AISIP Interview with Michael Halls
By Sharon Housley

The following is an interview with Michael Halls regarding his acquisition of the AISIP. The questions are bolded, his responses are not.

Congratulations on your acquisition of the AISIP.

1. What was your motivation for purchasing the AISIP?

Both David and myself come from the e-commerce side of shareware. Together with our Dad (Brent) we bought out Qwerks.com in 1998. Later we started eMetrix.com and FileKicker.com. These three businesses were acquired by Digital River in 2003.

Our e-commerce background has given us the opportunity to meet hundreds of really great people in the shareware industry from all over the world. I hope that through the AISIP we can provide some value to the shareware community and keep friendships we've built alive. We'll, it's better than sending greeting cards.

2. What are your first objectives for the AISIP?

We've got some small housekeeping tasks to do like moving the website and email boxes. After that, we'll be setting up the membership database and automating renewals and memberships. I'd also like to expand the members-only section of the website and maybe tinker with the website design.

After the first annual members/renewal push, we will have some money to reinvest into the AISIP. We have discussed and identified a number of different benefits that we would like to provide developers. We'll see what money we have and what's the best way to invest it. The hope is that we'll create a snowball effect where the money we've invested will create more value for AISIP members, which will attract more developers, which will give use more money to invest, etc.

3. How do you think the AISIP distinguishes itself from other software organizations?

I'm assuming you're talking about the ASP?

The ASP is a nonprofit standards organization and the voice of shareware community. The ASP's nonprofit status and complex by-laws make it perfect for that role. I don't believe that any private group should try to speak on behalf of the entire shareware community or control something like the PAD standard.

But, there are things that the ASP can't do. For example, the ASP can't offer more benefits to it's members than it does to the public and keep it's nonprofit status. The AISIP doesn't have those restrictions. I also have the luxury of being able to make quick decisions without worrying about being thrown out of office.

4. You are known for fanatical tracking systems, how will you use this knowledge to benefit the AISIP?

I'm not really sure. The data available to shareware authors is so much more accessible today than it was in the past. Google AdWords, eMetrix, and FileKicker all include some form of sales tracking. I've also been playing with Google Analytics. Once that comes out of beta, wow!

Going forward, I think the benefit that I can provide the AISIP members is in helping them navigate the data. I'd like to be able to help them look at the data and see a story instead of just a bunch of numbers. I've got some ideas on how the AISIP may be able to make that happen.

5. When we look at the AISIP in a year, what can we expect to see?

Well I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you. On a more serious note, of course nothing moves as quickly as one would like it to, but I am confident that in a years time the AISIP members will find the $ 35.00 membership dues well worth the investment.

more information at: AISIP http://www.aisip.com

About the Author:
Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll software for creating, editing, publishing RSS feeds and podcasts. In addition Sharon manages marketing for NotePage a wireless text messaging software company.

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