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Shareware Blunders; Interview with Adam Stiles
by NotePage, Inc.
1.) What prompted you to create an ebook?
Two reasons... First, it had never been done before. I've purchased a number of
ebooks in the past on various subjects, especially marketing-related books, and
they have all been extremely helpful. The best ones are written by experts who share
real-world experiences. I'd never seen anything like this for the "shareware" world,
so I decided to give it a try.
Second, I'm going to have to miss the Shareware
Industry Conference this year. Its one of my favorite events of the year,
but we have a family conflict that can't be avoided. One of my favorite things about
SIC is talking with other developers, schmoozing, learning about what works and
what doesn't, and just hanging out. Learning from the "experts" has certainly helped
me, and I wanted to allow others to learn from the experts too. The people I've
met in the industry are some of the friendliest and most helpful - and I've met
most of the ebook contributors at one time or another. The ebook by no means replaces
the SIC, but it combines advice from what is probably the best collection of experts
ever assembled.
2.) What specifically does the ebook cover?
I talked to about 40 developers and vendor/commentator/experts and asked them about
the costliest mistakes they see other developers make, and about the costliest mistakes
they've made in their business. The ebook is the compilation of all of the answers
that people gave me. Lots of areas are covered - marketing, advertising, partnering,
affiliate programs, web site usability and design, software usability and design,
customer service, software protection - just about all aspects of the business.
3.) Who do you feel would benefit most from reading the ebook?
Anyone who sells software will benefit from reading the ebook, and especially those
developers starting or running small companies.
4.) Can you give us a sample of what to expect?
Where to start? One of my favorite contributions is from Nick Bradbury, the author
of HomeSite, TopStyle, and FeedDemon. You don't find many people in the industry
who have written more than one "killer app", and it could be argued that Nick has
written not just one, but three. Nick sold HomeSite to Allaire, and Allaire was
later purchased by Macromedia. I met Nick at Internet World in Los Angeles in 1996,
just after he sold the product to Allaire. Nick shares that his costliest mistake
was the decision to sell HomeSite without really knowing what it was worth. The
driving factor behind his decision to sell was desperation caused by the way he
was running his company - you'll have to get the book to read more about what caused
his desperation. Nick then describes changes he's implemented with his two newer
applications to make sure he never gets in that desperate situation again.
5.) What did you learn in writing the ebook?
I learned a ton... And I have a HUGE todo list for various changes to make to both
my software and my web site, and that doesn't even scratch the surface of my marketing
todo list. I included a 4-page cheatsheet at the end of the ebook which are effectively
the notes I took reviewing the book.
6.) I realize this is a conglomeration of advice from various | industry professionals
can you give us some idea of who | participated in the ebook?
You can get a full list on the site, but its about 40 people... Including commentators
like Chris "Lockergnome" Pirillo, Sr. Download.com Editor Wayne Cunningham, RegNow
founder Jessica Dewell, Tucows founder Scott Swedorski, and super-developers like
Dexterity founder Steve Pavlina, FTP Voyager creator Mark Peterson, GetRight developer
Michael Burford, HomeSite/TopStyle/FeedDemon developer Nick Bradbury, and a whole
bunch of other people too. Its really an incredible line-up.
7.) What piece of advice can you give to developers?
No matter how successful you've been in the business, there is always more to learn.
You can learn the most from the experts - so go to the SIC conference and talk to
everyone you can, join the Association of Shareware Professionals and fully engage
with the various networking opportunities, and get the ebook :-) Beyond that...
never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, EVER give up!
Discount
Adam has provided a $ 10.00 discount to SMR readers! In order to purchase the software
at the discounted price use the following link - http://www.swb2.com/smr.php
About the Author -
Sharon Housley manages marketing for NotePage, Inc. http://www.notepage.net a company specializing in alphanumeric
paging, SMS and wireless messaging software solutions. Other sites by Sharon can
be found at http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com
, and http://www.small-business-software.net
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