Hi,
Welcome to the August issue of Software Marketing News, an independent voice for software developers. An HTML version can be viewed at http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com/author-resource-newsletter69.html .

This issue of SMR is a little different than the normal. The following is a recap of the recent Shareware Industry Conference held in Denver. It is my belief that SIC is the best and oldest conference around for independent software developers. Each year it is better and better. Read the review and consider attending the 2007 SIC.

When will I learn! I never manage to book flights at a reasonable hour! We arrived in Denver at 2:30 AM (Denver time, my internal clock was set on Boston time and thought it was 4:30 AM!). Needless to say, we did not run into the usual cluster of SIC attendees in the lobby.

SIC OVERVIEW - WEDNESDAY
After a few hours of sleep, I made my way downstairs to the registration area to begin preparing for the flood of attendees. The usual crew was kind enough to assist the board in preparing name badges and goodie bags.

Registration opened at 3:00. The initial buzz amongst attendees was about the AISIP http://www.aisip.com . The AISIP is an independent software organization started a little over a year ago by Sue Pichotta. Just prior to the conference Sue sold the AISIP to Michael and David Halls. While most developers adore Sue, they are very interested in seeing what kinds of things the Halls will do with the AISIP.

I have interviews planned with both Sue and Michael, that will be posted shortly. The interviews will hopefully provide additional insight into the future plans for the AISIP.

Wednesday evening the welcome reception was hosted by Protexis http://www.protexis.com . The reception was on the 12th floor and provided sweeping views of the mountains and landscape. As the event was sponsored by Protexis, I felt it prudent to get a better idea of what services Protexis provides. Glen Haley, was a bit of a tease, as he explained that Protexis has ecommerce and software delivery services but also indicated they would be making some big announcements in the future. I tried to pry but didn't get very far, so look for future announcements from Protexis!

One of the best things about the conference is that you have the opportunity to put a face to the online personalities from the software newsgroups. Often the appearances of individuals contrast their online persona. Others are exactly what you expect. And each and every year I really enjoy catching up with people like the Thorntons http://www.thornsoft.com and Joost from HC TopSystems http://www.topsystems.com .

Of course there are also post-conference regrets. While I saw Loren and Kim Brewer from Wingeniuty http://www.wingenuity.com I did not really have the opportunity to catch up with them.

SIC OVERVIEW - THURSDAY
Throughout the course of the conference I thoroughly enjoyed seeing developers who I've come to know online. Seeing the eSellerate crew, Mike Burda and Patrick Smith hang up their tye-dye for the Digital River brand caused a chuckle or two.

I chatted with Dave Hamel about his new project Permutator that "captures the long tail" which is a mini-obsession I have. He provided a copy of his Permutator program and I'll be reviewing it in the September issue of SMR. I also really enjoyed seeing Darcy and Art Araya from SaltyBrine Software http://www.saltybrine.com they are just such a fun couple. In fact Darcy put together a great movie of the Shareware Industry Awards Banquet for those who missed the event (see the link below).

The session that I enjoyed participating in the most would have to be the website critique session with Dave Collins of Shareware Promotions http://www.sharewarepromotions.com and Ben Weintraub of Merit Software http://www.meritsoftware.com and myself. We collected business cards from "victims" in the audience, who wanted to have their websites critiqued. We drew the cards out of a bowl, and the selected websites were critically reviewed by the panelists.

Dave took on the role of Simon Cowell. Dave nailed the accent and wasted no time in declaring which websites were utterly rubbish. The comments made were taken in the spirit they were intended, and I hope to see attendees who have improved their ranking and doubled their sales as a result of the criticism.

Because of the sessions incredible popularity I thought that I would mention that Dave Collins has an in-depth website review service available. The service is far more extensive than the quick reviews we performed. Details can be found at: http://www.sharewarepromotions.com/website_review.html . The impact of a poor design on sales can be significant, a critique can often result in both higher conversions and increased web traffic.

I had a great chat with Nick Bradbury creator of FeedDemon (HomeSite and Topstyle) http://www.bradsoft.com . Nick is always fun to chat with. Though he is is less of a control freak than I am, we both share a common paranoia (some would call it a concern) about Attention Data http://www.attentiontrust.org. It was a great discussion and I'm looking forward to hearing more from Nick about his activities as they relate to Attention Data.

Once again, Digital River http://www.digitalriver.com was gracious enough to host Thursday evening's reception. I have to say for a large company Digital River has a great sense of humor! This year's Thursday evening event was a blast! Digital River's theme was "Rev Up Sales" the reception was centered on a race car theme. They had a professional photographer and attendees could don a racing suit and be photographed. Additionally they had arcade style driving/racing games and remote controlled race cars.

However, all of that paled in comparison to the main event. Digital River had motorized toilets! Racers would don a racing jumpsuit mount their toilet bowl, and race the opposing team in 4 laps around the race track. Racers would then quickly change out of their racing suit with the assistance of the pit crew. The next racer would suit up and ride their portable mobile potty another four laps.

Each team was comprised of four racers and each racer was required to complete four laps in their special Digital River racing jumpsuit. The team who completed the race laps and removed the racing suit first, was the determined winner. A good pit crew was critical to success. It was a really humorous event. Some software developers found the toilet bowls quite difficult to manage and crashed their tanks. The event really gave new meaning to porta-potties. ;-)

Other respected developers took their races quite seriously and the looks of concentration on their faces are evident in the photo collages that are popping up on the web. Great event DR!

SIC OVERVIEW - FRIDAY
Mike Dulin from Shareware Radio http://www.sharewareradio.com interviewed me about the conference and our applications. I have to say he was really great. He immediately put me at ease with initial chit chat and did a great job directing the conversation.

The ASP attended the conference in force and it sounds like the ASP leadership has lots of ideas about PAD security. I hear that there will be news about this shortly.

Friday morning gave way to bleary eyed attendees eager for more. I participated in another session with Dave Collins. Dave had this fancy powerpoint presentation that was really quite impressive.

I love that people like Edwin Siebsma attend and companies like WinZip frequent the Shareware Industry Conferency. WinZip is probably one of the best known and most traditional shareware applications and they support the conference each and every year. Even as the conference grows into something much more than what was once though of as traditional shareware, the roots are not forgotten.

Throughout the conference hospitality suites were open, allowing attendees to interact on a personal level with vendors. The hosted hospitality suites included:

TUCOWS - http://www.tucows.com - Tucows is hosting a very fun contest and were demoing Vlog-It, a very cool program for recording and editing video. The contest runs through August 10th, and there will be 30 winners announced!

CNET- http://www.download.com - Cnet has a new tracking program that is available in their Premium Reporting Center. CNET trax allows tracking of page views, initiated downloads, completed downloads and buy now button clicks.

Digital River - http://www.digitalriver.com - Digital River took a different approach to their hospitality suite, they were "educating" developers with different educational stations. I heard great things from developers with regards to the information they received from the various experts and stations.

Avanquest - http://www.avanquest.com - The suite was used for one on one meetings with attendees interested in expanding their European distribution opportunities.

Plimus - http://www.plimus.com - Plimus hosted a suite, though I did not really have the opportunity to connect with them.

Massages by Dr File Finder - http://www.drff.com - Mike Callahan's daughter Kadee and a college friend provided massages free of charge to travel weary attendees, the rooms atmosphere and candlelight soothed souls and was also well received.

Friday night was exhibit night where vendors show off their products and services to attendees. Massive food displays, various cook to order pasta dishes, a carving station with a huge leg of beef and heaps of finger food greeted attendees.

Attendees collected stamps on their "Colorado map" from each of the exhibit booths. A completed map meant you would be entered into a drawing for 3 Creative Labs Media Player's, donated courtesy of Microsoft http://www.microsoft.com .

SIC OVERVIEW - SATURDAY
The late nights and early mornings were beginning to show on the faces of some attendees by Saturday morning. Saturday's session continued, it was clear that Dave Collins from Shareware Promotions http://www.sharewarepromotions.com was a hit with attendees. Dave sessions were crowded and attendees really enjoyed his sessions.

I did an impromptu session with Ronny Karl from SurfWare Labs http://www.surfwarelabs.com and I have to say he was a great speaker. I learned about the conversation rainbow and really appreciated the personal stories that he added to the presentation. Ronny and I gave homework to attendees, they were asked to meet 5 people they did not know prior to the conference and make an effort to help 2 of them. The session was really all about stepping outside of your comfort zone. Even those that have attended multiple conference took advantage of the educational sessions with Rich Holler honing his networking skills. ;-)

Three sessions in particular that caused some buzz amongst attendees was Dave Sampson from MixMeister http://www.mixmeister.com , Alastair Rampell from Rampell Software http://www.rampellsoftware.com and of course Michael Lehman from Microsoft. Dave Sampson discussed a whole host of information related to improving and maximizing the customer relationship. While I was unable to attend the session, I read the presentation paper and he provided concrete actionable items for developers interested in increasing sales.

The other session that created a "stir" among attendees was Alastair Rampell's. Alastair is quite an impressive guy, with some really great ideas. Alastair discussed effective ways to make money from people who do not typically buy. Alastair (Alex) really stepped outside the box with some really new ideas. Alex has been testing alternate distribution methods for quite some time, he brought his personal experience to a session discussing some really interesting ideas with attendees. The concept is fascinating and will help developers generate a secondary revenue stream, which according to Alex in some cases can be larger than the primary revenue stream. I hope to be writing more about this in future issues of SMR, for now a review of the concept that Alastair is launching can be found at http://www.icons-icons.com/trial-pay.php .

Microsoft took center stage at SIC to launch a new development tool for developers. The tool called Project Glidepath has a number of interesting facets. Michael recorded the session and interested developers are encouraged to listen to the presentation.

The Banquet
Entertainment was provided by Gayle Becwar who was a comic magician, he was very talented and funny. The performance was very interactive, and a number of attendees had the opportunity to participate. I still cannot decipher the "magic" behind his tricks.

Rob Rosenberger was back in the role of MC and it was great to have him back. The awards themselves show how shareware as a marketing model has expanded. A number of large companies have adopted the practice of using trial versions to sell and promote their applications. Steve Lee once said that all software would be sold this way, and that is in fact what was reflected with this year's People's Choice and Software Industry Awards with a large number of big companies receiving recognition including Google, Microsoft and Adobe all taking home awards.

Next year's Shareware Industry Conference will be held in Denver, Colorado and I hope to see everyone there!

Other Conference Reviews:
Danny's Overview - http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com/sic-review-2006-dan.htm
Sue's Overview - http://www.icons-icons.com/sic.php
Dave Collins Overview - http://www.sharewarepromotions.com/newsletter/ (will be posted 8/2/2006)

SIC Photo Collections
SIC Photos - http://www.sic.org/06Photo
SMR - http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com/sic-2006-photos.htm
Shareware Promotions - http://www.sharewarepromotions.com/conferences/sic/2006/index.htm
Tucows Photos - http://www.w3design.com/photos/displayimage.php?album=1&pos=0
Wingenuity - http://www.wingenuity.com/photos
ShareIt/Digital River - http://www.shareit.com/whatsnew.html (click review events SIC is top event)

SIC Video Collection - from Salty Brine
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6485695680282047521&pr=goog-sl http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3879707039624688424&pr=goog-sl

Top 10 Things I Learned at SIC

1. Developers are looking at other ways to make money.
2. Web real estate on the post sales page has potential
3. Users will spend money, just maybe not on your software
4. The Long Tail is allusive for developers
5. Don't forget the basics of SEO, influence what you can control that means website titles and descriptions on every page!
6. Social bookmarking is still young
7. Desktop software and software as a service (SaaS) are melding
8. Developers have just begun to scrape the surface of Internet marketing there is so much more that we can do, all of the good ideas have not been used up!
9. Communication is critical to success.
10. AdWords is a science not an advertising model ;-)

SIC Winners
SIAF 2006 Winners - http://www.sic.org/2006nominees.asp
SIAF People's Choice Winners - http://www.sic.org/peopleschoice.asp

SIAF Hall of Fame Inductee
The Shareware Hall of Fame has been instituted to honor those persons, companies, and products that have had a profound effect on the shareware industry. In order to be eligible, one must meet the minimum requirement of having been in the industry for at least five (5) years. Everyone who participates in shareware marketing owes these pioneers a debt of gratitude.

Shareware Hall of Fame 2006 Inductee:
Larry McJunkin Larry McJunkin is the Vice President of Operations for the Windows User Group Network, or WUGNET. Over the years he has helped many software authors in their efforts to get their products noticed and sold. He is always ready to listen to the comments and concerns of shareware authors and is always willing to give sage advice to anyone who asks. Over the years Larry has supported and promoted the shareware marketing model and has been a contributor to its success. In view of his many contributions to shareware and the shareware community, the SIAF board of directors is proud to induct Larry McJunkin into the Shareware Hall of Fame!

SIC 2007
The 2007 Shareware Industry Conference will be held July 12-14, 2006 at the Hyatt Tech Center in Denver, Colorado.

Other Conferences:
Other conferences with content similar to SIC are planned.

ISDEF - Oct 5-6, 2006 Moscow Russia a pre-conference event will be held Oct 4, in Kiev, Ukraine. http://www.isdef.org
EuroConference - Nov 4-5, 2006 in Cambridge, England http://www.euroconference.org/

Announcements at SIC
AISIP - Sue Pichotta has sold the AISIP to Michael and David Halls (interviews about the acquisition will be posted online in the near future)

Tucows - Tucows launched a new contest for developers interested in creating video tutorials, but don't enter because I would like to win :-) http://arc.tucows.com

Microsoft - Microsoft Project GlidePath - Michael Lehman from Microsoft launched project GlidePath at SIC this is a new development kit for developers.
http://blogs.msdn.com/mglehman/archive/2006/07/28/SIC_PRESENTATION_PODCAST_AND_PPT.aspx

NotePage - NotePage launched a free social bookmarking tool. The tool is easy to use for even novice web designers. It can also be used to add chicklets to blogs. Creating the chicklets is instantaneous when using this tool. It is a free service available to anyone. For more information or to use the tool visit http://www.feedforall.com/social-bookmarks.htm.

FeedForAll Mac launched a new version of FeedForAll Mac the new version supports unified publishing and integrated namespace support (for creating things like itunes compatible podcasts) http://www.feedforall.com/feedforall-mac.htm

Eclipsit - Software developers aiming to capitalize on the release of Windows Vista will want to check out Microangelo Toolset 6. This suite of icon and cursor tilities provides complete support for the hi-res 256x256 icons introduced Vista. All Toolset components include their own Vista icon images thanks to Librarian, a powerful component of TS 6. Don't be left behind! Begin preparing your products for Windows Vista today with Microangelo Toolset. http://www.microangelo.us

Overviews of Conference
Would you like to read other opinions about the conference?

GameCraft - http://blog.gamecraft.org/2006/07/sic-2006-diary-day-zero.html
RegMatch - http://www.regmatch.com/c/emetrix/
Bits D'Jour - http://bitsdujour.com/blog2/wordpress/?p=122
Tucows - http://www.bourland.com/selling-as-servanthood/ http://luxton.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2006/7/13/2113853.html and http://luxton.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2006/7/17/2133028.html


PR Related to SIC or SIA -
WinRAR - http://www.win-rar.com/bestoverallutility/
MicroAngelo Toolset - http://www.prweb.com/releases/2006/7/prweb413859.htm
Good Sol - http://www.asharewarelife.com/2006/07/pretty_good_sol.html
Nepotism and Shareware - http://dhamel.typepad.com/deblog/2006/07/nepotism_and_sh.html
Windows Blind - http://forums.wincustomize.com/index.aspx?aid=124874&c=1
Software information - http://www.softwareinformation.info/2006/07/22/award-meant-for-best-hobby-software-given-to-vacation-designer-2006


Other Awards Related to SIC - ESC Award -
http://educationalsoftware.blogspot.com/2006/07/esc-awards-presented.html

Thank You's
Few attendees realize the effort involved in running a conference like SIC so in closing I would like to personally extend a thanks to Mike Callahan, his wife Carole, daughter Kadee, and Maelena for all the effort and hard work they put into the conference. As a founder of the SIAF board and the person single-handedly responsible for the SIA awards each year Mike deserves the thanks and respect of the entire community. Thank you Mike.

And finally a big thank you to all of the sponsors at http://www.sic.org who made the event possible.

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Thank you for your continued interest in SMR.
Sharon Housley
Software Marketing Resource - http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com
FeedForAll - http://www.feedforall.com
NotePage, Inc. - http://www.notepage.net