Owner: Avangate Blogging on Software Business URL:http://blog.avangate.com/ Join Date: Thu, 14 Aug 2008 04:21:42 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: Avangate Software Business Blog is focused on the software industry, on ecommerce solutions for software vendors, on internet marketing services for the software industry and on the Avangate updates. Site statistics:Click here
How does it feel to work for an eCommerce provider? 2008-08-12 10:33:11 I bet that if you are reading the Avangate blog, you would love to hear how things are going around here. As head of the Avangate Marketing Department, I’m in the position to know a little bit about everything, which probably makes me the right person to talk about it.
Not sure if you know, but [...]
How can web presence be improved with images? 2008-08-11 11:15:04 Our aim is to sell software and not to socialize with family or friends, you probably think, so what good could a bunch of pretty pictures bring to business? Well, we think there is potential in images, especially in photos when it comes to better promoting your website.
So we’ve started by posting to Flickr photographs [...] Read more:improved
Software Industry Conference 2008 2008-08-05 10:30:53 Almost 2 weeks ago we got back from the 18th edition of the Software
Industry Conference held this year in Boston, Massachusetts. I know it’s taken me a while to write this, but I can explain. It’s called jet lag plus hundreds of e-mails.
It was a busy and successful participation for us: 3 presentations, 1 [...]
We are blogging! 2008-08-04 09:43:37 You know how each company has the smart guy, the lazy guy, the fat boy and the blond secretary? And from all these human typologies, I’m… the blogger guy. That’s why they trusted me enough to write the first post and jump start the Avangate blog. Still, I can’t play around with the new toy [...]
3 Usability Gurus that Should not be Missed 2008-08-29 07:14:38 Lately, website usability is the favorite subject for a lot of people I talk to. They feel the need to improve their sites, to make them easier and more pleasant to use, to increase their conversion rates or just want to know more about what I do here at Avangate.
Knowing that getting on the road [...] Read more:Gurus
, Usability
Why a 30 days trial might not be enough? 2008-08-19 08:17:36 Most (non-geek) people think that shareware is a type of software. Well, actually is not a type of software, it’s a way of marketing software. From the vendor’s perspective it looks like offering a 15-30 days trial should be more than enough to test the product and buy it before it expires. But even with [...]
Effectively Choosing Website Colors 2008-09-15 10:25:28 I was doing some research a few days ago in order to update an old article about effectively choosing colors for websites posted on the Resources section on Avangate website. My goal was to aid web developers with useful instruments for choosing the colors that should best suite their business.
I thus came across a very [...] Read more:Colors
, Effectively
Blogging for microISV 2008-09-09 10:51:32 During SIC last year, I’ve got the chance to attend Bob Walsh’s presentation on Business blogging for microISVs, and back then I’ve noticed how the audience was very interested in using blogs to gain more exposure and ultimately sales.
I think you can find hundreds of articles on the Web debating the importance of business blogging [...] Read more:Blogging
4 Tools to Get More from your Google Analytics 2008-10-02 08:10:56 Google Analytics
is a great tool, but when you use it frequently, it shows some glitches. Having many profiles, trying to access certain type of data can be sometimes pretty difficult.
Here are 4 scripts that can enhance your Google Analytics
Experience. They work with GreaseMonkey, which is a really cool plugin for Firefox, which allows [...] Read more:Google
, Tools
More info from ISDEF, autumn edition 2008 2008-09-28 08:23:07 On Friday a lot of new people made it to the ISDEF conference. In the morning we had a presentation about doing business with Nokia. Smartphone/PDA software might just be a good development area in the next years.
In the afternoon I had a round table with other eCommerce providers where we answered questions about the [...]
First day of ISDEF, 2008 2008-09-26 04:25:42 The Avangate team arrived in Moscow yesterday around noon. I soon found out that the traffic is very busy, and although this year the conference takes place at an excellent location at Holiday Inn, it’s still outside the city. Hopefully we will have time to do some visiting - at least Moscow’s Red Square on [...] Read more:First
On our way to Moscow 2008-09-25 02:01:42 We are preparing to leave for ISDEF (Independent Software Developers Forum) where Avangate will participate as a GOLD Sponsor. ISDEF is a networking and professionally enlightening initiative in Russia, one of the main opportunities for software professionals to share experiences, valuable business knowledge, and keep up with latest software market trends.
My colleague Eugen Rosca will [...] Read more:Moscow
Avangate is expanding its US operations 2008-09-24 11:06:43 Mountain View, California… this is the way press releases from Avangate US will begin from now on. But to reach this goal (i.e. the Silicon Valley office) there was (and will be from now on) a tremendous work to be done.
The first step was the Board decision on expanding
US operations. Basically Avangate needed fresh [...]
Your secret weapon: Great Customer Support 2008-09-22 10:00:22 At most companies, customer and technical support are the least resourced, least important and least respected functions. How else can you explain why so many large companies treat their customers - their paying customers mind you - like something that should be scrapped off the bottom of their shoes?
Whether it’s voicemail hell and 45 minute [...] Read more:Customer
, Great
, Support
Firefox for Web Marketing Ninjas 2008-10-30 12:25:53 I am writing this article for at least 75% of you, who, according to our tracking tools, are using Firefox
to read this blog. The chances are that your Firefox browser is not “naked”, as dressing it up is what makes it such a great and beloved browser around the world.
The best part of it, [...] Read more:Marketing
Getting on the right side of economics 2008-10-24 08:15:47 Unless you’ve been on a raft in the middle of the Pacific this last month, you’ve noticed more than a few financial sharks circling around your microISV or startup.
The Credit Crunch, Iceland - the hedge fund with glaciers - hitting the Titanic of ansy bankers and locking up more than few billion pounds in the [...]
Affiliates, Resellers, Vendors – Who Gets the Customer? 2008-10-15 10:45:22 How can one get a channel distribution as conflict free as possible, that generates both online and offline software sales and in the end it makes everybody involved happy – resellers, distributors, affiliates and vendors?
First of all, in case you are wondering why am I writing about selling software offline on an eCommerce provider blog, [...] Read more:Affiliates
, Customer
, Resellers
, Vendors
How to Affiliate Efficiently 2008-10-10 07:47:22 At any time, but especially during recession periods, a software vendor needs the most cost-effective tools that can bring him extra revenue or at least keep the sales volumes constant. He needs to have a good exposure of his brand and his product(s) on the Internet.
Affiliate
marketing is one of the ways to go in [...]
Help the affiliates help you! 2008-11-20 03:55:48 I recently did a research on what software vendors are doing in order to sell through affiliates. I looked on over 400 websites that sell software. After putting all the data together, the first thing that stands out is that most of the vendors haven’t implemented the minimum requirements in order to affiliate efficiently.
Most surely [...]
Work hard, play hard 2008-11-13 07:08:48 If you’ve met with one of the Avangate guys or gals, then you probably know that this year we worked hard. We attended lots of conferences, had presentations, booths and wrote a lot of white papers and other articles. But you should also know that we also like to play hard and relax with our [...]
Checklist before (re)launching a website for the win! 2008-11-12 08:38:45 After so much work you’ve done redesigning your website
, adding all those cool features and getting rid of all annoying bugs, it would be a pity to ruin everything because you forget the small but essential details.
You cannot afford to lose page rank, valuable links or loyal visitors, in a word, you should not lose [...] Read more:Checklist
10 things you (probably) didn’t know about your visitors - First One: Tracking lost users 2008-11-11 06:28:05 One of the favorite’s expressions between us, analytics ninja wannabees, is “Actionable Data”. Yes, we like this phrase a lot and we use it every time we have the occasion. It gives meaning to our work and it’s a great hook to get CEOs, CTOs and marketing departments to listen to what we might have [...] Read more:First
, things
, Tracking
, users
Yet More Tips (and Tools) on how to survive the crisis 2008-11-07 03:16:00 In a twisted, fortunate kind of way, along with news on the economic crisis, recession, however you want to call it, bombarding us for the past few weeks, there’s also hope and help – a myriad of tips, to do lists, practical advice on how to survive
the crisis. You cannot apply everything ad-litteram to [...] Read more:Tools
Being a good Affiliate Manager 2008-11-03 03:35:05 This morning I’ve got an interesting email in my inbox, apparently from someone that has read one of my articles (so after all someone is reading what I write). I think it was one of these: 6 Tips for Affiliate
Managers or Affiliate Merchants Mistakes. I’m going to copy paste the email below because it’s [...]
Shopping Cart Customization – a MUST! 2008-12-19 11:06:48 When you sell software online, an important issue in the buying decision of the clients is the consistence and appearance of the website that sells, especially the shopping cart section. This is generated by the customers’ need to feel confident in your online store before they decide to buy something and give their credit card [...] Read more:Customization
, Shopping
Squeeze the soul out of your images and offer it as a tribute to Google 2008-12-08 08:51:06 How to optimize website images from a SEO perspective.
Product images, screenshots, your beautiful team members, catchy images for your website content, corporate images, logos, icons, you name it – all your online images should join forces and work for your website success, rigorously planning to embrace the new era of universal search.
If you want to [...] Read more:Google
, Squeeze
, tribute
Why you Should Get on the Twitter Train? 2008-11-27 08:38:53 Right around this time of year, you’re going to start seeing Predictions for 2009. Let me post mine: 2009 is the year you as the CEO of your microISV, startup or ISV get on Twitter
.
For those of you who’ve managed to avoid Twitter, or dismissed it as some pointless flakey time waster, here’s a few [...] Read more:Train
Avangate’s First Networking Event for the US Software Community 2008-11-26 07:42:46 Last Thursday, November 20th, Avangate hosted our first networking event for the software publishing community in Silicone Valley. All-in-all the event was a success and proved to be a great opportunity for members of the community to meet each other and interact in a social environment. The Tied House Brewery, in Mountain View, CA served [...] Read more:First
, Software