Avangate has sponsored last year's edition of ESWC held in Cambridge, UK. My colleagues were very impressed with the event and I wanted to find out more about the people behind the association and the conference. I had several people telling me that David Boventer would be a great person to interview. I have to agree. It was a joy to interview the father of ESWC, who takes great care in providing educational opportunities to shareware developers. If you haven't checked out this conference yet, you should.

From the interview with David Boventer:

"Just as the word says: We are a community, a worldwide network of intelligent and sensitive individuals united by a common will: To earn a living with quality software in a fair way. Support is self-understanding, but there is always a pragmatical attitude behind it.

Support is a two-way lane. And since the benefits of the ESWC are clearcut and open, our support among authors, software distributors and sponsors is growing every year. An intensifying natural process of trust and economical gain on fair and legal tracks. Like a tree, that gains height and strength year by year. "

Read the full interview

In a previous interview with Bob Walsh, he pointed out that the most effective advertising methods for small software business are blogging and AdWords. I don't know that much about blogging (for finding interesting information about blogging I suggest you to read his book), but I love AdWords, Google's advertising program.

Many clients told me that, they have been trying AdWords campaigns with no results or, for sure, not the results they were hopping for. In order to understand better their experience with Google adWords I asked them about their conversion rate, their revenue from these campaigns many of them were not able to say exactly. you are you tracking your advertising efforts?

I am going to talk about the most important pay per click advertising program: AdWords.

Here is the guideline.

In the latest issue of Avangate Digest we drafted the ten main online software marketing methods. It is time to tackle the offline ones.
You may think THE only channel to promote your online business is, of course, online. Wrong! It is a good channel, but only a channel, one of the many. Let's consider some of the low-budget, easy to handle offline promotion method any software business should keep in mind. I am thinking above-the-line and bellow-the-line as well, 'cause nothing is impossible when you have good ideas.

• Media buying - print, radio, TV advertising
• Brand image promotion - stationary, promotionals
• Participate to events
• Determine others to talk about you
• Word of mouth
• Sponsorships
  

Get the full guide

Seochat - Chat for everything related to SEO

Seochat.com is dedicated to experts and search engine optimization (SEO) beginners also. You have a problem and you don't know the answer or you need a second opinion, here you can find good SEO resources, online tools to check your website rankings and forums dedicated to Google, Search Engines Strategies, Pay per Click Engines, Directories and the list can go on, with useful information.

ASP - Association of Shareware Professionals

Created in 1987, the ASP now has fourteen hundred members world wide, its purpose being to promote shareware, improve members' businesses and make it easier for computer users to find software at good prices. For independent software developers, one of the biggest advantages in joining this association is having access to a huge archive of resources and shareware know-how. Inevitably, you'll face challenges and you will try to overcome them: the ASP members may help you with their experience.

Find more cool places

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

Checklist for Usability Forms

"The primary goal of form usability is making sure that the intended users are able to interact properly with the Web site while having a positive and convenient experience. We provide a checklist with 12 basic requirements to be met in order to achieve user friendliness forms..." [Read more]

Make your Download Portal a Successful Affiliate Business

"A special breed of affiliate marketers are the ones that sell software, most likely download portals. They all look the same, sell the same products have the same targeted buyer and somehow some sell very well while other are junk sites..." [Read more]

Guidelines for Writing Software Copyright

"Copyright practically indicates the right of a certain individual or business entity to make copies of a particular work and use these copies according to wish or necessity. Most of the times, this consent comes under the form of licenses, which mainly grant the right to use, with certain limitations, the software in cause..." [Read more]

Tips for Making Software Available for Download

"The size of a file has a crucial effect on the amount of time a user needs to download it. Software sales, when counting on downloads to increase in quantity, are influenced by this factor..." [Read more]

68 Online SEO Tools and Resources

"A compiled list of free online search engine optimization tools to help you check your current web site. They are free, in most of the cases you do not need to create an account in order to access them and we use them often. Feel free to check and use them..." [Read more]