Hi,
Welcome to July's Software Marketing News. An HTML version can be viewed at http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com/author-resource-newsletter42.html .

Software Business Mag
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Request a listing in Software Business Magazine Industry Directory- Listings are free !
http://www.softwarebusinessonline.com/s-dirform.htm

Another Aqcuisition
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June 2, 2004 Digital River announced *another* acquisition. This time it purchased the little known FireClick, Inc., a leading provider of Web-analysis solutions for online retailers. Under the terms of the agreement, Digital River paid $7.5 million in cash.

FireClick's technology, offers online merchants easy-to-use tools designed to help improve their operating results, including real-time and historical click stream analysis, path and campaign analysis, detailed merchandising reports and result comparisons to other online businesses. The service, which will be delivered as a fully integrated part of Digital River's e-commerce platform, also provides daily comparisons of online traffic, conversions, orders, revenue, abandons and site performance.

Shareware Blunders
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Adam Stiles has put together a shareware ebook for software developers. The ebook is called 'Shareware Blunders' and contains interviews and answers from 38 software industry professionals. I interviewed Adam about the book:
http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com/article34.html

Adam has offered SMR readers a $ 10.00 discount on the 'Shareware Blunders' ebook. In order to purchase the software at the discounted price use the following link - http://www.swb2.com/smr.php

Website Globalization
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The Internet has unlocked a wide array of markets and knocked down barriers that previously prevented merchants from marketing their products on a global scale. There are a number of ways to 'globalize' a website and broaden a businesses general appeal to an international audience.
http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com/article35.html

SpamCheck
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The following site allows you to test your e-mail newsletter, so that it doesn't end up in a spam filter. To use SpamCheck (for free):
1. Send your newsletter by email to spamcheck@sitesell.net with TEST as the first word in the subject line.
2. In a few seconds you will receive a SpamCheck Report, with suggestions regarding the newsletter content.
Details at http://spamcheck.sitesell.com

Shareware Forums
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Shareware Forums - http://www.sharewareforums.com - Helping to connect users and developers together.

Small Business Software - http://www.small-business-software.net/forum/ - has software announce section and section specifically for software developers.


Conferences
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Shareware Industry Conference - July 15 - 17, 2004 in Rochester, NY. SIC is nearly upon us, for those who have not attended
http://www.sic.org

ISDEF - This year ISDEF conference will take place in "Holiday Inn" (Vinogradovo, four kilometers far from MKAD (Moscow Circular Highway), Dmitrovskoye schosse, September 16-19, 2004. Software marketing has been declared to be the dominant theme of this year. http:// www.isdef.org/en

European Shareware Conference - The fourth annual European Shareware Conference will this year take place on the 6th and 7th of November 2004 in Strasbourg, France. The conference offers a unique opportunity for developers, distributors and companies providing related services to meet, exchange ideas and build beneficial relationships. With a variety of different sessions and panels, numerous networking opportunities, and a chance to explore the challenges and opportunities faced by the software industry today, the European Shareware Conference is the premier European event for software developers and companies embracing the try before you buy marketing method. http://www.euroconference.org

Software Success Stories
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Unfortunately due to time constraints I've not completed this month's software success story, though its a great one! Be assured next month Paessler Tool's http://www.paessler.com success story will be included in the Software Marketing newsletter!

INC. Entrepreneur of the Year
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Inc.com's 2005 Entrepreneur of the Year Contest challenges readers to help Inc . magazine discover a company leader who stands head and shoulders above the rest. They aim to uncover an entrepreneur whose incredible drive, acumen, creativity, and vision have positively impacted his or her business, employees' lives and/or the community at large. The goal is to recognize and share the entrepreneur's amazing accomplishments in hope that others will find nuggets of wisdom and inspiration that can positively affect their businesses.
The 2004 winner turned a home business startup into a 500 million dollar company!
Nominate someone or read the story - http://www.inc.com/entrepreneur/index.html

Software Marketing Blogs
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Dave Collins Software Marketing blog in addition to the blog on the Software Marketing Resource site at: http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com/blog.html be sure to check out Dave Collin's, new software marketing blog at: http://www.sharewarepromotions.com/blog/ some of Dave's great tips over the last few weeks have included: a UK firm patenting software downloads, information on spyware's affect on PayPerClick marketing, explanation of using 'broadmatch' with Overture and Google.

Game Awards Nominations
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The Independent Games Festival (IGF) is now accepting submissions for its 7th annual event. The submission deadline for the IGF Competition is September 1, 2004 and Student Showcase submissions are due November 14, 2004. The festival honors innovative video games created by independent game developers and students.

More than $ 40,000 in cash prizes will be awarded to IGF competition winners this year. Ten finalists will be selected to showcase their games at the event, and awards will be given in Open and Web Downloadable competitions for: Technical Excellence, Innovation in Visual Arts, Innovation in Audio, and Innovation in Game Design. Additional honors will be presented for the Seumas McNally Grand Prize for Independent Game of the Year and the Audience Award.
http://www.igf.com/submit.htm

Search Engine News
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Google - Google has updated PageRank again

AskJeeves - As of September 30th 2004, Ask Jeeves will be no longer accepting new submissions to the Site Submit Paid Inclusion program.

Find.com - A new "business" search engine was launched recently. This new engine is being touted as a business research tool, see how you appear in the listing for priority keywords.
http://www.find.com

Pay Per Click Advertising
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Google Adwords - In the next few days Google will be changing the ads served. The changes are designed to provide the most relevant, targeted ads possible.

Example: an advertiser specializing in Alaskan cruises may have selected cruises (broad-matched) for their campaign. Previously, this keyword may have been disabled due to poor performance on more popular queries such as Hawaiian cruises. Instead of disabling all broad match variations of cruises, Google will now show this ad for specific query variations that are more relevant to the ad, such as Alaskan cruises.

Monitor your metrics to see how this affects you!!!

Overture - On June 28, 2004, Overture expanded its search advertising services with the launch of Local Match. These sponsored search listings enable businesses to precisely target customers interested in a specific neighborhood and present customized offers and business details. Local Match can help drive those customers into a physical store location or generate calls for service within a particular geographic area, whether a business has a Web site or not.

Kanoodle - As of June 24, Kanoodle has reduced the character counts for KeywordTargetT and ContextTargetT listings. The new listing lengths are:

Titles: 40 character max
Descriptions: 190 character max
Display URL: no change (50 character max)
Click-Through URL: no change (300 character max)

Your existing listings will not be affected by this change until you edit your ad copy. If you add new listings to your account, your titles and descriptions must fit within our new requirements.

Google Contest
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The 'stayer' portion of the Google Contest will be decided July 7, 2004. The 'stayer' will reward the company that is able to obtain the top Google listing for nigritude ultramarine after 60 days. Take a peak see who is in the current lead ;-)
Google Contest - http://www.small-business-software.net/google-contest.htm

Benefits to Shareware
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Shareware has been fighting the stigma of being misunderstood for decades. While corporate software giants can no longer ignore the marketing potential of a trial version, small software startups are struggling with new listings and bandwidth costs.

The availability of file downloads in the Internet era, is spurning a revolution of purchasers who never leaving their homes or offices. As a result, the Internet has taken the proliferation of shareware to a new level.
http://www.small-business-software.net/benefits-to-shareware.htm this article along with all articles at:
http://www.small-business-software.net/free-website-content.htm are available for publication. Feel free to post any of the articles in an ezine or website as long as the appropriate credits (author resource box) is included.

Shareware Meetup
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Meetup has a shareware group - http://shareware.meetup.com - similar to a schmooze this resource helps you find other developers in your area. International Shareware Authors Meetup Day (a monthly day to meetup with other shareware authors)

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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