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Greetings to all and welcome to our final newsletter in 2007: Special Winter Edition. And it is indeed a special edition. My colleagues and I had worked on new exciting features and releases, we've been to ESWC 2007 in Cologne and enjoyed the talks and the feedback about Avangate Digest and our services. Thank you, it's been really nice and encouraging to receive such great feedback. Someone saw me there and said: "You are the girl with your hand under the cheek" and imitated the way I stay in the digest picture :). That was surprising and funny. I think I 'll have to look for a more difficult posture.

The event went fantastic. Although it was my first time to this conference, I enjoyed the city and the nice community, made a lot of friends, and certainly touched upon many hot subjects. I am looking forward to the next edition in Berlin. David Boventer, his wife Panagiota Zachariadou and Marck Pearlstone were perfect hosts. Our congrats to them for organizing this event and also to the winners of the Epsilon awards! For those who of you who were not there (maybe we will see you next year?) here are some pictures, reviews and presentations from the event.

At ESWC we have also met Mike Culver, Amazon Web Services evangelist. I loved his presentation "Life in a Post Web 2.0 World" and I was amazed on what Amazon is up to in the Web Services space. I was honored to interview him. Read the interview to see his thoughts about the software industry and the way we can all benefit from Amazon's expertise and infrastructure.

Sorana wrote about "How good are your sales? Think about a change?". Also, don't miss our latest developments! Check the free tools we have just launched: PAD Validator and PAD Promoter, test them and send us your feedback.

2007 has been a very exciting year for us. Thanks to all of you for the passion you've shown for our services, for this newsletter and for your continued engagement. Best wishes for the holiday season from me and everyone at Avangate.

We're looking forward to 2008!

Mike Culver Amazon Web Services Evangelist

Guest: Mike Culver
...there is a new class of "software as a service" that really gets the wheels turning in my head.

At ESWC I have met Mike Culver, one of the Amazon Web Services evangelists. I loved his presentation "Life in a Post Web 2.0 World" and I was amazed on what Amazon is up to in the Web Services space. I was honored to interview him.

Read the interview to see his thoughts about the software industry and the way we can all benefit from Amazon's expertise and infrastructure.

Continue to interview

Sorana Kunst Marketing Manager, Avangate B.V

Grow your business

According to the poll conducted on Neil Davidson's blog, the most important problem that ISVs have is time, closely followed by marketing and sales.

Learn how you can reduce working time and increase sales by spending some hours planning how to promote yourself, how your website looks, how easy your shoppers can get throughout the checkout process and where to look for more shoppers.

Continue to full article

Stumble Upon is in my view, one of the best a social websites I have ever come across, allowing users to experience the Internet in a brand new way: instead of searching for specific items on search engines such as Google, Yahoo or Ask.com, on StumbleUpon you only have to mark your specific personal or professional interests and then, surf the web by simply clicking on a button, on the Stumble Upon tool bar. I even installed StumbleUpon tool in my browser; I find it very useful as it allows me to discover and rate WebPages, photos, videos, and news articles which I can monitor and share with my friends.

Onstartups is a two-year old blog that belongs to Dharmesh Shah, a software businessman, basically highlighting business startups and addressing software entrepreneurs. I find the articles there very useful as they provide relevant advice for software authors who just begin their business in the software industry. The author has a very interesting approach on the importance that blogs have on the software business.

I bet you will find at least one new idea from the articles below:

Mistakes in Launching a Software Product
Launching a software product is important due to awareness creation. Companies make their presence known on the market or strengthen their position by building up credibility. Read an article about the way a software launch shouldn't be.

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How to Name a Software Product
The name of the software product is an introducing element, the best way to make your business appear in the SERPs and the differentiating element from competitors. An article regarding the steps that any software producer has to take in order to choose the most suitable name for his product.

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Make Your Download Portal Different with a Blog
Most download portals nowadays are built and updated by automatic content feeders - the so-called PAD files. Sure, importing 20-30k products automatically is a good way to start a download portal, but then again, most download portals look and work the same, just because of that. Find out how to make your download portal different with a blog.

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Macworld Conference & Expo - January 14-18, San Francisco, USA California
Macworld conference is one of the most expected events of the year to come. Apple CEO Steve Jobs will deliver the opening speech to attendees on Apple's latest product releases and on the main moments of the event. Generally, it comprises more than 120 sessions, an exhibit hall with more than 350 companies, and notable attractions like free training, digital photography area and sound demonstrations.

Conference website

Search Engine Strategies - January 15-16, Paris, France
Next year's first edition takes place in Paris. Approaching themes such as research, marketing and commerce, the conference amasses presentations from the most important SEO actors on the French market. The event has an educational purpose also, trying to offer solutions for SEO problems encountered nowadays: free search engine vs. sponsored links indexing, ways to make sites both SEO and user-friendly, methods to create links that bring traffic etc.

Conference website