Software Marketing Newsletter Software Marketing Newsletter November 2003 Newsletter Hi, Welcome to November's Software Marketing News. An HTML version can be viewed at http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com/author-resource-newsletter33.html MORE ON RSS - The Making of a Feed ************************************* Last month the introduction to RSS generated a lot of interest. As a result, I have written a "how to" article on how to create an RSS feed. The article can be found online at http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com/article18.html AWARDS ************************************* Nominate Your Favorites for a 2004 ClientSide Excellence Awards http://www.csnevents.com/awards2.asp nominations will be accepted until November 30th 2003. MSN CANCELS LOOKSMART ************************************* In what some might consider poetic justice MSN has announed it will cancel LookSmart's contract after January 15, 2004. MSN currently accounts for 65% of LookSmarts revenues. This in conjunction with a recent LookSmart class action settlement does not bode well for LookSmart's future. CONFERENCES ************************************* This year Software Marketing Resource is a very proud sponsor of the European Shareware Conference. The conference is scheduled to be held in Cologne, Germany December 8 & 9. Don't miss this event! The conference includes educational sessions and networking for developers and vendors. Sponsorship opportunities still exist, details can be found at http://www.euroconference.org/ WAREZ :-( ************************************* Got a note from Michael at File Kicker http://www.filekicker.com and according to his recent summary reports of the top 10 warez sites and the number one crack site is about the same size as the number two legitimate download site. Appalling statistic! As Warez sites grow its clear that warez site filtering is going to be even more important. ALL THE WEB & ALTAVISTA MERGING? ************************************* Last February Overture aquired both AltaVista and FAST it appears, that the technologies are now merging. The new submission on All The Web (FAST) includes that the submitter enter a graphical submission code, similar to the technology that AltaVista has employed to prevent Search Engine spamming. DOCUMENTATION HELP ************************************* I was contacted by a University looking for developers requiring assistance with documentation. They are looking for products with English-language interface for which there is little or no existing written documentation or Help files. The contact person should be able to speak English well enough to answer questions from the student via e-mail and should be thoroughly familiar with the software and its intended audience and usage. Students will receive the list of available software in January and will be able to select the software they would like to work with. Each student will have a different software. If a student chooses your software, he will contact you via e-mail with an introduction and perhaps some questions in late January or early February. The students will be developing prototypes for written documentation and Help files. They may not be able to finish the entire documentation project by the end of the class, but they will provide you with whatever they have done, free of charge. Participation expected from the programmer/developer: we would like you to be available via e-mail to talk with the student about your product and answer his questions from January through May 2004. Anyone who would like their software put on the list should e-mail faithe@wempen.com and provide their e-mail address and their Web site address including a link where the software may be downloaded. SUMMARY OF SPAM LAWS ************************************ Interesting link summarizes SPAM laws by state http://www.spamlaws.com/state/summary.html WEB PAGE MONITORING SERVICE ************************************ ChangeDetect is a FREE service that saves your favorite web pages, monitors content for changes and sends an automatic email notification to you whenever your web pages are updated. http://www.changedetect.com/ ADSENSE & LYCOS ************************************ Google has signed Lycos to AdSense Contextual Advertising. Contextual advertising matches ads to content. If a website is about school work ads relating to school books, or educational programs might be served. In the future Google will provide relevant contextually-targeted ads to pages of Terra Lycos’ U.S. properties including Angelfire, HotWired, Lycos.com, Matchmaker, Quote, Raging Bull, Terra.com, Tripod, Webmonkey, WhoWhere and Wired. AH-HA ************************************ Due to Ah-ha's expanded network, ah-ha.com is establishing a minimum bid of $0.03 for all paid keyword listings effective December 1st, 2003. Any bids made prior to that time frame will be "grandfathered". If you are interested in PPC on Ah-ha and want to lock a low rate be sure to submit your bids prior to December 1st! BLOGS *********************************** I've succumbed to peer pressure and created a web blog from SMR. The blog will contain daily marketing tips for online marketers and software developers. Check it out http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com/blog.html ARTICLES *********************************** Figuring out What works on a website is so important. I mean it isn't how many visitors you get, or how many downloads lets face it. For most people its about conversion or how much money you make. Designing your website to optomize your revenue is what online marketing is all about. The following article details how you can test copy or price and see what works best - http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com/article19.html I've always been a fan of Vertical Marketing, in fact we've found vertical or targeted marketing to be the most effective way to promote NotePage's software. The following article details how to carve out a niche http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com/article20.html GOOGLE *********************************** Google announced Sept 30th their purchase of Kaltix Corp. Kaltix has developed personalized and context-sensitive search technologies that Google apparently wanted. It makes us ponder what they're going to innovate next. In addition Google will provide context ads and search advertising for About.com and other PrimeMedia properties. YEAH!!! GOOGLE LOOSES TRADEMARK SUIT *********************************** As many of you might remember in August's issue of SMR I was lamenting about a competitor bidding on our company name and product names in Adwords. Google, told me as a courtesy they look into those type issues but its really not their responsibility to police trademark infringements on Adwords. Apparently french handbag maker Vuitton successfully sued Google for displaying ads from rival companies based on Vuitton's trademarked terms. Right now it's likely that Google will have to alter their Adword policy. MICROSOFT NEWS ******************************** Peter from Microsoft asked me to send out information on MS Windows programs, many people are operating with out-of-date information about the Windows logo program, e.g., VeriTest is no longer involved in testing Windows desktop applications for the logo, in fact, applications are self-tested by the developer who then certifies to Microsoft that they passed the logo testing. The only cost associated with getting an application logo'd is the once-per-company cost of obtaining a code signing certificate from Verisign, $400, which is used to sign all applications produced by that company. See http://www.microsoft.com/winlogo/software/default.mspx for the latest information on obtaining the "Designed for Windows XP" logo. Thank you for your continued interest in Software Marketing Resource Sharon Housley Software Marketing Resource - http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com NotePage, Inc. - http://www.notepage.net Messaging Software - http://www.messaging-software.net