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Hi,
Welcome to March''s Software Marketing
News. An HTML version can be viewed at
http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com/author-resource-newsletter38.html
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Tucows Follow up
*******************
As promised I spoke with Elliot Noss
from Tucows both before and after publishing
the articles about Tucows last month.
For those that missed the original article
it can be viewed online at:
http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com/article26.html
According to Elliot Noss, CEO of Tucows,
the article in SMR that detailed a former
employee abusing their position at Tucows
has resulted in numerous productive discussions
with developers. Overall Elliot was quite
pleased at how things have progressed
and felt that in the long run things have
worked out for the best.
Personally, I was surprised by the lack
of public reaction to the article. I received
a number of personal emails that contained
a variety of reactions from the standard
Tucows review complaints, to shock and
surprise along with detailed accusations
of additional problems inherent to review
sites. It seemed developers were much
more honest about their feelings regarding
the article "off the record". The same
thing occurred with the controversial
Digital River article that I wrote back
in January. Developers seem not to realize
that they have influence in the industry
they need only to band together to have
clout.
Digital River Follow up
*******************
I received an overwhelming number of responses
to my recent article "Digital River a
Monster?". Overall the developers expressed
a need to remain anonymous, they felt
that any public commentary or criticism
would reflect negatively on their business.
The majority felt that the article accurately
reflected the changes in the ecommerce
landscape, as it pertains to shareware
developers. I've taken the liberty of
including the responses from the registration
services, with their permissions of course,
as I felt their comments should be heard.
If you feel you can provide a perspective
that has not yet been heard please forward
your comments and I'll post them in the
daily SMR blog.
The original article written in January,
that prefaces these reactions can be viewed
at: http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com/article24.html
eSellerate reaction -
Steve Kiene from eSellerate provided a
detailed reaction to the SMR article that
discussed the numerous acquisitions that
DR participated in.
"Digital River does not intend to grow
the size of their company, with respect
to the number of employees. Joel Ronning
has stated this several times. However,
they do need to show growth. Their financial
guidance is for about 20% growth in 2004.
I believe that the growth will come from
their employees spending more time with
larger publishers where they can extract
more money than with smaller publishers.
They have a fixed number of hours in the
year and a somewhat fixed number of employees.
If they intend to bring in more money,
each hour that each employee works will
need to generate more money. I think that
leaves the smaller guys out of the picture.
This is where esellerate can shine."
"We specialize in the smaller developers.
We have a reputation for providing outstanding
service. Our publishers form a personal
relationship with our employees because
our employees don't leave. A publisher
who signed up with John Petelle two years
ago can still call John on the phone.
We also pride ourselves on not having
"professional" sales people. For example,
John was a school teacher when we hired
him for a position in our tech support
department. He loved our products so much
that he wanted to be able to actively
spread the word about them. He became
our first sales person. The other people
that we've put in the sales department
feel the same way. They work here because
they think we have great products that
are beneficial to publishers."
" We are always looking well into
the future, and our development roadmap
show sthat. We were the first to have
a "next generation" affiliate system.
A system that DR tried to copy. You can
be sure we're not resting. We're working
on a lot more ideas specifically to help
shareware developers sell more copies
of their products with less effort on
their part. Aggregating product "catalogs"
into one huge catalog doesn't generate
sales. Do you really think that Best Buy
is going to list FolderMatch on their
web site? DR makes promises that are not
met. We under promise and over deliver.
We have formed business relationships
that we can offer to our publishers that
make sense for them. Relationships which
have proven to provide results."
" When we first unveiled esellerate
at SIC in 2001, we had 18 employees. One
person remarked to me that no one could
make money in the e-commerce business
with 18 employees. Well, he was right.
We now have 40 employees and we are profitable.
And we're still growing. We will probably
his 50 employees by the end of the year.
I think we uniquely fill a niche in this
market. DR has 500 employees. ShareIt
has about 150. Some of the smaller providers
have 3-4. We're at a unique size and in
a unique position to take advantage of
that size. We're completely internally
owned so we don't have to answer to anyone
besides our publishers. We have no quarterly
financial numbers we have to hit in order
to please investors or Wall Street. We
are allowed to focus on doing the right
thing for our publishers. Even though
we have 40 employees, this company still
runs like a small shareware company. I
know, because that's how we started. The
same values still are adhered to everyday.
When publishers deal with us, they are
dealing with people and not a faceless
company. That will never change because
I won't have it any other way."
In 2004 we will be expanding, in many
ways, the services we offer to our publishers.
We will have more marketing opportunities
for them, more ways to reach targeting
markets, more ways to manage their operations,
and more ways to automate things so they
can spend more time with their families
at night and less time worrying about
all the details of their business." -
eSellerate's views as per Steve Kiene
Digital River Reaction -Brant
Pallazza made the effort to respond with
a detailed letter explaining DR's strategies.
"Your newsletter article regarding
the developments and acquisitions within
the ecommerce outsourcing industry were
extremely insightful. And while I disagree
with a few of the suggestions made, generally
speaking, I feel that your comments were
very accurate. Please let me elaborate."
"You are correct in that acquisitions
have been a significant part of Digital
River's strategic development. The sheer
volume of great authors and outstanding
software titles now within the Digital
River product catalog has enabled Digital
River to expand our clients distribution
further into existing channels and to
create new channels where none previously
existed. Our launch of the TrialWare channel
and the opening of trialware stores on
PCMag, The Chicago Sun Times and ComputerWorld
are just a few of the opportunities that
were previously unavailable to software
authors."
"I disagree, however, with the
suggestion that there are fewer options
to authors as a result of Digital River's
acquisitions. While it is true that some
of Digital River's acquisitions no longer
retain their original identify, these
transactions involved the acquisition
of a platform such as Netsales and Beyond.com
that could not support their existing
client base. The acquisition by Digital
River of these platforms actually enabled
authors to continue selling software without
the loss of their ecommerce provider.
As for the other acquisitions, every effort
is made to ensure that each property continues
to exist . Retaining the brand, the functionality,
the personnel, and the personality that
makes each so unique. The addition of
eMetrix, Qwerks and Filekicker to the
Digital River network will now provide
Digital River with the added expertise
of Brent Halls, his family, and his skilled
team to our other shareware property knowledge
base."
"The greatest challenge has not been
the retaining of these unique brands as
was suggested in your newsletter (although
it has it's difficulties as I will explain
shortly) . Instead, the challenge has
been the integration of what we call "the
back office". Many of companies acquired
by Digital River had been maintained by
a very small staff. As a result, emphasis
on secure and redundant systems, domestic
and international legal compliance, as
well as redundancy in staff was not adequately
maintained. For example, some of the acquired
platforms can now provide 24X7 customer
support. A service that they could not
previously afford. One of Digital River's
very first objectives with every acquisition
is to secure these operations so as to
reduce risk to us and to our clients."
"Regarding the management of each
unique brand...you are absolutely correct,
Sharon. A balance needs to be attained.
It simply wouldn't make sense to try to
add every feature to every platform. As
they exist today, each platform has it's
uniqueness. It's strength (and weakness).
And it's personality. While we continue
to integrate each property into a common
catalog (for purpose of access the many
DR channels) and secure the back office
of each, we are simultaneously building
out features and functionality on every
platform. Among the short list of 2004
initiatives are: the addition of international
payment options for RegSoft and DigiBuy,
the addition of both affiliate and vendor
features to the RegNow affiliate program,
the addition of promotional email functionality
(15% of Digital River client revenues
come from promotional emails to their
opt-in customers), the addition of more
margin options to support a variety of
product price points, and much, much more.
Some features already enabled on some
platforms include Google ad word tracking,
WebSideStory site navigation and referral
URL analysis, Hackersafe security certification,
15-day credit card billing reminder emails,
and more."
"The number of registration services
has not been reduced. But you are right
on, Sharon. There are many more features
within the existing services to support
the author community. And with that, I
accept your challenge for 2004. We at
Digital River are committed to providing
all of our authors, large and small with
a premier level of service. We are also
committed to provide opportunities to
our clients that offer breadth of service,
depth of opportunity, and ease of use.
We look forward to a closer relationship
with all of our authors on all platforms
and an extremely successful year."
Digital River's views as per Brant Pallazza,
Vice President Shareware
SWREG Reaction - Steve
Lee of SWREG requested I summarize the
exchange that we shared and post it to
the newsletter. Steve made the unique
effort of calling me immediately after
the article was published, his point being
was that he cared about the "little guys",
and wanted to communicate that. While
I rarely understand Steve's penchant for
British humor, I appreciated that he made
the effort to reach out and make an effort
to make us feel special. He felt the article
was accurate but felt that SWREG provides
some really great, innovative features
that developers need and appreciate. SWREG
has been working on developing "verified
by visa" which will ensure that developers
are compensated on any orders that are
verified regardless of whether they prove
to be fraudulent.
What this Means - My Personal Reaction
**************************************
This is by no means a definitive opinion
regarding the registration services and
what the outcome of the massive acquisitions
that have occurred, simply and interim
commentary. While Emetrix has been taken
over by Digital River I'm pleased to report
that I am still receiving the personalized
service that I'm accustom to. There is
however, no indication that Emetrix will
have the ability to use the benefits of
the acquisitions any time in the near
future, meaning its unlikely that Emetrix
will be taking advantage of RegNow's affiliate
network anytime soon. I was pleased that
the higher-ups at DR did make the effort
to respond to the article. I hope that
the response is indicative of how they
value small businesses.
eSellerate has been a bit of a surprise,
initially they took a very rigid corporate
response to a payment issue that I had.
They have since proceeded to implement
a number of the suggestions regarding
payment and transfer options, that I had
suggested. Therefore eSellerate gets high-marks
both responding and reacting to developer
concerns.
Steve Lee, while quite funny, in my opinion
will excel at being the lo-cost alternative
for developers. Its unlikely in my opinion
that Steve will have a network that can
compete on the level of the other services
but it is likely that he will be a great
cost effective alternative. Steve's ability
and willingness to communicate with developers
is commendable and as a result I think
he will remain a strong force.
ShareIt, though they did not respond
either publicly or privately to the article,
will likely continue to excel at providing
a network that understands the needs of
non-US developers.
Small Business Blog
*******************
Small Business Blog - I've created a daily
small business blog that provides small
business owners marketing information
and ideas along with daily business tips,
relating to online business marketing.
viewable at: http://www.small-business-software.net
Gamer Conference
*******************
The Gamer Technology Conference will be
held March 11 & 12, 2004 in Seattle, WA
(USA) at the Westin Hotel. The conference
discusses contracts, licenses, brands,
patents and copyrights unique to games.
It provides information for forming strategic
alliances, small company financing, successful
roll-up strategies, emerging legislative
trends; and convergences of games with
Hollywood, wireless technology; the internet,
and interactive electronic devices. Additional
Details: http://www.clenews.com/LSI/04/04gamewa.htm
Spring Schmooze
*******************
A shareware schmooze, or casual shareware
gathering of those in the Shareware industry
is scheduled for April 15-17, 2004 in
Vancouver, BC Canada
Details at http://www.sharewareschmooze.com
Shareware Industry Conference
********************
This is *the* premier industry event.
Scheduled July 15-17, in Rochester, NY,
this years Shareware Industry Conference
is shaping up to be spectacular. I highly
encourage anyone and everyone in the industry
to consider attending, it is a great marketing
and networking opportunity. Always a worthy
investment. Register now to receive an
early bird discount. Details at http://www.sic.org
Vendors sponsorship opportunities still
exist for SIC. If you are interested in
exposure consider this great opportunity
to exhibit or promote your company.
Details at http://www.sic.org/sponsors.asp
Fall Schmooze
*******************
A shareware schmooze, or casual shareware
gathering of those in the Shareware industry
is scheduled for Sept 16-18, 2004 in Grand
Rapids Michigan Details at http://www.grandriversoftware.com/schmooze
Software Business Mag
*********************
Software Business 2004 is scheduled for
September 22-23, 2004 at the Hyatt Regency,
San Francisco, California. Details forthcoming.
Gnomedex
*******************
Gnomedex v4.0 has been scheduled for Sept
30 to October 3, 2004 in Lake Tahoe, Nevada.
Details at: http://www.gnomedex.com/
Big Search Engine News
*********************
Yahoo The big news is that Yahoo, as promised,
dumped Google. The vast majority understood
that Google would be replaced by Inktomi's
pay per inclusion results but that appears
to be only partially true. While currently
it appears Inktomi is feeding Yahoo, that
is scheduled to change after April 15,
2004. Apparently there will be a new pay
per inclusion service that will feed the
new Yahoo Slurp engine. It is unclear
how similar Yahoo Slurp is to Inktomi
or what the results will be like. Stay
tuned for details of another shake-up
mid April.
Google Google's last "dance", termed
Brandy seems to have mellowed things out
a bit. In fact the results are proving
to be similar to the pre-Florida results
served in October and early November.
Whether things will last with the algo
changes is unclear.
Chris Nielsen
*******************
I stumbled across a new SEO company. The
focus on targeted scored keyword phrases
for qualified traffic, employing a method
they call "general optimization". Regardless
of their method I turned up an amazing
list of search engine submissions sites
that they make the effort to maintain
and publicize. Great resource Chris!!!
http://www.nielsentech.com/free-search-engine-list.cfm
SEO Company - http://www.nielsentech.com/optimize.cfm
Open Mike
*********************************
I'm very interested in hearing what you
want. I'm looking for article ideas or
general topics that developers would like
to hear more about. Send any suggestions,
comments or questions to: webmaster@softwaremarketingresource.com
Ad Serving
****************************************
Google's Adsense offers 6 additional ad
box alternatives for serving web ads on
partner websites. The ad boxes are still
fairly unattractive but the colors can
be edited to match the look of the website.
Overall Adsense is an easy way to raise
additional revenue and does not have any
of the problems inherent to affiliate
programs.
Advertising on Shareware Sites
*******************************
Tucows
It appears their has been a cost per click
price increase at Tucows. The minimum
pay per click for new or adjusted words
is now $.10.
Digital Sea Advertising
Special Save 10% off digital-sea.com’s
Featured Submission service through March
31! Just enter the coupon code ‘BIGSAVE’
when ordering. digital-sea.com’s Featured
Submission service puts you at the top
of your category and allows for greater
product exposure on our site. To learn
more, just go to:
http://www.digital-sea.com/featured
WebAttack/SnapFiles
In January WebAttack changed their name
to SnapFiles, they felt they had outgrown
their name and because they ar eno longer
limited to Internet related software they
should expand.
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
Monitoring Software - http://www.monitoring-software.net
Small Business Software - http://www.small-business-software.net
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