, with developers seeing less value in outsourcing online purchases. The value-ad will remain critical to an ecommerce vendors success. eSellerate has leg up on this competition with RegNow following. DR still needs to find a way to make their properties work together so the value exists for all of their properties not just some. They appear to be focussing on just a handful of properties and leaving the other aside.
2.) Strategic Relationships - Relationships will be key in 2005, developers who work together will prosper. Talk to other developers, participate in the many software forums and communities and see what happens.
3.) RSS - Dave Collins hit the nail on the head when he stated in the Shareware Promotions blog that 2005 will be the year of RSS. RSS and podcasting (an RSS file with an audio file as an enclosure) will take the Internet by storm in 2005. While blogs have turned bloggers into journalists, podcasting will turn podcasters into radio personalities. Tools have made content distribution so simplistic that I believe in 2005 this technology will take off.
4.) Globalization - Russian and English speaking developers have bridged the gap, and are working on a number of collaborative efforts. I think 2005 will see increased community and collaborative participation from developers in China and India in 2005.
5.) Outsource - While the concept of outsourcing is not new to developers, the concept of spending money is new to some of the smaller independent developers. ;-) Developers are now seeing the value in paying others to promote sites, provide graphics, and other professional services. When developers realize their limitations they are able to outsource and grow their business at a faster rate.
Game Developers Awards
Nominations for the 5th annual Game Developers Choices Awards will commence on January 3rd , 2005. Transcending consumer fads, the Game Developers Choice Awards feature games and developers that are truly worthy of recognition. The recipients are chosen by those who know games best -- their creators.
http://www.igda.org/awards/nominations.htm
SIC Sponsorship Opportunities
If you have an interest in sponsoring the 2005 Shareware Industry Conference, now is the time! In order to have your information included in all of the promotional material consider sponsoring now. Sponsorship levels can be viewed at: http://www.sic.org/sponsors.asp
SIC News
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In an effort to keep individuals informed about deadlines, awards and related conference activities the Shareware Industry Awards Foundation has created an RSS feed that will contained information related to the Shareware Industry Awards and the Shareware Industry Conference. Add the following url to your RSS reader - http://www.sic.org/sic.xml
Product / Technology Reviews
Help & Manual
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My favorite help software, Help and Manual has just released a new version. The new version adds support for Macromedia Flash animations in compiled HTML Help and Browser Based Help.
Additional Information - EC Software - http://www.ec-software.com
Paessler Site Inspector
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Paessler Site Inspector is a comprehensive set of website and web page analysis tools. This web page analyzer is the perfect companion for people creating websites or working with the Internet. Site Inspector brings various analysis techniques and selected online resources together in one place. Measuring is critical to knowing what works!
Dirk Paessler is extending a discount for to Software Marketing Readers of a 25% discount off of Site Inspector - the coupon code is "feedforall-psi"
Additional Information - http://www.paessler.com/products/psi/
Copyright Update
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Having just ushered in the new year be sure that you update your copyright notice on your website to 2005.
Create Custom RSS Buttons
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Free graphic tool to create RSS buttons. The online tool allows you to customize the look of your RSS button so that it will match the style of your website. Give it a try:
http://www.feedforall.com/public/rss-graphic-tool.htm
Software Marketing Resource Forum - RSS Available
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Realizing how it is difficult to visit a forum on a daily basis we have made the SMR forum posts available via an RSS feed. Simply add the following url http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com/forum/rss.php to your RSS reader and receive all of the SMR forum posts.
Reminder Speaking Opportunities
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The deadline for speaking proposals for the Shareware Industry Conference is approaching. Abstract submissions are due January 31, 2005, so get your proposals in soon. The conference will be held July 14-16, 2005 in Denver, Colorado. Additional Details - http://www.sic.org/files/SIC-2005-Call_for_Papers.pdf
Tools for Online Tracking
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In order to determine which advertising and marketing efforts are effective you must have ways to measure the results of those efforts. Alerts and instant notifications can be instrumental in monitoring search engine position, trademarked terms, monitoring competitors and staying abreast of online occurrences.
complete article - http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com/article50.html
Understanding Web Logs
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General web statistics give pertinent information about website visitors. Webmasters analyzing these statistics have a better understanding of who their website visitors are and how they perceive the website. A lot can be learned by evaluating navigation patterns, most-viewed pages and exit pages.
complete article - http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com/article51.html
Abbyy Software Success Story
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Unfortunately I was unable to complete this month's software success story. Abbyy Software's story will be available in the February issue of Software Marketing news, and it is truly a story that will inspire everyone.
Search Engine News:
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Google - Google has just released a special search form for its AdWords ads. The search form allows you to quickly find out the position of an AdWords ad.
http://www.google.com/sponsoredlinks
Yahoo - Yahoo has released a list of the top search term collections for 2004.
http://tools.search.yahoo.com/top2004/
GDC Scholarship Program Now Accepting Applications
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The IGDA has just launched the 5th annual Student Scholarship Program. Twenty-five college students will be awarded complimentary full access passes to the Game Developers Conference. Students can now apply online. The deadline to enter is Tuesday, January 18, 2004. Recipients will be announced in early February. Applicants are required to be full-time college students (or equivalent) and IGDA student members for consideration. The IGDA's Education Committee and board members will judge scholarship applications. http://www.igda.org/scholarships/
Additional Newsgroups Reopened
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Due to Scott Kane's prolonged illness the comp.software.shareware newsgroups became inactive. Now with the help of Kathy Morgan the groups have reopened. The groups are moderated usenet groups and posts can be made to:
comp.software.shareware.authors
comp.software.shareware.announce
I'd like to personally thank Scott Kane for running them as long as he was able.
Best Wishes for 2005
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I would like to personally extend good wishes, happiness and prosperity to all in 2005. My heart goes out to those affected by the recent Tsunami's and Earthquakes. My hope is that in 2005 the world will be a better place.
If you know someone who would like to subscribe please have them send a blank email to webmaster@softwaremarketingresource.com with "subscribe" as the subject line.
Software Marketing News tries to keep developers informed about important industry changes. Software marketing resource is an independent voice for developers. We welcome suggestions and feedback on our articles and information
20.12.08
The February issue of Software Marketing news has been posted to HTML version can be viewed at http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com/author-resource-newsletter50.html .
I will be writing a piece related to some recent questions that have been raised regarding Armadillo/Software Passport and usage of marketing information. Unfortunately the article is not yet ready so it will be sent in a second newsletter this month. If any developers have questions or comments that they would like included in the piece, please forward them to me as soon as possible. My hope is to separate fact from fiction, and present in non-technical terms both sides of the issue.
Webmaster Tools & Resources
With new technologies, algorithms and sources emerging on a daily basis, webmasters are constantly struggling to stay informed. The quality of content on the web and the number of products available to webmasters can seem overwhelming. The goal of creating a site that can be quickly found can be a struggle. Unless webmasters have a well-established brand, a great domain name and a huge marketing budget, it is important that they appear in search engines via specific keywords. With this in mind, we have compiled a list of resources and products that will benefit webmasters in their efforts to be found.
http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com/article52.html
What is Podcasting?
Listeners can retain audio archives to listen to at their leisure. While blogs have turned many bloggers into journalists, podcasting has the potential to turn podcasters into radio personalities.
http://www.small-business-software.net/what-is-podcasting.htm
Determining Keywords
Determining keywords is a critical step in web design. If your website and meta tags do not contain related keywords, web surfers will be unable to find your website when they conduct searches.
The formula is a little tricky - you will need to locate terms that are popular and relevant to your site. These terms may or may not be terms that *you* feel are relevant terms. The optimal terms in a site should be terms that a potential customer would use when searching for a website with your content.
http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com/article53.html
Technology Review
Free RSS to HTML Script
A free PHP script, rss2html.php, that converts RSS feeds to HTML has been made freely available by NotePage, Inc. The rss2html.php script allows webmasters to display RSS feeds on their website.
RSS or Really Simple Syndication, as it is commonly known, is a technology that gives webmasters the ability to to easily distribute and publish syndicated content on the Internet. Most webmasters understand the potential benefits of making RSS feeds available for viewing in a web browser.
FeedForAll's new rss2html.php script allows users to create webpages that will always display the most current information from the RSS feed, and because the resulting page is pure HTML, it will be in a format friendly to search engine robots. Using rss2html.php webmasters can customize the format and look of the web page created from the feed. The RSS feed's contents can easily be integrated into an existing website's theme. The rss2html.php script parses the RSS file, extracts the pertinent information, formats it, and serves it up as regular HTML.
Additional details and a download for the free script can be found at http://www.feedforall.com/free-php-script.htm
Software Success Stories
Abbyy USA Software - Read this inspirational story about Abbyy Software's industry successes. Abbyy USA started out in 1999 as a 2 person company, now has have 29 employees. Each year about 12 million units of scanner and all-in-one devices world wide ships with Abbyy's FineReader OCR technology. Their customers include: Banctec, BenQ, EMC2/Documentum, EPSON, Freedom Scientific, Kurzweil, Kofax, Lexmark, Microtek, NewSoft, Notable Solutions, Panasonic, ReadSoft, SER Solutions, Samsung Electronics, Sumitomo Electric Systems, Stellent, Toshiba and Verity.
Read Abbyy's Story - http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com/software-success-9.htm
Organizations
Steve Kiene, founder and former CEO of eSellerate has announced that he is putting together an organization for independent software developers. As we receive more information about the new organization for developers we will make announcements.
Schmooze
Napa Valley Schmooze - A spring Shareware Schmooze is scheduled for Napa Valley March 11-13th, 2005 Napa, California, USA. The schmooze will be held at The John Muir Inn is located in north Napa at the beginning of the world famous Napa Valley wine region.
Additional Details - http://www.medlin.com/schmooze/
SIC Early Registration Discount
Registration is open for the 2005 Shareware Industry Conference. The conference will be held in Denver, Colorado July 14-16. Early bird registration is only $ 99! This special is only available until April 1. Register now to receive the discount!
http://www.sic.org
SIC News - In an effort to keep individuals informed about deadlines, awards and related conference activities the Shareware Industry Awards Foundation has created an RSS feed that will contained information related to the Shareware Industry Awards and the Shareware Industry Conference. Add the following url to your RSS reader - http://www.sic.org/sic.xml
SIC Sponsorship Opportunities
If you have an interest in sponsoring the 2005 Shareware Industry Conference, now is the time! In order to have your information included in all of the promotional material consider sponsoring now. Sponsorship levels can be viewed at: http://www.sic.org/sponsors.asp
Game Developers Conference
The Game Developer's Conference is scheduled for March 7-11, San Francisco, California. At GDC 2005, you will be equipped with practical tools to handle these and other obstacles along your road, and you will be exposed to future vision catalysts  empowering you to create tomorrow's game today. Bring your future vision into focus at GDC 2005.
Register by February 9 to save up to 30% on GDC Conference passes. IGDA members save an additional $50. Use priority code: EIGDA05 when registering, and you will automatically be entered to win an iPod mini. http://www.gdconf.com/
Tucows & Dr FileFinder
I'm very pleased to let everyone know that Mike Callahan (Dr File Finder) is the new Manager of Editorial Content at Tucows!!! He will be responsible for all the content on Tucows. Planning on having things that will benefit both users AND software authors. A section on "How To..." do different things on the computer, software reviews, REAL reviews including my Dr. File Finder's Picks, Dr. File Finder Quick Picks, and lots more.
Watch Tucows for more - http://www.tucows.com
MORE - Read the Complete SMR Newsletter
20.12.08
Hi,
Occasionally we are faced with "news" that is deemed important enough to create a special issue of Software Marketing News, an independent voice for software developers. This is one of those occasions not because the news is so earth-shattering, but because it is important the developers are informed with facts rather than rumors.
An HTML version of this newsletter can be viewed online at: http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com/author-resource-newsletter51.html .
ARTICLE - All Companies Make Mistakes
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Nearly every company, makes mistakes. In my opinion, once a mistake is discovered, it is how the company handles that mistake is more telling, than the mistake itself.
In this world there are big mistakes and there are little mistakes. Digital River recently collected information related to usage and installation of its SoftwarePassport application, without disclosing the tracking to it's customers. The actual tracking was done by including a UserAx.dll in the recent versions of SoftwarePassport and Armadillo.
Developers obviously have a number of concerns related to the new DLL. I'm hoping this article will separate fact from fiction, and get to the heart of the matter.
I would encourage developers to read it and make their own assessments. http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com/article56.html
New MSN Search
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Microsoft has finally launched their new search engine. The new MSN has accepted the task of challenging Google as the market leader. After submitting sites and analyzing rankings here are factors we believe are helpful to obtain strong ranking in MSN.
Hyphenated Domains - domain names with hyphenated keywords appear to perform well.
Sites Age - older sites tend to rank better
Sites Size - bigger is better
Title - no big surprise it appears the title meta tag is heavily factored into their results
Description - the description appears to influence some results
Incoming Links - while not as obvious as many of those above it appears that incoming links may play a factor in ranking
Software Marketing News tries to keep developers informed about important industry changes. Software marketing resource is an independent voice for developers. We welcome suggestions and feedback on our articles and information
20.12.08
Welcome to the March issue of Software Marketing News, an independent voice for software developers.
Selling Software on Amazon
I recently signed up with Great Mind Software to sell FeedForAll on Amazon.com. With Amazon's new search coming I thought think this is a great opportunity for small developers to increase their exposure. Great Mind Software acts as publisher of software products, for the purpose of getting it listed on Amazon.com.
Additional Details - Selling Software on Amazon
Avanquest
One of the most brilliant software marketers I know, Phil Schnyder from askSam has begun working with Avanquest. Avanquest is a global software publisher and distributor based in Paris. They are currently launching a new area of on-line software distribution.
Avanquest's reach is extensive covering territories in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, England, Finland, France, Denmark, Germany, Holland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, Spain, and the US. Their new on-line sales channel is desinged to promote, market and sell products internationally.
Additional Details - Avanquest
Protexis & CNET
Through a multi-year commercial operating agreement CNET and Protexis have bundled their offerings providing developers solutions for licensing, ecommerce and distribution. Three pieces to a puzzle that developers struggle with when selling software online. Protexis specializes in licensing and ecommerce solutions while CNET holds the keys to undoubtedly the largest software download distribution network on the Internet. Their properties include: download.com, windowsmarketplace.com and zdnet.com. CNET has a vested interest in Protexis' success, so it is logical that they would provide the power of the CNET distribution network capabilities to Protexis clients.
Additional Details - Protexis & CNET
Samurai Business Tools
Scott Kane the moderator of the comp.software.shareware.authors group has started a newsletter the Soft Zone. The Soft Zone newsletter is dedicated to persons, companies and people interested in the selling and marketing of software using the "Try Before You Buy" marketing model. Soft Zone is FREE and you can unsubscribe any time you like.
Additional Details -
Innovative RSS
While RSS was at one point only considered to be a means to deliver news headlines, RSS has quickly become a powerful medium to disseminate all kinds of information. As traditional marketers are attempting to rein in content delivery, measuring e-mail open rates, click-throughs and conversions, Internet users are fighting to gain control over the content they receive. Savvy marketers and business owners are using RSS as a way to improve corporate communication and increase their external exposure and brand appeal.
Complete Article - Innovative RSS
How Podcasting is Used
Although podcasting is new, it is well on its way to becoming a mainstream communication medium. Podcasting, simply put, is audio files that are delivered via RSS. Many people believe that podcasting is solely for the distribution of music files, but really, nothing could be further from the truth.
Complete Article - How Podcasting is Used
Hurry Early Registration Discount
Registration is open for the 2005 Shareware Industry Conference. The conference will be held in Denver, Colorado July 14-16. Early bird registration is only $ 99! This special is only available until April 1. Register now to receive the discount!
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