Software Marketing Newsletter Software Marketing Newsletter March 2003 Newsletter Welcome to March Software Marketing Resource News ! SEARCH ENGINES MERGERS & AQUISITIONS ********************************************************* Overture has reportedly agreed to purchase Alta Vista one of the first web crawlers, for 140 million in cash and stock. What is more, they have also reportedly agreed to purchase FAST. This comes at a time when Yahoo is completeing its purchase of Inktomi's paid inclusion program. What this means for furture searches is unclear, but one thing that is certain, things will be changing. Which I guess, should not be a huge surprise, take a quick look back to the search engines of yester-year. InfoSeek no longer exists, the Lycos landscape has changed and Alta Vista no longer has the massive precense it once had. Overture has also made a move to increase minimum bids from .05 to .10 and while advertisers are unhappy about this the reason may surprise some. Although Overture agreed to grandfather bids from .05 - .09 they gave very little notice of the increase to advertisers which meant that last minute bid changes could not be made. With everything happening in the pay-per-click arena its imperative advertisers remember that outside of branding clicks don't matter, conversions are what is important. To ensure you receive targeted clicks - - make sure your text relates to your search term - ensure that the search term directs the user to the best possbile landing page on your site - include keyword in both your title and description - use text to disqualify unrelated clicks (an easy way to do this for software is to mention the operating system) Remember being number one is not critical, you need only appear in the top 3 Overture listings to appear throughout their network (some sites list 5 or 6 but the majority list the top 3 only). If Overture is no longer a cost effective alternative, consider some of the smaller established PPC engines. Espotting - http://www.espotting.com # 1 in the UK FindWhat - http://www.findwhat.com cost effective quality traffic but still only able to produce a fraction of what Overture is capable of. Lycos - http://www.lycos.com $ .05 minimum bids but fairly new so many terms can be obtained at competitive prices. Ah-Ha - http://www.ah-ha.com I've had intermeittent problems with their system but they have are still a player If you are interested in additional PPC, check out http://www.payperclicksearchengines.com they list 446 Pay Per Click search engines! I am planning on attending a Search Engine Conference in Boston this week so I should have more next month on the latest Search Engine news! NEW RESOURCE ********************************************************* Search Engine Discussions and News - http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum3/ Also Dave Collins from Shareware Promotions sent us a great new resource On Demand Manuals http://www.ondemandmanuals.com definitely worth considering ! SERVER SPACE ********************************************************* I received an email from a computer consultant in Western Mass. He provides a free service for his customers running the latest-style BBS. He has free server space where shareware developers can promote their programs and upload their software. More software on his servers provides helps his customers and it means *free* bandwith for developers something nearly unheard of these days. Additional information at http://dellea.dns2go.com INTERNATIONAL SCHMOOZE ********************************************************* I saw a recent post from a developer looking to organize a gathering in the UK. If you are interested sign up at http://www.signposter.com/ukschmooze.shtml It seems at this time the individual is just looking to gauge the level of interest. SPRING SCHMOOZE ********************************************************* A weekend of networking starting March 27, 2003 at the Granville Island Hotel in Vancouver, British Columbia. For Schmooze details about the hotel, registration, etc. please visit http://www.regnow.com/schmooze/vancoverschmooze.html PRESS - PRODUCT ANNOUNCEMENTS ********************************************************* iCodeRepositroy iCodeRepository v. 3.0 manages your programming code snippets and tips more efficiently! A utility that allows you to improve productivity by avoiding repetitive programming, and by collecting reusable source code. You can pick up your favorite source code snippets during your daily programming or search of tips and articles on the Internet, and then organize them with iCodeRepository. http://www.iCodeRepository.com. # # # PageGate Send messages to pagers and cell phones from your application. Easy to integrate into existing applications, typically coding is not required. The additional level of notification adds significant value to existing applications. http://www.notepage.net/pagegate.htm # # # Smtp.NET Next Generation Email Components For .NET Developers ExclamationSoft Corporation, a leading provider of email components for Microsoft .NET, COM and VB environments, announces the release of Smtp.NET version 2.0 and emailQ.NET 1.0. Both products offer developers extensive email functionality with shortened development and testing cycles. http://www.exclamationsoft.com # # # Instant.EXE Xelerate Software has released its Instant.EXE 2.0 for Windows, software for creating Windows programs in record time, while no prior experience is needed. http://www.xelerate.biz # # # MORE PAD SITES ******************************* I've recently received a flood of email from shareware sites that have adopted PAD, amongst them CNET's upload.com. Not all PAD functions are supported at this time, and you will need to provide some additional information on the form before completing your submission but they are definitely moving in the right direction! WEB SITE DESIGN ******************************* As the web becomes more crowded its become increasingly more important to not only have a web precense but a professional appearance. We recently had our logo and web site redesign done by SoftIdentity http://www.softidentity.com and I have to say I'm thrilled with the results take a look at NotePage's new look! http://www.notepage.net Thanks SoftIdentity! SHAREWARE INDUSTRY CONFERENCE ****************************** Registration is now open for the 2003 Shareware Industry Conference scheduled for July 17-19, in Rochester, NY. If you've not attended in the past I highly recommend that you consider attending. The marketing ideas and sessions are packed with information for newcomers and long time developers. In addition you are able to network with major industry players from download sites, search engines and the press. Additional information can be found at http://www.sic.org NEW SUGGESTED SITES ******************************* Email Software - http//www.email-software.org Voicemail Software - http://www.voicemail-software.com Thank you for your continued interest in softwaremarketingresource.com Sharon Housley Software Marketing Resource - http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com NotePage, Inc. - http://www.notepage.net Monitoring-Software - http://www.monitoring-software.net Messaging-Software - http://www.messaging-software.com Tech Support Central - http://www.tech-support-central.com