aspects july 2012 convention special issue · 2012. 7. 5. · july 2012 aspects convention special...

17
Volume 25, No. 7 Convention Special July 2012 Welcome to Reno! by Gianfranco Berardi President, ASP T he ASP has changed and grown with the industry in these last 25 years. We promoted try- before-you-buy as a market- ing method until it became The Way Things Are, we've made our interests known and were successful at get- ting important laws changed that would impact our indus- try, and most recently we're hosting an amazing confer- ence. The ASP is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, and this month kicks off the 25th anniversary celebration. Starting on July 1, ASP members are providing their of- ferings to the public with discounts of 25% or more. Head to anniversary.asp-software.org/ for more details on this celebration. Also this month, the Association of Software Profession- als is running ISVCon, the new Software Industry Confer- ence, for the first time since purchasing the rights to the con- ference from the Software Industry Awards Foundation. As a conference that started over 20 years ago and focused on businesses and individuals involved in the software business, it is a great fit for the ASP's efforts to promote software en- trepreneurs and independent software developers. Our re- boot of the conference takes place in Reno, Nevada, from July 13-15, and it is sure to be a good time for making new connections, gaining invaluable knowledge, and learning about profitable business opportuni- ties. As a three-day event, the confer- ence is a great opportunity to learn about industry trends. For instance, if you attend any of the mobile-specific sessions at ISVCon, you might hear this statistic: did you know that there are six billion so-called feature phones, aka non- smartphones, on the mar- ket? There are estimates that those phones will be upgraded to Internet-connected smartphones within ten years. And this statistic ignores tablets and other mobile devices that are becoming more and more popular. Are you working on your mobile presence to take advantage of this amazing growth? What about the opportunities avail- able in the huge growth of Big Data? Cloud computing? Software as a Service (SaaS)? How does the recent change to a First to File system in U.S. patent law impact you and your business? Of course, three days ends quickly. For the other 362 days of the year, how can you keep on top of what's happen- ing in this ever-changing industry? You become an ASP member. You can learn more about the many reasons for joining the ASP by reading Jiri Novotny's article in this issue of AS- Pects, but know that the Association of Software Profession- als offers a vibrant community of hundreds of members who help each other find ways to gain an edge and profitably run their businesses better. And we do so every day of the year. This public copy of ASPects is just a sample of the kinds of articles you'll find in our monthly newsletter. Enjoy it, and consider signing up as an ASP member at http://asp-software.org/ to enjoy all of the ASP member ben- efits and to become part of a trade group that can make a positive difference in your industry. I think that, like many of our existing members, you will find that membership in the ASP is vital to your success. Join us, and be involved in your industry as we start new initiatives and continue to be the premier organization for inde- pendent software developers and vendors. Gianfranco Berardi runs GBGames, LLC as an indie game developer at www.gbgames.com.

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Page 1: ASPects July 2012 Convention Special Issue · 2012. 7. 5. · July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 3 The Biggest Mistake You Can Ever Make by Jiri Novotny Dextronet.comT he biggest

Volume 25 No 7 Convention Special July 2012

W e l c o m e t o R e n o by Gianfranco BerardiPresident ASP

The ASP has changedand grown with theindustry in these last

25 years We promoted try-before-you-buy as a market-ing method until it becameThe Way Things Are wevemade our interests knownand were successful at get-ting important laws changedthat would impact our indus-try and most recently werehosting an amazing confer-ence The ASP is celebratingits 25th anniversary this yearand this month kicks off the 25th anniversary celebrationStarting on July 1 ASP members are providing their of-ferings to the public with discounts of 25 or moreHead to anniversaryasp-softwareorg for more details onthis celebration

Also this month the Association of Software Profession-als is running ISVCon the new Software Industry Confer-ence for the first time since purchasing the rights to the con-ference from the Software Industry Awards Foundation Asa conference that started over 20 years ago and focused onbusinesses and individuals involved in the software businessit is a great fit for the ASPs efforts to promote software en-trepreneurs and independent software developers Our re-boot of the conference takes place in Reno Nevada fromJuly 13-15 and it is sure to be a good time for making newconnections gaining invaluable knowledge and learningabout profitable business opportuni-ties

As a three-day event the confer-ence is a great opportunity to learnabout industry trends For instance ifyou attend any of the mobile-specificsessions at ISVCon you might hearthis statistic did you know that there

are six billion so-calledfeature phones aka non-smartphones on the mar-ket There are estimates thatthose phones will be upgradedto Internet-connected smartphoneswithin ten years And this statistic ignores tablets and othermobile devices that are becoming more and more popularAre you working on your mobile presence to take advantageof this amazing growth What about the opportunities avail-able in the huge growth of Big Data Cloud computingSoftware as a Service (SaaS) How does the recent changeto a First to File system in US patent law impact you andyour business

Of course three days ends quickly For the other 362days of the year how can you keep on top of whats happen-ing in this ever-changing industry You become an ASPmember

You can learn more about the many reasons for joiningthe ASP by reading Jiri Novotnys article in this issue of AS-Pects but know that the Association of Software Profession-als offers a vibrant community of hundreds of members whohelp each other find ways to gain an edge and profitably runtheir businesses better And we do so every day of the year

This public copy of ASPects is just a sample of the kindsof articles youll find in our monthly newsletter Enjoy itand consider signing up as an ASP member athttpasp-softwareorg to enjoy all of the ASP member ben-efits and to become part of a trade group that can make apositive difference in your industry I think that like manyof our existing members you will find that membership inthe ASP is vital to your success

Join us and be involved in your industry as we start newinitiatives and continue to be thepremier organization for inde-pendent software developers andvendors Gianfranco Berard i runsGBGames LLC as an indieg a m e d e v e l o p e r a twwwgbgamescom

2 ASPects Convention Special July 2012

wwwasp-softwareorg

The Association of Software

Professionalstrade is a not-for-profit

corporation dedicated to

furthering try-before-you-buy as

a unique software marketing

alternative to commercial

distribution methods

Address association correspondence to

Association of Software ProfessionalsRich Holler Executive DirectorPO Box 1522Martinsville IN 46151

Voice (765) 349-4740(9am to 4pm Indiana time)FAX (815) 301-3756email execdir asp-softwareorg

Address changes Login at membersasp-softwareorg and click lsquoChange My Informationrsquo

ASPects is published for advising members of group

activities and sharing of information All material is

compiled without verificationof accuracy or applicability to

a specific task or computersystem Comments are the

view of their author and noother person or organization

Advertisements do notconstitute endorsements

ASPects is publishedmonthly Deadline for sub-missions is 15 days prior to

the cover dateAddress all editorial and

advertising copy to

Jerry Stern EditorPO Box 1735

Westminster MD 21158aspects asp-softwareorg

Phone (410) 871-2877

ASPects copyright copy 2012 bythe Association of Software

Professionalstrade All rights reserved No part may be

reproduced withoutpermission of ASPFeature articles are

copyrighted by their authors

Advertising SizesFull page

1 issue $120 3 issues $3306 issues $600

Half page1 issue $70 3 issues $200

6 issues $360

Quarter page1 issue $40 3 issues $115

6 issues $220

Business card1 issue $30 3 issues $80

6 issues $155

Email banner1 issue $30 3 issues $80

6 issues $155

Trade Show Calendar

ISVCon 2012Atlantis Casino Resort Spa Reno NevadaJuly 13-15 2012httpwwwISVConorg

Casual ConnectSeattle Washington July 24-26 2012httpseattlecasualconnectorg

Game Developers Conference EuropeCologne GermanyAugust 13-15 2012httpwwwgdceuropecom

Sociality Rocks 2012Social Games Conference 1Kiev UkraineSeptember 27-28 2012httpensocialityrockscom

Business of Software 2012Boston MassachusettsOctober 1-3 2012httpwwwbusinessofsoftwareorg

Casual Connect KyivKiev Ukraine October 24-26 2012httpkyivcasualconnectorg

European Software ConferenceMunich GermanyNovember 24-25 2012httpwwweuroconferenceorg

CeBIT 2013Hannover GermanyMarch 5-9 2013httpwwwcebitde

Multiple Dates amp Cities World-wide

Microsoft DevcampsFree training events for Phone Azure Web andWindowsApril though August 9httpwwwdevcampsms

WordCampWordPress ConferencesJuly through November 11httpcentralwordcamporgschedule

Send conference news to the ASPects editorView the full list online at httpwwwasp-softwareorgresourceseventsasp

July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 3

The Biggest Mistake You Can Ever Make

by Jiri NovotnyDextronetcom

The biggest mistake you can ever make is to wing italone

Being a mISV is awesome But I think that doingit all alone and never fully connecting with other mISVs isnot awesome Irsquom not talking about getting a co-founder orteam members herendashwhile doing that can be incrediblyhelpful I am talking about something even more fundamen-tal

Is it possible that by not connecting with other mISVsyou are preventing your business from growing to the nextlevel Is it possible that your business will be gone in fiveyears just because you didnrsquot connect with other mISVsIn this article you will find the answer

There is a certain point when things get so complex andadvanced that you just canrsquot figure some stuff out foryourself Being a mISV means running a business which isone of the most complex endeavors a human being can everpossibly do

If you are serious about your business you must connectwith other professionals Most people do this by joining alldifferent sorts of forums and communitiesndasha marketingforum SEO forum ecommerce forum entrepreneurialforum etc But for a mISV that might not be the best wayto play this game For example if you join a SEO forumyou will completely immerse yourself into the SEO worldBut you will probably miss the bigger picture You will betweaking some obscure little things on your website adnauseam while you could double your business in the sametime by doing something different When it comes to SEOor any other area you need to extract 80 of the value in20 of the effort and move on

Have you ever fully connected with another mISVauthor who runs a business on a higher or an equal level toyours Think about this really Maybe you are introvertedMaybe you are afraid that other people will steal your ideasMaybe you donrsquot want to share because you feel vulnerableor because you think that others donrsquot deserve your knowl-edge and experience But any of this doesnrsquot matter Letrsquosassume for a moment you can put these things aside

As the first step join the Association of SoftwareProfessionals (ASP) Compared to public forums it has onetremendous advantage Itrsquos private You have to pay $100to join and the members are screened (but donrsquot worry youwill get accepted) The things you post in the ASP discus-sion will never appear on Google

Being an ASP member is not just about success but alsoabout friendship and community The feeling you actuallybelong somewhere should not be underestimated Theoutside world might never quite ldquogetrdquo you and what you do

(often trying to ldquohelprdquo you get a ldquorealrdquo job) but the ASP isfull of people just like you

If you want your business to be sustainable in thelong-term and still exist and prosper in five years from nowyou need to burst your personal little bubble which couldprevent you from seeing the bigger picture

Get yourself immersed in lively discussion with othersuccessful mISVs Ask for feedback ask for advice Whensomeone else glances at your website or product he can seesomething that you are completely missing And yet evensuch tiny little details can sometimes have an absurd impacton your bottom line

Get different kind of feedback for a change Youprobably already get enough feedback from your users Butin the ASP hundreds of years of experience of other fellowmISVrsquos can be often summed up in just a few sentencestailored exactly for you and your business Such advice canpropel your business to the next level Fresh eyes arepriceless For example your customers will almost nevertell you to raise prices even if it would make perfect sensefrom the business stand-point But other mISVs will Allyou have to do is ask

Is it possible that you have one leg on the gas pedal andanother on the brake Well there is an easy way to find

4 ASPects Convention Special July 2012

outndashjoin ASP ask for feedback and perhaps get in a deeperprivate conversation with someone specific ideally some-one that you can in turn help in some way as well Youwould be quite surprised by the fact that other mISVs areoften overjoyed to help their fellows

In a way we all live in a personal bubble And thatrsquosgood having your own private world is fun and feels goodBut sometimes you need to make your bubble larger

Ever heard of the networkeffect This applies to manythings For example two con-nected telephones are far farless valuable than 100 tele-phones The more nodes youadd to the network the morepowerful the network becomesThe network has far greatervalue than the sum of its partsAll this is well known But whatis less known is that by joininga network the node itself alsobecomes more powerful Whenyou become a part of the Asso-ciation of Software Profession-als you make the network morepowerful But more importantlyyou will also make yourselfmore powerful This element isoften overlooked

Maybe you are in a comfortable position right now andare not really feeling like growing your business Let metell you one thingndashI donrsquot know anyone who has done thework and created success for himself who regrets it andthinks ldquoOh boy if only I had browsed the internet morewatched more TV and slacked off morerdquo

You have probably heard of the ultra-famous bookThink and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill Perhaps the booksounds like some new-age woo-woo but Napoleon actuallywent and interviewed over 500 American millionairesacross nearly 20 years including Thomas Edison Alexan-der Graham Bell and Henry Ford Do you know what thefirst rule in Think and Grow Rich is The first rule is calledldquoThe Master Mindrdquo Itrsquos about synergy betweenlike-minded individuals I think that if Napoleon Hill thinksitrsquos that important then there must be something to it Byjoining the ASP you will create your own Master Mind Allyou have to do is to participate in the discussionndashask foradvice and give advice in return

And it doesnrsquot have to end with advice While I thinkthat ldquosynergyrdquo is the most over-used over-hyped buzzwordthat wersquove ever invented I also think the closest a mISVcan get to synergy is when he forms partnerships andorjoint-ventures with other mISVs This can help both mISVsgrow their business more than they could on their own

Never forget why being a mISV is awesome

Itrsquos awesome because you have total freedom There is noboss You work when you want When you wake up eachday chances are you are richer because orders come in247 There is unlimited upside You grow and developyourself holistically as you have to wear many differenthats unlike cubicle slaves in corporate jobs Software willbe needed even more in the future because we live in theinformation age If you want to quadruple your income noone is stopping you (Try to do that in a regular job) Youcan build true wealth You can have real positive impact onthe world

But all that is possible only if you can sustain and growyour business Being in a local maximum can be comfort-able but it might not be sustainable I think that stagnationis a myth Your business is either growing or dying If youcanrsquot make it grow it should be alarming to you If yourbusiness is stagnating it probably means it is growing anddying at roughly the same rate But you can change that Ifyou want to grow your business you need others to expandyour reality

Join the ASP todaywwwasp-softwareorgjoin

PS You will also get a cool ldquoASP memberrdquo badge foryour website which can increase visitor trust one of thescarcest internet commodities in 2012Jiri Novotny is the founder of wwwdextronetcom andauthor of Swift To-Do List the number one task and notesorganizer for Windows If you need a powerful list viewcontrol for NET WinForms then check out Better ListViewat wwwcomponentowlcombetter-listviewReach Jiri at novotny dextronetcom - he is happy to chatand trade ideas

ASP Indie Games SIG

by Gregg SeelhoffCharter Executive ASP IndieGames SIG

Did you know that the Association of SoftwareProfessionals has a SIG (Special Interest Group)specifically for game developers The ASP Indie

Games SIG is intended to provide a community in whichindependent game developers can improve their productsand businesses through information exchange collabora-tion and social interaction

Joining the Games SIG (for short) is easy it requiresnothing more than an ASP membership and participation inthe SIG forums [lsquoaspsiggamesrsquo from httpmembersasp-softwareorgnewsgroups] There are (currently) noadditional dues or requirements through an active interestin games or game development would make a certainamount of sense

July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 5

6 ASPects Convention Special July 2012

Estimates of the current size of the video game industryvary from a conservative $251 billion US [ESA] to a trulystaggering figure of $1050 billion US [Avista Partners]and it continues to grow with average growth projected tobe around 12 annually through 2015 [Gartner] Most ofthat growth is expected to be in digital game downloads anarea in which the ASP is a pioneer

What makes the game industry great though is not itssize but its diversity There are enough genres and nicheswithin the field to allow for both huge blockbuster (akaAAA) titles on the latest consoles and more containedefforts from smaller independent teams (ie ldquoindiesrdquo) on just about any platform desktop mobile online consoleand others The opportunities are almost limitless

Making games is fun Most programmers work on atleast one game if only for their own enjoyment some ofthese developers make money from selling games andthousands actually turn game development into a careerThe game industry however is full of challenges andpitfalls so give yourself a competitive advantage by joiningus in the ASP Indie Games SIG todayGregg Seelhoff is the Charter Executive of the ASP IndieGames SIG You can find him and other ASP game develop-ers in the lsquoaspsiggamesrsquo forum as well as on the HowGames are Different panel at ISVCon 2012

PAD Specification Update

by Joel DiamondPAD Specification Chair

Plans are being made for a major overhaul to the entirePAD platform beginning this summer Members willbe notified in the very near future with the full plans

for both changes and enhancements to the PAD Specifica-tion as well as the authoring tools shortly after ISVCON

Taking place immediately the current specification willbe maintained but the affiliate extensions that have beenadded to prior to the current v31 and that are supported byPADGEN 31 PADManager will be ldquoeditedrdquo Support forV-Share (NetSuite) Digital Candle NorthStar Order1Yaskifo as well as the Digital River brands EmetrixDigiBuy and RegSoft will be removed as they are nolonger in service or used by software publishers based ona review of over 150000 PAD files

An entirely new list of affiliate and ecommerce candi-dates are being reviewed and qualified to replace v 31Feel free to nominate any affiliate service or major softwareecommerce provider by email to joeld wugnetcom

How to Capture a Screen

by Jerry SternWebmaster Software Knowledge Base

Ispent some time looking at software screen shotsrecently It was something of an eye opener As in itcaused considerable visual stress to look at the ugly

things They were for the most part worthless Somewere just plain screen captures or of programs that justarenrsquot very pretty when you look at the main screen froma distance of five feet Some were box shots and thosewerenrsquot always of products that are available in aboxndashtherersquos another problem there And some were justlogos with no tag line or URL Others werenrsquot sizedproperly for their likely use either too big or too tiny ormuch much too tall A few had a centered screen imagewith wider text beloweffectively shrinking theartwork down to unread-able

Itrsquos not just that thesescreenshots donrsquot showwhat the program can dothey donrsquot even identifywhat program wersquore look-ing at

Letrsquos go through the process of building a readable

screenshot step by step Itrsquos not just run grab paste saveTherersquos some planning involved here Most of the samplesare for the Windows 7 edition of Microsoft Paint

First Consider the Viewer

How will the screenshot be used On your websiteshowing steps 1 2 3 of a project So the images will beshown big and there will be sample data or art or projectsin the samples Those are very easy images plan themcapture and convert as-needed and generally done

Marketing images are another image type altogether

July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 7

and the rest of these steps will cover images that sell Forexample will the screenshot be listed in a PAD file fordisplay by a download site Then the images will beshown small very small with maybe an option to clickfor a full-size look but maybe not

These are very different uses In the first the image iseducational not marketing In the second itrsquos an attemptto call for action usually a download or a purchase Thatrsquosmarketing and marketing isnrsquot reality itrsquos a visualrepresentation with a purpose To achieve that purposeadd text logos icons artwork anything that will expressthat purpose but not overwhelm the viewer Itrsquos closer toa title page than an advertisement

Second Prepare and Capture

Before capturing the images for your screenshot removeany distractions from your screensndashin Windows thatusually means either turning off the Aero options orsetting your desktop background to solid white Turn offauto-arrange for the desktop icons and drag any iconsaway from where your program will appear during thescreenshotndashusually that means removing the top row oficons from your screen so that the top bar isnrsquot showingsee-through effects of your desktop

If your program is always full-screen reset the resolu-tion of the desktop to the lowest possible pixel size thatwill make your program look good That might be smallerthan a usable size for the program this is about visualsnot usability If your program can be sized skip this step

Now run your program Identify which screen showsthat the program is unique wonderful and that itrsquos reallyattractive The Windows shortcut to capture the activewindow is alt-Print Screen sometimes shown as PrtScrnon your keyboard Nothing appears to happen when youpress those keysndashthatrsquos OK Go to any painting programlike Microsoft Paint and paste in the imagendashControl-Vwill generally work Save the result Here is the resulting

screenshot for MS-Paint (bottom left) Itrsquos not really usefulyetndashitrsquos mainly whitespace and you canrsquot read theprogram name

Now resize the program Take it down to the smallestpossible size it can be on-screen and then enlarge it untilthe menus and toolbars or most of the design elementslook good Capture that

Next yoursquoll need supplemental artwork The logo forthe program is good and as the developer yoursquoll have theoriginal drawings In this case there is just the programicon so for MS-Paint Irsquove copied the program from thestart menu right-clicked the desktop and chosen to pastea new shortcut to the program Then Iclick elsewhere to remove the lsquoselectedrsquobox from the image and press Ctrl-PrintScreen to capture the entire screenpaste it into a paint program and crop itdown to just the icon Finally Iresampled the icon to double-height anddouble-width any more that would lookbadly aliased or stair-stepped along theedges and ugly

Bad Visuals

Some programs are ugly or boring but they create greatprintouts For these programs consider capturing theprintouts as art for the screen capture Install any lsquoprint -to- PDFrsquo driver and make a single-page PDF printout ofthe program doing its most dramatic work Convert thatPDF to PNG format and crop down to a visual detail thatwill work well on-screen and use that as a major part ofthe screenshot

Combine the Artwork

Now yoursquoll need a good art program start by creating anew image Import and size the screen shot Frequentlythat will be full size but it doesnrsquot have to be Import anyother art yoursquoll use arrange it and leave room for sometext

Some programs arenrsquot going to look good full-screenno matter how you adjust the program size Consider

8 ASPects Convention Special July 2012

cropping the screen capture to only show the top-leftcorner of the interface that will show the program nameand usually the file menus or toolbars That may beenough wersquore looking for pretty not complete

Finally add some text Download sites arenrsquot greatabout showing the web address of the program so Igenerally will include that in the image as well

Building an image in a drawing program will result ina big image Save that and export the result in a reason-able size for web use 600 pixels wide and not more than300 high is probably as big as you can get away with fora screenshot on most websites Some download sites maywant more specific sizes export them from your largeoriginal artworkndashthatrsquos going to provide the best possibleartwork Remember to design first and resize last

I kept this sample screenshot for Paint fairly simpleUsually thatrsquos ideal you can add more lines of text orstart adding shadows and shading but remember that theimage is going to be seen small Walk away from yourmonitor and look at the capture from across the roomndashitshould still be clear and should still identify the programin a simple and iconic wayJerry Stern is the editor of ASPects the ASPrsquos Coordina-tor of Anti-Spyware Operations runs Startupwarecoma n d Wo r d P e r f e c t o r g a n d i s o n l i n e a twwwsciencetranslationscom

Customer Relationship Management for microISVs

by Al Harbergthe press release guy from DP Directory Inc

Customer relationship management (CRM) is goodsoftware marketing CRM is a simple notion that canhelp software developers sell more of their applica-

tions It costs most businesses less money to generate salesfrom old customers than it does to find new ones

Manage your customers

The concept of CRM was popularized by Don Peppers andMartha Rogers in their book The One to One FuturendashBuilding Relationships One Customer at a Time

Today most of us in the software development industrythink of CRM as a database system that coordinates all ofour software sales marketing and demographic informa-tion By contrast Peppers and Rogers talk about CRM as acore management process and not as a technology chal-lenge

First the authors tell us we have to identify potentialcustomers Second we have to figure out what they wantand need how our software products and services can fill

that need and how to optimize the lifetime value of eachblock of customers Third we need to develop a relation-ship with our customers so we can know enough about theirtastes and preferences to make intelligent decisions aboutthe software that wersquoll be marketing And fourth we needto find a way to customize our products services and salesmessages to meet each individual customerrsquos needs Ormore realistically we need to define specific groups ofprospects and customers and target them with communica-tions that are tailored to their needs

Too often developers create a new application becausetheyrsquore unable to find a program that meets a specific needInstead of making development and marketing decisionsbased upon the developerrsquos personal need for software itmakes a lot more sense to target a larger group of peopledefine their needs and build an application that solvesproblems that a significant number of people are wrestlingwith

Before Peppers and Rogers published their bookmarketers spoke about managing products Peppers andRogers urge us to manage customers too We need todifferentiate our customers in much the same way that wedifferentiate our products and services Managing customer

July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 9

relationships touches all of the processes that are crucial tothe success of our business

Make Clients Feel Important

Harry Beckwith discusses our relationships with all of ourclients In his book The Invisible Touch - The Four Keys toModern Marketing Beckwith reminds us that business isabout people and that relationships matter Lots

If we want to make initial software sales and encouragefuture sales we need to find a way to make our clientsknow that we think that theyrsquore important Beckwithpresents eight keys to lasting relationships

(1) Natural affinity

Convince prospects that you share things in common withthem For example you understand their need for educa-tional software for their children because you have childrentoo and you know how difficult it is to find good softwareYou understand their need for Windows productivityapplications because you too spend too much time doingroutine work on your computer If you want to sell moresoftware talk to prospects about them and not aboutyourself But be sure to let your prospects know that youunderstand their problems

(2) Trust

Beckwith urges us to show integrity because integritybuilds trust In the software development industry thismeans not presenting prospects with sales hype Perhaps itmeans not pre-checking the box that says ldquoYes send me theprogram on CD too for only $10(US) additionalrdquo Somewould argue that integrity means not showing a box shot onyour website if you donrsquot offer a boxed product

(3) Speed

In business response times matter Create a website thatdisplays your marketing message quickly Answer pros-pectsrsquo and customersrsquo inquiries briskly And send customerstheir unlock keys as quickly as possible

(4) Apparent Expertise

Look like an expert by behaving like an expert Communi-cating expertise to your software clients is clearly moreimportant than having credentials They donrsquot care aboutyour university degrees They care about your responses totheir support questions Words matter Theyrsquore tools Learnhow to use them more effectively and build your expertisein your customersrsquo minds

(5) Sacrifice

Do something above-and-beyond for your customersDevelop a reputation for working on weekends and holi-days to deliver the best support in the industry Add thefeatures to your application that they need

(6) Completeness

Yoursquoll sell more stuff Beckwith urges if you can find away to solve all of your clientsrsquo problems Many softwaredevelopers have built a family of products that help theirtarget audience solve all of the problems in a particularfield

(7) Magic Words

Say ldquothank yourdquo Ask how people are doing Use yourcustomersrsquo names when writing to them

(8) Passion

Customers and prospects can tell if you love what yoursquoredoing Show them how interested you are in your products

10 ASPects Convention Special July 2012

and in them

Pick the Low-hanging Fruit

In his book Your Marketing Sucks Mark Stevens takescustomer relationships a step further by suggesting thatworking with existing customers will generate the easiestmoney that wersquoll ever make Translated into the softwaredevelopment industry Stevensrsquo ideas include cross-sellingother applications that yoursquove written

Stevens would also encourage microISVs to get theircustomers to buy somebody elsersquos software that theyrsquoreoffering on an affiliate basis Select another developer whomarkets excellent applications The other developer has totarget the same group that yoursquore targeting and they canrsquotbe offering a competing application

And the other developerrsquos applications must have thesame appeal as yours For example if your software isknown for its ease of use then you shouldnrsquot select adeveloper whose application is known for being afull-featured powerhouse Instead choose another devel-oper who takes the same minimalist approach to softwaredesign that you do Set up an affiliate relationship with thisother developer and sell their software to your user-base

Encourage your existing customers to upgrade from theLight version to the Standard version and to the Profes-sional version If theyrsquore a home user and theyrsquove bought asingle-user license offer them a family license If theyrsquore abusiness user talk to them about multi-user and sitelicensing

Itrsquos always easier Beckwith tells us to sell to somebodywith whom you already have a relationship

Start with an Easy Sale

Jay Conrad Levinson in his book Guerrilla MarketingExcellence tells us that if we can get prospects to take oneor more soft steps itrsquos easier to get them to take the hardstep of making the purchase For example a softwaredeveloper might encourage prospects to subscribe to anewsletter or to contact them with questions about theirsoftware

Start building a relationship with them and it will beeasier to get them to buy from you Offer them a free flyerbrochure DVD demonstration phone consultation orseminar Establish a relationship with them and then askfor the sale

Selling to Women

Women are three times more likely to recommend a brandto friends and colleagues Help women connect to eachother and they can tell others about your product or serviceSo says Faith Popcorn in her book EVEolution

Popcorn insists that she is not talking aboutword-of-mouth marketing or relationship marketing Thisisnrsquot about putting a simple ldquotell a friend about our soft-

warerdquo link on your website Itrsquos about creating a genuinecommunity around your brand Weight Watchers did thisThey transformed dieting from a private act to a public one

Create a site where people can discuss what theyrsquoreworried about and passionate about If the site is centeredaround your brand then you can get women to join yourbrand And you can build solid relationships with all of theparticipants

What CRM Means for Software Developers

If you decide to adopt customer relationship managementtechniques in your software development business try notto get bogged down in the technical aspects of implement-ing a CRM solution The most important problems that youneed to tackle are defining all of the contact points that youhave with your prospects and customers and deciding howto optimize every one of them By making dozens orhundreds of improvements with your customer interactionsyoursquoll build far better relationships with your target audi-ence And that will mean more sales more referrals and abetter reputation for your company

CRM is good software marketingSince 1984 Al Harberg has been helping software develop-ers write press releases and send them to the editors Youcan check out more CRM ideas on his new SoftwareMarketing Glossary on wwwdpdirectorycomglossary-creativityhtmcrm_at_the_speed_of_light

July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 11

Call YourselfAre You Impossible to Reach

by Jerry SternEditor ASPects

Irsquom surprised by basic web page failures amongmicroISVs I follow a link to a product Irsquove heard aboutfor years or was recommended to me and I see well

crab grass Or whatrsquos left of the lawn has turned brown Nowait thatrsquos another problem Or is it

We run software and technology businesses and manyof us are guilty of liking our technology so much that wewant to just do that Be the programmer all the time andnever delegate or outsource that work and never move onto keeping our offices running But thatrsquos basic introductionto Management material management isnrsquot productionManagement is hiring firing delegation training andsupervision and making sure that everything else gets doneeven if you have to outsource hire or do it yourself tomake sure that everything gets done

The common error in a small business is skippingsupervision ldquoWhat I work alone I donrsquot need supervi-sionrdquo Yeah right Unless you work off proper to-do liststhat include double-checks that your systems are workingyou arenrsquot supervising either your own workload or yourtechnology For now Irsquoll leave lsquosupervising yourselfrsquo as anexercise for the programmer herersquos the short versionndashmakea list and assign hours to each item You can steal hoursfrom each item if you have to but canrsquot cut any category tozero Especially not supervision marketing or bookkeep-ing

Programmer Phone Home

But back to supervising your technology as thatrsquos what Isee failing from the outside world thatrsquos what your custom-ers see Business management classes usually tell you Callyourself Itrsquos really that simple Pick up a phone and dialyour number No thatrsquos not it Go to a search engine findyour web page find your phone number dial it and leavea message Oh and do it from outside your office Repeatit once a month and repeat that for each of your contactmethods The first try might result in shock however

What yoursquore looking for are communication road blocksA bad phone number or none Web mail pages that nolonger work Missing paper-mail addresses A full phonemail box or a generic answering service message A webpage that displays security warnings in WebOfTrust(mywotcom) or at SiteAdvisorcom Web pages that gonowhere or display badly on browsers you donrsquot use Haveyou visited your sites from an iPAD yet Sure you want touse Flash animation for your main welcome message Itrsquosnot universal never was and the usage percentages are

dropping nowOOPS story 1 I visited a microISVrsquos web site to look at

his product His site shows up in Danish with an Englishbutton which refreshes the page and once again shows meDanish Nice site but all I can read in Danish are thetechnology words that donrsquot normally get translated Theauthor doesnrsquot really visit his own site in English appar-ently And neither does anyone else Lost sale

OOPS story 2 I find someone on LinkedIn I call theirphone number and it goes to voicemail and the voicemailis full Or their email bounces unknown recipient Lostopportunity

OOPS story 3 OK this one was me I visit a friendshow them my website Itrsquos too wide to fit her low-resolu-tion screen without scrolling it doesnrsquot resize to fit thescreen width Lost readability

OOPS story 4 I see a web URL in the email address ofa contact and look at the site The site looks like it wascreated 12 years ago the copyright date is 2003 and theweb links go to lsquofilewebdetailsasprsquo Web page closedlost another sale

OOPS story 5 Nice product site no contact informationon it Nothing but links to a third-party sales companymaybe Paypal No phone email webmail or paper mailaddress no hint of which time zone continent or starsystem is the closest Sorry I donrsquot buy anything from off-planet yet

Right about now I hear a few comments ldquoI canrsquotpublish my phone number I work from homerdquo or ldquoIrsquomuncomfortable with spoken English for callsrdquo ldquoIrsquom on thePacific RIM and my time zone is very different from mycustomersrdquo or ldquoI donrsquot want emails just buy my productand leave me alonerdquo OK your customers can and will buyfrom a company whose expectation of normal communica-tions matches their own

Itrsquos OK to not have any one of these on your site aphone number or an email address or a physical deliveryaddress Itrsquos never OK to not have a mailing address (postoffice boxes are OK) Itrsquos a bad idea to not have most ofthese

Phone number The phone number has to actuallyreach a message that identifies your company or mainproduct A generic message from an cell phone service thatldquo555-1212 is not available Please leave a messagerdquo is notacceptable The phone number doesnrsquot have to actually ring(or wake you up on the far side of the planet) but it has toreliably take messages The number doesnrsquot even have to bea device a virtual phone number like Google Voice isperfectly OK you can set virtual phones to ring at anothernumber during some hours and go directly to voicemail the

12 ASPects Convention Special July 2012

rest of the time Definitely list your office hours and timezone near your phone number

Email address There has to be a way to reach you byemail on your web site It doesnrsquot have to be a plain-textemail address a working web-mail form is OK

Mailing address Yes your mailing address has to beon your web site I have to teach end users about onlinesecurity I show them how to tell if an order page is en-crypted how to see who the company taking orders is andsometimes how to look up the reputation of a site or see ifthere are complaints And I stress not ordering fromcompanies that hide their locations Look Irsquom not going toshow up at your door (Itrsquos happened to me once and thatcharacter did buy software but it took an hour to get himout the door again and I canrsquot work an hour for a $20 saleAnd thatrsquos why I use a post office box) But if you hideyour city and country you arenrsquot going to get sales fromyour neighborsndashremember that all search engines aremoving towards lsquolocal results firstrsquo And you wonrsquot getorders from anyone who knows that in case an online orderfails there has to be a way to reach someone to fix things

Again I hear cries of despair But Irsquom in LowerSlobbovia Or for those who havenrsquot heard of it EastElbonia is pretty much the same Itrsquos somewhere you wonrsquotadmit yoursquore from Perhaps the real problem isnrsquot that youroffices are remotendashIrsquove done business with great companieson six continents The good ones arenrsquot hiding theirlocations Companies that hide their locations are automati-cally suspiciousndashwhat else is hidden in their software

Web sites All of your web sites must work in all themajor browsers If you sell Mac software they had betterwork perfectly when viewed from an iPAD Preferablyevery domain you use should have a really sharp and goodlooking web site But if you have a domain you havenrsquottouched in years and canrsquot be bothered to update it thenredirect that domain to your best web site Kill the old sitemove on and donrsquot leave straggler web sites lying aroundIf you must leave an old site un-updated run a link checkeron it and fix whatever is broken

Donrsquot skip any steps on these checks It really does workbest if you leave your office and then try to communicatefrom the outside world Then you see that your web site hasthe wrong country code on the phone number or it doesnrsquotdisplay properly on other browsers or itrsquos blocked by websecurity software or the links are local and broken Or onebrowser is flagging a site certificate as bad or a securitytoolbar is popping warnings

Itrsquos the equivalent in a big company of dialing the mainswitchboard trying to get past the phone board past theexecutive assistant to the vice president and actuallyhaving an executive listen to you long enough to hear the10-second version of what yoursquore selling Sales pitchesdonrsquot work without communication donrsquot lose your salebecause you canrsquot be reachedJerry Stern is the editor of ASPects the ASPrsquos Coordinatorof Anti-Spyware Operations runs Startupwarecom andW o r d P e r f e c t o r g a n d i s o n l i n e a twwwsciencetranslationscom

July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 13

14 ASPects Convention Special July 2012

Software Passwords and Software Marketing

by Al Harbergthe press release guy from DP Directory Inc

If your software asks users to create a password toprotect the privacy of their information then you havean opportunity to offer additional value to your custom-

ers And that can mean increased software sales additionalrecommendations and good will for your company in yourmarketing niche

Help your users choose effective passwords Accordingto the ldquoWorst Passw0rdsrdquo article in the April 2012 issue ofAARP Bulletin online users have a terrible track record forchoosing effective passwords to protect their security

The most popular password the article tells us isldquopasswordrdquo Changing the lower-case letter ldquoordquo to a zero toform passw0rd is the 16th most popular password choice

The top 25 list includes such clever choices as 1234561234567 12345678 and 123123 ldquoqwertyrdquo and ldquoletmeinrdquoare also on the list of popular user choices

Every day computer users worry about their privacy Ifyour software asks your users to create a password thenyou have an opportunity to show that you care about theirprivacy and security Donrsquot let them create low-qualitypasswords

Andrei Belogortseff is the CEO of WinAbility Softwareat wwwwinabilitycom a Utah-based software developerof security and password utilities WinAbility marketsUSBCrypt a program that makes it simple to encrypt andpassword-protect your USB drive as well as other remov-able and fixed drives

ldquoItrsquos important to protect your data with a long complexpasswordrdquo Andrei tells us ldquoUse a mix of upper-caseletters lower-case letters digits and special charactersrdquo

USBCrypt has a built-in password recovery function thatlets users recreate lost or forgotten passwords On a typical

modern business PC it can take 30 minutes to recover athree-digit password that contains only lower-case lettersBy contrast a five-digit password made up of a mix ofupper- and lower-case letters can take up to 15 days torecover And a seven-digit password that mixes upper- andlower-case letters with numbers and special characters cantake thousands of years to recover

If your application asks users to choose a password youcan help them select wisely Build a list of terrible pass-words into your application and donrsquot let your users selectthese easy-to-guess codes Examine the passwords that theycreate and encourage them to use longer passwords witha mix of characters

ldquoBe sure to remind your users of the flip-side of using acomplex passwordrdquo Andrei tells us ldquoIf you forget yourpassword it will be nearly impossible to recover itrdquo

Add your password protection information to yourwebsite and make it part of your software marketingpresentation By creating keyword-rich pages that describeyour thoughts about privacy security encryption andpasswords yoursquoll get more search engine traffic frompeople who include these words when they search forsoftware like yours

Use your applicationrsquos help file to provide your userswith a short explanation of why passwords are importantTheyrsquoll appreciate the guidance and theyrsquoll be much moreinclined to recommend your software to their friends andcolleagues Helping customers choose powerful passwordsis good software marketingSince 1984 Al Harberg has been helping software develop-ers write press releases and submit them to the editors Youcan check out h is press re lease services onwwwdpdirectorycom

ASP Member News

Slimbrowser ndash a Fast and Secure Tabbed Web Browser

FlashPeak Inc has released SlimBrowser V41 a compacttabbed browser that is super-fast easy to use and packedwith wonderful features including popup-blocker formfiller autologin spell checker site groups ad filteringquick search and much more

SlimBrowser manages web sites as child windows withclickable tab labels in a single main window to avoid taskbar clutter With SlimBrowser searching the web iseasyndashtype in the quick-search box and press enter to get thesearch results you want immediately You can either use thepredefined list of search engines or easily create your own

favorite search enginesSlimBrowser also includes a URL filter which blocks

web pages and components by address matching Further-more the advanced in-page ad-filter automatically elimi-nates the obtrusive floating images and flash animationsfrom the original web pages

SlimBrowser includes site grouping functionalitieswhich enables you to save a number of sites as a group andopen the group of sites next time with a single click Theform filler fills your personal information into web formswith the best field-detection accuracy and saves you a lot ofrepetitive typing

SlimBrowser is free from wwwflashpeakcomsbrowser

July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 15

Affordable Cloud-Based Speed Reading Software forColleges and College Prep

StepWare Inc announces the availability of AceReaderOnline the Cloud version of its flagship WindowsMacapplication AceReader Pro AceReader Online is a power-ful educational tool that assesses improves and monitorsstudentsrsquo reading speed fluency and comprehension

AceReader Online teaches students to break bad readinghabits such as subvocalization (pronouncing the words intheir minds as they read) and regression (reading passagesmore than once) This educational software also helpsexpand studentsrsquo eye fixation zone so they can readmultiple words at a time

The online version of AceReader offers features thatbenefit college university and high school teachers andstudents Students can work independently on a personal-ized self-adjusting reading course or choose from a libraryof reading assessment and improvement regimens Educa-tors can monitor each studentrsquos progress by viewing reportsfor each student consisting of reading speeds comprehen-sion scores graphs activity logs and much more

Since AceReader Online includes 13 levels of textcomplexity it is being used by younger students (ie gradeschools) and even for students who need vision training (iestudents with dyslexia)

AceReader Online has been used by 30 colleges andschools during the 20112012 school year with greatsuccess and is now is available to all education institutionswwwacereadercom

Create Handwriting Fonts In Many Major Languages

High-Logic BV has released Scanahand 4 an applicationthat makes it easy for each member of the family to createcustom hand-written fonts for use in Microsoft WordExcel PowerPoint Notepad and any Windows programScanahand lets you quickly create a font install it inWindows in seconds and use it immediately You can typenotes and cards in your favorite word processing softwareand print them in your own handwriting

Scanahand lets you create signature fonts set a font styleby going bold or italic has the ability to automaticallyinclude diacritical marks and provides full Unicodesupport New features in version 4 include a smart charactermapper that automatically links missing letters to theirupperlower case counterpart and a brand new algorithm forcalculating the best possible left and right-side bearings forthe basic Latin character set The tracing method used byScanahand has been further improved to generate evenmore stunning fonts

The Premium Edition also includes a Template Editorthat allows users to create templates each containing a userdefined set of characters This allows the generation of

fonts that support numerous languages not available in theStandard Editionwwwhigh-logiccom

News amp Press Corner

Microsoft Announces Windows 8 Upgrade Offer

Microsoft Corp announced the availability of the WindowsUpgrade Offer for consumers purchasing a qualifying newWindows 7 PC The Windows Upgrade Offer providesconsumers who buy an eligible Windows 7 PC the optionto purchase a downloadable upgrade to Windows 8 Pro foran estimated retail price of just $1499 during the time ofthe promotion which will be redeemable when Windows 8is generally available The Windows Upgrade Offer is justthe first of many consumer offers that will roll out inconjunction with the general availability of Windows 8

ldquoWersquove seen a great interest in Windows 8 especiallygiven the availability of the Windows 8 Release Previewthis week and yet we know many consumers want a newPC nowrdquo said Tami Reller chief marketing officer andchief financial officer of Windows at Microsoft ldquoTheWindows Upgrade Offer gives people the flexibility topurchase the new Windows 7 PC they need today with theknowledge they can easily get Windows 8 when itrsquos avail-ablerdquo

This program is available for consumers buying newWindows 7 PCs that are preinstalled with Windows 7 HomeBasic Home Premium Professional or Ultimate andinclude a matching and valid OEM Certificate of Authentic-ity The Windows 7 PC must be purchased new during theeligibility period June 2 2012ndashJan 31 2013wwwwindowsupgradeoffercom

WinZipreg Android App Now Available

WinZip Multi-platform Product Line Extends MobileSupport with Free Android App

WinZip Computing a Corel company today introducedWinZipreg for Android a new free mobile app now availableon Google Play

ldquoWith our free Android app wersquore extending the powerof WinZip to new mobile customers and delivering anessential tool for opening zipped files on the go Our firstmobile app WinZip for iOS enjoyed a great reception andhas already been downloaded by more than a millioniPhone and iPad users Now with apps for Android andiOS wersquore offering WinZip tools to customers on both ofthe industryrsquos most popular mobile platformsrdquo said PatrickNichols President of WinZipwwwwinzipcom

16 ASPects Convention Special July 2012

Supporting MembersIshai Shotten ACampG Software Ltd wwwbeejackcomAdriana Iordan Avangate BV wwwavangatecomYu Tao CHENGDU YIWO Tech Development Co Ltd wwweaseuscomDennis Reinhardt DAIR Computer Systems wwwdaircomAlexander Halser EC Software GmbH wwwec-softwarecomArmel Asselin Ellie Computing wwwelliecomputingcomErik Pelton Erik M Pelton amp Associates wwwerikpeltoncomGeraldine Joffre HDRsoft wwwhdrsoftcomGerben Abbink Monkfish XML Software wwwxmlblueprintcomMatt Smith Nevolution Digital LLC wwwnevolutioncomMiguel Cano Onekit wwwonekitcomCharles Born Plimus Inc wwwplimuscomIvan Radmore Pookanyoni Limited wwwpookanyonicomAndrew Butler R3 Data Recovery Ltd wwwr3datarecoverycomWilliam Shaw Regentstreet Research IncOmer Faiyaz Remo Software wwwremosoftwarecomRay Park Rescue Geeks Inc wwwutouchposcomMatt Humphries RevenueWire wwwrevenuewirecomAnna-Jayne Metcalfe Riverblade LimitedTim Thousand Scooter Software wwwscootersoftwarecomGarett Finney SoftwareCommercials Inc wwwsoftwarecommercialscomDana Doten TeamComp Inc wwwnewsbincomPiotr Sulgostowski TTS Company Sp z o o wwwttscomplMiguel Angel Martin Vittalia Internet SL wwweazelcomLiu Ping wwwhodosoftcom

Directors Officers and Committee Chairs Board of DirectorsMitchell Vincent Chair mitch ksoftwarenetDan Hite Dan TedCoSoftwarecomEd Pulliam pulliam ouisoftcomHoward Sobel howards wugnetcomJason Kiwaluk jkiwaluk shawcaMahmoud Metwally mkm giantmatrixcom

OfficersGianfranco Berardi President president asp-softwareorgVice President vp asp-softwareorgAndrei Belogortseff Secretary secretary asp-softwareorgTerry Jepson Treasurer treasurer asp-softwareorg

Staff Positions amp Committee ChairsRich Holler Executive Director execdir asp-softwareorgJerry Stern Coordinator of anti-spyware operations

ASPects Editor aspects asp-softwareorg

Sue Pichotta Conference Managerconference asp-softwareorg

Andrei Belogortseff Download Sitedsw asp-softwareorg

Events Coordinator events asp-softwareorgMichael Marshall Ombudsman

wwwasp-softwareorgombSteve Faleiro Outreach Chair outreach asp-softwareorgJoel Diamond PAD Chair pad-chair asp-softwareorgPublic Relations publicrelations asp-softwareorgSergeant-at-Arms saa asp-softwareorgVolunteer Coordinator

volunteer asp-softwareorgDon Waterfield Webmaster webmaster asp-softwareorgTom Guthery IV New Member Welcome

welcome asp-softwareorgWebsite Committee Chair president asp-softwareorg

ASP Membership Form

Before submitting your application for membershipvisit our website at wwwasp-softwareorgjoin andreview the membership standards and requirementsThere are two categories of ASP Membership Please makesure you have reviewed the appropriate information andstandards page

Mail applications toRichard HollerASP Executive DirectorPO Box 1522Martinsville IN 46151 USA

I have read the appropriate standards and agree toabide by them lsquo Yes lsquo No

Standards for Developer Members and Industry Membersare online at wwwasp-softwareorgjoin

Category of Membership

(Select either lsquoDeveloperrsquo or one of the various Industrycategories)

lsquo Developer

Industry Memberlsquo Vendorlsquo Online Distributorlsquo Online Developerlsquo User Grouplsquo PressMedialsquo Consultantlsquo Shareware Enthusiast

CompanyProduct Description(120 characters or less required if web site link is requested)

Please PRINT Clearly

REQUIRED FIELDS

Name

Company Name

Street Address

Street Address

CityTown

StateProvince

ZIPPostal Code

Country

Public Phone (Voice)

Public Phone (FAX)

Public Email Address

Web Site URL (Required if web site link is requested)

Private Phone (ASP use)

Private Email Address (ASP use)

Do you wish to have your listing included in the public

member database lsquo Yes lsquo No

Do you wish to have your website link included on our

ASP website lsquo Yes lsquo No

Signature

VisaMasterCardAmerican Express AuthorizationIf paying by credit card all the following fields are required

Credit Card Number

Expiration Date

Name of Card Holder

Amount to be charged $100 (USD)

CVV2 code (back of card)

Page 2: ASPects July 2012 Convention Special Issue · 2012. 7. 5. · July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 3 The Biggest Mistake You Can Ever Make by Jiri Novotny Dextronet.comT he biggest

2 ASPects Convention Special July 2012

wwwasp-softwareorg

The Association of Software

Professionalstrade is a not-for-profit

corporation dedicated to

furthering try-before-you-buy as

a unique software marketing

alternative to commercial

distribution methods

Address association correspondence to

Association of Software ProfessionalsRich Holler Executive DirectorPO Box 1522Martinsville IN 46151

Voice (765) 349-4740(9am to 4pm Indiana time)FAX (815) 301-3756email execdir asp-softwareorg

Address changes Login at membersasp-softwareorg and click lsquoChange My Informationrsquo

ASPects is published for advising members of group

activities and sharing of information All material is

compiled without verificationof accuracy or applicability to

a specific task or computersystem Comments are the

view of their author and noother person or organization

Advertisements do notconstitute endorsements

ASPects is publishedmonthly Deadline for sub-missions is 15 days prior to

the cover dateAddress all editorial and

advertising copy to

Jerry Stern EditorPO Box 1735

Westminster MD 21158aspects asp-softwareorg

Phone (410) 871-2877

ASPects copyright copy 2012 bythe Association of Software

Professionalstrade All rights reserved No part may be

reproduced withoutpermission of ASPFeature articles are

copyrighted by their authors

Advertising SizesFull page

1 issue $120 3 issues $3306 issues $600

Half page1 issue $70 3 issues $200

6 issues $360

Quarter page1 issue $40 3 issues $115

6 issues $220

Business card1 issue $30 3 issues $80

6 issues $155

Email banner1 issue $30 3 issues $80

6 issues $155

Trade Show Calendar

ISVCon 2012Atlantis Casino Resort Spa Reno NevadaJuly 13-15 2012httpwwwISVConorg

Casual ConnectSeattle Washington July 24-26 2012httpseattlecasualconnectorg

Game Developers Conference EuropeCologne GermanyAugust 13-15 2012httpwwwgdceuropecom

Sociality Rocks 2012Social Games Conference 1Kiev UkraineSeptember 27-28 2012httpensocialityrockscom

Business of Software 2012Boston MassachusettsOctober 1-3 2012httpwwwbusinessofsoftwareorg

Casual Connect KyivKiev Ukraine October 24-26 2012httpkyivcasualconnectorg

European Software ConferenceMunich GermanyNovember 24-25 2012httpwwweuroconferenceorg

CeBIT 2013Hannover GermanyMarch 5-9 2013httpwwwcebitde

Multiple Dates amp Cities World-wide

Microsoft DevcampsFree training events for Phone Azure Web andWindowsApril though August 9httpwwwdevcampsms

WordCampWordPress ConferencesJuly through November 11httpcentralwordcamporgschedule

Send conference news to the ASPects editorView the full list online at httpwwwasp-softwareorgresourceseventsasp

July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 3

The Biggest Mistake You Can Ever Make

by Jiri NovotnyDextronetcom

The biggest mistake you can ever make is to wing italone

Being a mISV is awesome But I think that doingit all alone and never fully connecting with other mISVs isnot awesome Irsquom not talking about getting a co-founder orteam members herendashwhile doing that can be incrediblyhelpful I am talking about something even more fundamen-tal

Is it possible that by not connecting with other mISVsyou are preventing your business from growing to the nextlevel Is it possible that your business will be gone in fiveyears just because you didnrsquot connect with other mISVsIn this article you will find the answer

There is a certain point when things get so complex andadvanced that you just canrsquot figure some stuff out foryourself Being a mISV means running a business which isone of the most complex endeavors a human being can everpossibly do

If you are serious about your business you must connectwith other professionals Most people do this by joining alldifferent sorts of forums and communitiesndasha marketingforum SEO forum ecommerce forum entrepreneurialforum etc But for a mISV that might not be the best wayto play this game For example if you join a SEO forumyou will completely immerse yourself into the SEO worldBut you will probably miss the bigger picture You will betweaking some obscure little things on your website adnauseam while you could double your business in the sametime by doing something different When it comes to SEOor any other area you need to extract 80 of the value in20 of the effort and move on

Have you ever fully connected with another mISVauthor who runs a business on a higher or an equal level toyours Think about this really Maybe you are introvertedMaybe you are afraid that other people will steal your ideasMaybe you donrsquot want to share because you feel vulnerableor because you think that others donrsquot deserve your knowl-edge and experience But any of this doesnrsquot matter Letrsquosassume for a moment you can put these things aside

As the first step join the Association of SoftwareProfessionals (ASP) Compared to public forums it has onetremendous advantage Itrsquos private You have to pay $100to join and the members are screened (but donrsquot worry youwill get accepted) The things you post in the ASP discus-sion will never appear on Google

Being an ASP member is not just about success but alsoabout friendship and community The feeling you actuallybelong somewhere should not be underestimated Theoutside world might never quite ldquogetrdquo you and what you do

(often trying to ldquohelprdquo you get a ldquorealrdquo job) but the ASP isfull of people just like you

If you want your business to be sustainable in thelong-term and still exist and prosper in five years from nowyou need to burst your personal little bubble which couldprevent you from seeing the bigger picture

Get yourself immersed in lively discussion with othersuccessful mISVs Ask for feedback ask for advice Whensomeone else glances at your website or product he can seesomething that you are completely missing And yet evensuch tiny little details can sometimes have an absurd impacton your bottom line

Get different kind of feedback for a change Youprobably already get enough feedback from your users Butin the ASP hundreds of years of experience of other fellowmISVrsquos can be often summed up in just a few sentencestailored exactly for you and your business Such advice canpropel your business to the next level Fresh eyes arepriceless For example your customers will almost nevertell you to raise prices even if it would make perfect sensefrom the business stand-point But other mISVs will Allyou have to do is ask

Is it possible that you have one leg on the gas pedal andanother on the brake Well there is an easy way to find

4 ASPects Convention Special July 2012

outndashjoin ASP ask for feedback and perhaps get in a deeperprivate conversation with someone specific ideally some-one that you can in turn help in some way as well Youwould be quite surprised by the fact that other mISVs areoften overjoyed to help their fellows

In a way we all live in a personal bubble And thatrsquosgood having your own private world is fun and feels goodBut sometimes you need to make your bubble larger

Ever heard of the networkeffect This applies to manythings For example two con-nected telephones are far farless valuable than 100 tele-phones The more nodes youadd to the network the morepowerful the network becomesThe network has far greatervalue than the sum of its partsAll this is well known But whatis less known is that by joininga network the node itself alsobecomes more powerful Whenyou become a part of the Asso-ciation of Software Profession-als you make the network morepowerful But more importantlyyou will also make yourselfmore powerful This element isoften overlooked

Maybe you are in a comfortable position right now andare not really feeling like growing your business Let metell you one thingndashI donrsquot know anyone who has done thework and created success for himself who regrets it andthinks ldquoOh boy if only I had browsed the internet morewatched more TV and slacked off morerdquo

You have probably heard of the ultra-famous bookThink and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill Perhaps the booksounds like some new-age woo-woo but Napoleon actuallywent and interviewed over 500 American millionairesacross nearly 20 years including Thomas Edison Alexan-der Graham Bell and Henry Ford Do you know what thefirst rule in Think and Grow Rich is The first rule is calledldquoThe Master Mindrdquo Itrsquos about synergy betweenlike-minded individuals I think that if Napoleon Hill thinksitrsquos that important then there must be something to it Byjoining the ASP you will create your own Master Mind Allyou have to do is to participate in the discussionndashask foradvice and give advice in return

And it doesnrsquot have to end with advice While I thinkthat ldquosynergyrdquo is the most over-used over-hyped buzzwordthat wersquove ever invented I also think the closest a mISVcan get to synergy is when he forms partnerships andorjoint-ventures with other mISVs This can help both mISVsgrow their business more than they could on their own

Never forget why being a mISV is awesome

Itrsquos awesome because you have total freedom There is noboss You work when you want When you wake up eachday chances are you are richer because orders come in247 There is unlimited upside You grow and developyourself holistically as you have to wear many differenthats unlike cubicle slaves in corporate jobs Software willbe needed even more in the future because we live in theinformation age If you want to quadruple your income noone is stopping you (Try to do that in a regular job) Youcan build true wealth You can have real positive impact onthe world

But all that is possible only if you can sustain and growyour business Being in a local maximum can be comfort-able but it might not be sustainable I think that stagnationis a myth Your business is either growing or dying If youcanrsquot make it grow it should be alarming to you If yourbusiness is stagnating it probably means it is growing anddying at roughly the same rate But you can change that Ifyou want to grow your business you need others to expandyour reality

Join the ASP todaywwwasp-softwareorgjoin

PS You will also get a cool ldquoASP memberrdquo badge foryour website which can increase visitor trust one of thescarcest internet commodities in 2012Jiri Novotny is the founder of wwwdextronetcom andauthor of Swift To-Do List the number one task and notesorganizer for Windows If you need a powerful list viewcontrol for NET WinForms then check out Better ListViewat wwwcomponentowlcombetter-listviewReach Jiri at novotny dextronetcom - he is happy to chatand trade ideas

ASP Indie Games SIG

by Gregg SeelhoffCharter Executive ASP IndieGames SIG

Did you know that the Association of SoftwareProfessionals has a SIG (Special Interest Group)specifically for game developers The ASP Indie

Games SIG is intended to provide a community in whichindependent game developers can improve their productsand businesses through information exchange collabora-tion and social interaction

Joining the Games SIG (for short) is easy it requiresnothing more than an ASP membership and participation inthe SIG forums [lsquoaspsiggamesrsquo from httpmembersasp-softwareorgnewsgroups] There are (currently) noadditional dues or requirements through an active interestin games or game development would make a certainamount of sense

July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 5

6 ASPects Convention Special July 2012

Estimates of the current size of the video game industryvary from a conservative $251 billion US [ESA] to a trulystaggering figure of $1050 billion US [Avista Partners]and it continues to grow with average growth projected tobe around 12 annually through 2015 [Gartner] Most ofthat growth is expected to be in digital game downloads anarea in which the ASP is a pioneer

What makes the game industry great though is not itssize but its diversity There are enough genres and nicheswithin the field to allow for both huge blockbuster (akaAAA) titles on the latest consoles and more containedefforts from smaller independent teams (ie ldquoindiesrdquo) on just about any platform desktop mobile online consoleand others The opportunities are almost limitless

Making games is fun Most programmers work on atleast one game if only for their own enjoyment some ofthese developers make money from selling games andthousands actually turn game development into a careerThe game industry however is full of challenges andpitfalls so give yourself a competitive advantage by joiningus in the ASP Indie Games SIG todayGregg Seelhoff is the Charter Executive of the ASP IndieGames SIG You can find him and other ASP game develop-ers in the lsquoaspsiggamesrsquo forum as well as on the HowGames are Different panel at ISVCon 2012

PAD Specification Update

by Joel DiamondPAD Specification Chair

Plans are being made for a major overhaul to the entirePAD platform beginning this summer Members willbe notified in the very near future with the full plans

for both changes and enhancements to the PAD Specifica-tion as well as the authoring tools shortly after ISVCON

Taking place immediately the current specification willbe maintained but the affiliate extensions that have beenadded to prior to the current v31 and that are supported byPADGEN 31 PADManager will be ldquoeditedrdquo Support forV-Share (NetSuite) Digital Candle NorthStar Order1Yaskifo as well as the Digital River brands EmetrixDigiBuy and RegSoft will be removed as they are nolonger in service or used by software publishers based ona review of over 150000 PAD files

An entirely new list of affiliate and ecommerce candi-dates are being reviewed and qualified to replace v 31Feel free to nominate any affiliate service or major softwareecommerce provider by email to joeld wugnetcom

How to Capture a Screen

by Jerry SternWebmaster Software Knowledge Base

Ispent some time looking at software screen shotsrecently It was something of an eye opener As in itcaused considerable visual stress to look at the ugly

things They were for the most part worthless Somewere just plain screen captures or of programs that justarenrsquot very pretty when you look at the main screen froma distance of five feet Some were box shots and thosewerenrsquot always of products that are available in aboxndashtherersquos another problem there And some were justlogos with no tag line or URL Others werenrsquot sizedproperly for their likely use either too big or too tiny ormuch much too tall A few had a centered screen imagewith wider text beloweffectively shrinking theartwork down to unread-able

Itrsquos not just that thesescreenshots donrsquot showwhat the program can dothey donrsquot even identifywhat program wersquore look-ing at

Letrsquos go through the process of building a readable

screenshot step by step Itrsquos not just run grab paste saveTherersquos some planning involved here Most of the samplesare for the Windows 7 edition of Microsoft Paint

First Consider the Viewer

How will the screenshot be used On your websiteshowing steps 1 2 3 of a project So the images will beshown big and there will be sample data or art or projectsin the samples Those are very easy images plan themcapture and convert as-needed and generally done

Marketing images are another image type altogether

July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 7

and the rest of these steps will cover images that sell Forexample will the screenshot be listed in a PAD file fordisplay by a download site Then the images will beshown small very small with maybe an option to clickfor a full-size look but maybe not

These are very different uses In the first the image iseducational not marketing In the second itrsquos an attemptto call for action usually a download or a purchase Thatrsquosmarketing and marketing isnrsquot reality itrsquos a visualrepresentation with a purpose To achieve that purposeadd text logos icons artwork anything that will expressthat purpose but not overwhelm the viewer Itrsquos closer toa title page than an advertisement

Second Prepare and Capture

Before capturing the images for your screenshot removeany distractions from your screensndashin Windows thatusually means either turning off the Aero options orsetting your desktop background to solid white Turn offauto-arrange for the desktop icons and drag any iconsaway from where your program will appear during thescreenshotndashusually that means removing the top row oficons from your screen so that the top bar isnrsquot showingsee-through effects of your desktop

If your program is always full-screen reset the resolu-tion of the desktop to the lowest possible pixel size thatwill make your program look good That might be smallerthan a usable size for the program this is about visualsnot usability If your program can be sized skip this step

Now run your program Identify which screen showsthat the program is unique wonderful and that itrsquos reallyattractive The Windows shortcut to capture the activewindow is alt-Print Screen sometimes shown as PrtScrnon your keyboard Nothing appears to happen when youpress those keysndashthatrsquos OK Go to any painting programlike Microsoft Paint and paste in the imagendashControl-Vwill generally work Save the result Here is the resulting

screenshot for MS-Paint (bottom left) Itrsquos not really usefulyetndashitrsquos mainly whitespace and you canrsquot read theprogram name

Now resize the program Take it down to the smallestpossible size it can be on-screen and then enlarge it untilthe menus and toolbars or most of the design elementslook good Capture that

Next yoursquoll need supplemental artwork The logo forthe program is good and as the developer yoursquoll have theoriginal drawings In this case there is just the programicon so for MS-Paint Irsquove copied the program from thestart menu right-clicked the desktop and chosen to pastea new shortcut to the program Then Iclick elsewhere to remove the lsquoselectedrsquobox from the image and press Ctrl-PrintScreen to capture the entire screenpaste it into a paint program and crop itdown to just the icon Finally Iresampled the icon to double-height anddouble-width any more that would lookbadly aliased or stair-stepped along theedges and ugly

Bad Visuals

Some programs are ugly or boring but they create greatprintouts For these programs consider capturing theprintouts as art for the screen capture Install any lsquoprint -to- PDFrsquo driver and make a single-page PDF printout ofthe program doing its most dramatic work Convert thatPDF to PNG format and crop down to a visual detail thatwill work well on-screen and use that as a major part ofthe screenshot

Combine the Artwork

Now yoursquoll need a good art program start by creating anew image Import and size the screen shot Frequentlythat will be full size but it doesnrsquot have to be Import anyother art yoursquoll use arrange it and leave room for sometext

Some programs arenrsquot going to look good full-screenno matter how you adjust the program size Consider

8 ASPects Convention Special July 2012

cropping the screen capture to only show the top-leftcorner of the interface that will show the program nameand usually the file menus or toolbars That may beenough wersquore looking for pretty not complete

Finally add some text Download sites arenrsquot greatabout showing the web address of the program so Igenerally will include that in the image as well

Building an image in a drawing program will result ina big image Save that and export the result in a reason-able size for web use 600 pixels wide and not more than300 high is probably as big as you can get away with fora screenshot on most websites Some download sites maywant more specific sizes export them from your largeoriginal artworkndashthatrsquos going to provide the best possibleartwork Remember to design first and resize last

I kept this sample screenshot for Paint fairly simpleUsually thatrsquos ideal you can add more lines of text orstart adding shadows and shading but remember that theimage is going to be seen small Walk away from yourmonitor and look at the capture from across the roomndashitshould still be clear and should still identify the programin a simple and iconic wayJerry Stern is the editor of ASPects the ASPrsquos Coordina-tor of Anti-Spyware Operations runs Startupwarecoma n d Wo r d P e r f e c t o r g a n d i s o n l i n e a twwwsciencetranslationscom

Customer Relationship Management for microISVs

by Al Harbergthe press release guy from DP Directory Inc

Customer relationship management (CRM) is goodsoftware marketing CRM is a simple notion that canhelp software developers sell more of their applica-

tions It costs most businesses less money to generate salesfrom old customers than it does to find new ones

Manage your customers

The concept of CRM was popularized by Don Peppers andMartha Rogers in their book The One to One FuturendashBuilding Relationships One Customer at a Time

Today most of us in the software development industrythink of CRM as a database system that coordinates all ofour software sales marketing and demographic informa-tion By contrast Peppers and Rogers talk about CRM as acore management process and not as a technology chal-lenge

First the authors tell us we have to identify potentialcustomers Second we have to figure out what they wantand need how our software products and services can fill

that need and how to optimize the lifetime value of eachblock of customers Third we need to develop a relation-ship with our customers so we can know enough about theirtastes and preferences to make intelligent decisions aboutthe software that wersquoll be marketing And fourth we needto find a way to customize our products services and salesmessages to meet each individual customerrsquos needs Ormore realistically we need to define specific groups ofprospects and customers and target them with communica-tions that are tailored to their needs

Too often developers create a new application becausetheyrsquore unable to find a program that meets a specific needInstead of making development and marketing decisionsbased upon the developerrsquos personal need for software itmakes a lot more sense to target a larger group of peopledefine their needs and build an application that solvesproblems that a significant number of people are wrestlingwith

Before Peppers and Rogers published their bookmarketers spoke about managing products Peppers andRogers urge us to manage customers too We need todifferentiate our customers in much the same way that wedifferentiate our products and services Managing customer

July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 9

relationships touches all of the processes that are crucial tothe success of our business

Make Clients Feel Important

Harry Beckwith discusses our relationships with all of ourclients In his book The Invisible Touch - The Four Keys toModern Marketing Beckwith reminds us that business isabout people and that relationships matter Lots

If we want to make initial software sales and encouragefuture sales we need to find a way to make our clientsknow that we think that theyrsquore important Beckwithpresents eight keys to lasting relationships

(1) Natural affinity

Convince prospects that you share things in common withthem For example you understand their need for educa-tional software for their children because you have childrentoo and you know how difficult it is to find good softwareYou understand their need for Windows productivityapplications because you too spend too much time doingroutine work on your computer If you want to sell moresoftware talk to prospects about them and not aboutyourself But be sure to let your prospects know that youunderstand their problems

(2) Trust

Beckwith urges us to show integrity because integritybuilds trust In the software development industry thismeans not presenting prospects with sales hype Perhaps itmeans not pre-checking the box that says ldquoYes send me theprogram on CD too for only $10(US) additionalrdquo Somewould argue that integrity means not showing a box shot onyour website if you donrsquot offer a boxed product

(3) Speed

In business response times matter Create a website thatdisplays your marketing message quickly Answer pros-pectsrsquo and customersrsquo inquiries briskly And send customerstheir unlock keys as quickly as possible

(4) Apparent Expertise

Look like an expert by behaving like an expert Communi-cating expertise to your software clients is clearly moreimportant than having credentials They donrsquot care aboutyour university degrees They care about your responses totheir support questions Words matter Theyrsquore tools Learnhow to use them more effectively and build your expertisein your customersrsquo minds

(5) Sacrifice

Do something above-and-beyond for your customersDevelop a reputation for working on weekends and holi-days to deliver the best support in the industry Add thefeatures to your application that they need

(6) Completeness

Yoursquoll sell more stuff Beckwith urges if you can find away to solve all of your clientsrsquo problems Many softwaredevelopers have built a family of products that help theirtarget audience solve all of the problems in a particularfield

(7) Magic Words

Say ldquothank yourdquo Ask how people are doing Use yourcustomersrsquo names when writing to them

(8) Passion

Customers and prospects can tell if you love what yoursquoredoing Show them how interested you are in your products

10 ASPects Convention Special July 2012

and in them

Pick the Low-hanging Fruit

In his book Your Marketing Sucks Mark Stevens takescustomer relationships a step further by suggesting thatworking with existing customers will generate the easiestmoney that wersquoll ever make Translated into the softwaredevelopment industry Stevensrsquo ideas include cross-sellingother applications that yoursquove written

Stevens would also encourage microISVs to get theircustomers to buy somebody elsersquos software that theyrsquoreoffering on an affiliate basis Select another developer whomarkets excellent applications The other developer has totarget the same group that yoursquore targeting and they canrsquotbe offering a competing application

And the other developerrsquos applications must have thesame appeal as yours For example if your software isknown for its ease of use then you shouldnrsquot select adeveloper whose application is known for being afull-featured powerhouse Instead choose another devel-oper who takes the same minimalist approach to softwaredesign that you do Set up an affiliate relationship with thisother developer and sell their software to your user-base

Encourage your existing customers to upgrade from theLight version to the Standard version and to the Profes-sional version If theyrsquore a home user and theyrsquove bought asingle-user license offer them a family license If theyrsquore abusiness user talk to them about multi-user and sitelicensing

Itrsquos always easier Beckwith tells us to sell to somebodywith whom you already have a relationship

Start with an Easy Sale

Jay Conrad Levinson in his book Guerrilla MarketingExcellence tells us that if we can get prospects to take oneor more soft steps itrsquos easier to get them to take the hardstep of making the purchase For example a softwaredeveloper might encourage prospects to subscribe to anewsletter or to contact them with questions about theirsoftware

Start building a relationship with them and it will beeasier to get them to buy from you Offer them a free flyerbrochure DVD demonstration phone consultation orseminar Establish a relationship with them and then askfor the sale

Selling to Women

Women are three times more likely to recommend a brandto friends and colleagues Help women connect to eachother and they can tell others about your product or serviceSo says Faith Popcorn in her book EVEolution

Popcorn insists that she is not talking aboutword-of-mouth marketing or relationship marketing Thisisnrsquot about putting a simple ldquotell a friend about our soft-

warerdquo link on your website Itrsquos about creating a genuinecommunity around your brand Weight Watchers did thisThey transformed dieting from a private act to a public one

Create a site where people can discuss what theyrsquoreworried about and passionate about If the site is centeredaround your brand then you can get women to join yourbrand And you can build solid relationships with all of theparticipants

What CRM Means for Software Developers

If you decide to adopt customer relationship managementtechniques in your software development business try notto get bogged down in the technical aspects of implement-ing a CRM solution The most important problems that youneed to tackle are defining all of the contact points that youhave with your prospects and customers and deciding howto optimize every one of them By making dozens orhundreds of improvements with your customer interactionsyoursquoll build far better relationships with your target audi-ence And that will mean more sales more referrals and abetter reputation for your company

CRM is good software marketingSince 1984 Al Harberg has been helping software develop-ers write press releases and send them to the editors Youcan check out more CRM ideas on his new SoftwareMarketing Glossary on wwwdpdirectorycomglossary-creativityhtmcrm_at_the_speed_of_light

July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 11

Call YourselfAre You Impossible to Reach

by Jerry SternEditor ASPects

Irsquom surprised by basic web page failures amongmicroISVs I follow a link to a product Irsquove heard aboutfor years or was recommended to me and I see well

crab grass Or whatrsquos left of the lawn has turned brown Nowait thatrsquos another problem Or is it

We run software and technology businesses and manyof us are guilty of liking our technology so much that wewant to just do that Be the programmer all the time andnever delegate or outsource that work and never move onto keeping our offices running But thatrsquos basic introductionto Management material management isnrsquot productionManagement is hiring firing delegation training andsupervision and making sure that everything else gets doneeven if you have to outsource hire or do it yourself tomake sure that everything gets done

The common error in a small business is skippingsupervision ldquoWhat I work alone I donrsquot need supervi-sionrdquo Yeah right Unless you work off proper to-do liststhat include double-checks that your systems are workingyou arenrsquot supervising either your own workload or yourtechnology For now Irsquoll leave lsquosupervising yourselfrsquo as anexercise for the programmer herersquos the short versionndashmakea list and assign hours to each item You can steal hoursfrom each item if you have to but canrsquot cut any category tozero Especially not supervision marketing or bookkeep-ing

Programmer Phone Home

But back to supervising your technology as thatrsquos what Isee failing from the outside world thatrsquos what your custom-ers see Business management classes usually tell you Callyourself Itrsquos really that simple Pick up a phone and dialyour number No thatrsquos not it Go to a search engine findyour web page find your phone number dial it and leavea message Oh and do it from outside your office Repeatit once a month and repeat that for each of your contactmethods The first try might result in shock however

What yoursquore looking for are communication road blocksA bad phone number or none Web mail pages that nolonger work Missing paper-mail addresses A full phonemail box or a generic answering service message A webpage that displays security warnings in WebOfTrust(mywotcom) or at SiteAdvisorcom Web pages that gonowhere or display badly on browsers you donrsquot use Haveyou visited your sites from an iPAD yet Sure you want touse Flash animation for your main welcome message Itrsquosnot universal never was and the usage percentages are

dropping nowOOPS story 1 I visited a microISVrsquos web site to look at

his product His site shows up in Danish with an Englishbutton which refreshes the page and once again shows meDanish Nice site but all I can read in Danish are thetechnology words that donrsquot normally get translated Theauthor doesnrsquot really visit his own site in English appar-ently And neither does anyone else Lost sale

OOPS story 2 I find someone on LinkedIn I call theirphone number and it goes to voicemail and the voicemailis full Or their email bounces unknown recipient Lostopportunity

OOPS story 3 OK this one was me I visit a friendshow them my website Itrsquos too wide to fit her low-resolu-tion screen without scrolling it doesnrsquot resize to fit thescreen width Lost readability

OOPS story 4 I see a web URL in the email address ofa contact and look at the site The site looks like it wascreated 12 years ago the copyright date is 2003 and theweb links go to lsquofilewebdetailsasprsquo Web page closedlost another sale

OOPS story 5 Nice product site no contact informationon it Nothing but links to a third-party sales companymaybe Paypal No phone email webmail or paper mailaddress no hint of which time zone continent or starsystem is the closest Sorry I donrsquot buy anything from off-planet yet

Right about now I hear a few comments ldquoI canrsquotpublish my phone number I work from homerdquo or ldquoIrsquomuncomfortable with spoken English for callsrdquo ldquoIrsquom on thePacific RIM and my time zone is very different from mycustomersrdquo or ldquoI donrsquot want emails just buy my productand leave me alonerdquo OK your customers can and will buyfrom a company whose expectation of normal communica-tions matches their own

Itrsquos OK to not have any one of these on your site aphone number or an email address or a physical deliveryaddress Itrsquos never OK to not have a mailing address (postoffice boxes are OK) Itrsquos a bad idea to not have most ofthese

Phone number The phone number has to actuallyreach a message that identifies your company or mainproduct A generic message from an cell phone service thatldquo555-1212 is not available Please leave a messagerdquo is notacceptable The phone number doesnrsquot have to actually ring(or wake you up on the far side of the planet) but it has toreliably take messages The number doesnrsquot even have to bea device a virtual phone number like Google Voice isperfectly OK you can set virtual phones to ring at anothernumber during some hours and go directly to voicemail the

12 ASPects Convention Special July 2012

rest of the time Definitely list your office hours and timezone near your phone number

Email address There has to be a way to reach you byemail on your web site It doesnrsquot have to be a plain-textemail address a working web-mail form is OK

Mailing address Yes your mailing address has to beon your web site I have to teach end users about onlinesecurity I show them how to tell if an order page is en-crypted how to see who the company taking orders is andsometimes how to look up the reputation of a site or see ifthere are complaints And I stress not ordering fromcompanies that hide their locations Look Irsquom not going toshow up at your door (Itrsquos happened to me once and thatcharacter did buy software but it took an hour to get himout the door again and I canrsquot work an hour for a $20 saleAnd thatrsquos why I use a post office box) But if you hideyour city and country you arenrsquot going to get sales fromyour neighborsndashremember that all search engines aremoving towards lsquolocal results firstrsquo And you wonrsquot getorders from anyone who knows that in case an online orderfails there has to be a way to reach someone to fix things

Again I hear cries of despair But Irsquom in LowerSlobbovia Or for those who havenrsquot heard of it EastElbonia is pretty much the same Itrsquos somewhere you wonrsquotadmit yoursquore from Perhaps the real problem isnrsquot that youroffices are remotendashIrsquove done business with great companieson six continents The good ones arenrsquot hiding theirlocations Companies that hide their locations are automati-cally suspiciousndashwhat else is hidden in their software

Web sites All of your web sites must work in all themajor browsers If you sell Mac software they had betterwork perfectly when viewed from an iPAD Preferablyevery domain you use should have a really sharp and goodlooking web site But if you have a domain you havenrsquottouched in years and canrsquot be bothered to update it thenredirect that domain to your best web site Kill the old sitemove on and donrsquot leave straggler web sites lying aroundIf you must leave an old site un-updated run a link checkeron it and fix whatever is broken

Donrsquot skip any steps on these checks It really does workbest if you leave your office and then try to communicatefrom the outside world Then you see that your web site hasthe wrong country code on the phone number or it doesnrsquotdisplay properly on other browsers or itrsquos blocked by websecurity software or the links are local and broken Or onebrowser is flagging a site certificate as bad or a securitytoolbar is popping warnings

Itrsquos the equivalent in a big company of dialing the mainswitchboard trying to get past the phone board past theexecutive assistant to the vice president and actuallyhaving an executive listen to you long enough to hear the10-second version of what yoursquore selling Sales pitchesdonrsquot work without communication donrsquot lose your salebecause you canrsquot be reachedJerry Stern is the editor of ASPects the ASPrsquos Coordinatorof Anti-Spyware Operations runs Startupwarecom andW o r d P e r f e c t o r g a n d i s o n l i n e a twwwsciencetranslationscom

July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 13

14 ASPects Convention Special July 2012

Software Passwords and Software Marketing

by Al Harbergthe press release guy from DP Directory Inc

If your software asks users to create a password toprotect the privacy of their information then you havean opportunity to offer additional value to your custom-

ers And that can mean increased software sales additionalrecommendations and good will for your company in yourmarketing niche

Help your users choose effective passwords Accordingto the ldquoWorst Passw0rdsrdquo article in the April 2012 issue ofAARP Bulletin online users have a terrible track record forchoosing effective passwords to protect their security

The most popular password the article tells us isldquopasswordrdquo Changing the lower-case letter ldquoordquo to a zero toform passw0rd is the 16th most popular password choice

The top 25 list includes such clever choices as 1234561234567 12345678 and 123123 ldquoqwertyrdquo and ldquoletmeinrdquoare also on the list of popular user choices

Every day computer users worry about their privacy Ifyour software asks your users to create a password thenyou have an opportunity to show that you care about theirprivacy and security Donrsquot let them create low-qualitypasswords

Andrei Belogortseff is the CEO of WinAbility Softwareat wwwwinabilitycom a Utah-based software developerof security and password utilities WinAbility marketsUSBCrypt a program that makes it simple to encrypt andpassword-protect your USB drive as well as other remov-able and fixed drives

ldquoItrsquos important to protect your data with a long complexpasswordrdquo Andrei tells us ldquoUse a mix of upper-caseletters lower-case letters digits and special charactersrdquo

USBCrypt has a built-in password recovery function thatlets users recreate lost or forgotten passwords On a typical

modern business PC it can take 30 minutes to recover athree-digit password that contains only lower-case lettersBy contrast a five-digit password made up of a mix ofupper- and lower-case letters can take up to 15 days torecover And a seven-digit password that mixes upper- andlower-case letters with numbers and special characters cantake thousands of years to recover

If your application asks users to choose a password youcan help them select wisely Build a list of terrible pass-words into your application and donrsquot let your users selectthese easy-to-guess codes Examine the passwords that theycreate and encourage them to use longer passwords witha mix of characters

ldquoBe sure to remind your users of the flip-side of using acomplex passwordrdquo Andrei tells us ldquoIf you forget yourpassword it will be nearly impossible to recover itrdquo

Add your password protection information to yourwebsite and make it part of your software marketingpresentation By creating keyword-rich pages that describeyour thoughts about privacy security encryption andpasswords yoursquoll get more search engine traffic frompeople who include these words when they search forsoftware like yours

Use your applicationrsquos help file to provide your userswith a short explanation of why passwords are importantTheyrsquoll appreciate the guidance and theyrsquoll be much moreinclined to recommend your software to their friends andcolleagues Helping customers choose powerful passwordsis good software marketingSince 1984 Al Harberg has been helping software develop-ers write press releases and submit them to the editors Youcan check out h is press re lease services onwwwdpdirectorycom

ASP Member News

Slimbrowser ndash a Fast and Secure Tabbed Web Browser

FlashPeak Inc has released SlimBrowser V41 a compacttabbed browser that is super-fast easy to use and packedwith wonderful features including popup-blocker formfiller autologin spell checker site groups ad filteringquick search and much more

SlimBrowser manages web sites as child windows withclickable tab labels in a single main window to avoid taskbar clutter With SlimBrowser searching the web iseasyndashtype in the quick-search box and press enter to get thesearch results you want immediately You can either use thepredefined list of search engines or easily create your own

favorite search enginesSlimBrowser also includes a URL filter which blocks

web pages and components by address matching Further-more the advanced in-page ad-filter automatically elimi-nates the obtrusive floating images and flash animationsfrom the original web pages

SlimBrowser includes site grouping functionalitieswhich enables you to save a number of sites as a group andopen the group of sites next time with a single click Theform filler fills your personal information into web formswith the best field-detection accuracy and saves you a lot ofrepetitive typing

SlimBrowser is free from wwwflashpeakcomsbrowser

July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 15

Affordable Cloud-Based Speed Reading Software forColleges and College Prep

StepWare Inc announces the availability of AceReaderOnline the Cloud version of its flagship WindowsMacapplication AceReader Pro AceReader Online is a power-ful educational tool that assesses improves and monitorsstudentsrsquo reading speed fluency and comprehension

AceReader Online teaches students to break bad readinghabits such as subvocalization (pronouncing the words intheir minds as they read) and regression (reading passagesmore than once) This educational software also helpsexpand studentsrsquo eye fixation zone so they can readmultiple words at a time

The online version of AceReader offers features thatbenefit college university and high school teachers andstudents Students can work independently on a personal-ized self-adjusting reading course or choose from a libraryof reading assessment and improvement regimens Educa-tors can monitor each studentrsquos progress by viewing reportsfor each student consisting of reading speeds comprehen-sion scores graphs activity logs and much more

Since AceReader Online includes 13 levels of textcomplexity it is being used by younger students (ie gradeschools) and even for students who need vision training (iestudents with dyslexia)

AceReader Online has been used by 30 colleges andschools during the 20112012 school year with greatsuccess and is now is available to all education institutionswwwacereadercom

Create Handwriting Fonts In Many Major Languages

High-Logic BV has released Scanahand 4 an applicationthat makes it easy for each member of the family to createcustom hand-written fonts for use in Microsoft WordExcel PowerPoint Notepad and any Windows programScanahand lets you quickly create a font install it inWindows in seconds and use it immediately You can typenotes and cards in your favorite word processing softwareand print them in your own handwriting

Scanahand lets you create signature fonts set a font styleby going bold or italic has the ability to automaticallyinclude diacritical marks and provides full Unicodesupport New features in version 4 include a smart charactermapper that automatically links missing letters to theirupperlower case counterpart and a brand new algorithm forcalculating the best possible left and right-side bearings forthe basic Latin character set The tracing method used byScanahand has been further improved to generate evenmore stunning fonts

The Premium Edition also includes a Template Editorthat allows users to create templates each containing a userdefined set of characters This allows the generation of

fonts that support numerous languages not available in theStandard Editionwwwhigh-logiccom

News amp Press Corner

Microsoft Announces Windows 8 Upgrade Offer

Microsoft Corp announced the availability of the WindowsUpgrade Offer for consumers purchasing a qualifying newWindows 7 PC The Windows Upgrade Offer providesconsumers who buy an eligible Windows 7 PC the optionto purchase a downloadable upgrade to Windows 8 Pro foran estimated retail price of just $1499 during the time ofthe promotion which will be redeemable when Windows 8is generally available The Windows Upgrade Offer is justthe first of many consumer offers that will roll out inconjunction with the general availability of Windows 8

ldquoWersquove seen a great interest in Windows 8 especiallygiven the availability of the Windows 8 Release Previewthis week and yet we know many consumers want a newPC nowrdquo said Tami Reller chief marketing officer andchief financial officer of Windows at Microsoft ldquoTheWindows Upgrade Offer gives people the flexibility topurchase the new Windows 7 PC they need today with theknowledge they can easily get Windows 8 when itrsquos avail-ablerdquo

This program is available for consumers buying newWindows 7 PCs that are preinstalled with Windows 7 HomeBasic Home Premium Professional or Ultimate andinclude a matching and valid OEM Certificate of Authentic-ity The Windows 7 PC must be purchased new during theeligibility period June 2 2012ndashJan 31 2013wwwwindowsupgradeoffercom

WinZipreg Android App Now Available

WinZip Multi-platform Product Line Extends MobileSupport with Free Android App

WinZip Computing a Corel company today introducedWinZipreg for Android a new free mobile app now availableon Google Play

ldquoWith our free Android app wersquore extending the powerof WinZip to new mobile customers and delivering anessential tool for opening zipped files on the go Our firstmobile app WinZip for iOS enjoyed a great reception andhas already been downloaded by more than a millioniPhone and iPad users Now with apps for Android andiOS wersquore offering WinZip tools to customers on both ofthe industryrsquos most popular mobile platformsrdquo said PatrickNichols President of WinZipwwwwinzipcom

16 ASPects Convention Special July 2012

Supporting MembersIshai Shotten ACampG Software Ltd wwwbeejackcomAdriana Iordan Avangate BV wwwavangatecomYu Tao CHENGDU YIWO Tech Development Co Ltd wwweaseuscomDennis Reinhardt DAIR Computer Systems wwwdaircomAlexander Halser EC Software GmbH wwwec-softwarecomArmel Asselin Ellie Computing wwwelliecomputingcomErik Pelton Erik M Pelton amp Associates wwwerikpeltoncomGeraldine Joffre HDRsoft wwwhdrsoftcomGerben Abbink Monkfish XML Software wwwxmlblueprintcomMatt Smith Nevolution Digital LLC wwwnevolutioncomMiguel Cano Onekit wwwonekitcomCharles Born Plimus Inc wwwplimuscomIvan Radmore Pookanyoni Limited wwwpookanyonicomAndrew Butler R3 Data Recovery Ltd wwwr3datarecoverycomWilliam Shaw Regentstreet Research IncOmer Faiyaz Remo Software wwwremosoftwarecomRay Park Rescue Geeks Inc wwwutouchposcomMatt Humphries RevenueWire wwwrevenuewirecomAnna-Jayne Metcalfe Riverblade LimitedTim Thousand Scooter Software wwwscootersoftwarecomGarett Finney SoftwareCommercials Inc wwwsoftwarecommercialscomDana Doten TeamComp Inc wwwnewsbincomPiotr Sulgostowski TTS Company Sp z o o wwwttscomplMiguel Angel Martin Vittalia Internet SL wwweazelcomLiu Ping wwwhodosoftcom

Directors Officers and Committee Chairs Board of DirectorsMitchell Vincent Chair mitch ksoftwarenetDan Hite Dan TedCoSoftwarecomEd Pulliam pulliam ouisoftcomHoward Sobel howards wugnetcomJason Kiwaluk jkiwaluk shawcaMahmoud Metwally mkm giantmatrixcom

OfficersGianfranco Berardi President president asp-softwareorgVice President vp asp-softwareorgAndrei Belogortseff Secretary secretary asp-softwareorgTerry Jepson Treasurer treasurer asp-softwareorg

Staff Positions amp Committee ChairsRich Holler Executive Director execdir asp-softwareorgJerry Stern Coordinator of anti-spyware operations

ASPects Editor aspects asp-softwareorg

Sue Pichotta Conference Managerconference asp-softwareorg

Andrei Belogortseff Download Sitedsw asp-softwareorg

Events Coordinator events asp-softwareorgMichael Marshall Ombudsman

wwwasp-softwareorgombSteve Faleiro Outreach Chair outreach asp-softwareorgJoel Diamond PAD Chair pad-chair asp-softwareorgPublic Relations publicrelations asp-softwareorgSergeant-at-Arms saa asp-softwareorgVolunteer Coordinator

volunteer asp-softwareorgDon Waterfield Webmaster webmaster asp-softwareorgTom Guthery IV New Member Welcome

welcome asp-softwareorgWebsite Committee Chair president asp-softwareorg

ASP Membership Form

Before submitting your application for membershipvisit our website at wwwasp-softwareorgjoin andreview the membership standards and requirementsThere are two categories of ASP Membership Please makesure you have reviewed the appropriate information andstandards page

Mail applications toRichard HollerASP Executive DirectorPO Box 1522Martinsville IN 46151 USA

I have read the appropriate standards and agree toabide by them lsquo Yes lsquo No

Standards for Developer Members and Industry Membersare online at wwwasp-softwareorgjoin

Category of Membership

(Select either lsquoDeveloperrsquo or one of the various Industrycategories)

lsquo Developer

Industry Memberlsquo Vendorlsquo Online Distributorlsquo Online Developerlsquo User Grouplsquo PressMedialsquo Consultantlsquo Shareware Enthusiast

CompanyProduct Description(120 characters or less required if web site link is requested)

Please PRINT Clearly

REQUIRED FIELDS

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Street Address

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StateProvince

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Private Phone (ASP use)

Private Email Address (ASP use)

Do you wish to have your listing included in the public

member database lsquo Yes lsquo No

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Page 3: ASPects July 2012 Convention Special Issue · 2012. 7. 5. · July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 3 The Biggest Mistake You Can Ever Make by Jiri Novotny Dextronet.comT he biggest

July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 3

The Biggest Mistake You Can Ever Make

by Jiri NovotnyDextronetcom

The biggest mistake you can ever make is to wing italone

Being a mISV is awesome But I think that doingit all alone and never fully connecting with other mISVs isnot awesome Irsquom not talking about getting a co-founder orteam members herendashwhile doing that can be incrediblyhelpful I am talking about something even more fundamen-tal

Is it possible that by not connecting with other mISVsyou are preventing your business from growing to the nextlevel Is it possible that your business will be gone in fiveyears just because you didnrsquot connect with other mISVsIn this article you will find the answer

There is a certain point when things get so complex andadvanced that you just canrsquot figure some stuff out foryourself Being a mISV means running a business which isone of the most complex endeavors a human being can everpossibly do

If you are serious about your business you must connectwith other professionals Most people do this by joining alldifferent sorts of forums and communitiesndasha marketingforum SEO forum ecommerce forum entrepreneurialforum etc But for a mISV that might not be the best wayto play this game For example if you join a SEO forumyou will completely immerse yourself into the SEO worldBut you will probably miss the bigger picture You will betweaking some obscure little things on your website adnauseam while you could double your business in the sametime by doing something different When it comes to SEOor any other area you need to extract 80 of the value in20 of the effort and move on

Have you ever fully connected with another mISVauthor who runs a business on a higher or an equal level toyours Think about this really Maybe you are introvertedMaybe you are afraid that other people will steal your ideasMaybe you donrsquot want to share because you feel vulnerableor because you think that others donrsquot deserve your knowl-edge and experience But any of this doesnrsquot matter Letrsquosassume for a moment you can put these things aside

As the first step join the Association of SoftwareProfessionals (ASP) Compared to public forums it has onetremendous advantage Itrsquos private You have to pay $100to join and the members are screened (but donrsquot worry youwill get accepted) The things you post in the ASP discus-sion will never appear on Google

Being an ASP member is not just about success but alsoabout friendship and community The feeling you actuallybelong somewhere should not be underestimated Theoutside world might never quite ldquogetrdquo you and what you do

(often trying to ldquohelprdquo you get a ldquorealrdquo job) but the ASP isfull of people just like you

If you want your business to be sustainable in thelong-term and still exist and prosper in five years from nowyou need to burst your personal little bubble which couldprevent you from seeing the bigger picture

Get yourself immersed in lively discussion with othersuccessful mISVs Ask for feedback ask for advice Whensomeone else glances at your website or product he can seesomething that you are completely missing And yet evensuch tiny little details can sometimes have an absurd impacton your bottom line

Get different kind of feedback for a change Youprobably already get enough feedback from your users Butin the ASP hundreds of years of experience of other fellowmISVrsquos can be often summed up in just a few sentencestailored exactly for you and your business Such advice canpropel your business to the next level Fresh eyes arepriceless For example your customers will almost nevertell you to raise prices even if it would make perfect sensefrom the business stand-point But other mISVs will Allyou have to do is ask

Is it possible that you have one leg on the gas pedal andanother on the brake Well there is an easy way to find

4 ASPects Convention Special July 2012

outndashjoin ASP ask for feedback and perhaps get in a deeperprivate conversation with someone specific ideally some-one that you can in turn help in some way as well Youwould be quite surprised by the fact that other mISVs areoften overjoyed to help their fellows

In a way we all live in a personal bubble And thatrsquosgood having your own private world is fun and feels goodBut sometimes you need to make your bubble larger

Ever heard of the networkeffect This applies to manythings For example two con-nected telephones are far farless valuable than 100 tele-phones The more nodes youadd to the network the morepowerful the network becomesThe network has far greatervalue than the sum of its partsAll this is well known But whatis less known is that by joininga network the node itself alsobecomes more powerful Whenyou become a part of the Asso-ciation of Software Profession-als you make the network morepowerful But more importantlyyou will also make yourselfmore powerful This element isoften overlooked

Maybe you are in a comfortable position right now andare not really feeling like growing your business Let metell you one thingndashI donrsquot know anyone who has done thework and created success for himself who regrets it andthinks ldquoOh boy if only I had browsed the internet morewatched more TV and slacked off morerdquo

You have probably heard of the ultra-famous bookThink and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill Perhaps the booksounds like some new-age woo-woo but Napoleon actuallywent and interviewed over 500 American millionairesacross nearly 20 years including Thomas Edison Alexan-der Graham Bell and Henry Ford Do you know what thefirst rule in Think and Grow Rich is The first rule is calledldquoThe Master Mindrdquo Itrsquos about synergy betweenlike-minded individuals I think that if Napoleon Hill thinksitrsquos that important then there must be something to it Byjoining the ASP you will create your own Master Mind Allyou have to do is to participate in the discussionndashask foradvice and give advice in return

And it doesnrsquot have to end with advice While I thinkthat ldquosynergyrdquo is the most over-used over-hyped buzzwordthat wersquove ever invented I also think the closest a mISVcan get to synergy is when he forms partnerships andorjoint-ventures with other mISVs This can help both mISVsgrow their business more than they could on their own

Never forget why being a mISV is awesome

Itrsquos awesome because you have total freedom There is noboss You work when you want When you wake up eachday chances are you are richer because orders come in247 There is unlimited upside You grow and developyourself holistically as you have to wear many differenthats unlike cubicle slaves in corporate jobs Software willbe needed even more in the future because we live in theinformation age If you want to quadruple your income noone is stopping you (Try to do that in a regular job) Youcan build true wealth You can have real positive impact onthe world

But all that is possible only if you can sustain and growyour business Being in a local maximum can be comfort-able but it might not be sustainable I think that stagnationis a myth Your business is either growing or dying If youcanrsquot make it grow it should be alarming to you If yourbusiness is stagnating it probably means it is growing anddying at roughly the same rate But you can change that Ifyou want to grow your business you need others to expandyour reality

Join the ASP todaywwwasp-softwareorgjoin

PS You will also get a cool ldquoASP memberrdquo badge foryour website which can increase visitor trust one of thescarcest internet commodities in 2012Jiri Novotny is the founder of wwwdextronetcom andauthor of Swift To-Do List the number one task and notesorganizer for Windows If you need a powerful list viewcontrol for NET WinForms then check out Better ListViewat wwwcomponentowlcombetter-listviewReach Jiri at novotny dextronetcom - he is happy to chatand trade ideas

ASP Indie Games SIG

by Gregg SeelhoffCharter Executive ASP IndieGames SIG

Did you know that the Association of SoftwareProfessionals has a SIG (Special Interest Group)specifically for game developers The ASP Indie

Games SIG is intended to provide a community in whichindependent game developers can improve their productsand businesses through information exchange collabora-tion and social interaction

Joining the Games SIG (for short) is easy it requiresnothing more than an ASP membership and participation inthe SIG forums [lsquoaspsiggamesrsquo from httpmembersasp-softwareorgnewsgroups] There are (currently) noadditional dues or requirements through an active interestin games or game development would make a certainamount of sense

July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 5

6 ASPects Convention Special July 2012

Estimates of the current size of the video game industryvary from a conservative $251 billion US [ESA] to a trulystaggering figure of $1050 billion US [Avista Partners]and it continues to grow with average growth projected tobe around 12 annually through 2015 [Gartner] Most ofthat growth is expected to be in digital game downloads anarea in which the ASP is a pioneer

What makes the game industry great though is not itssize but its diversity There are enough genres and nicheswithin the field to allow for both huge blockbuster (akaAAA) titles on the latest consoles and more containedefforts from smaller independent teams (ie ldquoindiesrdquo) on just about any platform desktop mobile online consoleand others The opportunities are almost limitless

Making games is fun Most programmers work on atleast one game if only for their own enjoyment some ofthese developers make money from selling games andthousands actually turn game development into a careerThe game industry however is full of challenges andpitfalls so give yourself a competitive advantage by joiningus in the ASP Indie Games SIG todayGregg Seelhoff is the Charter Executive of the ASP IndieGames SIG You can find him and other ASP game develop-ers in the lsquoaspsiggamesrsquo forum as well as on the HowGames are Different panel at ISVCon 2012

PAD Specification Update

by Joel DiamondPAD Specification Chair

Plans are being made for a major overhaul to the entirePAD platform beginning this summer Members willbe notified in the very near future with the full plans

for both changes and enhancements to the PAD Specifica-tion as well as the authoring tools shortly after ISVCON

Taking place immediately the current specification willbe maintained but the affiliate extensions that have beenadded to prior to the current v31 and that are supported byPADGEN 31 PADManager will be ldquoeditedrdquo Support forV-Share (NetSuite) Digital Candle NorthStar Order1Yaskifo as well as the Digital River brands EmetrixDigiBuy and RegSoft will be removed as they are nolonger in service or used by software publishers based ona review of over 150000 PAD files

An entirely new list of affiliate and ecommerce candi-dates are being reviewed and qualified to replace v 31Feel free to nominate any affiliate service or major softwareecommerce provider by email to joeld wugnetcom

How to Capture a Screen

by Jerry SternWebmaster Software Knowledge Base

Ispent some time looking at software screen shotsrecently It was something of an eye opener As in itcaused considerable visual stress to look at the ugly

things They were for the most part worthless Somewere just plain screen captures or of programs that justarenrsquot very pretty when you look at the main screen froma distance of five feet Some were box shots and thosewerenrsquot always of products that are available in aboxndashtherersquos another problem there And some were justlogos with no tag line or URL Others werenrsquot sizedproperly for their likely use either too big or too tiny ormuch much too tall A few had a centered screen imagewith wider text beloweffectively shrinking theartwork down to unread-able

Itrsquos not just that thesescreenshots donrsquot showwhat the program can dothey donrsquot even identifywhat program wersquore look-ing at

Letrsquos go through the process of building a readable

screenshot step by step Itrsquos not just run grab paste saveTherersquos some planning involved here Most of the samplesare for the Windows 7 edition of Microsoft Paint

First Consider the Viewer

How will the screenshot be used On your websiteshowing steps 1 2 3 of a project So the images will beshown big and there will be sample data or art or projectsin the samples Those are very easy images plan themcapture and convert as-needed and generally done

Marketing images are another image type altogether

July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 7

and the rest of these steps will cover images that sell Forexample will the screenshot be listed in a PAD file fordisplay by a download site Then the images will beshown small very small with maybe an option to clickfor a full-size look but maybe not

These are very different uses In the first the image iseducational not marketing In the second itrsquos an attemptto call for action usually a download or a purchase Thatrsquosmarketing and marketing isnrsquot reality itrsquos a visualrepresentation with a purpose To achieve that purposeadd text logos icons artwork anything that will expressthat purpose but not overwhelm the viewer Itrsquos closer toa title page than an advertisement

Second Prepare and Capture

Before capturing the images for your screenshot removeany distractions from your screensndashin Windows thatusually means either turning off the Aero options orsetting your desktop background to solid white Turn offauto-arrange for the desktop icons and drag any iconsaway from where your program will appear during thescreenshotndashusually that means removing the top row oficons from your screen so that the top bar isnrsquot showingsee-through effects of your desktop

If your program is always full-screen reset the resolu-tion of the desktop to the lowest possible pixel size thatwill make your program look good That might be smallerthan a usable size for the program this is about visualsnot usability If your program can be sized skip this step

Now run your program Identify which screen showsthat the program is unique wonderful and that itrsquos reallyattractive The Windows shortcut to capture the activewindow is alt-Print Screen sometimes shown as PrtScrnon your keyboard Nothing appears to happen when youpress those keysndashthatrsquos OK Go to any painting programlike Microsoft Paint and paste in the imagendashControl-Vwill generally work Save the result Here is the resulting

screenshot for MS-Paint (bottom left) Itrsquos not really usefulyetndashitrsquos mainly whitespace and you canrsquot read theprogram name

Now resize the program Take it down to the smallestpossible size it can be on-screen and then enlarge it untilthe menus and toolbars or most of the design elementslook good Capture that

Next yoursquoll need supplemental artwork The logo forthe program is good and as the developer yoursquoll have theoriginal drawings In this case there is just the programicon so for MS-Paint Irsquove copied the program from thestart menu right-clicked the desktop and chosen to pastea new shortcut to the program Then Iclick elsewhere to remove the lsquoselectedrsquobox from the image and press Ctrl-PrintScreen to capture the entire screenpaste it into a paint program and crop itdown to just the icon Finally Iresampled the icon to double-height anddouble-width any more that would lookbadly aliased or stair-stepped along theedges and ugly

Bad Visuals

Some programs are ugly or boring but they create greatprintouts For these programs consider capturing theprintouts as art for the screen capture Install any lsquoprint -to- PDFrsquo driver and make a single-page PDF printout ofthe program doing its most dramatic work Convert thatPDF to PNG format and crop down to a visual detail thatwill work well on-screen and use that as a major part ofthe screenshot

Combine the Artwork

Now yoursquoll need a good art program start by creating anew image Import and size the screen shot Frequentlythat will be full size but it doesnrsquot have to be Import anyother art yoursquoll use arrange it and leave room for sometext

Some programs arenrsquot going to look good full-screenno matter how you adjust the program size Consider

8 ASPects Convention Special July 2012

cropping the screen capture to only show the top-leftcorner of the interface that will show the program nameand usually the file menus or toolbars That may beenough wersquore looking for pretty not complete

Finally add some text Download sites arenrsquot greatabout showing the web address of the program so Igenerally will include that in the image as well

Building an image in a drawing program will result ina big image Save that and export the result in a reason-able size for web use 600 pixels wide and not more than300 high is probably as big as you can get away with fora screenshot on most websites Some download sites maywant more specific sizes export them from your largeoriginal artworkndashthatrsquos going to provide the best possibleartwork Remember to design first and resize last

I kept this sample screenshot for Paint fairly simpleUsually thatrsquos ideal you can add more lines of text orstart adding shadows and shading but remember that theimage is going to be seen small Walk away from yourmonitor and look at the capture from across the roomndashitshould still be clear and should still identify the programin a simple and iconic wayJerry Stern is the editor of ASPects the ASPrsquos Coordina-tor of Anti-Spyware Operations runs Startupwarecoma n d Wo r d P e r f e c t o r g a n d i s o n l i n e a twwwsciencetranslationscom

Customer Relationship Management for microISVs

by Al Harbergthe press release guy from DP Directory Inc

Customer relationship management (CRM) is goodsoftware marketing CRM is a simple notion that canhelp software developers sell more of their applica-

tions It costs most businesses less money to generate salesfrom old customers than it does to find new ones

Manage your customers

The concept of CRM was popularized by Don Peppers andMartha Rogers in their book The One to One FuturendashBuilding Relationships One Customer at a Time

Today most of us in the software development industrythink of CRM as a database system that coordinates all ofour software sales marketing and demographic informa-tion By contrast Peppers and Rogers talk about CRM as acore management process and not as a technology chal-lenge

First the authors tell us we have to identify potentialcustomers Second we have to figure out what they wantand need how our software products and services can fill

that need and how to optimize the lifetime value of eachblock of customers Third we need to develop a relation-ship with our customers so we can know enough about theirtastes and preferences to make intelligent decisions aboutthe software that wersquoll be marketing And fourth we needto find a way to customize our products services and salesmessages to meet each individual customerrsquos needs Ormore realistically we need to define specific groups ofprospects and customers and target them with communica-tions that are tailored to their needs

Too often developers create a new application becausetheyrsquore unable to find a program that meets a specific needInstead of making development and marketing decisionsbased upon the developerrsquos personal need for software itmakes a lot more sense to target a larger group of peopledefine their needs and build an application that solvesproblems that a significant number of people are wrestlingwith

Before Peppers and Rogers published their bookmarketers spoke about managing products Peppers andRogers urge us to manage customers too We need todifferentiate our customers in much the same way that wedifferentiate our products and services Managing customer

July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 9

relationships touches all of the processes that are crucial tothe success of our business

Make Clients Feel Important

Harry Beckwith discusses our relationships with all of ourclients In his book The Invisible Touch - The Four Keys toModern Marketing Beckwith reminds us that business isabout people and that relationships matter Lots

If we want to make initial software sales and encouragefuture sales we need to find a way to make our clientsknow that we think that theyrsquore important Beckwithpresents eight keys to lasting relationships

(1) Natural affinity

Convince prospects that you share things in common withthem For example you understand their need for educa-tional software for their children because you have childrentoo and you know how difficult it is to find good softwareYou understand their need for Windows productivityapplications because you too spend too much time doingroutine work on your computer If you want to sell moresoftware talk to prospects about them and not aboutyourself But be sure to let your prospects know that youunderstand their problems

(2) Trust

Beckwith urges us to show integrity because integritybuilds trust In the software development industry thismeans not presenting prospects with sales hype Perhaps itmeans not pre-checking the box that says ldquoYes send me theprogram on CD too for only $10(US) additionalrdquo Somewould argue that integrity means not showing a box shot onyour website if you donrsquot offer a boxed product

(3) Speed

In business response times matter Create a website thatdisplays your marketing message quickly Answer pros-pectsrsquo and customersrsquo inquiries briskly And send customerstheir unlock keys as quickly as possible

(4) Apparent Expertise

Look like an expert by behaving like an expert Communi-cating expertise to your software clients is clearly moreimportant than having credentials They donrsquot care aboutyour university degrees They care about your responses totheir support questions Words matter Theyrsquore tools Learnhow to use them more effectively and build your expertisein your customersrsquo minds

(5) Sacrifice

Do something above-and-beyond for your customersDevelop a reputation for working on weekends and holi-days to deliver the best support in the industry Add thefeatures to your application that they need

(6) Completeness

Yoursquoll sell more stuff Beckwith urges if you can find away to solve all of your clientsrsquo problems Many softwaredevelopers have built a family of products that help theirtarget audience solve all of the problems in a particularfield

(7) Magic Words

Say ldquothank yourdquo Ask how people are doing Use yourcustomersrsquo names when writing to them

(8) Passion

Customers and prospects can tell if you love what yoursquoredoing Show them how interested you are in your products

10 ASPects Convention Special July 2012

and in them

Pick the Low-hanging Fruit

In his book Your Marketing Sucks Mark Stevens takescustomer relationships a step further by suggesting thatworking with existing customers will generate the easiestmoney that wersquoll ever make Translated into the softwaredevelopment industry Stevensrsquo ideas include cross-sellingother applications that yoursquove written

Stevens would also encourage microISVs to get theircustomers to buy somebody elsersquos software that theyrsquoreoffering on an affiliate basis Select another developer whomarkets excellent applications The other developer has totarget the same group that yoursquore targeting and they canrsquotbe offering a competing application

And the other developerrsquos applications must have thesame appeal as yours For example if your software isknown for its ease of use then you shouldnrsquot select adeveloper whose application is known for being afull-featured powerhouse Instead choose another devel-oper who takes the same minimalist approach to softwaredesign that you do Set up an affiliate relationship with thisother developer and sell their software to your user-base

Encourage your existing customers to upgrade from theLight version to the Standard version and to the Profes-sional version If theyrsquore a home user and theyrsquove bought asingle-user license offer them a family license If theyrsquore abusiness user talk to them about multi-user and sitelicensing

Itrsquos always easier Beckwith tells us to sell to somebodywith whom you already have a relationship

Start with an Easy Sale

Jay Conrad Levinson in his book Guerrilla MarketingExcellence tells us that if we can get prospects to take oneor more soft steps itrsquos easier to get them to take the hardstep of making the purchase For example a softwaredeveloper might encourage prospects to subscribe to anewsletter or to contact them with questions about theirsoftware

Start building a relationship with them and it will beeasier to get them to buy from you Offer them a free flyerbrochure DVD demonstration phone consultation orseminar Establish a relationship with them and then askfor the sale

Selling to Women

Women are three times more likely to recommend a brandto friends and colleagues Help women connect to eachother and they can tell others about your product or serviceSo says Faith Popcorn in her book EVEolution

Popcorn insists that she is not talking aboutword-of-mouth marketing or relationship marketing Thisisnrsquot about putting a simple ldquotell a friend about our soft-

warerdquo link on your website Itrsquos about creating a genuinecommunity around your brand Weight Watchers did thisThey transformed dieting from a private act to a public one

Create a site where people can discuss what theyrsquoreworried about and passionate about If the site is centeredaround your brand then you can get women to join yourbrand And you can build solid relationships with all of theparticipants

What CRM Means for Software Developers

If you decide to adopt customer relationship managementtechniques in your software development business try notto get bogged down in the technical aspects of implement-ing a CRM solution The most important problems that youneed to tackle are defining all of the contact points that youhave with your prospects and customers and deciding howto optimize every one of them By making dozens orhundreds of improvements with your customer interactionsyoursquoll build far better relationships with your target audi-ence And that will mean more sales more referrals and abetter reputation for your company

CRM is good software marketingSince 1984 Al Harberg has been helping software develop-ers write press releases and send them to the editors Youcan check out more CRM ideas on his new SoftwareMarketing Glossary on wwwdpdirectorycomglossary-creativityhtmcrm_at_the_speed_of_light

July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 11

Call YourselfAre You Impossible to Reach

by Jerry SternEditor ASPects

Irsquom surprised by basic web page failures amongmicroISVs I follow a link to a product Irsquove heard aboutfor years or was recommended to me and I see well

crab grass Or whatrsquos left of the lawn has turned brown Nowait thatrsquos another problem Or is it

We run software and technology businesses and manyof us are guilty of liking our technology so much that wewant to just do that Be the programmer all the time andnever delegate or outsource that work and never move onto keeping our offices running But thatrsquos basic introductionto Management material management isnrsquot productionManagement is hiring firing delegation training andsupervision and making sure that everything else gets doneeven if you have to outsource hire or do it yourself tomake sure that everything gets done

The common error in a small business is skippingsupervision ldquoWhat I work alone I donrsquot need supervi-sionrdquo Yeah right Unless you work off proper to-do liststhat include double-checks that your systems are workingyou arenrsquot supervising either your own workload or yourtechnology For now Irsquoll leave lsquosupervising yourselfrsquo as anexercise for the programmer herersquos the short versionndashmakea list and assign hours to each item You can steal hoursfrom each item if you have to but canrsquot cut any category tozero Especially not supervision marketing or bookkeep-ing

Programmer Phone Home

But back to supervising your technology as thatrsquos what Isee failing from the outside world thatrsquos what your custom-ers see Business management classes usually tell you Callyourself Itrsquos really that simple Pick up a phone and dialyour number No thatrsquos not it Go to a search engine findyour web page find your phone number dial it and leavea message Oh and do it from outside your office Repeatit once a month and repeat that for each of your contactmethods The first try might result in shock however

What yoursquore looking for are communication road blocksA bad phone number or none Web mail pages that nolonger work Missing paper-mail addresses A full phonemail box or a generic answering service message A webpage that displays security warnings in WebOfTrust(mywotcom) or at SiteAdvisorcom Web pages that gonowhere or display badly on browsers you donrsquot use Haveyou visited your sites from an iPAD yet Sure you want touse Flash animation for your main welcome message Itrsquosnot universal never was and the usage percentages are

dropping nowOOPS story 1 I visited a microISVrsquos web site to look at

his product His site shows up in Danish with an Englishbutton which refreshes the page and once again shows meDanish Nice site but all I can read in Danish are thetechnology words that donrsquot normally get translated Theauthor doesnrsquot really visit his own site in English appar-ently And neither does anyone else Lost sale

OOPS story 2 I find someone on LinkedIn I call theirphone number and it goes to voicemail and the voicemailis full Or their email bounces unknown recipient Lostopportunity

OOPS story 3 OK this one was me I visit a friendshow them my website Itrsquos too wide to fit her low-resolu-tion screen without scrolling it doesnrsquot resize to fit thescreen width Lost readability

OOPS story 4 I see a web URL in the email address ofa contact and look at the site The site looks like it wascreated 12 years ago the copyright date is 2003 and theweb links go to lsquofilewebdetailsasprsquo Web page closedlost another sale

OOPS story 5 Nice product site no contact informationon it Nothing but links to a third-party sales companymaybe Paypal No phone email webmail or paper mailaddress no hint of which time zone continent or starsystem is the closest Sorry I donrsquot buy anything from off-planet yet

Right about now I hear a few comments ldquoI canrsquotpublish my phone number I work from homerdquo or ldquoIrsquomuncomfortable with spoken English for callsrdquo ldquoIrsquom on thePacific RIM and my time zone is very different from mycustomersrdquo or ldquoI donrsquot want emails just buy my productand leave me alonerdquo OK your customers can and will buyfrom a company whose expectation of normal communica-tions matches their own

Itrsquos OK to not have any one of these on your site aphone number or an email address or a physical deliveryaddress Itrsquos never OK to not have a mailing address (postoffice boxes are OK) Itrsquos a bad idea to not have most ofthese

Phone number The phone number has to actuallyreach a message that identifies your company or mainproduct A generic message from an cell phone service thatldquo555-1212 is not available Please leave a messagerdquo is notacceptable The phone number doesnrsquot have to actually ring(or wake you up on the far side of the planet) but it has toreliably take messages The number doesnrsquot even have to bea device a virtual phone number like Google Voice isperfectly OK you can set virtual phones to ring at anothernumber during some hours and go directly to voicemail the

12 ASPects Convention Special July 2012

rest of the time Definitely list your office hours and timezone near your phone number

Email address There has to be a way to reach you byemail on your web site It doesnrsquot have to be a plain-textemail address a working web-mail form is OK

Mailing address Yes your mailing address has to beon your web site I have to teach end users about onlinesecurity I show them how to tell if an order page is en-crypted how to see who the company taking orders is andsometimes how to look up the reputation of a site or see ifthere are complaints And I stress not ordering fromcompanies that hide their locations Look Irsquom not going toshow up at your door (Itrsquos happened to me once and thatcharacter did buy software but it took an hour to get himout the door again and I canrsquot work an hour for a $20 saleAnd thatrsquos why I use a post office box) But if you hideyour city and country you arenrsquot going to get sales fromyour neighborsndashremember that all search engines aremoving towards lsquolocal results firstrsquo And you wonrsquot getorders from anyone who knows that in case an online orderfails there has to be a way to reach someone to fix things

Again I hear cries of despair But Irsquom in LowerSlobbovia Or for those who havenrsquot heard of it EastElbonia is pretty much the same Itrsquos somewhere you wonrsquotadmit yoursquore from Perhaps the real problem isnrsquot that youroffices are remotendashIrsquove done business with great companieson six continents The good ones arenrsquot hiding theirlocations Companies that hide their locations are automati-cally suspiciousndashwhat else is hidden in their software

Web sites All of your web sites must work in all themajor browsers If you sell Mac software they had betterwork perfectly when viewed from an iPAD Preferablyevery domain you use should have a really sharp and goodlooking web site But if you have a domain you havenrsquottouched in years and canrsquot be bothered to update it thenredirect that domain to your best web site Kill the old sitemove on and donrsquot leave straggler web sites lying aroundIf you must leave an old site un-updated run a link checkeron it and fix whatever is broken

Donrsquot skip any steps on these checks It really does workbest if you leave your office and then try to communicatefrom the outside world Then you see that your web site hasthe wrong country code on the phone number or it doesnrsquotdisplay properly on other browsers or itrsquos blocked by websecurity software or the links are local and broken Or onebrowser is flagging a site certificate as bad or a securitytoolbar is popping warnings

Itrsquos the equivalent in a big company of dialing the mainswitchboard trying to get past the phone board past theexecutive assistant to the vice president and actuallyhaving an executive listen to you long enough to hear the10-second version of what yoursquore selling Sales pitchesdonrsquot work without communication donrsquot lose your salebecause you canrsquot be reachedJerry Stern is the editor of ASPects the ASPrsquos Coordinatorof Anti-Spyware Operations runs Startupwarecom andW o r d P e r f e c t o r g a n d i s o n l i n e a twwwsciencetranslationscom

July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 13

14 ASPects Convention Special July 2012

Software Passwords and Software Marketing

by Al Harbergthe press release guy from DP Directory Inc

If your software asks users to create a password toprotect the privacy of their information then you havean opportunity to offer additional value to your custom-

ers And that can mean increased software sales additionalrecommendations and good will for your company in yourmarketing niche

Help your users choose effective passwords Accordingto the ldquoWorst Passw0rdsrdquo article in the April 2012 issue ofAARP Bulletin online users have a terrible track record forchoosing effective passwords to protect their security

The most popular password the article tells us isldquopasswordrdquo Changing the lower-case letter ldquoordquo to a zero toform passw0rd is the 16th most popular password choice

The top 25 list includes such clever choices as 1234561234567 12345678 and 123123 ldquoqwertyrdquo and ldquoletmeinrdquoare also on the list of popular user choices

Every day computer users worry about their privacy Ifyour software asks your users to create a password thenyou have an opportunity to show that you care about theirprivacy and security Donrsquot let them create low-qualitypasswords

Andrei Belogortseff is the CEO of WinAbility Softwareat wwwwinabilitycom a Utah-based software developerof security and password utilities WinAbility marketsUSBCrypt a program that makes it simple to encrypt andpassword-protect your USB drive as well as other remov-able and fixed drives

ldquoItrsquos important to protect your data with a long complexpasswordrdquo Andrei tells us ldquoUse a mix of upper-caseletters lower-case letters digits and special charactersrdquo

USBCrypt has a built-in password recovery function thatlets users recreate lost or forgotten passwords On a typical

modern business PC it can take 30 minutes to recover athree-digit password that contains only lower-case lettersBy contrast a five-digit password made up of a mix ofupper- and lower-case letters can take up to 15 days torecover And a seven-digit password that mixes upper- andlower-case letters with numbers and special characters cantake thousands of years to recover

If your application asks users to choose a password youcan help them select wisely Build a list of terrible pass-words into your application and donrsquot let your users selectthese easy-to-guess codes Examine the passwords that theycreate and encourage them to use longer passwords witha mix of characters

ldquoBe sure to remind your users of the flip-side of using acomplex passwordrdquo Andrei tells us ldquoIf you forget yourpassword it will be nearly impossible to recover itrdquo

Add your password protection information to yourwebsite and make it part of your software marketingpresentation By creating keyword-rich pages that describeyour thoughts about privacy security encryption andpasswords yoursquoll get more search engine traffic frompeople who include these words when they search forsoftware like yours

Use your applicationrsquos help file to provide your userswith a short explanation of why passwords are importantTheyrsquoll appreciate the guidance and theyrsquoll be much moreinclined to recommend your software to their friends andcolleagues Helping customers choose powerful passwordsis good software marketingSince 1984 Al Harberg has been helping software develop-ers write press releases and submit them to the editors Youcan check out h is press re lease services onwwwdpdirectorycom

ASP Member News

Slimbrowser ndash a Fast and Secure Tabbed Web Browser

FlashPeak Inc has released SlimBrowser V41 a compacttabbed browser that is super-fast easy to use and packedwith wonderful features including popup-blocker formfiller autologin spell checker site groups ad filteringquick search and much more

SlimBrowser manages web sites as child windows withclickable tab labels in a single main window to avoid taskbar clutter With SlimBrowser searching the web iseasyndashtype in the quick-search box and press enter to get thesearch results you want immediately You can either use thepredefined list of search engines or easily create your own

favorite search enginesSlimBrowser also includes a URL filter which blocks

web pages and components by address matching Further-more the advanced in-page ad-filter automatically elimi-nates the obtrusive floating images and flash animationsfrom the original web pages

SlimBrowser includes site grouping functionalitieswhich enables you to save a number of sites as a group andopen the group of sites next time with a single click Theform filler fills your personal information into web formswith the best field-detection accuracy and saves you a lot ofrepetitive typing

SlimBrowser is free from wwwflashpeakcomsbrowser

July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 15

Affordable Cloud-Based Speed Reading Software forColleges and College Prep

StepWare Inc announces the availability of AceReaderOnline the Cloud version of its flagship WindowsMacapplication AceReader Pro AceReader Online is a power-ful educational tool that assesses improves and monitorsstudentsrsquo reading speed fluency and comprehension

AceReader Online teaches students to break bad readinghabits such as subvocalization (pronouncing the words intheir minds as they read) and regression (reading passagesmore than once) This educational software also helpsexpand studentsrsquo eye fixation zone so they can readmultiple words at a time

The online version of AceReader offers features thatbenefit college university and high school teachers andstudents Students can work independently on a personal-ized self-adjusting reading course or choose from a libraryof reading assessment and improvement regimens Educa-tors can monitor each studentrsquos progress by viewing reportsfor each student consisting of reading speeds comprehen-sion scores graphs activity logs and much more

Since AceReader Online includes 13 levels of textcomplexity it is being used by younger students (ie gradeschools) and even for students who need vision training (iestudents with dyslexia)

AceReader Online has been used by 30 colleges andschools during the 20112012 school year with greatsuccess and is now is available to all education institutionswwwacereadercom

Create Handwriting Fonts In Many Major Languages

High-Logic BV has released Scanahand 4 an applicationthat makes it easy for each member of the family to createcustom hand-written fonts for use in Microsoft WordExcel PowerPoint Notepad and any Windows programScanahand lets you quickly create a font install it inWindows in seconds and use it immediately You can typenotes and cards in your favorite word processing softwareand print them in your own handwriting

Scanahand lets you create signature fonts set a font styleby going bold or italic has the ability to automaticallyinclude diacritical marks and provides full Unicodesupport New features in version 4 include a smart charactermapper that automatically links missing letters to theirupperlower case counterpart and a brand new algorithm forcalculating the best possible left and right-side bearings forthe basic Latin character set The tracing method used byScanahand has been further improved to generate evenmore stunning fonts

The Premium Edition also includes a Template Editorthat allows users to create templates each containing a userdefined set of characters This allows the generation of

fonts that support numerous languages not available in theStandard Editionwwwhigh-logiccom

News amp Press Corner

Microsoft Announces Windows 8 Upgrade Offer

Microsoft Corp announced the availability of the WindowsUpgrade Offer for consumers purchasing a qualifying newWindows 7 PC The Windows Upgrade Offer providesconsumers who buy an eligible Windows 7 PC the optionto purchase a downloadable upgrade to Windows 8 Pro foran estimated retail price of just $1499 during the time ofthe promotion which will be redeemable when Windows 8is generally available The Windows Upgrade Offer is justthe first of many consumer offers that will roll out inconjunction with the general availability of Windows 8

ldquoWersquove seen a great interest in Windows 8 especiallygiven the availability of the Windows 8 Release Previewthis week and yet we know many consumers want a newPC nowrdquo said Tami Reller chief marketing officer andchief financial officer of Windows at Microsoft ldquoTheWindows Upgrade Offer gives people the flexibility topurchase the new Windows 7 PC they need today with theknowledge they can easily get Windows 8 when itrsquos avail-ablerdquo

This program is available for consumers buying newWindows 7 PCs that are preinstalled with Windows 7 HomeBasic Home Premium Professional or Ultimate andinclude a matching and valid OEM Certificate of Authentic-ity The Windows 7 PC must be purchased new during theeligibility period June 2 2012ndashJan 31 2013wwwwindowsupgradeoffercom

WinZipreg Android App Now Available

WinZip Multi-platform Product Line Extends MobileSupport with Free Android App

WinZip Computing a Corel company today introducedWinZipreg for Android a new free mobile app now availableon Google Play

ldquoWith our free Android app wersquore extending the powerof WinZip to new mobile customers and delivering anessential tool for opening zipped files on the go Our firstmobile app WinZip for iOS enjoyed a great reception andhas already been downloaded by more than a millioniPhone and iPad users Now with apps for Android andiOS wersquore offering WinZip tools to customers on both ofthe industryrsquos most popular mobile platformsrdquo said PatrickNichols President of WinZipwwwwinzipcom

16 ASPects Convention Special July 2012

Supporting MembersIshai Shotten ACampG Software Ltd wwwbeejackcomAdriana Iordan Avangate BV wwwavangatecomYu Tao CHENGDU YIWO Tech Development Co Ltd wwweaseuscomDennis Reinhardt DAIR Computer Systems wwwdaircomAlexander Halser EC Software GmbH wwwec-softwarecomArmel Asselin Ellie Computing wwwelliecomputingcomErik Pelton Erik M Pelton amp Associates wwwerikpeltoncomGeraldine Joffre HDRsoft wwwhdrsoftcomGerben Abbink Monkfish XML Software wwwxmlblueprintcomMatt Smith Nevolution Digital LLC wwwnevolutioncomMiguel Cano Onekit wwwonekitcomCharles Born Plimus Inc wwwplimuscomIvan Radmore Pookanyoni Limited wwwpookanyonicomAndrew Butler R3 Data Recovery Ltd wwwr3datarecoverycomWilliam Shaw Regentstreet Research IncOmer Faiyaz Remo Software wwwremosoftwarecomRay Park Rescue Geeks Inc wwwutouchposcomMatt Humphries RevenueWire wwwrevenuewirecomAnna-Jayne Metcalfe Riverblade LimitedTim Thousand Scooter Software wwwscootersoftwarecomGarett Finney SoftwareCommercials Inc wwwsoftwarecommercialscomDana Doten TeamComp Inc wwwnewsbincomPiotr Sulgostowski TTS Company Sp z o o wwwttscomplMiguel Angel Martin Vittalia Internet SL wwweazelcomLiu Ping wwwhodosoftcom

Directors Officers and Committee Chairs Board of DirectorsMitchell Vincent Chair mitch ksoftwarenetDan Hite Dan TedCoSoftwarecomEd Pulliam pulliam ouisoftcomHoward Sobel howards wugnetcomJason Kiwaluk jkiwaluk shawcaMahmoud Metwally mkm giantmatrixcom

OfficersGianfranco Berardi President president asp-softwareorgVice President vp asp-softwareorgAndrei Belogortseff Secretary secretary asp-softwareorgTerry Jepson Treasurer treasurer asp-softwareorg

Staff Positions amp Committee ChairsRich Holler Executive Director execdir asp-softwareorgJerry Stern Coordinator of anti-spyware operations

ASPects Editor aspects asp-softwareorg

Sue Pichotta Conference Managerconference asp-softwareorg

Andrei Belogortseff Download Sitedsw asp-softwareorg

Events Coordinator events asp-softwareorgMichael Marshall Ombudsman

wwwasp-softwareorgombSteve Faleiro Outreach Chair outreach asp-softwareorgJoel Diamond PAD Chair pad-chair asp-softwareorgPublic Relations publicrelations asp-softwareorgSergeant-at-Arms saa asp-softwareorgVolunteer Coordinator

volunteer asp-softwareorgDon Waterfield Webmaster webmaster asp-softwareorgTom Guthery IV New Member Welcome

welcome asp-softwareorgWebsite Committee Chair president asp-softwareorg

ASP Membership Form

Before submitting your application for membershipvisit our website at wwwasp-softwareorgjoin andreview the membership standards and requirementsThere are two categories of ASP Membership Please makesure you have reviewed the appropriate information andstandards page

Mail applications toRichard HollerASP Executive DirectorPO Box 1522Martinsville IN 46151 USA

I have read the appropriate standards and agree toabide by them lsquo Yes lsquo No

Standards for Developer Members and Industry Membersare online at wwwasp-softwareorgjoin

Category of Membership

(Select either lsquoDeveloperrsquo or one of the various Industrycategories)

lsquo Developer

Industry Memberlsquo Vendorlsquo Online Distributorlsquo Online Developerlsquo User Grouplsquo PressMedialsquo Consultantlsquo Shareware Enthusiast

CompanyProduct Description(120 characters or less required if web site link is requested)

Please PRINT Clearly

REQUIRED FIELDS

Name

Company Name

Street Address

Street Address

CityTown

StateProvince

ZIPPostal Code

Country

Public Phone (Voice)

Public Phone (FAX)

Public Email Address

Web Site URL (Required if web site link is requested)

Private Phone (ASP use)

Private Email Address (ASP use)

Do you wish to have your listing included in the public

member database lsquo Yes lsquo No

Do you wish to have your website link included on our

ASP website lsquo Yes lsquo No

Signature

VisaMasterCardAmerican Express AuthorizationIf paying by credit card all the following fields are required

Credit Card Number

Expiration Date

Name of Card Holder

Amount to be charged $100 (USD)

CVV2 code (back of card)

Page 4: ASPects July 2012 Convention Special Issue · 2012. 7. 5. · July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 3 The Biggest Mistake You Can Ever Make by Jiri Novotny Dextronet.comT he biggest

4 ASPects Convention Special July 2012

outndashjoin ASP ask for feedback and perhaps get in a deeperprivate conversation with someone specific ideally some-one that you can in turn help in some way as well Youwould be quite surprised by the fact that other mISVs areoften overjoyed to help their fellows

In a way we all live in a personal bubble And thatrsquosgood having your own private world is fun and feels goodBut sometimes you need to make your bubble larger

Ever heard of the networkeffect This applies to manythings For example two con-nected telephones are far farless valuable than 100 tele-phones The more nodes youadd to the network the morepowerful the network becomesThe network has far greatervalue than the sum of its partsAll this is well known But whatis less known is that by joininga network the node itself alsobecomes more powerful Whenyou become a part of the Asso-ciation of Software Profession-als you make the network morepowerful But more importantlyyou will also make yourselfmore powerful This element isoften overlooked

Maybe you are in a comfortable position right now andare not really feeling like growing your business Let metell you one thingndashI donrsquot know anyone who has done thework and created success for himself who regrets it andthinks ldquoOh boy if only I had browsed the internet morewatched more TV and slacked off morerdquo

You have probably heard of the ultra-famous bookThink and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill Perhaps the booksounds like some new-age woo-woo but Napoleon actuallywent and interviewed over 500 American millionairesacross nearly 20 years including Thomas Edison Alexan-der Graham Bell and Henry Ford Do you know what thefirst rule in Think and Grow Rich is The first rule is calledldquoThe Master Mindrdquo Itrsquos about synergy betweenlike-minded individuals I think that if Napoleon Hill thinksitrsquos that important then there must be something to it Byjoining the ASP you will create your own Master Mind Allyou have to do is to participate in the discussionndashask foradvice and give advice in return

And it doesnrsquot have to end with advice While I thinkthat ldquosynergyrdquo is the most over-used over-hyped buzzwordthat wersquove ever invented I also think the closest a mISVcan get to synergy is when he forms partnerships andorjoint-ventures with other mISVs This can help both mISVsgrow their business more than they could on their own

Never forget why being a mISV is awesome

Itrsquos awesome because you have total freedom There is noboss You work when you want When you wake up eachday chances are you are richer because orders come in247 There is unlimited upside You grow and developyourself holistically as you have to wear many differenthats unlike cubicle slaves in corporate jobs Software willbe needed even more in the future because we live in theinformation age If you want to quadruple your income noone is stopping you (Try to do that in a regular job) Youcan build true wealth You can have real positive impact onthe world

But all that is possible only if you can sustain and growyour business Being in a local maximum can be comfort-able but it might not be sustainable I think that stagnationis a myth Your business is either growing or dying If youcanrsquot make it grow it should be alarming to you If yourbusiness is stagnating it probably means it is growing anddying at roughly the same rate But you can change that Ifyou want to grow your business you need others to expandyour reality

Join the ASP todaywwwasp-softwareorgjoin

PS You will also get a cool ldquoASP memberrdquo badge foryour website which can increase visitor trust one of thescarcest internet commodities in 2012Jiri Novotny is the founder of wwwdextronetcom andauthor of Swift To-Do List the number one task and notesorganizer for Windows If you need a powerful list viewcontrol for NET WinForms then check out Better ListViewat wwwcomponentowlcombetter-listviewReach Jiri at novotny dextronetcom - he is happy to chatand trade ideas

ASP Indie Games SIG

by Gregg SeelhoffCharter Executive ASP IndieGames SIG

Did you know that the Association of SoftwareProfessionals has a SIG (Special Interest Group)specifically for game developers The ASP Indie

Games SIG is intended to provide a community in whichindependent game developers can improve their productsand businesses through information exchange collabora-tion and social interaction

Joining the Games SIG (for short) is easy it requiresnothing more than an ASP membership and participation inthe SIG forums [lsquoaspsiggamesrsquo from httpmembersasp-softwareorgnewsgroups] There are (currently) noadditional dues or requirements through an active interestin games or game development would make a certainamount of sense

July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 5

6 ASPects Convention Special July 2012

Estimates of the current size of the video game industryvary from a conservative $251 billion US [ESA] to a trulystaggering figure of $1050 billion US [Avista Partners]and it continues to grow with average growth projected tobe around 12 annually through 2015 [Gartner] Most ofthat growth is expected to be in digital game downloads anarea in which the ASP is a pioneer

What makes the game industry great though is not itssize but its diversity There are enough genres and nicheswithin the field to allow for both huge blockbuster (akaAAA) titles on the latest consoles and more containedefforts from smaller independent teams (ie ldquoindiesrdquo) on just about any platform desktop mobile online consoleand others The opportunities are almost limitless

Making games is fun Most programmers work on atleast one game if only for their own enjoyment some ofthese developers make money from selling games andthousands actually turn game development into a careerThe game industry however is full of challenges andpitfalls so give yourself a competitive advantage by joiningus in the ASP Indie Games SIG todayGregg Seelhoff is the Charter Executive of the ASP IndieGames SIG You can find him and other ASP game develop-ers in the lsquoaspsiggamesrsquo forum as well as on the HowGames are Different panel at ISVCon 2012

PAD Specification Update

by Joel DiamondPAD Specification Chair

Plans are being made for a major overhaul to the entirePAD platform beginning this summer Members willbe notified in the very near future with the full plans

for both changes and enhancements to the PAD Specifica-tion as well as the authoring tools shortly after ISVCON

Taking place immediately the current specification willbe maintained but the affiliate extensions that have beenadded to prior to the current v31 and that are supported byPADGEN 31 PADManager will be ldquoeditedrdquo Support forV-Share (NetSuite) Digital Candle NorthStar Order1Yaskifo as well as the Digital River brands EmetrixDigiBuy and RegSoft will be removed as they are nolonger in service or used by software publishers based ona review of over 150000 PAD files

An entirely new list of affiliate and ecommerce candi-dates are being reviewed and qualified to replace v 31Feel free to nominate any affiliate service or major softwareecommerce provider by email to joeld wugnetcom

How to Capture a Screen

by Jerry SternWebmaster Software Knowledge Base

Ispent some time looking at software screen shotsrecently It was something of an eye opener As in itcaused considerable visual stress to look at the ugly

things They were for the most part worthless Somewere just plain screen captures or of programs that justarenrsquot very pretty when you look at the main screen froma distance of five feet Some were box shots and thosewerenrsquot always of products that are available in aboxndashtherersquos another problem there And some were justlogos with no tag line or URL Others werenrsquot sizedproperly for their likely use either too big or too tiny ormuch much too tall A few had a centered screen imagewith wider text beloweffectively shrinking theartwork down to unread-able

Itrsquos not just that thesescreenshots donrsquot showwhat the program can dothey donrsquot even identifywhat program wersquore look-ing at

Letrsquos go through the process of building a readable

screenshot step by step Itrsquos not just run grab paste saveTherersquos some planning involved here Most of the samplesare for the Windows 7 edition of Microsoft Paint

First Consider the Viewer

How will the screenshot be used On your websiteshowing steps 1 2 3 of a project So the images will beshown big and there will be sample data or art or projectsin the samples Those are very easy images plan themcapture and convert as-needed and generally done

Marketing images are another image type altogether

July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 7

and the rest of these steps will cover images that sell Forexample will the screenshot be listed in a PAD file fordisplay by a download site Then the images will beshown small very small with maybe an option to clickfor a full-size look but maybe not

These are very different uses In the first the image iseducational not marketing In the second itrsquos an attemptto call for action usually a download or a purchase Thatrsquosmarketing and marketing isnrsquot reality itrsquos a visualrepresentation with a purpose To achieve that purposeadd text logos icons artwork anything that will expressthat purpose but not overwhelm the viewer Itrsquos closer toa title page than an advertisement

Second Prepare and Capture

Before capturing the images for your screenshot removeany distractions from your screensndashin Windows thatusually means either turning off the Aero options orsetting your desktop background to solid white Turn offauto-arrange for the desktop icons and drag any iconsaway from where your program will appear during thescreenshotndashusually that means removing the top row oficons from your screen so that the top bar isnrsquot showingsee-through effects of your desktop

If your program is always full-screen reset the resolu-tion of the desktop to the lowest possible pixel size thatwill make your program look good That might be smallerthan a usable size for the program this is about visualsnot usability If your program can be sized skip this step

Now run your program Identify which screen showsthat the program is unique wonderful and that itrsquos reallyattractive The Windows shortcut to capture the activewindow is alt-Print Screen sometimes shown as PrtScrnon your keyboard Nothing appears to happen when youpress those keysndashthatrsquos OK Go to any painting programlike Microsoft Paint and paste in the imagendashControl-Vwill generally work Save the result Here is the resulting

screenshot for MS-Paint (bottom left) Itrsquos not really usefulyetndashitrsquos mainly whitespace and you canrsquot read theprogram name

Now resize the program Take it down to the smallestpossible size it can be on-screen and then enlarge it untilthe menus and toolbars or most of the design elementslook good Capture that

Next yoursquoll need supplemental artwork The logo forthe program is good and as the developer yoursquoll have theoriginal drawings In this case there is just the programicon so for MS-Paint Irsquove copied the program from thestart menu right-clicked the desktop and chosen to pastea new shortcut to the program Then Iclick elsewhere to remove the lsquoselectedrsquobox from the image and press Ctrl-PrintScreen to capture the entire screenpaste it into a paint program and crop itdown to just the icon Finally Iresampled the icon to double-height anddouble-width any more that would lookbadly aliased or stair-stepped along theedges and ugly

Bad Visuals

Some programs are ugly or boring but they create greatprintouts For these programs consider capturing theprintouts as art for the screen capture Install any lsquoprint -to- PDFrsquo driver and make a single-page PDF printout ofthe program doing its most dramatic work Convert thatPDF to PNG format and crop down to a visual detail thatwill work well on-screen and use that as a major part ofthe screenshot

Combine the Artwork

Now yoursquoll need a good art program start by creating anew image Import and size the screen shot Frequentlythat will be full size but it doesnrsquot have to be Import anyother art yoursquoll use arrange it and leave room for sometext

Some programs arenrsquot going to look good full-screenno matter how you adjust the program size Consider

8 ASPects Convention Special July 2012

cropping the screen capture to only show the top-leftcorner of the interface that will show the program nameand usually the file menus or toolbars That may beenough wersquore looking for pretty not complete

Finally add some text Download sites arenrsquot greatabout showing the web address of the program so Igenerally will include that in the image as well

Building an image in a drawing program will result ina big image Save that and export the result in a reason-able size for web use 600 pixels wide and not more than300 high is probably as big as you can get away with fora screenshot on most websites Some download sites maywant more specific sizes export them from your largeoriginal artworkndashthatrsquos going to provide the best possibleartwork Remember to design first and resize last

I kept this sample screenshot for Paint fairly simpleUsually thatrsquos ideal you can add more lines of text orstart adding shadows and shading but remember that theimage is going to be seen small Walk away from yourmonitor and look at the capture from across the roomndashitshould still be clear and should still identify the programin a simple and iconic wayJerry Stern is the editor of ASPects the ASPrsquos Coordina-tor of Anti-Spyware Operations runs Startupwarecoma n d Wo r d P e r f e c t o r g a n d i s o n l i n e a twwwsciencetranslationscom

Customer Relationship Management for microISVs

by Al Harbergthe press release guy from DP Directory Inc

Customer relationship management (CRM) is goodsoftware marketing CRM is a simple notion that canhelp software developers sell more of their applica-

tions It costs most businesses less money to generate salesfrom old customers than it does to find new ones

Manage your customers

The concept of CRM was popularized by Don Peppers andMartha Rogers in their book The One to One FuturendashBuilding Relationships One Customer at a Time

Today most of us in the software development industrythink of CRM as a database system that coordinates all ofour software sales marketing and demographic informa-tion By contrast Peppers and Rogers talk about CRM as acore management process and not as a technology chal-lenge

First the authors tell us we have to identify potentialcustomers Second we have to figure out what they wantand need how our software products and services can fill

that need and how to optimize the lifetime value of eachblock of customers Third we need to develop a relation-ship with our customers so we can know enough about theirtastes and preferences to make intelligent decisions aboutthe software that wersquoll be marketing And fourth we needto find a way to customize our products services and salesmessages to meet each individual customerrsquos needs Ormore realistically we need to define specific groups ofprospects and customers and target them with communica-tions that are tailored to their needs

Too often developers create a new application becausetheyrsquore unable to find a program that meets a specific needInstead of making development and marketing decisionsbased upon the developerrsquos personal need for software itmakes a lot more sense to target a larger group of peopledefine their needs and build an application that solvesproblems that a significant number of people are wrestlingwith

Before Peppers and Rogers published their bookmarketers spoke about managing products Peppers andRogers urge us to manage customers too We need todifferentiate our customers in much the same way that wedifferentiate our products and services Managing customer

July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 9

relationships touches all of the processes that are crucial tothe success of our business

Make Clients Feel Important

Harry Beckwith discusses our relationships with all of ourclients In his book The Invisible Touch - The Four Keys toModern Marketing Beckwith reminds us that business isabout people and that relationships matter Lots

If we want to make initial software sales and encouragefuture sales we need to find a way to make our clientsknow that we think that theyrsquore important Beckwithpresents eight keys to lasting relationships

(1) Natural affinity

Convince prospects that you share things in common withthem For example you understand their need for educa-tional software for their children because you have childrentoo and you know how difficult it is to find good softwareYou understand their need for Windows productivityapplications because you too spend too much time doingroutine work on your computer If you want to sell moresoftware talk to prospects about them and not aboutyourself But be sure to let your prospects know that youunderstand their problems

(2) Trust

Beckwith urges us to show integrity because integritybuilds trust In the software development industry thismeans not presenting prospects with sales hype Perhaps itmeans not pre-checking the box that says ldquoYes send me theprogram on CD too for only $10(US) additionalrdquo Somewould argue that integrity means not showing a box shot onyour website if you donrsquot offer a boxed product

(3) Speed

In business response times matter Create a website thatdisplays your marketing message quickly Answer pros-pectsrsquo and customersrsquo inquiries briskly And send customerstheir unlock keys as quickly as possible

(4) Apparent Expertise

Look like an expert by behaving like an expert Communi-cating expertise to your software clients is clearly moreimportant than having credentials They donrsquot care aboutyour university degrees They care about your responses totheir support questions Words matter Theyrsquore tools Learnhow to use them more effectively and build your expertisein your customersrsquo minds

(5) Sacrifice

Do something above-and-beyond for your customersDevelop a reputation for working on weekends and holi-days to deliver the best support in the industry Add thefeatures to your application that they need

(6) Completeness

Yoursquoll sell more stuff Beckwith urges if you can find away to solve all of your clientsrsquo problems Many softwaredevelopers have built a family of products that help theirtarget audience solve all of the problems in a particularfield

(7) Magic Words

Say ldquothank yourdquo Ask how people are doing Use yourcustomersrsquo names when writing to them

(8) Passion

Customers and prospects can tell if you love what yoursquoredoing Show them how interested you are in your products

10 ASPects Convention Special July 2012

and in them

Pick the Low-hanging Fruit

In his book Your Marketing Sucks Mark Stevens takescustomer relationships a step further by suggesting thatworking with existing customers will generate the easiestmoney that wersquoll ever make Translated into the softwaredevelopment industry Stevensrsquo ideas include cross-sellingother applications that yoursquove written

Stevens would also encourage microISVs to get theircustomers to buy somebody elsersquos software that theyrsquoreoffering on an affiliate basis Select another developer whomarkets excellent applications The other developer has totarget the same group that yoursquore targeting and they canrsquotbe offering a competing application

And the other developerrsquos applications must have thesame appeal as yours For example if your software isknown for its ease of use then you shouldnrsquot select adeveloper whose application is known for being afull-featured powerhouse Instead choose another devel-oper who takes the same minimalist approach to softwaredesign that you do Set up an affiliate relationship with thisother developer and sell their software to your user-base

Encourage your existing customers to upgrade from theLight version to the Standard version and to the Profes-sional version If theyrsquore a home user and theyrsquove bought asingle-user license offer them a family license If theyrsquore abusiness user talk to them about multi-user and sitelicensing

Itrsquos always easier Beckwith tells us to sell to somebodywith whom you already have a relationship

Start with an Easy Sale

Jay Conrad Levinson in his book Guerrilla MarketingExcellence tells us that if we can get prospects to take oneor more soft steps itrsquos easier to get them to take the hardstep of making the purchase For example a softwaredeveloper might encourage prospects to subscribe to anewsletter or to contact them with questions about theirsoftware

Start building a relationship with them and it will beeasier to get them to buy from you Offer them a free flyerbrochure DVD demonstration phone consultation orseminar Establish a relationship with them and then askfor the sale

Selling to Women

Women are three times more likely to recommend a brandto friends and colleagues Help women connect to eachother and they can tell others about your product or serviceSo says Faith Popcorn in her book EVEolution

Popcorn insists that she is not talking aboutword-of-mouth marketing or relationship marketing Thisisnrsquot about putting a simple ldquotell a friend about our soft-

warerdquo link on your website Itrsquos about creating a genuinecommunity around your brand Weight Watchers did thisThey transformed dieting from a private act to a public one

Create a site where people can discuss what theyrsquoreworried about and passionate about If the site is centeredaround your brand then you can get women to join yourbrand And you can build solid relationships with all of theparticipants

What CRM Means for Software Developers

If you decide to adopt customer relationship managementtechniques in your software development business try notto get bogged down in the technical aspects of implement-ing a CRM solution The most important problems that youneed to tackle are defining all of the contact points that youhave with your prospects and customers and deciding howto optimize every one of them By making dozens orhundreds of improvements with your customer interactionsyoursquoll build far better relationships with your target audi-ence And that will mean more sales more referrals and abetter reputation for your company

CRM is good software marketingSince 1984 Al Harberg has been helping software develop-ers write press releases and send them to the editors Youcan check out more CRM ideas on his new SoftwareMarketing Glossary on wwwdpdirectorycomglossary-creativityhtmcrm_at_the_speed_of_light

July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 11

Call YourselfAre You Impossible to Reach

by Jerry SternEditor ASPects

Irsquom surprised by basic web page failures amongmicroISVs I follow a link to a product Irsquove heard aboutfor years or was recommended to me and I see well

crab grass Or whatrsquos left of the lawn has turned brown Nowait thatrsquos another problem Or is it

We run software and technology businesses and manyof us are guilty of liking our technology so much that wewant to just do that Be the programmer all the time andnever delegate or outsource that work and never move onto keeping our offices running But thatrsquos basic introductionto Management material management isnrsquot productionManagement is hiring firing delegation training andsupervision and making sure that everything else gets doneeven if you have to outsource hire or do it yourself tomake sure that everything gets done

The common error in a small business is skippingsupervision ldquoWhat I work alone I donrsquot need supervi-sionrdquo Yeah right Unless you work off proper to-do liststhat include double-checks that your systems are workingyou arenrsquot supervising either your own workload or yourtechnology For now Irsquoll leave lsquosupervising yourselfrsquo as anexercise for the programmer herersquos the short versionndashmakea list and assign hours to each item You can steal hoursfrom each item if you have to but canrsquot cut any category tozero Especially not supervision marketing or bookkeep-ing

Programmer Phone Home

But back to supervising your technology as thatrsquos what Isee failing from the outside world thatrsquos what your custom-ers see Business management classes usually tell you Callyourself Itrsquos really that simple Pick up a phone and dialyour number No thatrsquos not it Go to a search engine findyour web page find your phone number dial it and leavea message Oh and do it from outside your office Repeatit once a month and repeat that for each of your contactmethods The first try might result in shock however

What yoursquore looking for are communication road blocksA bad phone number or none Web mail pages that nolonger work Missing paper-mail addresses A full phonemail box or a generic answering service message A webpage that displays security warnings in WebOfTrust(mywotcom) or at SiteAdvisorcom Web pages that gonowhere or display badly on browsers you donrsquot use Haveyou visited your sites from an iPAD yet Sure you want touse Flash animation for your main welcome message Itrsquosnot universal never was and the usage percentages are

dropping nowOOPS story 1 I visited a microISVrsquos web site to look at

his product His site shows up in Danish with an Englishbutton which refreshes the page and once again shows meDanish Nice site but all I can read in Danish are thetechnology words that donrsquot normally get translated Theauthor doesnrsquot really visit his own site in English appar-ently And neither does anyone else Lost sale

OOPS story 2 I find someone on LinkedIn I call theirphone number and it goes to voicemail and the voicemailis full Or their email bounces unknown recipient Lostopportunity

OOPS story 3 OK this one was me I visit a friendshow them my website Itrsquos too wide to fit her low-resolu-tion screen without scrolling it doesnrsquot resize to fit thescreen width Lost readability

OOPS story 4 I see a web URL in the email address ofa contact and look at the site The site looks like it wascreated 12 years ago the copyright date is 2003 and theweb links go to lsquofilewebdetailsasprsquo Web page closedlost another sale

OOPS story 5 Nice product site no contact informationon it Nothing but links to a third-party sales companymaybe Paypal No phone email webmail or paper mailaddress no hint of which time zone continent or starsystem is the closest Sorry I donrsquot buy anything from off-planet yet

Right about now I hear a few comments ldquoI canrsquotpublish my phone number I work from homerdquo or ldquoIrsquomuncomfortable with spoken English for callsrdquo ldquoIrsquom on thePacific RIM and my time zone is very different from mycustomersrdquo or ldquoI donrsquot want emails just buy my productand leave me alonerdquo OK your customers can and will buyfrom a company whose expectation of normal communica-tions matches their own

Itrsquos OK to not have any one of these on your site aphone number or an email address or a physical deliveryaddress Itrsquos never OK to not have a mailing address (postoffice boxes are OK) Itrsquos a bad idea to not have most ofthese

Phone number The phone number has to actuallyreach a message that identifies your company or mainproduct A generic message from an cell phone service thatldquo555-1212 is not available Please leave a messagerdquo is notacceptable The phone number doesnrsquot have to actually ring(or wake you up on the far side of the planet) but it has toreliably take messages The number doesnrsquot even have to bea device a virtual phone number like Google Voice isperfectly OK you can set virtual phones to ring at anothernumber during some hours and go directly to voicemail the

12 ASPects Convention Special July 2012

rest of the time Definitely list your office hours and timezone near your phone number

Email address There has to be a way to reach you byemail on your web site It doesnrsquot have to be a plain-textemail address a working web-mail form is OK

Mailing address Yes your mailing address has to beon your web site I have to teach end users about onlinesecurity I show them how to tell if an order page is en-crypted how to see who the company taking orders is andsometimes how to look up the reputation of a site or see ifthere are complaints And I stress not ordering fromcompanies that hide their locations Look Irsquom not going toshow up at your door (Itrsquos happened to me once and thatcharacter did buy software but it took an hour to get himout the door again and I canrsquot work an hour for a $20 saleAnd thatrsquos why I use a post office box) But if you hideyour city and country you arenrsquot going to get sales fromyour neighborsndashremember that all search engines aremoving towards lsquolocal results firstrsquo And you wonrsquot getorders from anyone who knows that in case an online orderfails there has to be a way to reach someone to fix things

Again I hear cries of despair But Irsquom in LowerSlobbovia Or for those who havenrsquot heard of it EastElbonia is pretty much the same Itrsquos somewhere you wonrsquotadmit yoursquore from Perhaps the real problem isnrsquot that youroffices are remotendashIrsquove done business with great companieson six continents The good ones arenrsquot hiding theirlocations Companies that hide their locations are automati-cally suspiciousndashwhat else is hidden in their software

Web sites All of your web sites must work in all themajor browsers If you sell Mac software they had betterwork perfectly when viewed from an iPAD Preferablyevery domain you use should have a really sharp and goodlooking web site But if you have a domain you havenrsquottouched in years and canrsquot be bothered to update it thenredirect that domain to your best web site Kill the old sitemove on and donrsquot leave straggler web sites lying aroundIf you must leave an old site un-updated run a link checkeron it and fix whatever is broken

Donrsquot skip any steps on these checks It really does workbest if you leave your office and then try to communicatefrom the outside world Then you see that your web site hasthe wrong country code on the phone number or it doesnrsquotdisplay properly on other browsers or itrsquos blocked by websecurity software or the links are local and broken Or onebrowser is flagging a site certificate as bad or a securitytoolbar is popping warnings

Itrsquos the equivalent in a big company of dialing the mainswitchboard trying to get past the phone board past theexecutive assistant to the vice president and actuallyhaving an executive listen to you long enough to hear the10-second version of what yoursquore selling Sales pitchesdonrsquot work without communication donrsquot lose your salebecause you canrsquot be reachedJerry Stern is the editor of ASPects the ASPrsquos Coordinatorof Anti-Spyware Operations runs Startupwarecom andW o r d P e r f e c t o r g a n d i s o n l i n e a twwwsciencetranslationscom

July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 13

14 ASPects Convention Special July 2012

Software Passwords and Software Marketing

by Al Harbergthe press release guy from DP Directory Inc

If your software asks users to create a password toprotect the privacy of their information then you havean opportunity to offer additional value to your custom-

ers And that can mean increased software sales additionalrecommendations and good will for your company in yourmarketing niche

Help your users choose effective passwords Accordingto the ldquoWorst Passw0rdsrdquo article in the April 2012 issue ofAARP Bulletin online users have a terrible track record forchoosing effective passwords to protect their security

The most popular password the article tells us isldquopasswordrdquo Changing the lower-case letter ldquoordquo to a zero toform passw0rd is the 16th most popular password choice

The top 25 list includes such clever choices as 1234561234567 12345678 and 123123 ldquoqwertyrdquo and ldquoletmeinrdquoare also on the list of popular user choices

Every day computer users worry about their privacy Ifyour software asks your users to create a password thenyou have an opportunity to show that you care about theirprivacy and security Donrsquot let them create low-qualitypasswords

Andrei Belogortseff is the CEO of WinAbility Softwareat wwwwinabilitycom a Utah-based software developerof security and password utilities WinAbility marketsUSBCrypt a program that makes it simple to encrypt andpassword-protect your USB drive as well as other remov-able and fixed drives

ldquoItrsquos important to protect your data with a long complexpasswordrdquo Andrei tells us ldquoUse a mix of upper-caseletters lower-case letters digits and special charactersrdquo

USBCrypt has a built-in password recovery function thatlets users recreate lost or forgotten passwords On a typical

modern business PC it can take 30 minutes to recover athree-digit password that contains only lower-case lettersBy contrast a five-digit password made up of a mix ofupper- and lower-case letters can take up to 15 days torecover And a seven-digit password that mixes upper- andlower-case letters with numbers and special characters cantake thousands of years to recover

If your application asks users to choose a password youcan help them select wisely Build a list of terrible pass-words into your application and donrsquot let your users selectthese easy-to-guess codes Examine the passwords that theycreate and encourage them to use longer passwords witha mix of characters

ldquoBe sure to remind your users of the flip-side of using acomplex passwordrdquo Andrei tells us ldquoIf you forget yourpassword it will be nearly impossible to recover itrdquo

Add your password protection information to yourwebsite and make it part of your software marketingpresentation By creating keyword-rich pages that describeyour thoughts about privacy security encryption andpasswords yoursquoll get more search engine traffic frompeople who include these words when they search forsoftware like yours

Use your applicationrsquos help file to provide your userswith a short explanation of why passwords are importantTheyrsquoll appreciate the guidance and theyrsquoll be much moreinclined to recommend your software to their friends andcolleagues Helping customers choose powerful passwordsis good software marketingSince 1984 Al Harberg has been helping software develop-ers write press releases and submit them to the editors Youcan check out h is press re lease services onwwwdpdirectorycom

ASP Member News

Slimbrowser ndash a Fast and Secure Tabbed Web Browser

FlashPeak Inc has released SlimBrowser V41 a compacttabbed browser that is super-fast easy to use and packedwith wonderful features including popup-blocker formfiller autologin spell checker site groups ad filteringquick search and much more

SlimBrowser manages web sites as child windows withclickable tab labels in a single main window to avoid taskbar clutter With SlimBrowser searching the web iseasyndashtype in the quick-search box and press enter to get thesearch results you want immediately You can either use thepredefined list of search engines or easily create your own

favorite search enginesSlimBrowser also includes a URL filter which blocks

web pages and components by address matching Further-more the advanced in-page ad-filter automatically elimi-nates the obtrusive floating images and flash animationsfrom the original web pages

SlimBrowser includes site grouping functionalitieswhich enables you to save a number of sites as a group andopen the group of sites next time with a single click Theform filler fills your personal information into web formswith the best field-detection accuracy and saves you a lot ofrepetitive typing

SlimBrowser is free from wwwflashpeakcomsbrowser

July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 15

Affordable Cloud-Based Speed Reading Software forColleges and College Prep

StepWare Inc announces the availability of AceReaderOnline the Cloud version of its flagship WindowsMacapplication AceReader Pro AceReader Online is a power-ful educational tool that assesses improves and monitorsstudentsrsquo reading speed fluency and comprehension

AceReader Online teaches students to break bad readinghabits such as subvocalization (pronouncing the words intheir minds as they read) and regression (reading passagesmore than once) This educational software also helpsexpand studentsrsquo eye fixation zone so they can readmultiple words at a time

The online version of AceReader offers features thatbenefit college university and high school teachers andstudents Students can work independently on a personal-ized self-adjusting reading course or choose from a libraryof reading assessment and improvement regimens Educa-tors can monitor each studentrsquos progress by viewing reportsfor each student consisting of reading speeds comprehen-sion scores graphs activity logs and much more

Since AceReader Online includes 13 levels of textcomplexity it is being used by younger students (ie gradeschools) and even for students who need vision training (iestudents with dyslexia)

AceReader Online has been used by 30 colleges andschools during the 20112012 school year with greatsuccess and is now is available to all education institutionswwwacereadercom

Create Handwriting Fonts In Many Major Languages

High-Logic BV has released Scanahand 4 an applicationthat makes it easy for each member of the family to createcustom hand-written fonts for use in Microsoft WordExcel PowerPoint Notepad and any Windows programScanahand lets you quickly create a font install it inWindows in seconds and use it immediately You can typenotes and cards in your favorite word processing softwareand print them in your own handwriting

Scanahand lets you create signature fonts set a font styleby going bold or italic has the ability to automaticallyinclude diacritical marks and provides full Unicodesupport New features in version 4 include a smart charactermapper that automatically links missing letters to theirupperlower case counterpart and a brand new algorithm forcalculating the best possible left and right-side bearings forthe basic Latin character set The tracing method used byScanahand has been further improved to generate evenmore stunning fonts

The Premium Edition also includes a Template Editorthat allows users to create templates each containing a userdefined set of characters This allows the generation of

fonts that support numerous languages not available in theStandard Editionwwwhigh-logiccom

News amp Press Corner

Microsoft Announces Windows 8 Upgrade Offer

Microsoft Corp announced the availability of the WindowsUpgrade Offer for consumers purchasing a qualifying newWindows 7 PC The Windows Upgrade Offer providesconsumers who buy an eligible Windows 7 PC the optionto purchase a downloadable upgrade to Windows 8 Pro foran estimated retail price of just $1499 during the time ofthe promotion which will be redeemable when Windows 8is generally available The Windows Upgrade Offer is justthe first of many consumer offers that will roll out inconjunction with the general availability of Windows 8

ldquoWersquove seen a great interest in Windows 8 especiallygiven the availability of the Windows 8 Release Previewthis week and yet we know many consumers want a newPC nowrdquo said Tami Reller chief marketing officer andchief financial officer of Windows at Microsoft ldquoTheWindows Upgrade Offer gives people the flexibility topurchase the new Windows 7 PC they need today with theknowledge they can easily get Windows 8 when itrsquos avail-ablerdquo

This program is available for consumers buying newWindows 7 PCs that are preinstalled with Windows 7 HomeBasic Home Premium Professional or Ultimate andinclude a matching and valid OEM Certificate of Authentic-ity The Windows 7 PC must be purchased new during theeligibility period June 2 2012ndashJan 31 2013wwwwindowsupgradeoffercom

WinZipreg Android App Now Available

WinZip Multi-platform Product Line Extends MobileSupport with Free Android App

WinZip Computing a Corel company today introducedWinZipreg for Android a new free mobile app now availableon Google Play

ldquoWith our free Android app wersquore extending the powerof WinZip to new mobile customers and delivering anessential tool for opening zipped files on the go Our firstmobile app WinZip for iOS enjoyed a great reception andhas already been downloaded by more than a millioniPhone and iPad users Now with apps for Android andiOS wersquore offering WinZip tools to customers on both ofthe industryrsquos most popular mobile platformsrdquo said PatrickNichols President of WinZipwwwwinzipcom

16 ASPects Convention Special July 2012

Supporting MembersIshai Shotten ACampG Software Ltd wwwbeejackcomAdriana Iordan Avangate BV wwwavangatecomYu Tao CHENGDU YIWO Tech Development Co Ltd wwweaseuscomDennis Reinhardt DAIR Computer Systems wwwdaircomAlexander Halser EC Software GmbH wwwec-softwarecomArmel Asselin Ellie Computing wwwelliecomputingcomErik Pelton Erik M Pelton amp Associates wwwerikpeltoncomGeraldine Joffre HDRsoft wwwhdrsoftcomGerben Abbink Monkfish XML Software wwwxmlblueprintcomMatt Smith Nevolution Digital LLC wwwnevolutioncomMiguel Cano Onekit wwwonekitcomCharles Born Plimus Inc wwwplimuscomIvan Radmore Pookanyoni Limited wwwpookanyonicomAndrew Butler R3 Data Recovery Ltd wwwr3datarecoverycomWilliam Shaw Regentstreet Research IncOmer Faiyaz Remo Software wwwremosoftwarecomRay Park Rescue Geeks Inc wwwutouchposcomMatt Humphries RevenueWire wwwrevenuewirecomAnna-Jayne Metcalfe Riverblade LimitedTim Thousand Scooter Software wwwscootersoftwarecomGarett Finney SoftwareCommercials Inc wwwsoftwarecommercialscomDana Doten TeamComp Inc wwwnewsbincomPiotr Sulgostowski TTS Company Sp z o o wwwttscomplMiguel Angel Martin Vittalia Internet SL wwweazelcomLiu Ping wwwhodosoftcom

Directors Officers and Committee Chairs Board of DirectorsMitchell Vincent Chair mitch ksoftwarenetDan Hite Dan TedCoSoftwarecomEd Pulliam pulliam ouisoftcomHoward Sobel howards wugnetcomJason Kiwaluk jkiwaluk shawcaMahmoud Metwally mkm giantmatrixcom

OfficersGianfranco Berardi President president asp-softwareorgVice President vp asp-softwareorgAndrei Belogortseff Secretary secretary asp-softwareorgTerry Jepson Treasurer treasurer asp-softwareorg

Staff Positions amp Committee ChairsRich Holler Executive Director execdir asp-softwareorgJerry Stern Coordinator of anti-spyware operations

ASPects Editor aspects asp-softwareorg

Sue Pichotta Conference Managerconference asp-softwareorg

Andrei Belogortseff Download Sitedsw asp-softwareorg

Events Coordinator events asp-softwareorgMichael Marshall Ombudsman

wwwasp-softwareorgombSteve Faleiro Outreach Chair outreach asp-softwareorgJoel Diamond PAD Chair pad-chair asp-softwareorgPublic Relations publicrelations asp-softwareorgSergeant-at-Arms saa asp-softwareorgVolunteer Coordinator

volunteer asp-softwareorgDon Waterfield Webmaster webmaster asp-softwareorgTom Guthery IV New Member Welcome

welcome asp-softwareorgWebsite Committee Chair president asp-softwareorg

ASP Membership Form

Before submitting your application for membershipvisit our website at wwwasp-softwareorgjoin andreview the membership standards and requirementsThere are two categories of ASP Membership Please makesure you have reviewed the appropriate information andstandards page

Mail applications toRichard HollerASP Executive DirectorPO Box 1522Martinsville IN 46151 USA

I have read the appropriate standards and agree toabide by them lsquo Yes lsquo No

Standards for Developer Members and Industry Membersare online at wwwasp-softwareorgjoin

Category of Membership

(Select either lsquoDeveloperrsquo or one of the various Industrycategories)

lsquo Developer

Industry Memberlsquo Vendorlsquo Online Distributorlsquo Online Developerlsquo User Grouplsquo PressMedialsquo Consultantlsquo Shareware Enthusiast

CompanyProduct Description(120 characters or less required if web site link is requested)

Please PRINT Clearly

REQUIRED FIELDS

Name

Company Name

Street Address

Street Address

CityTown

StateProvince

ZIPPostal Code

Country

Public Phone (Voice)

Public Phone (FAX)

Public Email Address

Web Site URL (Required if web site link is requested)

Private Phone (ASP use)

Private Email Address (ASP use)

Do you wish to have your listing included in the public

member database lsquo Yes lsquo No

Do you wish to have your website link included on our

ASP website lsquo Yes lsquo No

Signature

VisaMasterCardAmerican Express AuthorizationIf paying by credit card all the following fields are required

Credit Card Number

Expiration Date

Name of Card Holder

Amount to be charged $100 (USD)

CVV2 code (back of card)

Page 5: ASPects July 2012 Convention Special Issue · 2012. 7. 5. · July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 3 The Biggest Mistake You Can Ever Make by Jiri Novotny Dextronet.comT he biggest

July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 5

6 ASPects Convention Special July 2012

Estimates of the current size of the video game industryvary from a conservative $251 billion US [ESA] to a trulystaggering figure of $1050 billion US [Avista Partners]and it continues to grow with average growth projected tobe around 12 annually through 2015 [Gartner] Most ofthat growth is expected to be in digital game downloads anarea in which the ASP is a pioneer

What makes the game industry great though is not itssize but its diversity There are enough genres and nicheswithin the field to allow for both huge blockbuster (akaAAA) titles on the latest consoles and more containedefforts from smaller independent teams (ie ldquoindiesrdquo) on just about any platform desktop mobile online consoleand others The opportunities are almost limitless

Making games is fun Most programmers work on atleast one game if only for their own enjoyment some ofthese developers make money from selling games andthousands actually turn game development into a careerThe game industry however is full of challenges andpitfalls so give yourself a competitive advantage by joiningus in the ASP Indie Games SIG todayGregg Seelhoff is the Charter Executive of the ASP IndieGames SIG You can find him and other ASP game develop-ers in the lsquoaspsiggamesrsquo forum as well as on the HowGames are Different panel at ISVCon 2012

PAD Specification Update

by Joel DiamondPAD Specification Chair

Plans are being made for a major overhaul to the entirePAD platform beginning this summer Members willbe notified in the very near future with the full plans

for both changes and enhancements to the PAD Specifica-tion as well as the authoring tools shortly after ISVCON

Taking place immediately the current specification willbe maintained but the affiliate extensions that have beenadded to prior to the current v31 and that are supported byPADGEN 31 PADManager will be ldquoeditedrdquo Support forV-Share (NetSuite) Digital Candle NorthStar Order1Yaskifo as well as the Digital River brands EmetrixDigiBuy and RegSoft will be removed as they are nolonger in service or used by software publishers based ona review of over 150000 PAD files

An entirely new list of affiliate and ecommerce candi-dates are being reviewed and qualified to replace v 31Feel free to nominate any affiliate service or major softwareecommerce provider by email to joeld wugnetcom

How to Capture a Screen

by Jerry SternWebmaster Software Knowledge Base

Ispent some time looking at software screen shotsrecently It was something of an eye opener As in itcaused considerable visual stress to look at the ugly

things They were for the most part worthless Somewere just plain screen captures or of programs that justarenrsquot very pretty when you look at the main screen froma distance of five feet Some were box shots and thosewerenrsquot always of products that are available in aboxndashtherersquos another problem there And some were justlogos with no tag line or URL Others werenrsquot sizedproperly for their likely use either too big or too tiny ormuch much too tall A few had a centered screen imagewith wider text beloweffectively shrinking theartwork down to unread-able

Itrsquos not just that thesescreenshots donrsquot showwhat the program can dothey donrsquot even identifywhat program wersquore look-ing at

Letrsquos go through the process of building a readable

screenshot step by step Itrsquos not just run grab paste saveTherersquos some planning involved here Most of the samplesare for the Windows 7 edition of Microsoft Paint

First Consider the Viewer

How will the screenshot be used On your websiteshowing steps 1 2 3 of a project So the images will beshown big and there will be sample data or art or projectsin the samples Those are very easy images plan themcapture and convert as-needed and generally done

Marketing images are another image type altogether

July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 7

and the rest of these steps will cover images that sell Forexample will the screenshot be listed in a PAD file fordisplay by a download site Then the images will beshown small very small with maybe an option to clickfor a full-size look but maybe not

These are very different uses In the first the image iseducational not marketing In the second itrsquos an attemptto call for action usually a download or a purchase Thatrsquosmarketing and marketing isnrsquot reality itrsquos a visualrepresentation with a purpose To achieve that purposeadd text logos icons artwork anything that will expressthat purpose but not overwhelm the viewer Itrsquos closer toa title page than an advertisement

Second Prepare and Capture

Before capturing the images for your screenshot removeany distractions from your screensndashin Windows thatusually means either turning off the Aero options orsetting your desktop background to solid white Turn offauto-arrange for the desktop icons and drag any iconsaway from where your program will appear during thescreenshotndashusually that means removing the top row oficons from your screen so that the top bar isnrsquot showingsee-through effects of your desktop

If your program is always full-screen reset the resolu-tion of the desktop to the lowest possible pixel size thatwill make your program look good That might be smallerthan a usable size for the program this is about visualsnot usability If your program can be sized skip this step

Now run your program Identify which screen showsthat the program is unique wonderful and that itrsquos reallyattractive The Windows shortcut to capture the activewindow is alt-Print Screen sometimes shown as PrtScrnon your keyboard Nothing appears to happen when youpress those keysndashthatrsquos OK Go to any painting programlike Microsoft Paint and paste in the imagendashControl-Vwill generally work Save the result Here is the resulting

screenshot for MS-Paint (bottom left) Itrsquos not really usefulyetndashitrsquos mainly whitespace and you canrsquot read theprogram name

Now resize the program Take it down to the smallestpossible size it can be on-screen and then enlarge it untilthe menus and toolbars or most of the design elementslook good Capture that

Next yoursquoll need supplemental artwork The logo forthe program is good and as the developer yoursquoll have theoriginal drawings In this case there is just the programicon so for MS-Paint Irsquove copied the program from thestart menu right-clicked the desktop and chosen to pastea new shortcut to the program Then Iclick elsewhere to remove the lsquoselectedrsquobox from the image and press Ctrl-PrintScreen to capture the entire screenpaste it into a paint program and crop itdown to just the icon Finally Iresampled the icon to double-height anddouble-width any more that would lookbadly aliased or stair-stepped along theedges and ugly

Bad Visuals

Some programs are ugly or boring but they create greatprintouts For these programs consider capturing theprintouts as art for the screen capture Install any lsquoprint -to- PDFrsquo driver and make a single-page PDF printout ofthe program doing its most dramatic work Convert thatPDF to PNG format and crop down to a visual detail thatwill work well on-screen and use that as a major part ofthe screenshot

Combine the Artwork

Now yoursquoll need a good art program start by creating anew image Import and size the screen shot Frequentlythat will be full size but it doesnrsquot have to be Import anyother art yoursquoll use arrange it and leave room for sometext

Some programs arenrsquot going to look good full-screenno matter how you adjust the program size Consider

8 ASPects Convention Special July 2012

cropping the screen capture to only show the top-leftcorner of the interface that will show the program nameand usually the file menus or toolbars That may beenough wersquore looking for pretty not complete

Finally add some text Download sites arenrsquot greatabout showing the web address of the program so Igenerally will include that in the image as well

Building an image in a drawing program will result ina big image Save that and export the result in a reason-able size for web use 600 pixels wide and not more than300 high is probably as big as you can get away with fora screenshot on most websites Some download sites maywant more specific sizes export them from your largeoriginal artworkndashthatrsquos going to provide the best possibleartwork Remember to design first and resize last

I kept this sample screenshot for Paint fairly simpleUsually thatrsquos ideal you can add more lines of text orstart adding shadows and shading but remember that theimage is going to be seen small Walk away from yourmonitor and look at the capture from across the roomndashitshould still be clear and should still identify the programin a simple and iconic wayJerry Stern is the editor of ASPects the ASPrsquos Coordina-tor of Anti-Spyware Operations runs Startupwarecoma n d Wo r d P e r f e c t o r g a n d i s o n l i n e a twwwsciencetranslationscom

Customer Relationship Management for microISVs

by Al Harbergthe press release guy from DP Directory Inc

Customer relationship management (CRM) is goodsoftware marketing CRM is a simple notion that canhelp software developers sell more of their applica-

tions It costs most businesses less money to generate salesfrom old customers than it does to find new ones

Manage your customers

The concept of CRM was popularized by Don Peppers andMartha Rogers in their book The One to One FuturendashBuilding Relationships One Customer at a Time

Today most of us in the software development industrythink of CRM as a database system that coordinates all ofour software sales marketing and demographic informa-tion By contrast Peppers and Rogers talk about CRM as acore management process and not as a technology chal-lenge

First the authors tell us we have to identify potentialcustomers Second we have to figure out what they wantand need how our software products and services can fill

that need and how to optimize the lifetime value of eachblock of customers Third we need to develop a relation-ship with our customers so we can know enough about theirtastes and preferences to make intelligent decisions aboutthe software that wersquoll be marketing And fourth we needto find a way to customize our products services and salesmessages to meet each individual customerrsquos needs Ormore realistically we need to define specific groups ofprospects and customers and target them with communica-tions that are tailored to their needs

Too often developers create a new application becausetheyrsquore unable to find a program that meets a specific needInstead of making development and marketing decisionsbased upon the developerrsquos personal need for software itmakes a lot more sense to target a larger group of peopledefine their needs and build an application that solvesproblems that a significant number of people are wrestlingwith

Before Peppers and Rogers published their bookmarketers spoke about managing products Peppers andRogers urge us to manage customers too We need todifferentiate our customers in much the same way that wedifferentiate our products and services Managing customer

July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 9

relationships touches all of the processes that are crucial tothe success of our business

Make Clients Feel Important

Harry Beckwith discusses our relationships with all of ourclients In his book The Invisible Touch - The Four Keys toModern Marketing Beckwith reminds us that business isabout people and that relationships matter Lots

If we want to make initial software sales and encouragefuture sales we need to find a way to make our clientsknow that we think that theyrsquore important Beckwithpresents eight keys to lasting relationships

(1) Natural affinity

Convince prospects that you share things in common withthem For example you understand their need for educa-tional software for their children because you have childrentoo and you know how difficult it is to find good softwareYou understand their need for Windows productivityapplications because you too spend too much time doingroutine work on your computer If you want to sell moresoftware talk to prospects about them and not aboutyourself But be sure to let your prospects know that youunderstand their problems

(2) Trust

Beckwith urges us to show integrity because integritybuilds trust In the software development industry thismeans not presenting prospects with sales hype Perhaps itmeans not pre-checking the box that says ldquoYes send me theprogram on CD too for only $10(US) additionalrdquo Somewould argue that integrity means not showing a box shot onyour website if you donrsquot offer a boxed product

(3) Speed

In business response times matter Create a website thatdisplays your marketing message quickly Answer pros-pectsrsquo and customersrsquo inquiries briskly And send customerstheir unlock keys as quickly as possible

(4) Apparent Expertise

Look like an expert by behaving like an expert Communi-cating expertise to your software clients is clearly moreimportant than having credentials They donrsquot care aboutyour university degrees They care about your responses totheir support questions Words matter Theyrsquore tools Learnhow to use them more effectively and build your expertisein your customersrsquo minds

(5) Sacrifice

Do something above-and-beyond for your customersDevelop a reputation for working on weekends and holi-days to deliver the best support in the industry Add thefeatures to your application that they need

(6) Completeness

Yoursquoll sell more stuff Beckwith urges if you can find away to solve all of your clientsrsquo problems Many softwaredevelopers have built a family of products that help theirtarget audience solve all of the problems in a particularfield

(7) Magic Words

Say ldquothank yourdquo Ask how people are doing Use yourcustomersrsquo names when writing to them

(8) Passion

Customers and prospects can tell if you love what yoursquoredoing Show them how interested you are in your products

10 ASPects Convention Special July 2012

and in them

Pick the Low-hanging Fruit

In his book Your Marketing Sucks Mark Stevens takescustomer relationships a step further by suggesting thatworking with existing customers will generate the easiestmoney that wersquoll ever make Translated into the softwaredevelopment industry Stevensrsquo ideas include cross-sellingother applications that yoursquove written

Stevens would also encourage microISVs to get theircustomers to buy somebody elsersquos software that theyrsquoreoffering on an affiliate basis Select another developer whomarkets excellent applications The other developer has totarget the same group that yoursquore targeting and they canrsquotbe offering a competing application

And the other developerrsquos applications must have thesame appeal as yours For example if your software isknown for its ease of use then you shouldnrsquot select adeveloper whose application is known for being afull-featured powerhouse Instead choose another devel-oper who takes the same minimalist approach to softwaredesign that you do Set up an affiliate relationship with thisother developer and sell their software to your user-base

Encourage your existing customers to upgrade from theLight version to the Standard version and to the Profes-sional version If theyrsquore a home user and theyrsquove bought asingle-user license offer them a family license If theyrsquore abusiness user talk to them about multi-user and sitelicensing

Itrsquos always easier Beckwith tells us to sell to somebodywith whom you already have a relationship

Start with an Easy Sale

Jay Conrad Levinson in his book Guerrilla MarketingExcellence tells us that if we can get prospects to take oneor more soft steps itrsquos easier to get them to take the hardstep of making the purchase For example a softwaredeveloper might encourage prospects to subscribe to anewsletter or to contact them with questions about theirsoftware

Start building a relationship with them and it will beeasier to get them to buy from you Offer them a free flyerbrochure DVD demonstration phone consultation orseminar Establish a relationship with them and then askfor the sale

Selling to Women

Women are three times more likely to recommend a brandto friends and colleagues Help women connect to eachother and they can tell others about your product or serviceSo says Faith Popcorn in her book EVEolution

Popcorn insists that she is not talking aboutword-of-mouth marketing or relationship marketing Thisisnrsquot about putting a simple ldquotell a friend about our soft-

warerdquo link on your website Itrsquos about creating a genuinecommunity around your brand Weight Watchers did thisThey transformed dieting from a private act to a public one

Create a site where people can discuss what theyrsquoreworried about and passionate about If the site is centeredaround your brand then you can get women to join yourbrand And you can build solid relationships with all of theparticipants

What CRM Means for Software Developers

If you decide to adopt customer relationship managementtechniques in your software development business try notto get bogged down in the technical aspects of implement-ing a CRM solution The most important problems that youneed to tackle are defining all of the contact points that youhave with your prospects and customers and deciding howto optimize every one of them By making dozens orhundreds of improvements with your customer interactionsyoursquoll build far better relationships with your target audi-ence And that will mean more sales more referrals and abetter reputation for your company

CRM is good software marketingSince 1984 Al Harberg has been helping software develop-ers write press releases and send them to the editors Youcan check out more CRM ideas on his new SoftwareMarketing Glossary on wwwdpdirectorycomglossary-creativityhtmcrm_at_the_speed_of_light

July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 11

Call YourselfAre You Impossible to Reach

by Jerry SternEditor ASPects

Irsquom surprised by basic web page failures amongmicroISVs I follow a link to a product Irsquove heard aboutfor years or was recommended to me and I see well

crab grass Or whatrsquos left of the lawn has turned brown Nowait thatrsquos another problem Or is it

We run software and technology businesses and manyof us are guilty of liking our technology so much that wewant to just do that Be the programmer all the time andnever delegate or outsource that work and never move onto keeping our offices running But thatrsquos basic introductionto Management material management isnrsquot productionManagement is hiring firing delegation training andsupervision and making sure that everything else gets doneeven if you have to outsource hire or do it yourself tomake sure that everything gets done

The common error in a small business is skippingsupervision ldquoWhat I work alone I donrsquot need supervi-sionrdquo Yeah right Unless you work off proper to-do liststhat include double-checks that your systems are workingyou arenrsquot supervising either your own workload or yourtechnology For now Irsquoll leave lsquosupervising yourselfrsquo as anexercise for the programmer herersquos the short versionndashmakea list and assign hours to each item You can steal hoursfrom each item if you have to but canrsquot cut any category tozero Especially not supervision marketing or bookkeep-ing

Programmer Phone Home

But back to supervising your technology as thatrsquos what Isee failing from the outside world thatrsquos what your custom-ers see Business management classes usually tell you Callyourself Itrsquos really that simple Pick up a phone and dialyour number No thatrsquos not it Go to a search engine findyour web page find your phone number dial it and leavea message Oh and do it from outside your office Repeatit once a month and repeat that for each of your contactmethods The first try might result in shock however

What yoursquore looking for are communication road blocksA bad phone number or none Web mail pages that nolonger work Missing paper-mail addresses A full phonemail box or a generic answering service message A webpage that displays security warnings in WebOfTrust(mywotcom) or at SiteAdvisorcom Web pages that gonowhere or display badly on browsers you donrsquot use Haveyou visited your sites from an iPAD yet Sure you want touse Flash animation for your main welcome message Itrsquosnot universal never was and the usage percentages are

dropping nowOOPS story 1 I visited a microISVrsquos web site to look at

his product His site shows up in Danish with an Englishbutton which refreshes the page and once again shows meDanish Nice site but all I can read in Danish are thetechnology words that donrsquot normally get translated Theauthor doesnrsquot really visit his own site in English appar-ently And neither does anyone else Lost sale

OOPS story 2 I find someone on LinkedIn I call theirphone number and it goes to voicemail and the voicemailis full Or their email bounces unknown recipient Lostopportunity

OOPS story 3 OK this one was me I visit a friendshow them my website Itrsquos too wide to fit her low-resolu-tion screen without scrolling it doesnrsquot resize to fit thescreen width Lost readability

OOPS story 4 I see a web URL in the email address ofa contact and look at the site The site looks like it wascreated 12 years ago the copyright date is 2003 and theweb links go to lsquofilewebdetailsasprsquo Web page closedlost another sale

OOPS story 5 Nice product site no contact informationon it Nothing but links to a third-party sales companymaybe Paypal No phone email webmail or paper mailaddress no hint of which time zone continent or starsystem is the closest Sorry I donrsquot buy anything from off-planet yet

Right about now I hear a few comments ldquoI canrsquotpublish my phone number I work from homerdquo or ldquoIrsquomuncomfortable with spoken English for callsrdquo ldquoIrsquom on thePacific RIM and my time zone is very different from mycustomersrdquo or ldquoI donrsquot want emails just buy my productand leave me alonerdquo OK your customers can and will buyfrom a company whose expectation of normal communica-tions matches their own

Itrsquos OK to not have any one of these on your site aphone number or an email address or a physical deliveryaddress Itrsquos never OK to not have a mailing address (postoffice boxes are OK) Itrsquos a bad idea to not have most ofthese

Phone number The phone number has to actuallyreach a message that identifies your company or mainproduct A generic message from an cell phone service thatldquo555-1212 is not available Please leave a messagerdquo is notacceptable The phone number doesnrsquot have to actually ring(or wake you up on the far side of the planet) but it has toreliably take messages The number doesnrsquot even have to bea device a virtual phone number like Google Voice isperfectly OK you can set virtual phones to ring at anothernumber during some hours and go directly to voicemail the

12 ASPects Convention Special July 2012

rest of the time Definitely list your office hours and timezone near your phone number

Email address There has to be a way to reach you byemail on your web site It doesnrsquot have to be a plain-textemail address a working web-mail form is OK

Mailing address Yes your mailing address has to beon your web site I have to teach end users about onlinesecurity I show them how to tell if an order page is en-crypted how to see who the company taking orders is andsometimes how to look up the reputation of a site or see ifthere are complaints And I stress not ordering fromcompanies that hide their locations Look Irsquom not going toshow up at your door (Itrsquos happened to me once and thatcharacter did buy software but it took an hour to get himout the door again and I canrsquot work an hour for a $20 saleAnd thatrsquos why I use a post office box) But if you hideyour city and country you arenrsquot going to get sales fromyour neighborsndashremember that all search engines aremoving towards lsquolocal results firstrsquo And you wonrsquot getorders from anyone who knows that in case an online orderfails there has to be a way to reach someone to fix things

Again I hear cries of despair But Irsquom in LowerSlobbovia Or for those who havenrsquot heard of it EastElbonia is pretty much the same Itrsquos somewhere you wonrsquotadmit yoursquore from Perhaps the real problem isnrsquot that youroffices are remotendashIrsquove done business with great companieson six continents The good ones arenrsquot hiding theirlocations Companies that hide their locations are automati-cally suspiciousndashwhat else is hidden in their software

Web sites All of your web sites must work in all themajor browsers If you sell Mac software they had betterwork perfectly when viewed from an iPAD Preferablyevery domain you use should have a really sharp and goodlooking web site But if you have a domain you havenrsquottouched in years and canrsquot be bothered to update it thenredirect that domain to your best web site Kill the old sitemove on and donrsquot leave straggler web sites lying aroundIf you must leave an old site un-updated run a link checkeron it and fix whatever is broken

Donrsquot skip any steps on these checks It really does workbest if you leave your office and then try to communicatefrom the outside world Then you see that your web site hasthe wrong country code on the phone number or it doesnrsquotdisplay properly on other browsers or itrsquos blocked by websecurity software or the links are local and broken Or onebrowser is flagging a site certificate as bad or a securitytoolbar is popping warnings

Itrsquos the equivalent in a big company of dialing the mainswitchboard trying to get past the phone board past theexecutive assistant to the vice president and actuallyhaving an executive listen to you long enough to hear the10-second version of what yoursquore selling Sales pitchesdonrsquot work without communication donrsquot lose your salebecause you canrsquot be reachedJerry Stern is the editor of ASPects the ASPrsquos Coordinatorof Anti-Spyware Operations runs Startupwarecom andW o r d P e r f e c t o r g a n d i s o n l i n e a twwwsciencetranslationscom

July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 13

14 ASPects Convention Special July 2012

Software Passwords and Software Marketing

by Al Harbergthe press release guy from DP Directory Inc

If your software asks users to create a password toprotect the privacy of their information then you havean opportunity to offer additional value to your custom-

ers And that can mean increased software sales additionalrecommendations and good will for your company in yourmarketing niche

Help your users choose effective passwords Accordingto the ldquoWorst Passw0rdsrdquo article in the April 2012 issue ofAARP Bulletin online users have a terrible track record forchoosing effective passwords to protect their security

The most popular password the article tells us isldquopasswordrdquo Changing the lower-case letter ldquoordquo to a zero toform passw0rd is the 16th most popular password choice

The top 25 list includes such clever choices as 1234561234567 12345678 and 123123 ldquoqwertyrdquo and ldquoletmeinrdquoare also on the list of popular user choices

Every day computer users worry about their privacy Ifyour software asks your users to create a password thenyou have an opportunity to show that you care about theirprivacy and security Donrsquot let them create low-qualitypasswords

Andrei Belogortseff is the CEO of WinAbility Softwareat wwwwinabilitycom a Utah-based software developerof security and password utilities WinAbility marketsUSBCrypt a program that makes it simple to encrypt andpassword-protect your USB drive as well as other remov-able and fixed drives

ldquoItrsquos important to protect your data with a long complexpasswordrdquo Andrei tells us ldquoUse a mix of upper-caseletters lower-case letters digits and special charactersrdquo

USBCrypt has a built-in password recovery function thatlets users recreate lost or forgotten passwords On a typical

modern business PC it can take 30 minutes to recover athree-digit password that contains only lower-case lettersBy contrast a five-digit password made up of a mix ofupper- and lower-case letters can take up to 15 days torecover And a seven-digit password that mixes upper- andlower-case letters with numbers and special characters cantake thousands of years to recover

If your application asks users to choose a password youcan help them select wisely Build a list of terrible pass-words into your application and donrsquot let your users selectthese easy-to-guess codes Examine the passwords that theycreate and encourage them to use longer passwords witha mix of characters

ldquoBe sure to remind your users of the flip-side of using acomplex passwordrdquo Andrei tells us ldquoIf you forget yourpassword it will be nearly impossible to recover itrdquo

Add your password protection information to yourwebsite and make it part of your software marketingpresentation By creating keyword-rich pages that describeyour thoughts about privacy security encryption andpasswords yoursquoll get more search engine traffic frompeople who include these words when they search forsoftware like yours

Use your applicationrsquos help file to provide your userswith a short explanation of why passwords are importantTheyrsquoll appreciate the guidance and theyrsquoll be much moreinclined to recommend your software to their friends andcolleagues Helping customers choose powerful passwordsis good software marketingSince 1984 Al Harberg has been helping software develop-ers write press releases and submit them to the editors Youcan check out h is press re lease services onwwwdpdirectorycom

ASP Member News

Slimbrowser ndash a Fast and Secure Tabbed Web Browser

FlashPeak Inc has released SlimBrowser V41 a compacttabbed browser that is super-fast easy to use and packedwith wonderful features including popup-blocker formfiller autologin spell checker site groups ad filteringquick search and much more

SlimBrowser manages web sites as child windows withclickable tab labels in a single main window to avoid taskbar clutter With SlimBrowser searching the web iseasyndashtype in the quick-search box and press enter to get thesearch results you want immediately You can either use thepredefined list of search engines or easily create your own

favorite search enginesSlimBrowser also includes a URL filter which blocks

web pages and components by address matching Further-more the advanced in-page ad-filter automatically elimi-nates the obtrusive floating images and flash animationsfrom the original web pages

SlimBrowser includes site grouping functionalitieswhich enables you to save a number of sites as a group andopen the group of sites next time with a single click Theform filler fills your personal information into web formswith the best field-detection accuracy and saves you a lot ofrepetitive typing

SlimBrowser is free from wwwflashpeakcomsbrowser

July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 15

Affordable Cloud-Based Speed Reading Software forColleges and College Prep

StepWare Inc announces the availability of AceReaderOnline the Cloud version of its flagship WindowsMacapplication AceReader Pro AceReader Online is a power-ful educational tool that assesses improves and monitorsstudentsrsquo reading speed fluency and comprehension

AceReader Online teaches students to break bad readinghabits such as subvocalization (pronouncing the words intheir minds as they read) and regression (reading passagesmore than once) This educational software also helpsexpand studentsrsquo eye fixation zone so they can readmultiple words at a time

The online version of AceReader offers features thatbenefit college university and high school teachers andstudents Students can work independently on a personal-ized self-adjusting reading course or choose from a libraryof reading assessment and improvement regimens Educa-tors can monitor each studentrsquos progress by viewing reportsfor each student consisting of reading speeds comprehen-sion scores graphs activity logs and much more

Since AceReader Online includes 13 levels of textcomplexity it is being used by younger students (ie gradeschools) and even for students who need vision training (iestudents with dyslexia)

AceReader Online has been used by 30 colleges andschools during the 20112012 school year with greatsuccess and is now is available to all education institutionswwwacereadercom

Create Handwriting Fonts In Many Major Languages

High-Logic BV has released Scanahand 4 an applicationthat makes it easy for each member of the family to createcustom hand-written fonts for use in Microsoft WordExcel PowerPoint Notepad and any Windows programScanahand lets you quickly create a font install it inWindows in seconds and use it immediately You can typenotes and cards in your favorite word processing softwareand print them in your own handwriting

Scanahand lets you create signature fonts set a font styleby going bold or italic has the ability to automaticallyinclude diacritical marks and provides full Unicodesupport New features in version 4 include a smart charactermapper that automatically links missing letters to theirupperlower case counterpart and a brand new algorithm forcalculating the best possible left and right-side bearings forthe basic Latin character set The tracing method used byScanahand has been further improved to generate evenmore stunning fonts

The Premium Edition also includes a Template Editorthat allows users to create templates each containing a userdefined set of characters This allows the generation of

fonts that support numerous languages not available in theStandard Editionwwwhigh-logiccom

News amp Press Corner

Microsoft Announces Windows 8 Upgrade Offer

Microsoft Corp announced the availability of the WindowsUpgrade Offer for consumers purchasing a qualifying newWindows 7 PC The Windows Upgrade Offer providesconsumers who buy an eligible Windows 7 PC the optionto purchase a downloadable upgrade to Windows 8 Pro foran estimated retail price of just $1499 during the time ofthe promotion which will be redeemable when Windows 8is generally available The Windows Upgrade Offer is justthe first of many consumer offers that will roll out inconjunction with the general availability of Windows 8

ldquoWersquove seen a great interest in Windows 8 especiallygiven the availability of the Windows 8 Release Previewthis week and yet we know many consumers want a newPC nowrdquo said Tami Reller chief marketing officer andchief financial officer of Windows at Microsoft ldquoTheWindows Upgrade Offer gives people the flexibility topurchase the new Windows 7 PC they need today with theknowledge they can easily get Windows 8 when itrsquos avail-ablerdquo

This program is available for consumers buying newWindows 7 PCs that are preinstalled with Windows 7 HomeBasic Home Premium Professional or Ultimate andinclude a matching and valid OEM Certificate of Authentic-ity The Windows 7 PC must be purchased new during theeligibility period June 2 2012ndashJan 31 2013wwwwindowsupgradeoffercom

WinZipreg Android App Now Available

WinZip Multi-platform Product Line Extends MobileSupport with Free Android App

WinZip Computing a Corel company today introducedWinZipreg for Android a new free mobile app now availableon Google Play

ldquoWith our free Android app wersquore extending the powerof WinZip to new mobile customers and delivering anessential tool for opening zipped files on the go Our firstmobile app WinZip for iOS enjoyed a great reception andhas already been downloaded by more than a millioniPhone and iPad users Now with apps for Android andiOS wersquore offering WinZip tools to customers on both ofthe industryrsquos most popular mobile platformsrdquo said PatrickNichols President of WinZipwwwwinzipcom

16 ASPects Convention Special July 2012

Supporting MembersIshai Shotten ACampG Software Ltd wwwbeejackcomAdriana Iordan Avangate BV wwwavangatecomYu Tao CHENGDU YIWO Tech Development Co Ltd wwweaseuscomDennis Reinhardt DAIR Computer Systems wwwdaircomAlexander Halser EC Software GmbH wwwec-softwarecomArmel Asselin Ellie Computing wwwelliecomputingcomErik Pelton Erik M Pelton amp Associates wwwerikpeltoncomGeraldine Joffre HDRsoft wwwhdrsoftcomGerben Abbink Monkfish XML Software wwwxmlblueprintcomMatt Smith Nevolution Digital LLC wwwnevolutioncomMiguel Cano Onekit wwwonekitcomCharles Born Plimus Inc wwwplimuscomIvan Radmore Pookanyoni Limited wwwpookanyonicomAndrew Butler R3 Data Recovery Ltd wwwr3datarecoverycomWilliam Shaw Regentstreet Research IncOmer Faiyaz Remo Software wwwremosoftwarecomRay Park Rescue Geeks Inc wwwutouchposcomMatt Humphries RevenueWire wwwrevenuewirecomAnna-Jayne Metcalfe Riverblade LimitedTim Thousand Scooter Software wwwscootersoftwarecomGarett Finney SoftwareCommercials Inc wwwsoftwarecommercialscomDana Doten TeamComp Inc wwwnewsbincomPiotr Sulgostowski TTS Company Sp z o o wwwttscomplMiguel Angel Martin Vittalia Internet SL wwweazelcomLiu Ping wwwhodosoftcom

Directors Officers and Committee Chairs Board of DirectorsMitchell Vincent Chair mitch ksoftwarenetDan Hite Dan TedCoSoftwarecomEd Pulliam pulliam ouisoftcomHoward Sobel howards wugnetcomJason Kiwaluk jkiwaluk shawcaMahmoud Metwally mkm giantmatrixcom

OfficersGianfranco Berardi President president asp-softwareorgVice President vp asp-softwareorgAndrei Belogortseff Secretary secretary asp-softwareorgTerry Jepson Treasurer treasurer asp-softwareorg

Staff Positions amp Committee ChairsRich Holler Executive Director execdir asp-softwareorgJerry Stern Coordinator of anti-spyware operations

ASPects Editor aspects asp-softwareorg

Sue Pichotta Conference Managerconference asp-softwareorg

Andrei Belogortseff Download Sitedsw asp-softwareorg

Events Coordinator events asp-softwareorgMichael Marshall Ombudsman

wwwasp-softwareorgombSteve Faleiro Outreach Chair outreach asp-softwareorgJoel Diamond PAD Chair pad-chair asp-softwareorgPublic Relations publicrelations asp-softwareorgSergeant-at-Arms saa asp-softwareorgVolunteer Coordinator

volunteer asp-softwareorgDon Waterfield Webmaster webmaster asp-softwareorgTom Guthery IV New Member Welcome

welcome asp-softwareorgWebsite Committee Chair president asp-softwareorg

ASP Membership Form

Before submitting your application for membershipvisit our website at wwwasp-softwareorgjoin andreview the membership standards and requirementsThere are two categories of ASP Membership Please makesure you have reviewed the appropriate information andstandards page

Mail applications toRichard HollerASP Executive DirectorPO Box 1522Martinsville IN 46151 USA

I have read the appropriate standards and agree toabide by them lsquo Yes lsquo No

Standards for Developer Members and Industry Membersare online at wwwasp-softwareorgjoin

Category of Membership

(Select either lsquoDeveloperrsquo or one of the various Industrycategories)

lsquo Developer

Industry Memberlsquo Vendorlsquo Online Distributorlsquo Online Developerlsquo User Grouplsquo PressMedialsquo Consultantlsquo Shareware Enthusiast

CompanyProduct Description(120 characters or less required if web site link is requested)

Please PRINT Clearly

REQUIRED FIELDS

Name

Company Name

Street Address

Street Address

CityTown

StateProvince

ZIPPostal Code

Country

Public Phone (Voice)

Public Phone (FAX)

Public Email Address

Web Site URL (Required if web site link is requested)

Private Phone (ASP use)

Private Email Address (ASP use)

Do you wish to have your listing included in the public

member database lsquo Yes lsquo No

Do you wish to have your website link included on our

ASP website lsquo Yes lsquo No

Signature

VisaMasterCardAmerican Express AuthorizationIf paying by credit card all the following fields are required

Credit Card Number

Expiration Date

Name of Card Holder

Amount to be charged $100 (USD)

CVV2 code (back of card)

Page 6: ASPects July 2012 Convention Special Issue · 2012. 7. 5. · July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 3 The Biggest Mistake You Can Ever Make by Jiri Novotny Dextronet.comT he biggest

6 ASPects Convention Special July 2012

Estimates of the current size of the video game industryvary from a conservative $251 billion US [ESA] to a trulystaggering figure of $1050 billion US [Avista Partners]and it continues to grow with average growth projected tobe around 12 annually through 2015 [Gartner] Most ofthat growth is expected to be in digital game downloads anarea in which the ASP is a pioneer

What makes the game industry great though is not itssize but its diversity There are enough genres and nicheswithin the field to allow for both huge blockbuster (akaAAA) titles on the latest consoles and more containedefforts from smaller independent teams (ie ldquoindiesrdquo) on just about any platform desktop mobile online consoleand others The opportunities are almost limitless

Making games is fun Most programmers work on atleast one game if only for their own enjoyment some ofthese developers make money from selling games andthousands actually turn game development into a careerThe game industry however is full of challenges andpitfalls so give yourself a competitive advantage by joiningus in the ASP Indie Games SIG todayGregg Seelhoff is the Charter Executive of the ASP IndieGames SIG You can find him and other ASP game develop-ers in the lsquoaspsiggamesrsquo forum as well as on the HowGames are Different panel at ISVCon 2012

PAD Specification Update

by Joel DiamondPAD Specification Chair

Plans are being made for a major overhaul to the entirePAD platform beginning this summer Members willbe notified in the very near future with the full plans

for both changes and enhancements to the PAD Specifica-tion as well as the authoring tools shortly after ISVCON

Taking place immediately the current specification willbe maintained but the affiliate extensions that have beenadded to prior to the current v31 and that are supported byPADGEN 31 PADManager will be ldquoeditedrdquo Support forV-Share (NetSuite) Digital Candle NorthStar Order1Yaskifo as well as the Digital River brands EmetrixDigiBuy and RegSoft will be removed as they are nolonger in service or used by software publishers based ona review of over 150000 PAD files

An entirely new list of affiliate and ecommerce candi-dates are being reviewed and qualified to replace v 31Feel free to nominate any affiliate service or major softwareecommerce provider by email to joeld wugnetcom

How to Capture a Screen

by Jerry SternWebmaster Software Knowledge Base

Ispent some time looking at software screen shotsrecently It was something of an eye opener As in itcaused considerable visual stress to look at the ugly

things They were for the most part worthless Somewere just plain screen captures or of programs that justarenrsquot very pretty when you look at the main screen froma distance of five feet Some were box shots and thosewerenrsquot always of products that are available in aboxndashtherersquos another problem there And some were justlogos with no tag line or URL Others werenrsquot sizedproperly for their likely use either too big or too tiny ormuch much too tall A few had a centered screen imagewith wider text beloweffectively shrinking theartwork down to unread-able

Itrsquos not just that thesescreenshots donrsquot showwhat the program can dothey donrsquot even identifywhat program wersquore look-ing at

Letrsquos go through the process of building a readable

screenshot step by step Itrsquos not just run grab paste saveTherersquos some planning involved here Most of the samplesare for the Windows 7 edition of Microsoft Paint

First Consider the Viewer

How will the screenshot be used On your websiteshowing steps 1 2 3 of a project So the images will beshown big and there will be sample data or art or projectsin the samples Those are very easy images plan themcapture and convert as-needed and generally done

Marketing images are another image type altogether

July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 7

and the rest of these steps will cover images that sell Forexample will the screenshot be listed in a PAD file fordisplay by a download site Then the images will beshown small very small with maybe an option to clickfor a full-size look but maybe not

These are very different uses In the first the image iseducational not marketing In the second itrsquos an attemptto call for action usually a download or a purchase Thatrsquosmarketing and marketing isnrsquot reality itrsquos a visualrepresentation with a purpose To achieve that purposeadd text logos icons artwork anything that will expressthat purpose but not overwhelm the viewer Itrsquos closer toa title page than an advertisement

Second Prepare and Capture

Before capturing the images for your screenshot removeany distractions from your screensndashin Windows thatusually means either turning off the Aero options orsetting your desktop background to solid white Turn offauto-arrange for the desktop icons and drag any iconsaway from where your program will appear during thescreenshotndashusually that means removing the top row oficons from your screen so that the top bar isnrsquot showingsee-through effects of your desktop

If your program is always full-screen reset the resolu-tion of the desktop to the lowest possible pixel size thatwill make your program look good That might be smallerthan a usable size for the program this is about visualsnot usability If your program can be sized skip this step

Now run your program Identify which screen showsthat the program is unique wonderful and that itrsquos reallyattractive The Windows shortcut to capture the activewindow is alt-Print Screen sometimes shown as PrtScrnon your keyboard Nothing appears to happen when youpress those keysndashthatrsquos OK Go to any painting programlike Microsoft Paint and paste in the imagendashControl-Vwill generally work Save the result Here is the resulting

screenshot for MS-Paint (bottom left) Itrsquos not really usefulyetndashitrsquos mainly whitespace and you canrsquot read theprogram name

Now resize the program Take it down to the smallestpossible size it can be on-screen and then enlarge it untilthe menus and toolbars or most of the design elementslook good Capture that

Next yoursquoll need supplemental artwork The logo forthe program is good and as the developer yoursquoll have theoriginal drawings In this case there is just the programicon so for MS-Paint Irsquove copied the program from thestart menu right-clicked the desktop and chosen to pastea new shortcut to the program Then Iclick elsewhere to remove the lsquoselectedrsquobox from the image and press Ctrl-PrintScreen to capture the entire screenpaste it into a paint program and crop itdown to just the icon Finally Iresampled the icon to double-height anddouble-width any more that would lookbadly aliased or stair-stepped along theedges and ugly

Bad Visuals

Some programs are ugly or boring but they create greatprintouts For these programs consider capturing theprintouts as art for the screen capture Install any lsquoprint -to- PDFrsquo driver and make a single-page PDF printout ofthe program doing its most dramatic work Convert thatPDF to PNG format and crop down to a visual detail thatwill work well on-screen and use that as a major part ofthe screenshot

Combine the Artwork

Now yoursquoll need a good art program start by creating anew image Import and size the screen shot Frequentlythat will be full size but it doesnrsquot have to be Import anyother art yoursquoll use arrange it and leave room for sometext

Some programs arenrsquot going to look good full-screenno matter how you adjust the program size Consider

8 ASPects Convention Special July 2012

cropping the screen capture to only show the top-leftcorner of the interface that will show the program nameand usually the file menus or toolbars That may beenough wersquore looking for pretty not complete

Finally add some text Download sites arenrsquot greatabout showing the web address of the program so Igenerally will include that in the image as well

Building an image in a drawing program will result ina big image Save that and export the result in a reason-able size for web use 600 pixels wide and not more than300 high is probably as big as you can get away with fora screenshot on most websites Some download sites maywant more specific sizes export them from your largeoriginal artworkndashthatrsquos going to provide the best possibleartwork Remember to design first and resize last

I kept this sample screenshot for Paint fairly simpleUsually thatrsquos ideal you can add more lines of text orstart adding shadows and shading but remember that theimage is going to be seen small Walk away from yourmonitor and look at the capture from across the roomndashitshould still be clear and should still identify the programin a simple and iconic wayJerry Stern is the editor of ASPects the ASPrsquos Coordina-tor of Anti-Spyware Operations runs Startupwarecoma n d Wo r d P e r f e c t o r g a n d i s o n l i n e a twwwsciencetranslationscom

Customer Relationship Management for microISVs

by Al Harbergthe press release guy from DP Directory Inc

Customer relationship management (CRM) is goodsoftware marketing CRM is a simple notion that canhelp software developers sell more of their applica-

tions It costs most businesses less money to generate salesfrom old customers than it does to find new ones

Manage your customers

The concept of CRM was popularized by Don Peppers andMartha Rogers in their book The One to One FuturendashBuilding Relationships One Customer at a Time

Today most of us in the software development industrythink of CRM as a database system that coordinates all ofour software sales marketing and demographic informa-tion By contrast Peppers and Rogers talk about CRM as acore management process and not as a technology chal-lenge

First the authors tell us we have to identify potentialcustomers Second we have to figure out what they wantand need how our software products and services can fill

that need and how to optimize the lifetime value of eachblock of customers Third we need to develop a relation-ship with our customers so we can know enough about theirtastes and preferences to make intelligent decisions aboutthe software that wersquoll be marketing And fourth we needto find a way to customize our products services and salesmessages to meet each individual customerrsquos needs Ormore realistically we need to define specific groups ofprospects and customers and target them with communica-tions that are tailored to their needs

Too often developers create a new application becausetheyrsquore unable to find a program that meets a specific needInstead of making development and marketing decisionsbased upon the developerrsquos personal need for software itmakes a lot more sense to target a larger group of peopledefine their needs and build an application that solvesproblems that a significant number of people are wrestlingwith

Before Peppers and Rogers published their bookmarketers spoke about managing products Peppers andRogers urge us to manage customers too We need todifferentiate our customers in much the same way that wedifferentiate our products and services Managing customer

July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 9

relationships touches all of the processes that are crucial tothe success of our business

Make Clients Feel Important

Harry Beckwith discusses our relationships with all of ourclients In his book The Invisible Touch - The Four Keys toModern Marketing Beckwith reminds us that business isabout people and that relationships matter Lots

If we want to make initial software sales and encouragefuture sales we need to find a way to make our clientsknow that we think that theyrsquore important Beckwithpresents eight keys to lasting relationships

(1) Natural affinity

Convince prospects that you share things in common withthem For example you understand their need for educa-tional software for their children because you have childrentoo and you know how difficult it is to find good softwareYou understand their need for Windows productivityapplications because you too spend too much time doingroutine work on your computer If you want to sell moresoftware talk to prospects about them and not aboutyourself But be sure to let your prospects know that youunderstand their problems

(2) Trust

Beckwith urges us to show integrity because integritybuilds trust In the software development industry thismeans not presenting prospects with sales hype Perhaps itmeans not pre-checking the box that says ldquoYes send me theprogram on CD too for only $10(US) additionalrdquo Somewould argue that integrity means not showing a box shot onyour website if you donrsquot offer a boxed product

(3) Speed

In business response times matter Create a website thatdisplays your marketing message quickly Answer pros-pectsrsquo and customersrsquo inquiries briskly And send customerstheir unlock keys as quickly as possible

(4) Apparent Expertise

Look like an expert by behaving like an expert Communi-cating expertise to your software clients is clearly moreimportant than having credentials They donrsquot care aboutyour university degrees They care about your responses totheir support questions Words matter Theyrsquore tools Learnhow to use them more effectively and build your expertisein your customersrsquo minds

(5) Sacrifice

Do something above-and-beyond for your customersDevelop a reputation for working on weekends and holi-days to deliver the best support in the industry Add thefeatures to your application that they need

(6) Completeness

Yoursquoll sell more stuff Beckwith urges if you can find away to solve all of your clientsrsquo problems Many softwaredevelopers have built a family of products that help theirtarget audience solve all of the problems in a particularfield

(7) Magic Words

Say ldquothank yourdquo Ask how people are doing Use yourcustomersrsquo names when writing to them

(8) Passion

Customers and prospects can tell if you love what yoursquoredoing Show them how interested you are in your products

10 ASPects Convention Special July 2012

and in them

Pick the Low-hanging Fruit

In his book Your Marketing Sucks Mark Stevens takescustomer relationships a step further by suggesting thatworking with existing customers will generate the easiestmoney that wersquoll ever make Translated into the softwaredevelopment industry Stevensrsquo ideas include cross-sellingother applications that yoursquove written

Stevens would also encourage microISVs to get theircustomers to buy somebody elsersquos software that theyrsquoreoffering on an affiliate basis Select another developer whomarkets excellent applications The other developer has totarget the same group that yoursquore targeting and they canrsquotbe offering a competing application

And the other developerrsquos applications must have thesame appeal as yours For example if your software isknown for its ease of use then you shouldnrsquot select adeveloper whose application is known for being afull-featured powerhouse Instead choose another devel-oper who takes the same minimalist approach to softwaredesign that you do Set up an affiliate relationship with thisother developer and sell their software to your user-base

Encourage your existing customers to upgrade from theLight version to the Standard version and to the Profes-sional version If theyrsquore a home user and theyrsquove bought asingle-user license offer them a family license If theyrsquore abusiness user talk to them about multi-user and sitelicensing

Itrsquos always easier Beckwith tells us to sell to somebodywith whom you already have a relationship

Start with an Easy Sale

Jay Conrad Levinson in his book Guerrilla MarketingExcellence tells us that if we can get prospects to take oneor more soft steps itrsquos easier to get them to take the hardstep of making the purchase For example a softwaredeveloper might encourage prospects to subscribe to anewsletter or to contact them with questions about theirsoftware

Start building a relationship with them and it will beeasier to get them to buy from you Offer them a free flyerbrochure DVD demonstration phone consultation orseminar Establish a relationship with them and then askfor the sale

Selling to Women

Women are three times more likely to recommend a brandto friends and colleagues Help women connect to eachother and they can tell others about your product or serviceSo says Faith Popcorn in her book EVEolution

Popcorn insists that she is not talking aboutword-of-mouth marketing or relationship marketing Thisisnrsquot about putting a simple ldquotell a friend about our soft-

warerdquo link on your website Itrsquos about creating a genuinecommunity around your brand Weight Watchers did thisThey transformed dieting from a private act to a public one

Create a site where people can discuss what theyrsquoreworried about and passionate about If the site is centeredaround your brand then you can get women to join yourbrand And you can build solid relationships with all of theparticipants

What CRM Means for Software Developers

If you decide to adopt customer relationship managementtechniques in your software development business try notto get bogged down in the technical aspects of implement-ing a CRM solution The most important problems that youneed to tackle are defining all of the contact points that youhave with your prospects and customers and deciding howto optimize every one of them By making dozens orhundreds of improvements with your customer interactionsyoursquoll build far better relationships with your target audi-ence And that will mean more sales more referrals and abetter reputation for your company

CRM is good software marketingSince 1984 Al Harberg has been helping software develop-ers write press releases and send them to the editors Youcan check out more CRM ideas on his new SoftwareMarketing Glossary on wwwdpdirectorycomglossary-creativityhtmcrm_at_the_speed_of_light

July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 11

Call YourselfAre You Impossible to Reach

by Jerry SternEditor ASPects

Irsquom surprised by basic web page failures amongmicroISVs I follow a link to a product Irsquove heard aboutfor years or was recommended to me and I see well

crab grass Or whatrsquos left of the lawn has turned brown Nowait thatrsquos another problem Or is it

We run software and technology businesses and manyof us are guilty of liking our technology so much that wewant to just do that Be the programmer all the time andnever delegate or outsource that work and never move onto keeping our offices running But thatrsquos basic introductionto Management material management isnrsquot productionManagement is hiring firing delegation training andsupervision and making sure that everything else gets doneeven if you have to outsource hire or do it yourself tomake sure that everything gets done

The common error in a small business is skippingsupervision ldquoWhat I work alone I donrsquot need supervi-sionrdquo Yeah right Unless you work off proper to-do liststhat include double-checks that your systems are workingyou arenrsquot supervising either your own workload or yourtechnology For now Irsquoll leave lsquosupervising yourselfrsquo as anexercise for the programmer herersquos the short versionndashmakea list and assign hours to each item You can steal hoursfrom each item if you have to but canrsquot cut any category tozero Especially not supervision marketing or bookkeep-ing

Programmer Phone Home

But back to supervising your technology as thatrsquos what Isee failing from the outside world thatrsquos what your custom-ers see Business management classes usually tell you Callyourself Itrsquos really that simple Pick up a phone and dialyour number No thatrsquos not it Go to a search engine findyour web page find your phone number dial it and leavea message Oh and do it from outside your office Repeatit once a month and repeat that for each of your contactmethods The first try might result in shock however

What yoursquore looking for are communication road blocksA bad phone number or none Web mail pages that nolonger work Missing paper-mail addresses A full phonemail box or a generic answering service message A webpage that displays security warnings in WebOfTrust(mywotcom) or at SiteAdvisorcom Web pages that gonowhere or display badly on browsers you donrsquot use Haveyou visited your sites from an iPAD yet Sure you want touse Flash animation for your main welcome message Itrsquosnot universal never was and the usage percentages are

dropping nowOOPS story 1 I visited a microISVrsquos web site to look at

his product His site shows up in Danish with an Englishbutton which refreshes the page and once again shows meDanish Nice site but all I can read in Danish are thetechnology words that donrsquot normally get translated Theauthor doesnrsquot really visit his own site in English appar-ently And neither does anyone else Lost sale

OOPS story 2 I find someone on LinkedIn I call theirphone number and it goes to voicemail and the voicemailis full Or their email bounces unknown recipient Lostopportunity

OOPS story 3 OK this one was me I visit a friendshow them my website Itrsquos too wide to fit her low-resolu-tion screen without scrolling it doesnrsquot resize to fit thescreen width Lost readability

OOPS story 4 I see a web URL in the email address ofa contact and look at the site The site looks like it wascreated 12 years ago the copyright date is 2003 and theweb links go to lsquofilewebdetailsasprsquo Web page closedlost another sale

OOPS story 5 Nice product site no contact informationon it Nothing but links to a third-party sales companymaybe Paypal No phone email webmail or paper mailaddress no hint of which time zone continent or starsystem is the closest Sorry I donrsquot buy anything from off-planet yet

Right about now I hear a few comments ldquoI canrsquotpublish my phone number I work from homerdquo or ldquoIrsquomuncomfortable with spoken English for callsrdquo ldquoIrsquom on thePacific RIM and my time zone is very different from mycustomersrdquo or ldquoI donrsquot want emails just buy my productand leave me alonerdquo OK your customers can and will buyfrom a company whose expectation of normal communica-tions matches their own

Itrsquos OK to not have any one of these on your site aphone number or an email address or a physical deliveryaddress Itrsquos never OK to not have a mailing address (postoffice boxes are OK) Itrsquos a bad idea to not have most ofthese

Phone number The phone number has to actuallyreach a message that identifies your company or mainproduct A generic message from an cell phone service thatldquo555-1212 is not available Please leave a messagerdquo is notacceptable The phone number doesnrsquot have to actually ring(or wake you up on the far side of the planet) but it has toreliably take messages The number doesnrsquot even have to bea device a virtual phone number like Google Voice isperfectly OK you can set virtual phones to ring at anothernumber during some hours and go directly to voicemail the

12 ASPects Convention Special July 2012

rest of the time Definitely list your office hours and timezone near your phone number

Email address There has to be a way to reach you byemail on your web site It doesnrsquot have to be a plain-textemail address a working web-mail form is OK

Mailing address Yes your mailing address has to beon your web site I have to teach end users about onlinesecurity I show them how to tell if an order page is en-crypted how to see who the company taking orders is andsometimes how to look up the reputation of a site or see ifthere are complaints And I stress not ordering fromcompanies that hide their locations Look Irsquom not going toshow up at your door (Itrsquos happened to me once and thatcharacter did buy software but it took an hour to get himout the door again and I canrsquot work an hour for a $20 saleAnd thatrsquos why I use a post office box) But if you hideyour city and country you arenrsquot going to get sales fromyour neighborsndashremember that all search engines aremoving towards lsquolocal results firstrsquo And you wonrsquot getorders from anyone who knows that in case an online orderfails there has to be a way to reach someone to fix things

Again I hear cries of despair But Irsquom in LowerSlobbovia Or for those who havenrsquot heard of it EastElbonia is pretty much the same Itrsquos somewhere you wonrsquotadmit yoursquore from Perhaps the real problem isnrsquot that youroffices are remotendashIrsquove done business with great companieson six continents The good ones arenrsquot hiding theirlocations Companies that hide their locations are automati-cally suspiciousndashwhat else is hidden in their software

Web sites All of your web sites must work in all themajor browsers If you sell Mac software they had betterwork perfectly when viewed from an iPAD Preferablyevery domain you use should have a really sharp and goodlooking web site But if you have a domain you havenrsquottouched in years and canrsquot be bothered to update it thenredirect that domain to your best web site Kill the old sitemove on and donrsquot leave straggler web sites lying aroundIf you must leave an old site un-updated run a link checkeron it and fix whatever is broken

Donrsquot skip any steps on these checks It really does workbest if you leave your office and then try to communicatefrom the outside world Then you see that your web site hasthe wrong country code on the phone number or it doesnrsquotdisplay properly on other browsers or itrsquos blocked by websecurity software or the links are local and broken Or onebrowser is flagging a site certificate as bad or a securitytoolbar is popping warnings

Itrsquos the equivalent in a big company of dialing the mainswitchboard trying to get past the phone board past theexecutive assistant to the vice president and actuallyhaving an executive listen to you long enough to hear the10-second version of what yoursquore selling Sales pitchesdonrsquot work without communication donrsquot lose your salebecause you canrsquot be reachedJerry Stern is the editor of ASPects the ASPrsquos Coordinatorof Anti-Spyware Operations runs Startupwarecom andW o r d P e r f e c t o r g a n d i s o n l i n e a twwwsciencetranslationscom

July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 13

14 ASPects Convention Special July 2012

Software Passwords and Software Marketing

by Al Harbergthe press release guy from DP Directory Inc

If your software asks users to create a password toprotect the privacy of their information then you havean opportunity to offer additional value to your custom-

ers And that can mean increased software sales additionalrecommendations and good will for your company in yourmarketing niche

Help your users choose effective passwords Accordingto the ldquoWorst Passw0rdsrdquo article in the April 2012 issue ofAARP Bulletin online users have a terrible track record forchoosing effective passwords to protect their security

The most popular password the article tells us isldquopasswordrdquo Changing the lower-case letter ldquoordquo to a zero toform passw0rd is the 16th most popular password choice

The top 25 list includes such clever choices as 1234561234567 12345678 and 123123 ldquoqwertyrdquo and ldquoletmeinrdquoare also on the list of popular user choices

Every day computer users worry about their privacy Ifyour software asks your users to create a password thenyou have an opportunity to show that you care about theirprivacy and security Donrsquot let them create low-qualitypasswords

Andrei Belogortseff is the CEO of WinAbility Softwareat wwwwinabilitycom a Utah-based software developerof security and password utilities WinAbility marketsUSBCrypt a program that makes it simple to encrypt andpassword-protect your USB drive as well as other remov-able and fixed drives

ldquoItrsquos important to protect your data with a long complexpasswordrdquo Andrei tells us ldquoUse a mix of upper-caseletters lower-case letters digits and special charactersrdquo

USBCrypt has a built-in password recovery function thatlets users recreate lost or forgotten passwords On a typical

modern business PC it can take 30 minutes to recover athree-digit password that contains only lower-case lettersBy contrast a five-digit password made up of a mix ofupper- and lower-case letters can take up to 15 days torecover And a seven-digit password that mixes upper- andlower-case letters with numbers and special characters cantake thousands of years to recover

If your application asks users to choose a password youcan help them select wisely Build a list of terrible pass-words into your application and donrsquot let your users selectthese easy-to-guess codes Examine the passwords that theycreate and encourage them to use longer passwords witha mix of characters

ldquoBe sure to remind your users of the flip-side of using acomplex passwordrdquo Andrei tells us ldquoIf you forget yourpassword it will be nearly impossible to recover itrdquo

Add your password protection information to yourwebsite and make it part of your software marketingpresentation By creating keyword-rich pages that describeyour thoughts about privacy security encryption andpasswords yoursquoll get more search engine traffic frompeople who include these words when they search forsoftware like yours

Use your applicationrsquos help file to provide your userswith a short explanation of why passwords are importantTheyrsquoll appreciate the guidance and theyrsquoll be much moreinclined to recommend your software to their friends andcolleagues Helping customers choose powerful passwordsis good software marketingSince 1984 Al Harberg has been helping software develop-ers write press releases and submit them to the editors Youcan check out h is press re lease services onwwwdpdirectorycom

ASP Member News

Slimbrowser ndash a Fast and Secure Tabbed Web Browser

FlashPeak Inc has released SlimBrowser V41 a compacttabbed browser that is super-fast easy to use and packedwith wonderful features including popup-blocker formfiller autologin spell checker site groups ad filteringquick search and much more

SlimBrowser manages web sites as child windows withclickable tab labels in a single main window to avoid taskbar clutter With SlimBrowser searching the web iseasyndashtype in the quick-search box and press enter to get thesearch results you want immediately You can either use thepredefined list of search engines or easily create your own

favorite search enginesSlimBrowser also includes a URL filter which blocks

web pages and components by address matching Further-more the advanced in-page ad-filter automatically elimi-nates the obtrusive floating images and flash animationsfrom the original web pages

SlimBrowser includes site grouping functionalitieswhich enables you to save a number of sites as a group andopen the group of sites next time with a single click Theform filler fills your personal information into web formswith the best field-detection accuracy and saves you a lot ofrepetitive typing

SlimBrowser is free from wwwflashpeakcomsbrowser

July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 15

Affordable Cloud-Based Speed Reading Software forColleges and College Prep

StepWare Inc announces the availability of AceReaderOnline the Cloud version of its flagship WindowsMacapplication AceReader Pro AceReader Online is a power-ful educational tool that assesses improves and monitorsstudentsrsquo reading speed fluency and comprehension

AceReader Online teaches students to break bad readinghabits such as subvocalization (pronouncing the words intheir minds as they read) and regression (reading passagesmore than once) This educational software also helpsexpand studentsrsquo eye fixation zone so they can readmultiple words at a time

The online version of AceReader offers features thatbenefit college university and high school teachers andstudents Students can work independently on a personal-ized self-adjusting reading course or choose from a libraryof reading assessment and improvement regimens Educa-tors can monitor each studentrsquos progress by viewing reportsfor each student consisting of reading speeds comprehen-sion scores graphs activity logs and much more

Since AceReader Online includes 13 levels of textcomplexity it is being used by younger students (ie gradeschools) and even for students who need vision training (iestudents with dyslexia)

AceReader Online has been used by 30 colleges andschools during the 20112012 school year with greatsuccess and is now is available to all education institutionswwwacereadercom

Create Handwriting Fonts In Many Major Languages

High-Logic BV has released Scanahand 4 an applicationthat makes it easy for each member of the family to createcustom hand-written fonts for use in Microsoft WordExcel PowerPoint Notepad and any Windows programScanahand lets you quickly create a font install it inWindows in seconds and use it immediately You can typenotes and cards in your favorite word processing softwareand print them in your own handwriting

Scanahand lets you create signature fonts set a font styleby going bold or italic has the ability to automaticallyinclude diacritical marks and provides full Unicodesupport New features in version 4 include a smart charactermapper that automatically links missing letters to theirupperlower case counterpart and a brand new algorithm forcalculating the best possible left and right-side bearings forthe basic Latin character set The tracing method used byScanahand has been further improved to generate evenmore stunning fonts

The Premium Edition also includes a Template Editorthat allows users to create templates each containing a userdefined set of characters This allows the generation of

fonts that support numerous languages not available in theStandard Editionwwwhigh-logiccom

News amp Press Corner

Microsoft Announces Windows 8 Upgrade Offer

Microsoft Corp announced the availability of the WindowsUpgrade Offer for consumers purchasing a qualifying newWindows 7 PC The Windows Upgrade Offer providesconsumers who buy an eligible Windows 7 PC the optionto purchase a downloadable upgrade to Windows 8 Pro foran estimated retail price of just $1499 during the time ofthe promotion which will be redeemable when Windows 8is generally available The Windows Upgrade Offer is justthe first of many consumer offers that will roll out inconjunction with the general availability of Windows 8

ldquoWersquove seen a great interest in Windows 8 especiallygiven the availability of the Windows 8 Release Previewthis week and yet we know many consumers want a newPC nowrdquo said Tami Reller chief marketing officer andchief financial officer of Windows at Microsoft ldquoTheWindows Upgrade Offer gives people the flexibility topurchase the new Windows 7 PC they need today with theknowledge they can easily get Windows 8 when itrsquos avail-ablerdquo

This program is available for consumers buying newWindows 7 PCs that are preinstalled with Windows 7 HomeBasic Home Premium Professional or Ultimate andinclude a matching and valid OEM Certificate of Authentic-ity The Windows 7 PC must be purchased new during theeligibility period June 2 2012ndashJan 31 2013wwwwindowsupgradeoffercom

WinZipreg Android App Now Available

WinZip Multi-platform Product Line Extends MobileSupport with Free Android App

WinZip Computing a Corel company today introducedWinZipreg for Android a new free mobile app now availableon Google Play

ldquoWith our free Android app wersquore extending the powerof WinZip to new mobile customers and delivering anessential tool for opening zipped files on the go Our firstmobile app WinZip for iOS enjoyed a great reception andhas already been downloaded by more than a millioniPhone and iPad users Now with apps for Android andiOS wersquore offering WinZip tools to customers on both ofthe industryrsquos most popular mobile platformsrdquo said PatrickNichols President of WinZipwwwwinzipcom

16 ASPects Convention Special July 2012

Supporting MembersIshai Shotten ACampG Software Ltd wwwbeejackcomAdriana Iordan Avangate BV wwwavangatecomYu Tao CHENGDU YIWO Tech Development Co Ltd wwweaseuscomDennis Reinhardt DAIR Computer Systems wwwdaircomAlexander Halser EC Software GmbH wwwec-softwarecomArmel Asselin Ellie Computing wwwelliecomputingcomErik Pelton Erik M Pelton amp Associates wwwerikpeltoncomGeraldine Joffre HDRsoft wwwhdrsoftcomGerben Abbink Monkfish XML Software wwwxmlblueprintcomMatt Smith Nevolution Digital LLC wwwnevolutioncomMiguel Cano Onekit wwwonekitcomCharles Born Plimus Inc wwwplimuscomIvan Radmore Pookanyoni Limited wwwpookanyonicomAndrew Butler R3 Data Recovery Ltd wwwr3datarecoverycomWilliam Shaw Regentstreet Research IncOmer Faiyaz Remo Software wwwremosoftwarecomRay Park Rescue Geeks Inc wwwutouchposcomMatt Humphries RevenueWire wwwrevenuewirecomAnna-Jayne Metcalfe Riverblade LimitedTim Thousand Scooter Software wwwscootersoftwarecomGarett Finney SoftwareCommercials Inc wwwsoftwarecommercialscomDana Doten TeamComp Inc wwwnewsbincomPiotr Sulgostowski TTS Company Sp z o o wwwttscomplMiguel Angel Martin Vittalia Internet SL wwweazelcomLiu Ping wwwhodosoftcom

Directors Officers and Committee Chairs Board of DirectorsMitchell Vincent Chair mitch ksoftwarenetDan Hite Dan TedCoSoftwarecomEd Pulliam pulliam ouisoftcomHoward Sobel howards wugnetcomJason Kiwaluk jkiwaluk shawcaMahmoud Metwally mkm giantmatrixcom

OfficersGianfranco Berardi President president asp-softwareorgVice President vp asp-softwareorgAndrei Belogortseff Secretary secretary asp-softwareorgTerry Jepson Treasurer treasurer asp-softwareorg

Staff Positions amp Committee ChairsRich Holler Executive Director execdir asp-softwareorgJerry Stern Coordinator of anti-spyware operations

ASPects Editor aspects asp-softwareorg

Sue Pichotta Conference Managerconference asp-softwareorg

Andrei Belogortseff Download Sitedsw asp-softwareorg

Events Coordinator events asp-softwareorgMichael Marshall Ombudsman

wwwasp-softwareorgombSteve Faleiro Outreach Chair outreach asp-softwareorgJoel Diamond PAD Chair pad-chair asp-softwareorgPublic Relations publicrelations asp-softwareorgSergeant-at-Arms saa asp-softwareorgVolunteer Coordinator

volunteer asp-softwareorgDon Waterfield Webmaster webmaster asp-softwareorgTom Guthery IV New Member Welcome

welcome asp-softwareorgWebsite Committee Chair president asp-softwareorg

ASP Membership Form

Before submitting your application for membershipvisit our website at wwwasp-softwareorgjoin andreview the membership standards and requirementsThere are two categories of ASP Membership Please makesure you have reviewed the appropriate information andstandards page

Mail applications toRichard HollerASP Executive DirectorPO Box 1522Martinsville IN 46151 USA

I have read the appropriate standards and agree toabide by them lsquo Yes lsquo No

Standards for Developer Members and Industry Membersare online at wwwasp-softwareorgjoin

Category of Membership

(Select either lsquoDeveloperrsquo or one of the various Industrycategories)

lsquo Developer

Industry Memberlsquo Vendorlsquo Online Distributorlsquo Online Developerlsquo User Grouplsquo PressMedialsquo Consultantlsquo Shareware Enthusiast

CompanyProduct Description(120 characters or less required if web site link is requested)

Please PRINT Clearly

REQUIRED FIELDS

Name

Company Name

Street Address

Street Address

CityTown

StateProvince

ZIPPostal Code

Country

Public Phone (Voice)

Public Phone (FAX)

Public Email Address

Web Site URL (Required if web site link is requested)

Private Phone (ASP use)

Private Email Address (ASP use)

Do you wish to have your listing included in the public

member database lsquo Yes lsquo No

Do you wish to have your website link included on our

ASP website lsquo Yes lsquo No

Signature

VisaMasterCardAmerican Express AuthorizationIf paying by credit card all the following fields are required

Credit Card Number

Expiration Date

Name of Card Holder

Amount to be charged $100 (USD)

CVV2 code (back of card)

Page 7: ASPects July 2012 Convention Special Issue · 2012. 7. 5. · July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 3 The Biggest Mistake You Can Ever Make by Jiri Novotny Dextronet.comT he biggest

July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 7

and the rest of these steps will cover images that sell Forexample will the screenshot be listed in a PAD file fordisplay by a download site Then the images will beshown small very small with maybe an option to clickfor a full-size look but maybe not

These are very different uses In the first the image iseducational not marketing In the second itrsquos an attemptto call for action usually a download or a purchase Thatrsquosmarketing and marketing isnrsquot reality itrsquos a visualrepresentation with a purpose To achieve that purposeadd text logos icons artwork anything that will expressthat purpose but not overwhelm the viewer Itrsquos closer toa title page than an advertisement

Second Prepare and Capture

Before capturing the images for your screenshot removeany distractions from your screensndashin Windows thatusually means either turning off the Aero options orsetting your desktop background to solid white Turn offauto-arrange for the desktop icons and drag any iconsaway from where your program will appear during thescreenshotndashusually that means removing the top row oficons from your screen so that the top bar isnrsquot showingsee-through effects of your desktop

If your program is always full-screen reset the resolu-tion of the desktop to the lowest possible pixel size thatwill make your program look good That might be smallerthan a usable size for the program this is about visualsnot usability If your program can be sized skip this step

Now run your program Identify which screen showsthat the program is unique wonderful and that itrsquos reallyattractive The Windows shortcut to capture the activewindow is alt-Print Screen sometimes shown as PrtScrnon your keyboard Nothing appears to happen when youpress those keysndashthatrsquos OK Go to any painting programlike Microsoft Paint and paste in the imagendashControl-Vwill generally work Save the result Here is the resulting

screenshot for MS-Paint (bottom left) Itrsquos not really usefulyetndashitrsquos mainly whitespace and you canrsquot read theprogram name

Now resize the program Take it down to the smallestpossible size it can be on-screen and then enlarge it untilthe menus and toolbars or most of the design elementslook good Capture that

Next yoursquoll need supplemental artwork The logo forthe program is good and as the developer yoursquoll have theoriginal drawings In this case there is just the programicon so for MS-Paint Irsquove copied the program from thestart menu right-clicked the desktop and chosen to pastea new shortcut to the program Then Iclick elsewhere to remove the lsquoselectedrsquobox from the image and press Ctrl-PrintScreen to capture the entire screenpaste it into a paint program and crop itdown to just the icon Finally Iresampled the icon to double-height anddouble-width any more that would lookbadly aliased or stair-stepped along theedges and ugly

Bad Visuals

Some programs are ugly or boring but they create greatprintouts For these programs consider capturing theprintouts as art for the screen capture Install any lsquoprint -to- PDFrsquo driver and make a single-page PDF printout ofthe program doing its most dramatic work Convert thatPDF to PNG format and crop down to a visual detail thatwill work well on-screen and use that as a major part ofthe screenshot

Combine the Artwork

Now yoursquoll need a good art program start by creating anew image Import and size the screen shot Frequentlythat will be full size but it doesnrsquot have to be Import anyother art yoursquoll use arrange it and leave room for sometext

Some programs arenrsquot going to look good full-screenno matter how you adjust the program size Consider

8 ASPects Convention Special July 2012

cropping the screen capture to only show the top-leftcorner of the interface that will show the program nameand usually the file menus or toolbars That may beenough wersquore looking for pretty not complete

Finally add some text Download sites arenrsquot greatabout showing the web address of the program so Igenerally will include that in the image as well

Building an image in a drawing program will result ina big image Save that and export the result in a reason-able size for web use 600 pixels wide and not more than300 high is probably as big as you can get away with fora screenshot on most websites Some download sites maywant more specific sizes export them from your largeoriginal artworkndashthatrsquos going to provide the best possibleartwork Remember to design first and resize last

I kept this sample screenshot for Paint fairly simpleUsually thatrsquos ideal you can add more lines of text orstart adding shadows and shading but remember that theimage is going to be seen small Walk away from yourmonitor and look at the capture from across the roomndashitshould still be clear and should still identify the programin a simple and iconic wayJerry Stern is the editor of ASPects the ASPrsquos Coordina-tor of Anti-Spyware Operations runs Startupwarecoma n d Wo r d P e r f e c t o r g a n d i s o n l i n e a twwwsciencetranslationscom

Customer Relationship Management for microISVs

by Al Harbergthe press release guy from DP Directory Inc

Customer relationship management (CRM) is goodsoftware marketing CRM is a simple notion that canhelp software developers sell more of their applica-

tions It costs most businesses less money to generate salesfrom old customers than it does to find new ones

Manage your customers

The concept of CRM was popularized by Don Peppers andMartha Rogers in their book The One to One FuturendashBuilding Relationships One Customer at a Time

Today most of us in the software development industrythink of CRM as a database system that coordinates all ofour software sales marketing and demographic informa-tion By contrast Peppers and Rogers talk about CRM as acore management process and not as a technology chal-lenge

First the authors tell us we have to identify potentialcustomers Second we have to figure out what they wantand need how our software products and services can fill

that need and how to optimize the lifetime value of eachblock of customers Third we need to develop a relation-ship with our customers so we can know enough about theirtastes and preferences to make intelligent decisions aboutthe software that wersquoll be marketing And fourth we needto find a way to customize our products services and salesmessages to meet each individual customerrsquos needs Ormore realistically we need to define specific groups ofprospects and customers and target them with communica-tions that are tailored to their needs

Too often developers create a new application becausetheyrsquore unable to find a program that meets a specific needInstead of making development and marketing decisionsbased upon the developerrsquos personal need for software itmakes a lot more sense to target a larger group of peopledefine their needs and build an application that solvesproblems that a significant number of people are wrestlingwith

Before Peppers and Rogers published their bookmarketers spoke about managing products Peppers andRogers urge us to manage customers too We need todifferentiate our customers in much the same way that wedifferentiate our products and services Managing customer

July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 9

relationships touches all of the processes that are crucial tothe success of our business

Make Clients Feel Important

Harry Beckwith discusses our relationships with all of ourclients In his book The Invisible Touch - The Four Keys toModern Marketing Beckwith reminds us that business isabout people and that relationships matter Lots

If we want to make initial software sales and encouragefuture sales we need to find a way to make our clientsknow that we think that theyrsquore important Beckwithpresents eight keys to lasting relationships

(1) Natural affinity

Convince prospects that you share things in common withthem For example you understand their need for educa-tional software for their children because you have childrentoo and you know how difficult it is to find good softwareYou understand their need for Windows productivityapplications because you too spend too much time doingroutine work on your computer If you want to sell moresoftware talk to prospects about them and not aboutyourself But be sure to let your prospects know that youunderstand their problems

(2) Trust

Beckwith urges us to show integrity because integritybuilds trust In the software development industry thismeans not presenting prospects with sales hype Perhaps itmeans not pre-checking the box that says ldquoYes send me theprogram on CD too for only $10(US) additionalrdquo Somewould argue that integrity means not showing a box shot onyour website if you donrsquot offer a boxed product

(3) Speed

In business response times matter Create a website thatdisplays your marketing message quickly Answer pros-pectsrsquo and customersrsquo inquiries briskly And send customerstheir unlock keys as quickly as possible

(4) Apparent Expertise

Look like an expert by behaving like an expert Communi-cating expertise to your software clients is clearly moreimportant than having credentials They donrsquot care aboutyour university degrees They care about your responses totheir support questions Words matter Theyrsquore tools Learnhow to use them more effectively and build your expertisein your customersrsquo minds

(5) Sacrifice

Do something above-and-beyond for your customersDevelop a reputation for working on weekends and holi-days to deliver the best support in the industry Add thefeatures to your application that they need

(6) Completeness

Yoursquoll sell more stuff Beckwith urges if you can find away to solve all of your clientsrsquo problems Many softwaredevelopers have built a family of products that help theirtarget audience solve all of the problems in a particularfield

(7) Magic Words

Say ldquothank yourdquo Ask how people are doing Use yourcustomersrsquo names when writing to them

(8) Passion

Customers and prospects can tell if you love what yoursquoredoing Show them how interested you are in your products

10 ASPects Convention Special July 2012

and in them

Pick the Low-hanging Fruit

In his book Your Marketing Sucks Mark Stevens takescustomer relationships a step further by suggesting thatworking with existing customers will generate the easiestmoney that wersquoll ever make Translated into the softwaredevelopment industry Stevensrsquo ideas include cross-sellingother applications that yoursquove written

Stevens would also encourage microISVs to get theircustomers to buy somebody elsersquos software that theyrsquoreoffering on an affiliate basis Select another developer whomarkets excellent applications The other developer has totarget the same group that yoursquore targeting and they canrsquotbe offering a competing application

And the other developerrsquos applications must have thesame appeal as yours For example if your software isknown for its ease of use then you shouldnrsquot select adeveloper whose application is known for being afull-featured powerhouse Instead choose another devel-oper who takes the same minimalist approach to softwaredesign that you do Set up an affiliate relationship with thisother developer and sell their software to your user-base

Encourage your existing customers to upgrade from theLight version to the Standard version and to the Profes-sional version If theyrsquore a home user and theyrsquove bought asingle-user license offer them a family license If theyrsquore abusiness user talk to them about multi-user and sitelicensing

Itrsquos always easier Beckwith tells us to sell to somebodywith whom you already have a relationship

Start with an Easy Sale

Jay Conrad Levinson in his book Guerrilla MarketingExcellence tells us that if we can get prospects to take oneor more soft steps itrsquos easier to get them to take the hardstep of making the purchase For example a softwaredeveloper might encourage prospects to subscribe to anewsletter or to contact them with questions about theirsoftware

Start building a relationship with them and it will beeasier to get them to buy from you Offer them a free flyerbrochure DVD demonstration phone consultation orseminar Establish a relationship with them and then askfor the sale

Selling to Women

Women are three times more likely to recommend a brandto friends and colleagues Help women connect to eachother and they can tell others about your product or serviceSo says Faith Popcorn in her book EVEolution

Popcorn insists that she is not talking aboutword-of-mouth marketing or relationship marketing Thisisnrsquot about putting a simple ldquotell a friend about our soft-

warerdquo link on your website Itrsquos about creating a genuinecommunity around your brand Weight Watchers did thisThey transformed dieting from a private act to a public one

Create a site where people can discuss what theyrsquoreworried about and passionate about If the site is centeredaround your brand then you can get women to join yourbrand And you can build solid relationships with all of theparticipants

What CRM Means for Software Developers

If you decide to adopt customer relationship managementtechniques in your software development business try notto get bogged down in the technical aspects of implement-ing a CRM solution The most important problems that youneed to tackle are defining all of the contact points that youhave with your prospects and customers and deciding howto optimize every one of them By making dozens orhundreds of improvements with your customer interactionsyoursquoll build far better relationships with your target audi-ence And that will mean more sales more referrals and abetter reputation for your company

CRM is good software marketingSince 1984 Al Harberg has been helping software develop-ers write press releases and send them to the editors Youcan check out more CRM ideas on his new SoftwareMarketing Glossary on wwwdpdirectorycomglossary-creativityhtmcrm_at_the_speed_of_light

July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 11

Call YourselfAre You Impossible to Reach

by Jerry SternEditor ASPects

Irsquom surprised by basic web page failures amongmicroISVs I follow a link to a product Irsquove heard aboutfor years or was recommended to me and I see well

crab grass Or whatrsquos left of the lawn has turned brown Nowait thatrsquos another problem Or is it

We run software and technology businesses and manyof us are guilty of liking our technology so much that wewant to just do that Be the programmer all the time andnever delegate or outsource that work and never move onto keeping our offices running But thatrsquos basic introductionto Management material management isnrsquot productionManagement is hiring firing delegation training andsupervision and making sure that everything else gets doneeven if you have to outsource hire or do it yourself tomake sure that everything gets done

The common error in a small business is skippingsupervision ldquoWhat I work alone I donrsquot need supervi-sionrdquo Yeah right Unless you work off proper to-do liststhat include double-checks that your systems are workingyou arenrsquot supervising either your own workload or yourtechnology For now Irsquoll leave lsquosupervising yourselfrsquo as anexercise for the programmer herersquos the short versionndashmakea list and assign hours to each item You can steal hoursfrom each item if you have to but canrsquot cut any category tozero Especially not supervision marketing or bookkeep-ing

Programmer Phone Home

But back to supervising your technology as thatrsquos what Isee failing from the outside world thatrsquos what your custom-ers see Business management classes usually tell you Callyourself Itrsquos really that simple Pick up a phone and dialyour number No thatrsquos not it Go to a search engine findyour web page find your phone number dial it and leavea message Oh and do it from outside your office Repeatit once a month and repeat that for each of your contactmethods The first try might result in shock however

What yoursquore looking for are communication road blocksA bad phone number or none Web mail pages that nolonger work Missing paper-mail addresses A full phonemail box or a generic answering service message A webpage that displays security warnings in WebOfTrust(mywotcom) or at SiteAdvisorcom Web pages that gonowhere or display badly on browsers you donrsquot use Haveyou visited your sites from an iPAD yet Sure you want touse Flash animation for your main welcome message Itrsquosnot universal never was and the usage percentages are

dropping nowOOPS story 1 I visited a microISVrsquos web site to look at

his product His site shows up in Danish with an Englishbutton which refreshes the page and once again shows meDanish Nice site but all I can read in Danish are thetechnology words that donrsquot normally get translated Theauthor doesnrsquot really visit his own site in English appar-ently And neither does anyone else Lost sale

OOPS story 2 I find someone on LinkedIn I call theirphone number and it goes to voicemail and the voicemailis full Or their email bounces unknown recipient Lostopportunity

OOPS story 3 OK this one was me I visit a friendshow them my website Itrsquos too wide to fit her low-resolu-tion screen without scrolling it doesnrsquot resize to fit thescreen width Lost readability

OOPS story 4 I see a web URL in the email address ofa contact and look at the site The site looks like it wascreated 12 years ago the copyright date is 2003 and theweb links go to lsquofilewebdetailsasprsquo Web page closedlost another sale

OOPS story 5 Nice product site no contact informationon it Nothing but links to a third-party sales companymaybe Paypal No phone email webmail or paper mailaddress no hint of which time zone continent or starsystem is the closest Sorry I donrsquot buy anything from off-planet yet

Right about now I hear a few comments ldquoI canrsquotpublish my phone number I work from homerdquo or ldquoIrsquomuncomfortable with spoken English for callsrdquo ldquoIrsquom on thePacific RIM and my time zone is very different from mycustomersrdquo or ldquoI donrsquot want emails just buy my productand leave me alonerdquo OK your customers can and will buyfrom a company whose expectation of normal communica-tions matches their own

Itrsquos OK to not have any one of these on your site aphone number or an email address or a physical deliveryaddress Itrsquos never OK to not have a mailing address (postoffice boxes are OK) Itrsquos a bad idea to not have most ofthese

Phone number The phone number has to actuallyreach a message that identifies your company or mainproduct A generic message from an cell phone service thatldquo555-1212 is not available Please leave a messagerdquo is notacceptable The phone number doesnrsquot have to actually ring(or wake you up on the far side of the planet) but it has toreliably take messages The number doesnrsquot even have to bea device a virtual phone number like Google Voice isperfectly OK you can set virtual phones to ring at anothernumber during some hours and go directly to voicemail the

12 ASPects Convention Special July 2012

rest of the time Definitely list your office hours and timezone near your phone number

Email address There has to be a way to reach you byemail on your web site It doesnrsquot have to be a plain-textemail address a working web-mail form is OK

Mailing address Yes your mailing address has to beon your web site I have to teach end users about onlinesecurity I show them how to tell if an order page is en-crypted how to see who the company taking orders is andsometimes how to look up the reputation of a site or see ifthere are complaints And I stress not ordering fromcompanies that hide their locations Look Irsquom not going toshow up at your door (Itrsquos happened to me once and thatcharacter did buy software but it took an hour to get himout the door again and I canrsquot work an hour for a $20 saleAnd thatrsquos why I use a post office box) But if you hideyour city and country you arenrsquot going to get sales fromyour neighborsndashremember that all search engines aremoving towards lsquolocal results firstrsquo And you wonrsquot getorders from anyone who knows that in case an online orderfails there has to be a way to reach someone to fix things

Again I hear cries of despair But Irsquom in LowerSlobbovia Or for those who havenrsquot heard of it EastElbonia is pretty much the same Itrsquos somewhere you wonrsquotadmit yoursquore from Perhaps the real problem isnrsquot that youroffices are remotendashIrsquove done business with great companieson six continents The good ones arenrsquot hiding theirlocations Companies that hide their locations are automati-cally suspiciousndashwhat else is hidden in their software

Web sites All of your web sites must work in all themajor browsers If you sell Mac software they had betterwork perfectly when viewed from an iPAD Preferablyevery domain you use should have a really sharp and goodlooking web site But if you have a domain you havenrsquottouched in years and canrsquot be bothered to update it thenredirect that domain to your best web site Kill the old sitemove on and donrsquot leave straggler web sites lying aroundIf you must leave an old site un-updated run a link checkeron it and fix whatever is broken

Donrsquot skip any steps on these checks It really does workbest if you leave your office and then try to communicatefrom the outside world Then you see that your web site hasthe wrong country code on the phone number or it doesnrsquotdisplay properly on other browsers or itrsquos blocked by websecurity software or the links are local and broken Or onebrowser is flagging a site certificate as bad or a securitytoolbar is popping warnings

Itrsquos the equivalent in a big company of dialing the mainswitchboard trying to get past the phone board past theexecutive assistant to the vice president and actuallyhaving an executive listen to you long enough to hear the10-second version of what yoursquore selling Sales pitchesdonrsquot work without communication donrsquot lose your salebecause you canrsquot be reachedJerry Stern is the editor of ASPects the ASPrsquos Coordinatorof Anti-Spyware Operations runs Startupwarecom andW o r d P e r f e c t o r g a n d i s o n l i n e a twwwsciencetranslationscom

July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 13

14 ASPects Convention Special July 2012

Software Passwords and Software Marketing

by Al Harbergthe press release guy from DP Directory Inc

If your software asks users to create a password toprotect the privacy of their information then you havean opportunity to offer additional value to your custom-

ers And that can mean increased software sales additionalrecommendations and good will for your company in yourmarketing niche

Help your users choose effective passwords Accordingto the ldquoWorst Passw0rdsrdquo article in the April 2012 issue ofAARP Bulletin online users have a terrible track record forchoosing effective passwords to protect their security

The most popular password the article tells us isldquopasswordrdquo Changing the lower-case letter ldquoordquo to a zero toform passw0rd is the 16th most popular password choice

The top 25 list includes such clever choices as 1234561234567 12345678 and 123123 ldquoqwertyrdquo and ldquoletmeinrdquoare also on the list of popular user choices

Every day computer users worry about their privacy Ifyour software asks your users to create a password thenyou have an opportunity to show that you care about theirprivacy and security Donrsquot let them create low-qualitypasswords

Andrei Belogortseff is the CEO of WinAbility Softwareat wwwwinabilitycom a Utah-based software developerof security and password utilities WinAbility marketsUSBCrypt a program that makes it simple to encrypt andpassword-protect your USB drive as well as other remov-able and fixed drives

ldquoItrsquos important to protect your data with a long complexpasswordrdquo Andrei tells us ldquoUse a mix of upper-caseletters lower-case letters digits and special charactersrdquo

USBCrypt has a built-in password recovery function thatlets users recreate lost or forgotten passwords On a typical

modern business PC it can take 30 minutes to recover athree-digit password that contains only lower-case lettersBy contrast a five-digit password made up of a mix ofupper- and lower-case letters can take up to 15 days torecover And a seven-digit password that mixes upper- andlower-case letters with numbers and special characters cantake thousands of years to recover

If your application asks users to choose a password youcan help them select wisely Build a list of terrible pass-words into your application and donrsquot let your users selectthese easy-to-guess codes Examine the passwords that theycreate and encourage them to use longer passwords witha mix of characters

ldquoBe sure to remind your users of the flip-side of using acomplex passwordrdquo Andrei tells us ldquoIf you forget yourpassword it will be nearly impossible to recover itrdquo

Add your password protection information to yourwebsite and make it part of your software marketingpresentation By creating keyword-rich pages that describeyour thoughts about privacy security encryption andpasswords yoursquoll get more search engine traffic frompeople who include these words when they search forsoftware like yours

Use your applicationrsquos help file to provide your userswith a short explanation of why passwords are importantTheyrsquoll appreciate the guidance and theyrsquoll be much moreinclined to recommend your software to their friends andcolleagues Helping customers choose powerful passwordsis good software marketingSince 1984 Al Harberg has been helping software develop-ers write press releases and submit them to the editors Youcan check out h is press re lease services onwwwdpdirectorycom

ASP Member News

Slimbrowser ndash a Fast and Secure Tabbed Web Browser

FlashPeak Inc has released SlimBrowser V41 a compacttabbed browser that is super-fast easy to use and packedwith wonderful features including popup-blocker formfiller autologin spell checker site groups ad filteringquick search and much more

SlimBrowser manages web sites as child windows withclickable tab labels in a single main window to avoid taskbar clutter With SlimBrowser searching the web iseasyndashtype in the quick-search box and press enter to get thesearch results you want immediately You can either use thepredefined list of search engines or easily create your own

favorite search enginesSlimBrowser also includes a URL filter which blocks

web pages and components by address matching Further-more the advanced in-page ad-filter automatically elimi-nates the obtrusive floating images and flash animationsfrom the original web pages

SlimBrowser includes site grouping functionalitieswhich enables you to save a number of sites as a group andopen the group of sites next time with a single click Theform filler fills your personal information into web formswith the best field-detection accuracy and saves you a lot ofrepetitive typing

SlimBrowser is free from wwwflashpeakcomsbrowser

July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 15

Affordable Cloud-Based Speed Reading Software forColleges and College Prep

StepWare Inc announces the availability of AceReaderOnline the Cloud version of its flagship WindowsMacapplication AceReader Pro AceReader Online is a power-ful educational tool that assesses improves and monitorsstudentsrsquo reading speed fluency and comprehension

AceReader Online teaches students to break bad readinghabits such as subvocalization (pronouncing the words intheir minds as they read) and regression (reading passagesmore than once) This educational software also helpsexpand studentsrsquo eye fixation zone so they can readmultiple words at a time

The online version of AceReader offers features thatbenefit college university and high school teachers andstudents Students can work independently on a personal-ized self-adjusting reading course or choose from a libraryof reading assessment and improvement regimens Educa-tors can monitor each studentrsquos progress by viewing reportsfor each student consisting of reading speeds comprehen-sion scores graphs activity logs and much more

Since AceReader Online includes 13 levels of textcomplexity it is being used by younger students (ie gradeschools) and even for students who need vision training (iestudents with dyslexia)

AceReader Online has been used by 30 colleges andschools during the 20112012 school year with greatsuccess and is now is available to all education institutionswwwacereadercom

Create Handwriting Fonts In Many Major Languages

High-Logic BV has released Scanahand 4 an applicationthat makes it easy for each member of the family to createcustom hand-written fonts for use in Microsoft WordExcel PowerPoint Notepad and any Windows programScanahand lets you quickly create a font install it inWindows in seconds and use it immediately You can typenotes and cards in your favorite word processing softwareand print them in your own handwriting

Scanahand lets you create signature fonts set a font styleby going bold or italic has the ability to automaticallyinclude diacritical marks and provides full Unicodesupport New features in version 4 include a smart charactermapper that automatically links missing letters to theirupperlower case counterpart and a brand new algorithm forcalculating the best possible left and right-side bearings forthe basic Latin character set The tracing method used byScanahand has been further improved to generate evenmore stunning fonts

The Premium Edition also includes a Template Editorthat allows users to create templates each containing a userdefined set of characters This allows the generation of

fonts that support numerous languages not available in theStandard Editionwwwhigh-logiccom

News amp Press Corner

Microsoft Announces Windows 8 Upgrade Offer

Microsoft Corp announced the availability of the WindowsUpgrade Offer for consumers purchasing a qualifying newWindows 7 PC The Windows Upgrade Offer providesconsumers who buy an eligible Windows 7 PC the optionto purchase a downloadable upgrade to Windows 8 Pro foran estimated retail price of just $1499 during the time ofthe promotion which will be redeemable when Windows 8is generally available The Windows Upgrade Offer is justthe first of many consumer offers that will roll out inconjunction with the general availability of Windows 8

ldquoWersquove seen a great interest in Windows 8 especiallygiven the availability of the Windows 8 Release Previewthis week and yet we know many consumers want a newPC nowrdquo said Tami Reller chief marketing officer andchief financial officer of Windows at Microsoft ldquoTheWindows Upgrade Offer gives people the flexibility topurchase the new Windows 7 PC they need today with theknowledge they can easily get Windows 8 when itrsquos avail-ablerdquo

This program is available for consumers buying newWindows 7 PCs that are preinstalled with Windows 7 HomeBasic Home Premium Professional or Ultimate andinclude a matching and valid OEM Certificate of Authentic-ity The Windows 7 PC must be purchased new during theeligibility period June 2 2012ndashJan 31 2013wwwwindowsupgradeoffercom

WinZipreg Android App Now Available

WinZip Multi-platform Product Line Extends MobileSupport with Free Android App

WinZip Computing a Corel company today introducedWinZipreg for Android a new free mobile app now availableon Google Play

ldquoWith our free Android app wersquore extending the powerof WinZip to new mobile customers and delivering anessential tool for opening zipped files on the go Our firstmobile app WinZip for iOS enjoyed a great reception andhas already been downloaded by more than a millioniPhone and iPad users Now with apps for Android andiOS wersquore offering WinZip tools to customers on both ofthe industryrsquos most popular mobile platformsrdquo said PatrickNichols President of WinZipwwwwinzipcom

16 ASPects Convention Special July 2012

Supporting MembersIshai Shotten ACampG Software Ltd wwwbeejackcomAdriana Iordan Avangate BV wwwavangatecomYu Tao CHENGDU YIWO Tech Development Co Ltd wwweaseuscomDennis Reinhardt DAIR Computer Systems wwwdaircomAlexander Halser EC Software GmbH wwwec-softwarecomArmel Asselin Ellie Computing wwwelliecomputingcomErik Pelton Erik M Pelton amp Associates wwwerikpeltoncomGeraldine Joffre HDRsoft wwwhdrsoftcomGerben Abbink Monkfish XML Software wwwxmlblueprintcomMatt Smith Nevolution Digital LLC wwwnevolutioncomMiguel Cano Onekit wwwonekitcomCharles Born Plimus Inc wwwplimuscomIvan Radmore Pookanyoni Limited wwwpookanyonicomAndrew Butler R3 Data Recovery Ltd wwwr3datarecoverycomWilliam Shaw Regentstreet Research IncOmer Faiyaz Remo Software wwwremosoftwarecomRay Park Rescue Geeks Inc wwwutouchposcomMatt Humphries RevenueWire wwwrevenuewirecomAnna-Jayne Metcalfe Riverblade LimitedTim Thousand Scooter Software wwwscootersoftwarecomGarett Finney SoftwareCommercials Inc wwwsoftwarecommercialscomDana Doten TeamComp Inc wwwnewsbincomPiotr Sulgostowski TTS Company Sp z o o wwwttscomplMiguel Angel Martin Vittalia Internet SL wwweazelcomLiu Ping wwwhodosoftcom

Directors Officers and Committee Chairs Board of DirectorsMitchell Vincent Chair mitch ksoftwarenetDan Hite Dan TedCoSoftwarecomEd Pulliam pulliam ouisoftcomHoward Sobel howards wugnetcomJason Kiwaluk jkiwaluk shawcaMahmoud Metwally mkm giantmatrixcom

OfficersGianfranco Berardi President president asp-softwareorgVice President vp asp-softwareorgAndrei Belogortseff Secretary secretary asp-softwareorgTerry Jepson Treasurer treasurer asp-softwareorg

Staff Positions amp Committee ChairsRich Holler Executive Director execdir asp-softwareorgJerry Stern Coordinator of anti-spyware operations

ASPects Editor aspects asp-softwareorg

Sue Pichotta Conference Managerconference asp-softwareorg

Andrei Belogortseff Download Sitedsw asp-softwareorg

Events Coordinator events asp-softwareorgMichael Marshall Ombudsman

wwwasp-softwareorgombSteve Faleiro Outreach Chair outreach asp-softwareorgJoel Diamond PAD Chair pad-chair asp-softwareorgPublic Relations publicrelations asp-softwareorgSergeant-at-Arms saa asp-softwareorgVolunteer Coordinator

volunteer asp-softwareorgDon Waterfield Webmaster webmaster asp-softwareorgTom Guthery IV New Member Welcome

welcome asp-softwareorgWebsite Committee Chair president asp-softwareorg

ASP Membership Form

Before submitting your application for membershipvisit our website at wwwasp-softwareorgjoin andreview the membership standards and requirementsThere are two categories of ASP Membership Please makesure you have reviewed the appropriate information andstandards page

Mail applications toRichard HollerASP Executive DirectorPO Box 1522Martinsville IN 46151 USA

I have read the appropriate standards and agree toabide by them lsquo Yes lsquo No

Standards for Developer Members and Industry Membersare online at wwwasp-softwareorgjoin

Category of Membership

(Select either lsquoDeveloperrsquo or one of the various Industrycategories)

lsquo Developer

Industry Memberlsquo Vendorlsquo Online Distributorlsquo Online Developerlsquo User Grouplsquo PressMedialsquo Consultantlsquo Shareware Enthusiast

CompanyProduct Description(120 characters or less required if web site link is requested)

Please PRINT Clearly

REQUIRED FIELDS

Name

Company Name

Street Address

Street Address

CityTown

StateProvince

ZIPPostal Code

Country

Public Phone (Voice)

Public Phone (FAX)

Public Email Address

Web Site URL (Required if web site link is requested)

Private Phone (ASP use)

Private Email Address (ASP use)

Do you wish to have your listing included in the public

member database lsquo Yes lsquo No

Do you wish to have your website link included on our

ASP website lsquo Yes lsquo No

Signature

VisaMasterCardAmerican Express AuthorizationIf paying by credit card all the following fields are required

Credit Card Number

Expiration Date

Name of Card Holder

Amount to be charged $100 (USD)

CVV2 code (back of card)

Page 8: ASPects July 2012 Convention Special Issue · 2012. 7. 5. · July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 3 The Biggest Mistake You Can Ever Make by Jiri Novotny Dextronet.comT he biggest

8 ASPects Convention Special July 2012

cropping the screen capture to only show the top-leftcorner of the interface that will show the program nameand usually the file menus or toolbars That may beenough wersquore looking for pretty not complete

Finally add some text Download sites arenrsquot greatabout showing the web address of the program so Igenerally will include that in the image as well

Building an image in a drawing program will result ina big image Save that and export the result in a reason-able size for web use 600 pixels wide and not more than300 high is probably as big as you can get away with fora screenshot on most websites Some download sites maywant more specific sizes export them from your largeoriginal artworkndashthatrsquos going to provide the best possibleartwork Remember to design first and resize last

I kept this sample screenshot for Paint fairly simpleUsually thatrsquos ideal you can add more lines of text orstart adding shadows and shading but remember that theimage is going to be seen small Walk away from yourmonitor and look at the capture from across the roomndashitshould still be clear and should still identify the programin a simple and iconic wayJerry Stern is the editor of ASPects the ASPrsquos Coordina-tor of Anti-Spyware Operations runs Startupwarecoma n d Wo r d P e r f e c t o r g a n d i s o n l i n e a twwwsciencetranslationscom

Customer Relationship Management for microISVs

by Al Harbergthe press release guy from DP Directory Inc

Customer relationship management (CRM) is goodsoftware marketing CRM is a simple notion that canhelp software developers sell more of their applica-

tions It costs most businesses less money to generate salesfrom old customers than it does to find new ones

Manage your customers

The concept of CRM was popularized by Don Peppers andMartha Rogers in their book The One to One FuturendashBuilding Relationships One Customer at a Time

Today most of us in the software development industrythink of CRM as a database system that coordinates all ofour software sales marketing and demographic informa-tion By contrast Peppers and Rogers talk about CRM as acore management process and not as a technology chal-lenge

First the authors tell us we have to identify potentialcustomers Second we have to figure out what they wantand need how our software products and services can fill

that need and how to optimize the lifetime value of eachblock of customers Third we need to develop a relation-ship with our customers so we can know enough about theirtastes and preferences to make intelligent decisions aboutthe software that wersquoll be marketing And fourth we needto find a way to customize our products services and salesmessages to meet each individual customerrsquos needs Ormore realistically we need to define specific groups ofprospects and customers and target them with communica-tions that are tailored to their needs

Too often developers create a new application becausetheyrsquore unable to find a program that meets a specific needInstead of making development and marketing decisionsbased upon the developerrsquos personal need for software itmakes a lot more sense to target a larger group of peopledefine their needs and build an application that solvesproblems that a significant number of people are wrestlingwith

Before Peppers and Rogers published their bookmarketers spoke about managing products Peppers andRogers urge us to manage customers too We need todifferentiate our customers in much the same way that wedifferentiate our products and services Managing customer

July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 9

relationships touches all of the processes that are crucial tothe success of our business

Make Clients Feel Important

Harry Beckwith discusses our relationships with all of ourclients In his book The Invisible Touch - The Four Keys toModern Marketing Beckwith reminds us that business isabout people and that relationships matter Lots

If we want to make initial software sales and encouragefuture sales we need to find a way to make our clientsknow that we think that theyrsquore important Beckwithpresents eight keys to lasting relationships

(1) Natural affinity

Convince prospects that you share things in common withthem For example you understand their need for educa-tional software for their children because you have childrentoo and you know how difficult it is to find good softwareYou understand their need for Windows productivityapplications because you too spend too much time doingroutine work on your computer If you want to sell moresoftware talk to prospects about them and not aboutyourself But be sure to let your prospects know that youunderstand their problems

(2) Trust

Beckwith urges us to show integrity because integritybuilds trust In the software development industry thismeans not presenting prospects with sales hype Perhaps itmeans not pre-checking the box that says ldquoYes send me theprogram on CD too for only $10(US) additionalrdquo Somewould argue that integrity means not showing a box shot onyour website if you donrsquot offer a boxed product

(3) Speed

In business response times matter Create a website thatdisplays your marketing message quickly Answer pros-pectsrsquo and customersrsquo inquiries briskly And send customerstheir unlock keys as quickly as possible

(4) Apparent Expertise

Look like an expert by behaving like an expert Communi-cating expertise to your software clients is clearly moreimportant than having credentials They donrsquot care aboutyour university degrees They care about your responses totheir support questions Words matter Theyrsquore tools Learnhow to use them more effectively and build your expertisein your customersrsquo minds

(5) Sacrifice

Do something above-and-beyond for your customersDevelop a reputation for working on weekends and holi-days to deliver the best support in the industry Add thefeatures to your application that they need

(6) Completeness

Yoursquoll sell more stuff Beckwith urges if you can find away to solve all of your clientsrsquo problems Many softwaredevelopers have built a family of products that help theirtarget audience solve all of the problems in a particularfield

(7) Magic Words

Say ldquothank yourdquo Ask how people are doing Use yourcustomersrsquo names when writing to them

(8) Passion

Customers and prospects can tell if you love what yoursquoredoing Show them how interested you are in your products

10 ASPects Convention Special July 2012

and in them

Pick the Low-hanging Fruit

In his book Your Marketing Sucks Mark Stevens takescustomer relationships a step further by suggesting thatworking with existing customers will generate the easiestmoney that wersquoll ever make Translated into the softwaredevelopment industry Stevensrsquo ideas include cross-sellingother applications that yoursquove written

Stevens would also encourage microISVs to get theircustomers to buy somebody elsersquos software that theyrsquoreoffering on an affiliate basis Select another developer whomarkets excellent applications The other developer has totarget the same group that yoursquore targeting and they canrsquotbe offering a competing application

And the other developerrsquos applications must have thesame appeal as yours For example if your software isknown for its ease of use then you shouldnrsquot select adeveloper whose application is known for being afull-featured powerhouse Instead choose another devel-oper who takes the same minimalist approach to softwaredesign that you do Set up an affiliate relationship with thisother developer and sell their software to your user-base

Encourage your existing customers to upgrade from theLight version to the Standard version and to the Profes-sional version If theyrsquore a home user and theyrsquove bought asingle-user license offer them a family license If theyrsquore abusiness user talk to them about multi-user and sitelicensing

Itrsquos always easier Beckwith tells us to sell to somebodywith whom you already have a relationship

Start with an Easy Sale

Jay Conrad Levinson in his book Guerrilla MarketingExcellence tells us that if we can get prospects to take oneor more soft steps itrsquos easier to get them to take the hardstep of making the purchase For example a softwaredeveloper might encourage prospects to subscribe to anewsletter or to contact them with questions about theirsoftware

Start building a relationship with them and it will beeasier to get them to buy from you Offer them a free flyerbrochure DVD demonstration phone consultation orseminar Establish a relationship with them and then askfor the sale

Selling to Women

Women are three times more likely to recommend a brandto friends and colleagues Help women connect to eachother and they can tell others about your product or serviceSo says Faith Popcorn in her book EVEolution

Popcorn insists that she is not talking aboutword-of-mouth marketing or relationship marketing Thisisnrsquot about putting a simple ldquotell a friend about our soft-

warerdquo link on your website Itrsquos about creating a genuinecommunity around your brand Weight Watchers did thisThey transformed dieting from a private act to a public one

Create a site where people can discuss what theyrsquoreworried about and passionate about If the site is centeredaround your brand then you can get women to join yourbrand And you can build solid relationships with all of theparticipants

What CRM Means for Software Developers

If you decide to adopt customer relationship managementtechniques in your software development business try notto get bogged down in the technical aspects of implement-ing a CRM solution The most important problems that youneed to tackle are defining all of the contact points that youhave with your prospects and customers and deciding howto optimize every one of them By making dozens orhundreds of improvements with your customer interactionsyoursquoll build far better relationships with your target audi-ence And that will mean more sales more referrals and abetter reputation for your company

CRM is good software marketingSince 1984 Al Harberg has been helping software develop-ers write press releases and send them to the editors Youcan check out more CRM ideas on his new SoftwareMarketing Glossary on wwwdpdirectorycomglossary-creativityhtmcrm_at_the_speed_of_light

July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 11

Call YourselfAre You Impossible to Reach

by Jerry SternEditor ASPects

Irsquom surprised by basic web page failures amongmicroISVs I follow a link to a product Irsquove heard aboutfor years or was recommended to me and I see well

crab grass Or whatrsquos left of the lawn has turned brown Nowait thatrsquos another problem Or is it

We run software and technology businesses and manyof us are guilty of liking our technology so much that wewant to just do that Be the programmer all the time andnever delegate or outsource that work and never move onto keeping our offices running But thatrsquos basic introductionto Management material management isnrsquot productionManagement is hiring firing delegation training andsupervision and making sure that everything else gets doneeven if you have to outsource hire or do it yourself tomake sure that everything gets done

The common error in a small business is skippingsupervision ldquoWhat I work alone I donrsquot need supervi-sionrdquo Yeah right Unless you work off proper to-do liststhat include double-checks that your systems are workingyou arenrsquot supervising either your own workload or yourtechnology For now Irsquoll leave lsquosupervising yourselfrsquo as anexercise for the programmer herersquos the short versionndashmakea list and assign hours to each item You can steal hoursfrom each item if you have to but canrsquot cut any category tozero Especially not supervision marketing or bookkeep-ing

Programmer Phone Home

But back to supervising your technology as thatrsquos what Isee failing from the outside world thatrsquos what your custom-ers see Business management classes usually tell you Callyourself Itrsquos really that simple Pick up a phone and dialyour number No thatrsquos not it Go to a search engine findyour web page find your phone number dial it and leavea message Oh and do it from outside your office Repeatit once a month and repeat that for each of your contactmethods The first try might result in shock however

What yoursquore looking for are communication road blocksA bad phone number or none Web mail pages that nolonger work Missing paper-mail addresses A full phonemail box or a generic answering service message A webpage that displays security warnings in WebOfTrust(mywotcom) or at SiteAdvisorcom Web pages that gonowhere or display badly on browsers you donrsquot use Haveyou visited your sites from an iPAD yet Sure you want touse Flash animation for your main welcome message Itrsquosnot universal never was and the usage percentages are

dropping nowOOPS story 1 I visited a microISVrsquos web site to look at

his product His site shows up in Danish with an Englishbutton which refreshes the page and once again shows meDanish Nice site but all I can read in Danish are thetechnology words that donrsquot normally get translated Theauthor doesnrsquot really visit his own site in English appar-ently And neither does anyone else Lost sale

OOPS story 2 I find someone on LinkedIn I call theirphone number and it goes to voicemail and the voicemailis full Or their email bounces unknown recipient Lostopportunity

OOPS story 3 OK this one was me I visit a friendshow them my website Itrsquos too wide to fit her low-resolu-tion screen without scrolling it doesnrsquot resize to fit thescreen width Lost readability

OOPS story 4 I see a web URL in the email address ofa contact and look at the site The site looks like it wascreated 12 years ago the copyright date is 2003 and theweb links go to lsquofilewebdetailsasprsquo Web page closedlost another sale

OOPS story 5 Nice product site no contact informationon it Nothing but links to a third-party sales companymaybe Paypal No phone email webmail or paper mailaddress no hint of which time zone continent or starsystem is the closest Sorry I donrsquot buy anything from off-planet yet

Right about now I hear a few comments ldquoI canrsquotpublish my phone number I work from homerdquo or ldquoIrsquomuncomfortable with spoken English for callsrdquo ldquoIrsquom on thePacific RIM and my time zone is very different from mycustomersrdquo or ldquoI donrsquot want emails just buy my productand leave me alonerdquo OK your customers can and will buyfrom a company whose expectation of normal communica-tions matches their own

Itrsquos OK to not have any one of these on your site aphone number or an email address or a physical deliveryaddress Itrsquos never OK to not have a mailing address (postoffice boxes are OK) Itrsquos a bad idea to not have most ofthese

Phone number The phone number has to actuallyreach a message that identifies your company or mainproduct A generic message from an cell phone service thatldquo555-1212 is not available Please leave a messagerdquo is notacceptable The phone number doesnrsquot have to actually ring(or wake you up on the far side of the planet) but it has toreliably take messages The number doesnrsquot even have to bea device a virtual phone number like Google Voice isperfectly OK you can set virtual phones to ring at anothernumber during some hours and go directly to voicemail the

12 ASPects Convention Special July 2012

rest of the time Definitely list your office hours and timezone near your phone number

Email address There has to be a way to reach you byemail on your web site It doesnrsquot have to be a plain-textemail address a working web-mail form is OK

Mailing address Yes your mailing address has to beon your web site I have to teach end users about onlinesecurity I show them how to tell if an order page is en-crypted how to see who the company taking orders is andsometimes how to look up the reputation of a site or see ifthere are complaints And I stress not ordering fromcompanies that hide their locations Look Irsquom not going toshow up at your door (Itrsquos happened to me once and thatcharacter did buy software but it took an hour to get himout the door again and I canrsquot work an hour for a $20 saleAnd thatrsquos why I use a post office box) But if you hideyour city and country you arenrsquot going to get sales fromyour neighborsndashremember that all search engines aremoving towards lsquolocal results firstrsquo And you wonrsquot getorders from anyone who knows that in case an online orderfails there has to be a way to reach someone to fix things

Again I hear cries of despair But Irsquom in LowerSlobbovia Or for those who havenrsquot heard of it EastElbonia is pretty much the same Itrsquos somewhere you wonrsquotadmit yoursquore from Perhaps the real problem isnrsquot that youroffices are remotendashIrsquove done business with great companieson six continents The good ones arenrsquot hiding theirlocations Companies that hide their locations are automati-cally suspiciousndashwhat else is hidden in their software

Web sites All of your web sites must work in all themajor browsers If you sell Mac software they had betterwork perfectly when viewed from an iPAD Preferablyevery domain you use should have a really sharp and goodlooking web site But if you have a domain you havenrsquottouched in years and canrsquot be bothered to update it thenredirect that domain to your best web site Kill the old sitemove on and donrsquot leave straggler web sites lying aroundIf you must leave an old site un-updated run a link checkeron it and fix whatever is broken

Donrsquot skip any steps on these checks It really does workbest if you leave your office and then try to communicatefrom the outside world Then you see that your web site hasthe wrong country code on the phone number or it doesnrsquotdisplay properly on other browsers or itrsquos blocked by websecurity software or the links are local and broken Or onebrowser is flagging a site certificate as bad or a securitytoolbar is popping warnings

Itrsquos the equivalent in a big company of dialing the mainswitchboard trying to get past the phone board past theexecutive assistant to the vice president and actuallyhaving an executive listen to you long enough to hear the10-second version of what yoursquore selling Sales pitchesdonrsquot work without communication donrsquot lose your salebecause you canrsquot be reachedJerry Stern is the editor of ASPects the ASPrsquos Coordinatorof Anti-Spyware Operations runs Startupwarecom andW o r d P e r f e c t o r g a n d i s o n l i n e a twwwsciencetranslationscom

July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 13

14 ASPects Convention Special July 2012

Software Passwords and Software Marketing

by Al Harbergthe press release guy from DP Directory Inc

If your software asks users to create a password toprotect the privacy of their information then you havean opportunity to offer additional value to your custom-

ers And that can mean increased software sales additionalrecommendations and good will for your company in yourmarketing niche

Help your users choose effective passwords Accordingto the ldquoWorst Passw0rdsrdquo article in the April 2012 issue ofAARP Bulletin online users have a terrible track record forchoosing effective passwords to protect their security

The most popular password the article tells us isldquopasswordrdquo Changing the lower-case letter ldquoordquo to a zero toform passw0rd is the 16th most popular password choice

The top 25 list includes such clever choices as 1234561234567 12345678 and 123123 ldquoqwertyrdquo and ldquoletmeinrdquoare also on the list of popular user choices

Every day computer users worry about their privacy Ifyour software asks your users to create a password thenyou have an opportunity to show that you care about theirprivacy and security Donrsquot let them create low-qualitypasswords

Andrei Belogortseff is the CEO of WinAbility Softwareat wwwwinabilitycom a Utah-based software developerof security and password utilities WinAbility marketsUSBCrypt a program that makes it simple to encrypt andpassword-protect your USB drive as well as other remov-able and fixed drives

ldquoItrsquos important to protect your data with a long complexpasswordrdquo Andrei tells us ldquoUse a mix of upper-caseletters lower-case letters digits and special charactersrdquo

USBCrypt has a built-in password recovery function thatlets users recreate lost or forgotten passwords On a typical

modern business PC it can take 30 minutes to recover athree-digit password that contains only lower-case lettersBy contrast a five-digit password made up of a mix ofupper- and lower-case letters can take up to 15 days torecover And a seven-digit password that mixes upper- andlower-case letters with numbers and special characters cantake thousands of years to recover

If your application asks users to choose a password youcan help them select wisely Build a list of terrible pass-words into your application and donrsquot let your users selectthese easy-to-guess codes Examine the passwords that theycreate and encourage them to use longer passwords witha mix of characters

ldquoBe sure to remind your users of the flip-side of using acomplex passwordrdquo Andrei tells us ldquoIf you forget yourpassword it will be nearly impossible to recover itrdquo

Add your password protection information to yourwebsite and make it part of your software marketingpresentation By creating keyword-rich pages that describeyour thoughts about privacy security encryption andpasswords yoursquoll get more search engine traffic frompeople who include these words when they search forsoftware like yours

Use your applicationrsquos help file to provide your userswith a short explanation of why passwords are importantTheyrsquoll appreciate the guidance and theyrsquoll be much moreinclined to recommend your software to their friends andcolleagues Helping customers choose powerful passwordsis good software marketingSince 1984 Al Harberg has been helping software develop-ers write press releases and submit them to the editors Youcan check out h is press re lease services onwwwdpdirectorycom

ASP Member News

Slimbrowser ndash a Fast and Secure Tabbed Web Browser

FlashPeak Inc has released SlimBrowser V41 a compacttabbed browser that is super-fast easy to use and packedwith wonderful features including popup-blocker formfiller autologin spell checker site groups ad filteringquick search and much more

SlimBrowser manages web sites as child windows withclickable tab labels in a single main window to avoid taskbar clutter With SlimBrowser searching the web iseasyndashtype in the quick-search box and press enter to get thesearch results you want immediately You can either use thepredefined list of search engines or easily create your own

favorite search enginesSlimBrowser also includes a URL filter which blocks

web pages and components by address matching Further-more the advanced in-page ad-filter automatically elimi-nates the obtrusive floating images and flash animationsfrom the original web pages

SlimBrowser includes site grouping functionalitieswhich enables you to save a number of sites as a group andopen the group of sites next time with a single click Theform filler fills your personal information into web formswith the best field-detection accuracy and saves you a lot ofrepetitive typing

SlimBrowser is free from wwwflashpeakcomsbrowser

July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 15

Affordable Cloud-Based Speed Reading Software forColleges and College Prep

StepWare Inc announces the availability of AceReaderOnline the Cloud version of its flagship WindowsMacapplication AceReader Pro AceReader Online is a power-ful educational tool that assesses improves and monitorsstudentsrsquo reading speed fluency and comprehension

AceReader Online teaches students to break bad readinghabits such as subvocalization (pronouncing the words intheir minds as they read) and regression (reading passagesmore than once) This educational software also helpsexpand studentsrsquo eye fixation zone so they can readmultiple words at a time

The online version of AceReader offers features thatbenefit college university and high school teachers andstudents Students can work independently on a personal-ized self-adjusting reading course or choose from a libraryof reading assessment and improvement regimens Educa-tors can monitor each studentrsquos progress by viewing reportsfor each student consisting of reading speeds comprehen-sion scores graphs activity logs and much more

Since AceReader Online includes 13 levels of textcomplexity it is being used by younger students (ie gradeschools) and even for students who need vision training (iestudents with dyslexia)

AceReader Online has been used by 30 colleges andschools during the 20112012 school year with greatsuccess and is now is available to all education institutionswwwacereadercom

Create Handwriting Fonts In Many Major Languages

High-Logic BV has released Scanahand 4 an applicationthat makes it easy for each member of the family to createcustom hand-written fonts for use in Microsoft WordExcel PowerPoint Notepad and any Windows programScanahand lets you quickly create a font install it inWindows in seconds and use it immediately You can typenotes and cards in your favorite word processing softwareand print them in your own handwriting

Scanahand lets you create signature fonts set a font styleby going bold or italic has the ability to automaticallyinclude diacritical marks and provides full Unicodesupport New features in version 4 include a smart charactermapper that automatically links missing letters to theirupperlower case counterpart and a brand new algorithm forcalculating the best possible left and right-side bearings forthe basic Latin character set The tracing method used byScanahand has been further improved to generate evenmore stunning fonts

The Premium Edition also includes a Template Editorthat allows users to create templates each containing a userdefined set of characters This allows the generation of

fonts that support numerous languages not available in theStandard Editionwwwhigh-logiccom

News amp Press Corner

Microsoft Announces Windows 8 Upgrade Offer

Microsoft Corp announced the availability of the WindowsUpgrade Offer for consumers purchasing a qualifying newWindows 7 PC The Windows Upgrade Offer providesconsumers who buy an eligible Windows 7 PC the optionto purchase a downloadable upgrade to Windows 8 Pro foran estimated retail price of just $1499 during the time ofthe promotion which will be redeemable when Windows 8is generally available The Windows Upgrade Offer is justthe first of many consumer offers that will roll out inconjunction with the general availability of Windows 8

ldquoWersquove seen a great interest in Windows 8 especiallygiven the availability of the Windows 8 Release Previewthis week and yet we know many consumers want a newPC nowrdquo said Tami Reller chief marketing officer andchief financial officer of Windows at Microsoft ldquoTheWindows Upgrade Offer gives people the flexibility topurchase the new Windows 7 PC they need today with theknowledge they can easily get Windows 8 when itrsquos avail-ablerdquo

This program is available for consumers buying newWindows 7 PCs that are preinstalled with Windows 7 HomeBasic Home Premium Professional or Ultimate andinclude a matching and valid OEM Certificate of Authentic-ity The Windows 7 PC must be purchased new during theeligibility period June 2 2012ndashJan 31 2013wwwwindowsupgradeoffercom

WinZipreg Android App Now Available

WinZip Multi-platform Product Line Extends MobileSupport with Free Android App

WinZip Computing a Corel company today introducedWinZipreg for Android a new free mobile app now availableon Google Play

ldquoWith our free Android app wersquore extending the powerof WinZip to new mobile customers and delivering anessential tool for opening zipped files on the go Our firstmobile app WinZip for iOS enjoyed a great reception andhas already been downloaded by more than a millioniPhone and iPad users Now with apps for Android andiOS wersquore offering WinZip tools to customers on both ofthe industryrsquos most popular mobile platformsrdquo said PatrickNichols President of WinZipwwwwinzipcom

16 ASPects Convention Special July 2012

Supporting MembersIshai Shotten ACampG Software Ltd wwwbeejackcomAdriana Iordan Avangate BV wwwavangatecomYu Tao CHENGDU YIWO Tech Development Co Ltd wwweaseuscomDennis Reinhardt DAIR Computer Systems wwwdaircomAlexander Halser EC Software GmbH wwwec-softwarecomArmel Asselin Ellie Computing wwwelliecomputingcomErik Pelton Erik M Pelton amp Associates wwwerikpeltoncomGeraldine Joffre HDRsoft wwwhdrsoftcomGerben Abbink Monkfish XML Software wwwxmlblueprintcomMatt Smith Nevolution Digital LLC wwwnevolutioncomMiguel Cano Onekit wwwonekitcomCharles Born Plimus Inc wwwplimuscomIvan Radmore Pookanyoni Limited wwwpookanyonicomAndrew Butler R3 Data Recovery Ltd wwwr3datarecoverycomWilliam Shaw Regentstreet Research IncOmer Faiyaz Remo Software wwwremosoftwarecomRay Park Rescue Geeks Inc wwwutouchposcomMatt Humphries RevenueWire wwwrevenuewirecomAnna-Jayne Metcalfe Riverblade LimitedTim Thousand Scooter Software wwwscootersoftwarecomGarett Finney SoftwareCommercials Inc wwwsoftwarecommercialscomDana Doten TeamComp Inc wwwnewsbincomPiotr Sulgostowski TTS Company Sp z o o wwwttscomplMiguel Angel Martin Vittalia Internet SL wwweazelcomLiu Ping wwwhodosoftcom

Directors Officers and Committee Chairs Board of DirectorsMitchell Vincent Chair mitch ksoftwarenetDan Hite Dan TedCoSoftwarecomEd Pulliam pulliam ouisoftcomHoward Sobel howards wugnetcomJason Kiwaluk jkiwaluk shawcaMahmoud Metwally mkm giantmatrixcom

OfficersGianfranco Berardi President president asp-softwareorgVice President vp asp-softwareorgAndrei Belogortseff Secretary secretary asp-softwareorgTerry Jepson Treasurer treasurer asp-softwareorg

Staff Positions amp Committee ChairsRich Holler Executive Director execdir asp-softwareorgJerry Stern Coordinator of anti-spyware operations

ASPects Editor aspects asp-softwareorg

Sue Pichotta Conference Managerconference asp-softwareorg

Andrei Belogortseff Download Sitedsw asp-softwareorg

Events Coordinator events asp-softwareorgMichael Marshall Ombudsman

wwwasp-softwareorgombSteve Faleiro Outreach Chair outreach asp-softwareorgJoel Diamond PAD Chair pad-chair asp-softwareorgPublic Relations publicrelations asp-softwareorgSergeant-at-Arms saa asp-softwareorgVolunteer Coordinator

volunteer asp-softwareorgDon Waterfield Webmaster webmaster asp-softwareorgTom Guthery IV New Member Welcome

welcome asp-softwareorgWebsite Committee Chair president asp-softwareorg

ASP Membership Form

Before submitting your application for membershipvisit our website at wwwasp-softwareorgjoin andreview the membership standards and requirementsThere are two categories of ASP Membership Please makesure you have reviewed the appropriate information andstandards page

Mail applications toRichard HollerASP Executive DirectorPO Box 1522Martinsville IN 46151 USA

I have read the appropriate standards and agree toabide by them lsquo Yes lsquo No

Standards for Developer Members and Industry Membersare online at wwwasp-softwareorgjoin

Category of Membership

(Select either lsquoDeveloperrsquo or one of the various Industrycategories)

lsquo Developer

Industry Memberlsquo Vendorlsquo Online Distributorlsquo Online Developerlsquo User Grouplsquo PressMedialsquo Consultantlsquo Shareware Enthusiast

CompanyProduct Description(120 characters or less required if web site link is requested)

Please PRINT Clearly

REQUIRED FIELDS

Name

Company Name

Street Address

Street Address

CityTown

StateProvince

ZIPPostal Code

Country

Public Phone (Voice)

Public Phone (FAX)

Public Email Address

Web Site URL (Required if web site link is requested)

Private Phone (ASP use)

Private Email Address (ASP use)

Do you wish to have your listing included in the public

member database lsquo Yes lsquo No

Do you wish to have your website link included on our

ASP website lsquo Yes lsquo No

Signature

VisaMasterCardAmerican Express AuthorizationIf paying by credit card all the following fields are required

Credit Card Number

Expiration Date

Name of Card Holder

Amount to be charged $100 (USD)

CVV2 code (back of card)

Page 9: ASPects July 2012 Convention Special Issue · 2012. 7. 5. · July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 3 The Biggest Mistake You Can Ever Make by Jiri Novotny Dextronet.comT he biggest

July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 9

relationships touches all of the processes that are crucial tothe success of our business

Make Clients Feel Important

Harry Beckwith discusses our relationships with all of ourclients In his book The Invisible Touch - The Four Keys toModern Marketing Beckwith reminds us that business isabout people and that relationships matter Lots

If we want to make initial software sales and encouragefuture sales we need to find a way to make our clientsknow that we think that theyrsquore important Beckwithpresents eight keys to lasting relationships

(1) Natural affinity

Convince prospects that you share things in common withthem For example you understand their need for educa-tional software for their children because you have childrentoo and you know how difficult it is to find good softwareYou understand their need for Windows productivityapplications because you too spend too much time doingroutine work on your computer If you want to sell moresoftware talk to prospects about them and not aboutyourself But be sure to let your prospects know that youunderstand their problems

(2) Trust

Beckwith urges us to show integrity because integritybuilds trust In the software development industry thismeans not presenting prospects with sales hype Perhaps itmeans not pre-checking the box that says ldquoYes send me theprogram on CD too for only $10(US) additionalrdquo Somewould argue that integrity means not showing a box shot onyour website if you donrsquot offer a boxed product

(3) Speed

In business response times matter Create a website thatdisplays your marketing message quickly Answer pros-pectsrsquo and customersrsquo inquiries briskly And send customerstheir unlock keys as quickly as possible

(4) Apparent Expertise

Look like an expert by behaving like an expert Communi-cating expertise to your software clients is clearly moreimportant than having credentials They donrsquot care aboutyour university degrees They care about your responses totheir support questions Words matter Theyrsquore tools Learnhow to use them more effectively and build your expertisein your customersrsquo minds

(5) Sacrifice

Do something above-and-beyond for your customersDevelop a reputation for working on weekends and holi-days to deliver the best support in the industry Add thefeatures to your application that they need

(6) Completeness

Yoursquoll sell more stuff Beckwith urges if you can find away to solve all of your clientsrsquo problems Many softwaredevelopers have built a family of products that help theirtarget audience solve all of the problems in a particularfield

(7) Magic Words

Say ldquothank yourdquo Ask how people are doing Use yourcustomersrsquo names when writing to them

(8) Passion

Customers and prospects can tell if you love what yoursquoredoing Show them how interested you are in your products

10 ASPects Convention Special July 2012

and in them

Pick the Low-hanging Fruit

In his book Your Marketing Sucks Mark Stevens takescustomer relationships a step further by suggesting thatworking with existing customers will generate the easiestmoney that wersquoll ever make Translated into the softwaredevelopment industry Stevensrsquo ideas include cross-sellingother applications that yoursquove written

Stevens would also encourage microISVs to get theircustomers to buy somebody elsersquos software that theyrsquoreoffering on an affiliate basis Select another developer whomarkets excellent applications The other developer has totarget the same group that yoursquore targeting and they canrsquotbe offering a competing application

And the other developerrsquos applications must have thesame appeal as yours For example if your software isknown for its ease of use then you shouldnrsquot select adeveloper whose application is known for being afull-featured powerhouse Instead choose another devel-oper who takes the same minimalist approach to softwaredesign that you do Set up an affiliate relationship with thisother developer and sell their software to your user-base

Encourage your existing customers to upgrade from theLight version to the Standard version and to the Profes-sional version If theyrsquore a home user and theyrsquove bought asingle-user license offer them a family license If theyrsquore abusiness user talk to them about multi-user and sitelicensing

Itrsquos always easier Beckwith tells us to sell to somebodywith whom you already have a relationship

Start with an Easy Sale

Jay Conrad Levinson in his book Guerrilla MarketingExcellence tells us that if we can get prospects to take oneor more soft steps itrsquos easier to get them to take the hardstep of making the purchase For example a softwaredeveloper might encourage prospects to subscribe to anewsletter or to contact them with questions about theirsoftware

Start building a relationship with them and it will beeasier to get them to buy from you Offer them a free flyerbrochure DVD demonstration phone consultation orseminar Establish a relationship with them and then askfor the sale

Selling to Women

Women are three times more likely to recommend a brandto friends and colleagues Help women connect to eachother and they can tell others about your product or serviceSo says Faith Popcorn in her book EVEolution

Popcorn insists that she is not talking aboutword-of-mouth marketing or relationship marketing Thisisnrsquot about putting a simple ldquotell a friend about our soft-

warerdquo link on your website Itrsquos about creating a genuinecommunity around your brand Weight Watchers did thisThey transformed dieting from a private act to a public one

Create a site where people can discuss what theyrsquoreworried about and passionate about If the site is centeredaround your brand then you can get women to join yourbrand And you can build solid relationships with all of theparticipants

What CRM Means for Software Developers

If you decide to adopt customer relationship managementtechniques in your software development business try notto get bogged down in the technical aspects of implement-ing a CRM solution The most important problems that youneed to tackle are defining all of the contact points that youhave with your prospects and customers and deciding howto optimize every one of them By making dozens orhundreds of improvements with your customer interactionsyoursquoll build far better relationships with your target audi-ence And that will mean more sales more referrals and abetter reputation for your company

CRM is good software marketingSince 1984 Al Harberg has been helping software develop-ers write press releases and send them to the editors Youcan check out more CRM ideas on his new SoftwareMarketing Glossary on wwwdpdirectorycomglossary-creativityhtmcrm_at_the_speed_of_light

July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 11

Call YourselfAre You Impossible to Reach

by Jerry SternEditor ASPects

Irsquom surprised by basic web page failures amongmicroISVs I follow a link to a product Irsquove heard aboutfor years or was recommended to me and I see well

crab grass Or whatrsquos left of the lawn has turned brown Nowait thatrsquos another problem Or is it

We run software and technology businesses and manyof us are guilty of liking our technology so much that wewant to just do that Be the programmer all the time andnever delegate or outsource that work and never move onto keeping our offices running But thatrsquos basic introductionto Management material management isnrsquot productionManagement is hiring firing delegation training andsupervision and making sure that everything else gets doneeven if you have to outsource hire or do it yourself tomake sure that everything gets done

The common error in a small business is skippingsupervision ldquoWhat I work alone I donrsquot need supervi-sionrdquo Yeah right Unless you work off proper to-do liststhat include double-checks that your systems are workingyou arenrsquot supervising either your own workload or yourtechnology For now Irsquoll leave lsquosupervising yourselfrsquo as anexercise for the programmer herersquos the short versionndashmakea list and assign hours to each item You can steal hoursfrom each item if you have to but canrsquot cut any category tozero Especially not supervision marketing or bookkeep-ing

Programmer Phone Home

But back to supervising your technology as thatrsquos what Isee failing from the outside world thatrsquos what your custom-ers see Business management classes usually tell you Callyourself Itrsquos really that simple Pick up a phone and dialyour number No thatrsquos not it Go to a search engine findyour web page find your phone number dial it and leavea message Oh and do it from outside your office Repeatit once a month and repeat that for each of your contactmethods The first try might result in shock however

What yoursquore looking for are communication road blocksA bad phone number or none Web mail pages that nolonger work Missing paper-mail addresses A full phonemail box or a generic answering service message A webpage that displays security warnings in WebOfTrust(mywotcom) or at SiteAdvisorcom Web pages that gonowhere or display badly on browsers you donrsquot use Haveyou visited your sites from an iPAD yet Sure you want touse Flash animation for your main welcome message Itrsquosnot universal never was and the usage percentages are

dropping nowOOPS story 1 I visited a microISVrsquos web site to look at

his product His site shows up in Danish with an Englishbutton which refreshes the page and once again shows meDanish Nice site but all I can read in Danish are thetechnology words that donrsquot normally get translated Theauthor doesnrsquot really visit his own site in English appar-ently And neither does anyone else Lost sale

OOPS story 2 I find someone on LinkedIn I call theirphone number and it goes to voicemail and the voicemailis full Or their email bounces unknown recipient Lostopportunity

OOPS story 3 OK this one was me I visit a friendshow them my website Itrsquos too wide to fit her low-resolu-tion screen without scrolling it doesnrsquot resize to fit thescreen width Lost readability

OOPS story 4 I see a web URL in the email address ofa contact and look at the site The site looks like it wascreated 12 years ago the copyright date is 2003 and theweb links go to lsquofilewebdetailsasprsquo Web page closedlost another sale

OOPS story 5 Nice product site no contact informationon it Nothing but links to a third-party sales companymaybe Paypal No phone email webmail or paper mailaddress no hint of which time zone continent or starsystem is the closest Sorry I donrsquot buy anything from off-planet yet

Right about now I hear a few comments ldquoI canrsquotpublish my phone number I work from homerdquo or ldquoIrsquomuncomfortable with spoken English for callsrdquo ldquoIrsquom on thePacific RIM and my time zone is very different from mycustomersrdquo or ldquoI donrsquot want emails just buy my productand leave me alonerdquo OK your customers can and will buyfrom a company whose expectation of normal communica-tions matches their own

Itrsquos OK to not have any one of these on your site aphone number or an email address or a physical deliveryaddress Itrsquos never OK to not have a mailing address (postoffice boxes are OK) Itrsquos a bad idea to not have most ofthese

Phone number The phone number has to actuallyreach a message that identifies your company or mainproduct A generic message from an cell phone service thatldquo555-1212 is not available Please leave a messagerdquo is notacceptable The phone number doesnrsquot have to actually ring(or wake you up on the far side of the planet) but it has toreliably take messages The number doesnrsquot even have to bea device a virtual phone number like Google Voice isperfectly OK you can set virtual phones to ring at anothernumber during some hours and go directly to voicemail the

12 ASPects Convention Special July 2012

rest of the time Definitely list your office hours and timezone near your phone number

Email address There has to be a way to reach you byemail on your web site It doesnrsquot have to be a plain-textemail address a working web-mail form is OK

Mailing address Yes your mailing address has to beon your web site I have to teach end users about onlinesecurity I show them how to tell if an order page is en-crypted how to see who the company taking orders is andsometimes how to look up the reputation of a site or see ifthere are complaints And I stress not ordering fromcompanies that hide their locations Look Irsquom not going toshow up at your door (Itrsquos happened to me once and thatcharacter did buy software but it took an hour to get himout the door again and I canrsquot work an hour for a $20 saleAnd thatrsquos why I use a post office box) But if you hideyour city and country you arenrsquot going to get sales fromyour neighborsndashremember that all search engines aremoving towards lsquolocal results firstrsquo And you wonrsquot getorders from anyone who knows that in case an online orderfails there has to be a way to reach someone to fix things

Again I hear cries of despair But Irsquom in LowerSlobbovia Or for those who havenrsquot heard of it EastElbonia is pretty much the same Itrsquos somewhere you wonrsquotadmit yoursquore from Perhaps the real problem isnrsquot that youroffices are remotendashIrsquove done business with great companieson six continents The good ones arenrsquot hiding theirlocations Companies that hide their locations are automati-cally suspiciousndashwhat else is hidden in their software

Web sites All of your web sites must work in all themajor browsers If you sell Mac software they had betterwork perfectly when viewed from an iPAD Preferablyevery domain you use should have a really sharp and goodlooking web site But if you have a domain you havenrsquottouched in years and canrsquot be bothered to update it thenredirect that domain to your best web site Kill the old sitemove on and donrsquot leave straggler web sites lying aroundIf you must leave an old site un-updated run a link checkeron it and fix whatever is broken

Donrsquot skip any steps on these checks It really does workbest if you leave your office and then try to communicatefrom the outside world Then you see that your web site hasthe wrong country code on the phone number or it doesnrsquotdisplay properly on other browsers or itrsquos blocked by websecurity software or the links are local and broken Or onebrowser is flagging a site certificate as bad or a securitytoolbar is popping warnings

Itrsquos the equivalent in a big company of dialing the mainswitchboard trying to get past the phone board past theexecutive assistant to the vice president and actuallyhaving an executive listen to you long enough to hear the10-second version of what yoursquore selling Sales pitchesdonrsquot work without communication donrsquot lose your salebecause you canrsquot be reachedJerry Stern is the editor of ASPects the ASPrsquos Coordinatorof Anti-Spyware Operations runs Startupwarecom andW o r d P e r f e c t o r g a n d i s o n l i n e a twwwsciencetranslationscom

July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 13

14 ASPects Convention Special July 2012

Software Passwords and Software Marketing

by Al Harbergthe press release guy from DP Directory Inc

If your software asks users to create a password toprotect the privacy of their information then you havean opportunity to offer additional value to your custom-

ers And that can mean increased software sales additionalrecommendations and good will for your company in yourmarketing niche

Help your users choose effective passwords Accordingto the ldquoWorst Passw0rdsrdquo article in the April 2012 issue ofAARP Bulletin online users have a terrible track record forchoosing effective passwords to protect their security

The most popular password the article tells us isldquopasswordrdquo Changing the lower-case letter ldquoordquo to a zero toform passw0rd is the 16th most popular password choice

The top 25 list includes such clever choices as 1234561234567 12345678 and 123123 ldquoqwertyrdquo and ldquoletmeinrdquoare also on the list of popular user choices

Every day computer users worry about their privacy Ifyour software asks your users to create a password thenyou have an opportunity to show that you care about theirprivacy and security Donrsquot let them create low-qualitypasswords

Andrei Belogortseff is the CEO of WinAbility Softwareat wwwwinabilitycom a Utah-based software developerof security and password utilities WinAbility marketsUSBCrypt a program that makes it simple to encrypt andpassword-protect your USB drive as well as other remov-able and fixed drives

ldquoItrsquos important to protect your data with a long complexpasswordrdquo Andrei tells us ldquoUse a mix of upper-caseletters lower-case letters digits and special charactersrdquo

USBCrypt has a built-in password recovery function thatlets users recreate lost or forgotten passwords On a typical

modern business PC it can take 30 minutes to recover athree-digit password that contains only lower-case lettersBy contrast a five-digit password made up of a mix ofupper- and lower-case letters can take up to 15 days torecover And a seven-digit password that mixes upper- andlower-case letters with numbers and special characters cantake thousands of years to recover

If your application asks users to choose a password youcan help them select wisely Build a list of terrible pass-words into your application and donrsquot let your users selectthese easy-to-guess codes Examine the passwords that theycreate and encourage them to use longer passwords witha mix of characters

ldquoBe sure to remind your users of the flip-side of using acomplex passwordrdquo Andrei tells us ldquoIf you forget yourpassword it will be nearly impossible to recover itrdquo

Add your password protection information to yourwebsite and make it part of your software marketingpresentation By creating keyword-rich pages that describeyour thoughts about privacy security encryption andpasswords yoursquoll get more search engine traffic frompeople who include these words when they search forsoftware like yours

Use your applicationrsquos help file to provide your userswith a short explanation of why passwords are importantTheyrsquoll appreciate the guidance and theyrsquoll be much moreinclined to recommend your software to their friends andcolleagues Helping customers choose powerful passwordsis good software marketingSince 1984 Al Harberg has been helping software develop-ers write press releases and submit them to the editors Youcan check out h is press re lease services onwwwdpdirectorycom

ASP Member News

Slimbrowser ndash a Fast and Secure Tabbed Web Browser

FlashPeak Inc has released SlimBrowser V41 a compacttabbed browser that is super-fast easy to use and packedwith wonderful features including popup-blocker formfiller autologin spell checker site groups ad filteringquick search and much more

SlimBrowser manages web sites as child windows withclickable tab labels in a single main window to avoid taskbar clutter With SlimBrowser searching the web iseasyndashtype in the quick-search box and press enter to get thesearch results you want immediately You can either use thepredefined list of search engines or easily create your own

favorite search enginesSlimBrowser also includes a URL filter which blocks

web pages and components by address matching Further-more the advanced in-page ad-filter automatically elimi-nates the obtrusive floating images and flash animationsfrom the original web pages

SlimBrowser includes site grouping functionalitieswhich enables you to save a number of sites as a group andopen the group of sites next time with a single click Theform filler fills your personal information into web formswith the best field-detection accuracy and saves you a lot ofrepetitive typing

SlimBrowser is free from wwwflashpeakcomsbrowser

July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 15

Affordable Cloud-Based Speed Reading Software forColleges and College Prep

StepWare Inc announces the availability of AceReaderOnline the Cloud version of its flagship WindowsMacapplication AceReader Pro AceReader Online is a power-ful educational tool that assesses improves and monitorsstudentsrsquo reading speed fluency and comprehension

AceReader Online teaches students to break bad readinghabits such as subvocalization (pronouncing the words intheir minds as they read) and regression (reading passagesmore than once) This educational software also helpsexpand studentsrsquo eye fixation zone so they can readmultiple words at a time

The online version of AceReader offers features thatbenefit college university and high school teachers andstudents Students can work independently on a personal-ized self-adjusting reading course or choose from a libraryof reading assessment and improvement regimens Educa-tors can monitor each studentrsquos progress by viewing reportsfor each student consisting of reading speeds comprehen-sion scores graphs activity logs and much more

Since AceReader Online includes 13 levels of textcomplexity it is being used by younger students (ie gradeschools) and even for students who need vision training (iestudents with dyslexia)

AceReader Online has been used by 30 colleges andschools during the 20112012 school year with greatsuccess and is now is available to all education institutionswwwacereadercom

Create Handwriting Fonts In Many Major Languages

High-Logic BV has released Scanahand 4 an applicationthat makes it easy for each member of the family to createcustom hand-written fonts for use in Microsoft WordExcel PowerPoint Notepad and any Windows programScanahand lets you quickly create a font install it inWindows in seconds and use it immediately You can typenotes and cards in your favorite word processing softwareand print them in your own handwriting

Scanahand lets you create signature fonts set a font styleby going bold or italic has the ability to automaticallyinclude diacritical marks and provides full Unicodesupport New features in version 4 include a smart charactermapper that automatically links missing letters to theirupperlower case counterpart and a brand new algorithm forcalculating the best possible left and right-side bearings forthe basic Latin character set The tracing method used byScanahand has been further improved to generate evenmore stunning fonts

The Premium Edition also includes a Template Editorthat allows users to create templates each containing a userdefined set of characters This allows the generation of

fonts that support numerous languages not available in theStandard Editionwwwhigh-logiccom

News amp Press Corner

Microsoft Announces Windows 8 Upgrade Offer

Microsoft Corp announced the availability of the WindowsUpgrade Offer for consumers purchasing a qualifying newWindows 7 PC The Windows Upgrade Offer providesconsumers who buy an eligible Windows 7 PC the optionto purchase a downloadable upgrade to Windows 8 Pro foran estimated retail price of just $1499 during the time ofthe promotion which will be redeemable when Windows 8is generally available The Windows Upgrade Offer is justthe first of many consumer offers that will roll out inconjunction with the general availability of Windows 8

ldquoWersquove seen a great interest in Windows 8 especiallygiven the availability of the Windows 8 Release Previewthis week and yet we know many consumers want a newPC nowrdquo said Tami Reller chief marketing officer andchief financial officer of Windows at Microsoft ldquoTheWindows Upgrade Offer gives people the flexibility topurchase the new Windows 7 PC they need today with theknowledge they can easily get Windows 8 when itrsquos avail-ablerdquo

This program is available for consumers buying newWindows 7 PCs that are preinstalled with Windows 7 HomeBasic Home Premium Professional or Ultimate andinclude a matching and valid OEM Certificate of Authentic-ity The Windows 7 PC must be purchased new during theeligibility period June 2 2012ndashJan 31 2013wwwwindowsupgradeoffercom

WinZipreg Android App Now Available

WinZip Multi-platform Product Line Extends MobileSupport with Free Android App

WinZip Computing a Corel company today introducedWinZipreg for Android a new free mobile app now availableon Google Play

ldquoWith our free Android app wersquore extending the powerof WinZip to new mobile customers and delivering anessential tool for opening zipped files on the go Our firstmobile app WinZip for iOS enjoyed a great reception andhas already been downloaded by more than a millioniPhone and iPad users Now with apps for Android andiOS wersquore offering WinZip tools to customers on both ofthe industryrsquos most popular mobile platformsrdquo said PatrickNichols President of WinZipwwwwinzipcom

16 ASPects Convention Special July 2012

Supporting MembersIshai Shotten ACampG Software Ltd wwwbeejackcomAdriana Iordan Avangate BV wwwavangatecomYu Tao CHENGDU YIWO Tech Development Co Ltd wwweaseuscomDennis Reinhardt DAIR Computer Systems wwwdaircomAlexander Halser EC Software GmbH wwwec-softwarecomArmel Asselin Ellie Computing wwwelliecomputingcomErik Pelton Erik M Pelton amp Associates wwwerikpeltoncomGeraldine Joffre HDRsoft wwwhdrsoftcomGerben Abbink Monkfish XML Software wwwxmlblueprintcomMatt Smith Nevolution Digital LLC wwwnevolutioncomMiguel Cano Onekit wwwonekitcomCharles Born Plimus Inc wwwplimuscomIvan Radmore Pookanyoni Limited wwwpookanyonicomAndrew Butler R3 Data Recovery Ltd wwwr3datarecoverycomWilliam Shaw Regentstreet Research IncOmer Faiyaz Remo Software wwwremosoftwarecomRay Park Rescue Geeks Inc wwwutouchposcomMatt Humphries RevenueWire wwwrevenuewirecomAnna-Jayne Metcalfe Riverblade LimitedTim Thousand Scooter Software wwwscootersoftwarecomGarett Finney SoftwareCommercials Inc wwwsoftwarecommercialscomDana Doten TeamComp Inc wwwnewsbincomPiotr Sulgostowski TTS Company Sp z o o wwwttscomplMiguel Angel Martin Vittalia Internet SL wwweazelcomLiu Ping wwwhodosoftcom

Directors Officers and Committee Chairs Board of DirectorsMitchell Vincent Chair mitch ksoftwarenetDan Hite Dan TedCoSoftwarecomEd Pulliam pulliam ouisoftcomHoward Sobel howards wugnetcomJason Kiwaluk jkiwaluk shawcaMahmoud Metwally mkm giantmatrixcom

OfficersGianfranco Berardi President president asp-softwareorgVice President vp asp-softwareorgAndrei Belogortseff Secretary secretary asp-softwareorgTerry Jepson Treasurer treasurer asp-softwareorg

Staff Positions amp Committee ChairsRich Holler Executive Director execdir asp-softwareorgJerry Stern Coordinator of anti-spyware operations

ASPects Editor aspects asp-softwareorg

Sue Pichotta Conference Managerconference asp-softwareorg

Andrei Belogortseff Download Sitedsw asp-softwareorg

Events Coordinator events asp-softwareorgMichael Marshall Ombudsman

wwwasp-softwareorgombSteve Faleiro Outreach Chair outreach asp-softwareorgJoel Diamond PAD Chair pad-chair asp-softwareorgPublic Relations publicrelations asp-softwareorgSergeant-at-Arms saa asp-softwareorgVolunteer Coordinator

volunteer asp-softwareorgDon Waterfield Webmaster webmaster asp-softwareorgTom Guthery IV New Member Welcome

welcome asp-softwareorgWebsite Committee Chair president asp-softwareorg

ASP Membership Form

Before submitting your application for membershipvisit our website at wwwasp-softwareorgjoin andreview the membership standards and requirementsThere are two categories of ASP Membership Please makesure you have reviewed the appropriate information andstandards page

Mail applications toRichard HollerASP Executive DirectorPO Box 1522Martinsville IN 46151 USA

I have read the appropriate standards and agree toabide by them lsquo Yes lsquo No

Standards for Developer Members and Industry Membersare online at wwwasp-softwareorgjoin

Category of Membership

(Select either lsquoDeveloperrsquo or one of the various Industrycategories)

lsquo Developer

Industry Memberlsquo Vendorlsquo Online Distributorlsquo Online Developerlsquo User Grouplsquo PressMedialsquo Consultantlsquo Shareware Enthusiast

CompanyProduct Description(120 characters or less required if web site link is requested)

Please PRINT Clearly

REQUIRED FIELDS

Name

Company Name

Street Address

Street Address

CityTown

StateProvince

ZIPPostal Code

Country

Public Phone (Voice)

Public Phone (FAX)

Public Email Address

Web Site URL (Required if web site link is requested)

Private Phone (ASP use)

Private Email Address (ASP use)

Do you wish to have your listing included in the public

member database lsquo Yes lsquo No

Do you wish to have your website link included on our

ASP website lsquo Yes lsquo No

Signature

VisaMasterCardAmerican Express AuthorizationIf paying by credit card all the following fields are required

Credit Card Number

Expiration Date

Name of Card Holder

Amount to be charged $100 (USD)

CVV2 code (back of card)

Page 10: ASPects July 2012 Convention Special Issue · 2012. 7. 5. · July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 3 The Biggest Mistake You Can Ever Make by Jiri Novotny Dextronet.comT he biggest

10 ASPects Convention Special July 2012

and in them

Pick the Low-hanging Fruit

In his book Your Marketing Sucks Mark Stevens takescustomer relationships a step further by suggesting thatworking with existing customers will generate the easiestmoney that wersquoll ever make Translated into the softwaredevelopment industry Stevensrsquo ideas include cross-sellingother applications that yoursquove written

Stevens would also encourage microISVs to get theircustomers to buy somebody elsersquos software that theyrsquoreoffering on an affiliate basis Select another developer whomarkets excellent applications The other developer has totarget the same group that yoursquore targeting and they canrsquotbe offering a competing application

And the other developerrsquos applications must have thesame appeal as yours For example if your software isknown for its ease of use then you shouldnrsquot select adeveloper whose application is known for being afull-featured powerhouse Instead choose another devel-oper who takes the same minimalist approach to softwaredesign that you do Set up an affiliate relationship with thisother developer and sell their software to your user-base

Encourage your existing customers to upgrade from theLight version to the Standard version and to the Profes-sional version If theyrsquore a home user and theyrsquove bought asingle-user license offer them a family license If theyrsquore abusiness user talk to them about multi-user and sitelicensing

Itrsquos always easier Beckwith tells us to sell to somebodywith whom you already have a relationship

Start with an Easy Sale

Jay Conrad Levinson in his book Guerrilla MarketingExcellence tells us that if we can get prospects to take oneor more soft steps itrsquos easier to get them to take the hardstep of making the purchase For example a softwaredeveloper might encourage prospects to subscribe to anewsletter or to contact them with questions about theirsoftware

Start building a relationship with them and it will beeasier to get them to buy from you Offer them a free flyerbrochure DVD demonstration phone consultation orseminar Establish a relationship with them and then askfor the sale

Selling to Women

Women are three times more likely to recommend a brandto friends and colleagues Help women connect to eachother and they can tell others about your product or serviceSo says Faith Popcorn in her book EVEolution

Popcorn insists that she is not talking aboutword-of-mouth marketing or relationship marketing Thisisnrsquot about putting a simple ldquotell a friend about our soft-

warerdquo link on your website Itrsquos about creating a genuinecommunity around your brand Weight Watchers did thisThey transformed dieting from a private act to a public one

Create a site where people can discuss what theyrsquoreworried about and passionate about If the site is centeredaround your brand then you can get women to join yourbrand And you can build solid relationships with all of theparticipants

What CRM Means for Software Developers

If you decide to adopt customer relationship managementtechniques in your software development business try notto get bogged down in the technical aspects of implement-ing a CRM solution The most important problems that youneed to tackle are defining all of the contact points that youhave with your prospects and customers and deciding howto optimize every one of them By making dozens orhundreds of improvements with your customer interactionsyoursquoll build far better relationships with your target audi-ence And that will mean more sales more referrals and abetter reputation for your company

CRM is good software marketingSince 1984 Al Harberg has been helping software develop-ers write press releases and send them to the editors Youcan check out more CRM ideas on his new SoftwareMarketing Glossary on wwwdpdirectorycomglossary-creativityhtmcrm_at_the_speed_of_light

July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 11

Call YourselfAre You Impossible to Reach

by Jerry SternEditor ASPects

Irsquom surprised by basic web page failures amongmicroISVs I follow a link to a product Irsquove heard aboutfor years or was recommended to me and I see well

crab grass Or whatrsquos left of the lawn has turned brown Nowait thatrsquos another problem Or is it

We run software and technology businesses and manyof us are guilty of liking our technology so much that wewant to just do that Be the programmer all the time andnever delegate or outsource that work and never move onto keeping our offices running But thatrsquos basic introductionto Management material management isnrsquot productionManagement is hiring firing delegation training andsupervision and making sure that everything else gets doneeven if you have to outsource hire or do it yourself tomake sure that everything gets done

The common error in a small business is skippingsupervision ldquoWhat I work alone I donrsquot need supervi-sionrdquo Yeah right Unless you work off proper to-do liststhat include double-checks that your systems are workingyou arenrsquot supervising either your own workload or yourtechnology For now Irsquoll leave lsquosupervising yourselfrsquo as anexercise for the programmer herersquos the short versionndashmakea list and assign hours to each item You can steal hoursfrom each item if you have to but canrsquot cut any category tozero Especially not supervision marketing or bookkeep-ing

Programmer Phone Home

But back to supervising your technology as thatrsquos what Isee failing from the outside world thatrsquos what your custom-ers see Business management classes usually tell you Callyourself Itrsquos really that simple Pick up a phone and dialyour number No thatrsquos not it Go to a search engine findyour web page find your phone number dial it and leavea message Oh and do it from outside your office Repeatit once a month and repeat that for each of your contactmethods The first try might result in shock however

What yoursquore looking for are communication road blocksA bad phone number or none Web mail pages that nolonger work Missing paper-mail addresses A full phonemail box or a generic answering service message A webpage that displays security warnings in WebOfTrust(mywotcom) or at SiteAdvisorcom Web pages that gonowhere or display badly on browsers you donrsquot use Haveyou visited your sites from an iPAD yet Sure you want touse Flash animation for your main welcome message Itrsquosnot universal never was and the usage percentages are

dropping nowOOPS story 1 I visited a microISVrsquos web site to look at

his product His site shows up in Danish with an Englishbutton which refreshes the page and once again shows meDanish Nice site but all I can read in Danish are thetechnology words that donrsquot normally get translated Theauthor doesnrsquot really visit his own site in English appar-ently And neither does anyone else Lost sale

OOPS story 2 I find someone on LinkedIn I call theirphone number and it goes to voicemail and the voicemailis full Or their email bounces unknown recipient Lostopportunity

OOPS story 3 OK this one was me I visit a friendshow them my website Itrsquos too wide to fit her low-resolu-tion screen without scrolling it doesnrsquot resize to fit thescreen width Lost readability

OOPS story 4 I see a web URL in the email address ofa contact and look at the site The site looks like it wascreated 12 years ago the copyright date is 2003 and theweb links go to lsquofilewebdetailsasprsquo Web page closedlost another sale

OOPS story 5 Nice product site no contact informationon it Nothing but links to a third-party sales companymaybe Paypal No phone email webmail or paper mailaddress no hint of which time zone continent or starsystem is the closest Sorry I donrsquot buy anything from off-planet yet

Right about now I hear a few comments ldquoI canrsquotpublish my phone number I work from homerdquo or ldquoIrsquomuncomfortable with spoken English for callsrdquo ldquoIrsquom on thePacific RIM and my time zone is very different from mycustomersrdquo or ldquoI donrsquot want emails just buy my productand leave me alonerdquo OK your customers can and will buyfrom a company whose expectation of normal communica-tions matches their own

Itrsquos OK to not have any one of these on your site aphone number or an email address or a physical deliveryaddress Itrsquos never OK to not have a mailing address (postoffice boxes are OK) Itrsquos a bad idea to not have most ofthese

Phone number The phone number has to actuallyreach a message that identifies your company or mainproduct A generic message from an cell phone service thatldquo555-1212 is not available Please leave a messagerdquo is notacceptable The phone number doesnrsquot have to actually ring(or wake you up on the far side of the planet) but it has toreliably take messages The number doesnrsquot even have to bea device a virtual phone number like Google Voice isperfectly OK you can set virtual phones to ring at anothernumber during some hours and go directly to voicemail the

12 ASPects Convention Special July 2012

rest of the time Definitely list your office hours and timezone near your phone number

Email address There has to be a way to reach you byemail on your web site It doesnrsquot have to be a plain-textemail address a working web-mail form is OK

Mailing address Yes your mailing address has to beon your web site I have to teach end users about onlinesecurity I show them how to tell if an order page is en-crypted how to see who the company taking orders is andsometimes how to look up the reputation of a site or see ifthere are complaints And I stress not ordering fromcompanies that hide their locations Look Irsquom not going toshow up at your door (Itrsquos happened to me once and thatcharacter did buy software but it took an hour to get himout the door again and I canrsquot work an hour for a $20 saleAnd thatrsquos why I use a post office box) But if you hideyour city and country you arenrsquot going to get sales fromyour neighborsndashremember that all search engines aremoving towards lsquolocal results firstrsquo And you wonrsquot getorders from anyone who knows that in case an online orderfails there has to be a way to reach someone to fix things

Again I hear cries of despair But Irsquom in LowerSlobbovia Or for those who havenrsquot heard of it EastElbonia is pretty much the same Itrsquos somewhere you wonrsquotadmit yoursquore from Perhaps the real problem isnrsquot that youroffices are remotendashIrsquove done business with great companieson six continents The good ones arenrsquot hiding theirlocations Companies that hide their locations are automati-cally suspiciousndashwhat else is hidden in their software

Web sites All of your web sites must work in all themajor browsers If you sell Mac software they had betterwork perfectly when viewed from an iPAD Preferablyevery domain you use should have a really sharp and goodlooking web site But if you have a domain you havenrsquottouched in years and canrsquot be bothered to update it thenredirect that domain to your best web site Kill the old sitemove on and donrsquot leave straggler web sites lying aroundIf you must leave an old site un-updated run a link checkeron it and fix whatever is broken

Donrsquot skip any steps on these checks It really does workbest if you leave your office and then try to communicatefrom the outside world Then you see that your web site hasthe wrong country code on the phone number or it doesnrsquotdisplay properly on other browsers or itrsquos blocked by websecurity software or the links are local and broken Or onebrowser is flagging a site certificate as bad or a securitytoolbar is popping warnings

Itrsquos the equivalent in a big company of dialing the mainswitchboard trying to get past the phone board past theexecutive assistant to the vice president and actuallyhaving an executive listen to you long enough to hear the10-second version of what yoursquore selling Sales pitchesdonrsquot work without communication donrsquot lose your salebecause you canrsquot be reachedJerry Stern is the editor of ASPects the ASPrsquos Coordinatorof Anti-Spyware Operations runs Startupwarecom andW o r d P e r f e c t o r g a n d i s o n l i n e a twwwsciencetranslationscom

July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 13

14 ASPects Convention Special July 2012

Software Passwords and Software Marketing

by Al Harbergthe press release guy from DP Directory Inc

If your software asks users to create a password toprotect the privacy of their information then you havean opportunity to offer additional value to your custom-

ers And that can mean increased software sales additionalrecommendations and good will for your company in yourmarketing niche

Help your users choose effective passwords Accordingto the ldquoWorst Passw0rdsrdquo article in the April 2012 issue ofAARP Bulletin online users have a terrible track record forchoosing effective passwords to protect their security

The most popular password the article tells us isldquopasswordrdquo Changing the lower-case letter ldquoordquo to a zero toform passw0rd is the 16th most popular password choice

The top 25 list includes such clever choices as 1234561234567 12345678 and 123123 ldquoqwertyrdquo and ldquoletmeinrdquoare also on the list of popular user choices

Every day computer users worry about their privacy Ifyour software asks your users to create a password thenyou have an opportunity to show that you care about theirprivacy and security Donrsquot let them create low-qualitypasswords

Andrei Belogortseff is the CEO of WinAbility Softwareat wwwwinabilitycom a Utah-based software developerof security and password utilities WinAbility marketsUSBCrypt a program that makes it simple to encrypt andpassword-protect your USB drive as well as other remov-able and fixed drives

ldquoItrsquos important to protect your data with a long complexpasswordrdquo Andrei tells us ldquoUse a mix of upper-caseletters lower-case letters digits and special charactersrdquo

USBCrypt has a built-in password recovery function thatlets users recreate lost or forgotten passwords On a typical

modern business PC it can take 30 minutes to recover athree-digit password that contains only lower-case lettersBy contrast a five-digit password made up of a mix ofupper- and lower-case letters can take up to 15 days torecover And a seven-digit password that mixes upper- andlower-case letters with numbers and special characters cantake thousands of years to recover

If your application asks users to choose a password youcan help them select wisely Build a list of terrible pass-words into your application and donrsquot let your users selectthese easy-to-guess codes Examine the passwords that theycreate and encourage them to use longer passwords witha mix of characters

ldquoBe sure to remind your users of the flip-side of using acomplex passwordrdquo Andrei tells us ldquoIf you forget yourpassword it will be nearly impossible to recover itrdquo

Add your password protection information to yourwebsite and make it part of your software marketingpresentation By creating keyword-rich pages that describeyour thoughts about privacy security encryption andpasswords yoursquoll get more search engine traffic frompeople who include these words when they search forsoftware like yours

Use your applicationrsquos help file to provide your userswith a short explanation of why passwords are importantTheyrsquoll appreciate the guidance and theyrsquoll be much moreinclined to recommend your software to their friends andcolleagues Helping customers choose powerful passwordsis good software marketingSince 1984 Al Harberg has been helping software develop-ers write press releases and submit them to the editors Youcan check out h is press re lease services onwwwdpdirectorycom

ASP Member News

Slimbrowser ndash a Fast and Secure Tabbed Web Browser

FlashPeak Inc has released SlimBrowser V41 a compacttabbed browser that is super-fast easy to use and packedwith wonderful features including popup-blocker formfiller autologin spell checker site groups ad filteringquick search and much more

SlimBrowser manages web sites as child windows withclickable tab labels in a single main window to avoid taskbar clutter With SlimBrowser searching the web iseasyndashtype in the quick-search box and press enter to get thesearch results you want immediately You can either use thepredefined list of search engines or easily create your own

favorite search enginesSlimBrowser also includes a URL filter which blocks

web pages and components by address matching Further-more the advanced in-page ad-filter automatically elimi-nates the obtrusive floating images and flash animationsfrom the original web pages

SlimBrowser includes site grouping functionalitieswhich enables you to save a number of sites as a group andopen the group of sites next time with a single click Theform filler fills your personal information into web formswith the best field-detection accuracy and saves you a lot ofrepetitive typing

SlimBrowser is free from wwwflashpeakcomsbrowser

July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 15

Affordable Cloud-Based Speed Reading Software forColleges and College Prep

StepWare Inc announces the availability of AceReaderOnline the Cloud version of its flagship WindowsMacapplication AceReader Pro AceReader Online is a power-ful educational tool that assesses improves and monitorsstudentsrsquo reading speed fluency and comprehension

AceReader Online teaches students to break bad readinghabits such as subvocalization (pronouncing the words intheir minds as they read) and regression (reading passagesmore than once) This educational software also helpsexpand studentsrsquo eye fixation zone so they can readmultiple words at a time

The online version of AceReader offers features thatbenefit college university and high school teachers andstudents Students can work independently on a personal-ized self-adjusting reading course or choose from a libraryof reading assessment and improvement regimens Educa-tors can monitor each studentrsquos progress by viewing reportsfor each student consisting of reading speeds comprehen-sion scores graphs activity logs and much more

Since AceReader Online includes 13 levels of textcomplexity it is being used by younger students (ie gradeschools) and even for students who need vision training (iestudents with dyslexia)

AceReader Online has been used by 30 colleges andschools during the 20112012 school year with greatsuccess and is now is available to all education institutionswwwacereadercom

Create Handwriting Fonts In Many Major Languages

High-Logic BV has released Scanahand 4 an applicationthat makes it easy for each member of the family to createcustom hand-written fonts for use in Microsoft WordExcel PowerPoint Notepad and any Windows programScanahand lets you quickly create a font install it inWindows in seconds and use it immediately You can typenotes and cards in your favorite word processing softwareand print them in your own handwriting

Scanahand lets you create signature fonts set a font styleby going bold or italic has the ability to automaticallyinclude diacritical marks and provides full Unicodesupport New features in version 4 include a smart charactermapper that automatically links missing letters to theirupperlower case counterpart and a brand new algorithm forcalculating the best possible left and right-side bearings forthe basic Latin character set The tracing method used byScanahand has been further improved to generate evenmore stunning fonts

The Premium Edition also includes a Template Editorthat allows users to create templates each containing a userdefined set of characters This allows the generation of

fonts that support numerous languages not available in theStandard Editionwwwhigh-logiccom

News amp Press Corner

Microsoft Announces Windows 8 Upgrade Offer

Microsoft Corp announced the availability of the WindowsUpgrade Offer for consumers purchasing a qualifying newWindows 7 PC The Windows Upgrade Offer providesconsumers who buy an eligible Windows 7 PC the optionto purchase a downloadable upgrade to Windows 8 Pro foran estimated retail price of just $1499 during the time ofthe promotion which will be redeemable when Windows 8is generally available The Windows Upgrade Offer is justthe first of many consumer offers that will roll out inconjunction with the general availability of Windows 8

ldquoWersquove seen a great interest in Windows 8 especiallygiven the availability of the Windows 8 Release Previewthis week and yet we know many consumers want a newPC nowrdquo said Tami Reller chief marketing officer andchief financial officer of Windows at Microsoft ldquoTheWindows Upgrade Offer gives people the flexibility topurchase the new Windows 7 PC they need today with theknowledge they can easily get Windows 8 when itrsquos avail-ablerdquo

This program is available for consumers buying newWindows 7 PCs that are preinstalled with Windows 7 HomeBasic Home Premium Professional or Ultimate andinclude a matching and valid OEM Certificate of Authentic-ity The Windows 7 PC must be purchased new during theeligibility period June 2 2012ndashJan 31 2013wwwwindowsupgradeoffercom

WinZipreg Android App Now Available

WinZip Multi-platform Product Line Extends MobileSupport with Free Android App

WinZip Computing a Corel company today introducedWinZipreg for Android a new free mobile app now availableon Google Play

ldquoWith our free Android app wersquore extending the powerof WinZip to new mobile customers and delivering anessential tool for opening zipped files on the go Our firstmobile app WinZip for iOS enjoyed a great reception andhas already been downloaded by more than a millioniPhone and iPad users Now with apps for Android andiOS wersquore offering WinZip tools to customers on both ofthe industryrsquos most popular mobile platformsrdquo said PatrickNichols President of WinZipwwwwinzipcom

16 ASPects Convention Special July 2012

Supporting MembersIshai Shotten ACampG Software Ltd wwwbeejackcomAdriana Iordan Avangate BV wwwavangatecomYu Tao CHENGDU YIWO Tech Development Co Ltd wwweaseuscomDennis Reinhardt DAIR Computer Systems wwwdaircomAlexander Halser EC Software GmbH wwwec-softwarecomArmel Asselin Ellie Computing wwwelliecomputingcomErik Pelton Erik M Pelton amp Associates wwwerikpeltoncomGeraldine Joffre HDRsoft wwwhdrsoftcomGerben Abbink Monkfish XML Software wwwxmlblueprintcomMatt Smith Nevolution Digital LLC wwwnevolutioncomMiguel Cano Onekit wwwonekitcomCharles Born Plimus Inc wwwplimuscomIvan Radmore Pookanyoni Limited wwwpookanyonicomAndrew Butler R3 Data Recovery Ltd wwwr3datarecoverycomWilliam Shaw Regentstreet Research IncOmer Faiyaz Remo Software wwwremosoftwarecomRay Park Rescue Geeks Inc wwwutouchposcomMatt Humphries RevenueWire wwwrevenuewirecomAnna-Jayne Metcalfe Riverblade LimitedTim Thousand Scooter Software wwwscootersoftwarecomGarett Finney SoftwareCommercials Inc wwwsoftwarecommercialscomDana Doten TeamComp Inc wwwnewsbincomPiotr Sulgostowski TTS Company Sp z o o wwwttscomplMiguel Angel Martin Vittalia Internet SL wwweazelcomLiu Ping wwwhodosoftcom

Directors Officers and Committee Chairs Board of DirectorsMitchell Vincent Chair mitch ksoftwarenetDan Hite Dan TedCoSoftwarecomEd Pulliam pulliam ouisoftcomHoward Sobel howards wugnetcomJason Kiwaluk jkiwaluk shawcaMahmoud Metwally mkm giantmatrixcom

OfficersGianfranco Berardi President president asp-softwareorgVice President vp asp-softwareorgAndrei Belogortseff Secretary secretary asp-softwareorgTerry Jepson Treasurer treasurer asp-softwareorg

Staff Positions amp Committee ChairsRich Holler Executive Director execdir asp-softwareorgJerry Stern Coordinator of anti-spyware operations

ASPects Editor aspects asp-softwareorg

Sue Pichotta Conference Managerconference asp-softwareorg

Andrei Belogortseff Download Sitedsw asp-softwareorg

Events Coordinator events asp-softwareorgMichael Marshall Ombudsman

wwwasp-softwareorgombSteve Faleiro Outreach Chair outreach asp-softwareorgJoel Diamond PAD Chair pad-chair asp-softwareorgPublic Relations publicrelations asp-softwareorgSergeant-at-Arms saa asp-softwareorgVolunteer Coordinator

volunteer asp-softwareorgDon Waterfield Webmaster webmaster asp-softwareorgTom Guthery IV New Member Welcome

welcome asp-softwareorgWebsite Committee Chair president asp-softwareorg

ASP Membership Form

Before submitting your application for membershipvisit our website at wwwasp-softwareorgjoin andreview the membership standards and requirementsThere are two categories of ASP Membership Please makesure you have reviewed the appropriate information andstandards page

Mail applications toRichard HollerASP Executive DirectorPO Box 1522Martinsville IN 46151 USA

I have read the appropriate standards and agree toabide by them lsquo Yes lsquo No

Standards for Developer Members and Industry Membersare online at wwwasp-softwareorgjoin

Category of Membership

(Select either lsquoDeveloperrsquo or one of the various Industrycategories)

lsquo Developer

Industry Memberlsquo Vendorlsquo Online Distributorlsquo Online Developerlsquo User Grouplsquo PressMedialsquo Consultantlsquo Shareware Enthusiast

CompanyProduct Description(120 characters or less required if web site link is requested)

Please PRINT Clearly

REQUIRED FIELDS

Name

Company Name

Street Address

Street Address

CityTown

StateProvince

ZIPPostal Code

Country

Public Phone (Voice)

Public Phone (FAX)

Public Email Address

Web Site URL (Required if web site link is requested)

Private Phone (ASP use)

Private Email Address (ASP use)

Do you wish to have your listing included in the public

member database lsquo Yes lsquo No

Do you wish to have your website link included on our

ASP website lsquo Yes lsquo No

Signature

VisaMasterCardAmerican Express AuthorizationIf paying by credit card all the following fields are required

Credit Card Number

Expiration Date

Name of Card Holder

Amount to be charged $100 (USD)

CVV2 code (back of card)

Page 11: ASPects July 2012 Convention Special Issue · 2012. 7. 5. · July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 3 The Biggest Mistake You Can Ever Make by Jiri Novotny Dextronet.comT he biggest

July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 11

Call YourselfAre You Impossible to Reach

by Jerry SternEditor ASPects

Irsquom surprised by basic web page failures amongmicroISVs I follow a link to a product Irsquove heard aboutfor years or was recommended to me and I see well

crab grass Or whatrsquos left of the lawn has turned brown Nowait thatrsquos another problem Or is it

We run software and technology businesses and manyof us are guilty of liking our technology so much that wewant to just do that Be the programmer all the time andnever delegate or outsource that work and never move onto keeping our offices running But thatrsquos basic introductionto Management material management isnrsquot productionManagement is hiring firing delegation training andsupervision and making sure that everything else gets doneeven if you have to outsource hire or do it yourself tomake sure that everything gets done

The common error in a small business is skippingsupervision ldquoWhat I work alone I donrsquot need supervi-sionrdquo Yeah right Unless you work off proper to-do liststhat include double-checks that your systems are workingyou arenrsquot supervising either your own workload or yourtechnology For now Irsquoll leave lsquosupervising yourselfrsquo as anexercise for the programmer herersquos the short versionndashmakea list and assign hours to each item You can steal hoursfrom each item if you have to but canrsquot cut any category tozero Especially not supervision marketing or bookkeep-ing

Programmer Phone Home

But back to supervising your technology as thatrsquos what Isee failing from the outside world thatrsquos what your custom-ers see Business management classes usually tell you Callyourself Itrsquos really that simple Pick up a phone and dialyour number No thatrsquos not it Go to a search engine findyour web page find your phone number dial it and leavea message Oh and do it from outside your office Repeatit once a month and repeat that for each of your contactmethods The first try might result in shock however

What yoursquore looking for are communication road blocksA bad phone number or none Web mail pages that nolonger work Missing paper-mail addresses A full phonemail box or a generic answering service message A webpage that displays security warnings in WebOfTrust(mywotcom) or at SiteAdvisorcom Web pages that gonowhere or display badly on browsers you donrsquot use Haveyou visited your sites from an iPAD yet Sure you want touse Flash animation for your main welcome message Itrsquosnot universal never was and the usage percentages are

dropping nowOOPS story 1 I visited a microISVrsquos web site to look at

his product His site shows up in Danish with an Englishbutton which refreshes the page and once again shows meDanish Nice site but all I can read in Danish are thetechnology words that donrsquot normally get translated Theauthor doesnrsquot really visit his own site in English appar-ently And neither does anyone else Lost sale

OOPS story 2 I find someone on LinkedIn I call theirphone number and it goes to voicemail and the voicemailis full Or their email bounces unknown recipient Lostopportunity

OOPS story 3 OK this one was me I visit a friendshow them my website Itrsquos too wide to fit her low-resolu-tion screen without scrolling it doesnrsquot resize to fit thescreen width Lost readability

OOPS story 4 I see a web URL in the email address ofa contact and look at the site The site looks like it wascreated 12 years ago the copyright date is 2003 and theweb links go to lsquofilewebdetailsasprsquo Web page closedlost another sale

OOPS story 5 Nice product site no contact informationon it Nothing but links to a third-party sales companymaybe Paypal No phone email webmail or paper mailaddress no hint of which time zone continent or starsystem is the closest Sorry I donrsquot buy anything from off-planet yet

Right about now I hear a few comments ldquoI canrsquotpublish my phone number I work from homerdquo or ldquoIrsquomuncomfortable with spoken English for callsrdquo ldquoIrsquom on thePacific RIM and my time zone is very different from mycustomersrdquo or ldquoI donrsquot want emails just buy my productand leave me alonerdquo OK your customers can and will buyfrom a company whose expectation of normal communica-tions matches their own

Itrsquos OK to not have any one of these on your site aphone number or an email address or a physical deliveryaddress Itrsquos never OK to not have a mailing address (postoffice boxes are OK) Itrsquos a bad idea to not have most ofthese

Phone number The phone number has to actuallyreach a message that identifies your company or mainproduct A generic message from an cell phone service thatldquo555-1212 is not available Please leave a messagerdquo is notacceptable The phone number doesnrsquot have to actually ring(or wake you up on the far side of the planet) but it has toreliably take messages The number doesnrsquot even have to bea device a virtual phone number like Google Voice isperfectly OK you can set virtual phones to ring at anothernumber during some hours and go directly to voicemail the

12 ASPects Convention Special July 2012

rest of the time Definitely list your office hours and timezone near your phone number

Email address There has to be a way to reach you byemail on your web site It doesnrsquot have to be a plain-textemail address a working web-mail form is OK

Mailing address Yes your mailing address has to beon your web site I have to teach end users about onlinesecurity I show them how to tell if an order page is en-crypted how to see who the company taking orders is andsometimes how to look up the reputation of a site or see ifthere are complaints And I stress not ordering fromcompanies that hide their locations Look Irsquom not going toshow up at your door (Itrsquos happened to me once and thatcharacter did buy software but it took an hour to get himout the door again and I canrsquot work an hour for a $20 saleAnd thatrsquos why I use a post office box) But if you hideyour city and country you arenrsquot going to get sales fromyour neighborsndashremember that all search engines aremoving towards lsquolocal results firstrsquo And you wonrsquot getorders from anyone who knows that in case an online orderfails there has to be a way to reach someone to fix things

Again I hear cries of despair But Irsquom in LowerSlobbovia Or for those who havenrsquot heard of it EastElbonia is pretty much the same Itrsquos somewhere you wonrsquotadmit yoursquore from Perhaps the real problem isnrsquot that youroffices are remotendashIrsquove done business with great companieson six continents The good ones arenrsquot hiding theirlocations Companies that hide their locations are automati-cally suspiciousndashwhat else is hidden in their software

Web sites All of your web sites must work in all themajor browsers If you sell Mac software they had betterwork perfectly when viewed from an iPAD Preferablyevery domain you use should have a really sharp and goodlooking web site But if you have a domain you havenrsquottouched in years and canrsquot be bothered to update it thenredirect that domain to your best web site Kill the old sitemove on and donrsquot leave straggler web sites lying aroundIf you must leave an old site un-updated run a link checkeron it and fix whatever is broken

Donrsquot skip any steps on these checks It really does workbest if you leave your office and then try to communicatefrom the outside world Then you see that your web site hasthe wrong country code on the phone number or it doesnrsquotdisplay properly on other browsers or itrsquos blocked by websecurity software or the links are local and broken Or onebrowser is flagging a site certificate as bad or a securitytoolbar is popping warnings

Itrsquos the equivalent in a big company of dialing the mainswitchboard trying to get past the phone board past theexecutive assistant to the vice president and actuallyhaving an executive listen to you long enough to hear the10-second version of what yoursquore selling Sales pitchesdonrsquot work without communication donrsquot lose your salebecause you canrsquot be reachedJerry Stern is the editor of ASPects the ASPrsquos Coordinatorof Anti-Spyware Operations runs Startupwarecom andW o r d P e r f e c t o r g a n d i s o n l i n e a twwwsciencetranslationscom

July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 13

14 ASPects Convention Special July 2012

Software Passwords and Software Marketing

by Al Harbergthe press release guy from DP Directory Inc

If your software asks users to create a password toprotect the privacy of their information then you havean opportunity to offer additional value to your custom-

ers And that can mean increased software sales additionalrecommendations and good will for your company in yourmarketing niche

Help your users choose effective passwords Accordingto the ldquoWorst Passw0rdsrdquo article in the April 2012 issue ofAARP Bulletin online users have a terrible track record forchoosing effective passwords to protect their security

The most popular password the article tells us isldquopasswordrdquo Changing the lower-case letter ldquoordquo to a zero toform passw0rd is the 16th most popular password choice

The top 25 list includes such clever choices as 1234561234567 12345678 and 123123 ldquoqwertyrdquo and ldquoletmeinrdquoare also on the list of popular user choices

Every day computer users worry about their privacy Ifyour software asks your users to create a password thenyou have an opportunity to show that you care about theirprivacy and security Donrsquot let them create low-qualitypasswords

Andrei Belogortseff is the CEO of WinAbility Softwareat wwwwinabilitycom a Utah-based software developerof security and password utilities WinAbility marketsUSBCrypt a program that makes it simple to encrypt andpassword-protect your USB drive as well as other remov-able and fixed drives

ldquoItrsquos important to protect your data with a long complexpasswordrdquo Andrei tells us ldquoUse a mix of upper-caseletters lower-case letters digits and special charactersrdquo

USBCrypt has a built-in password recovery function thatlets users recreate lost or forgotten passwords On a typical

modern business PC it can take 30 minutes to recover athree-digit password that contains only lower-case lettersBy contrast a five-digit password made up of a mix ofupper- and lower-case letters can take up to 15 days torecover And a seven-digit password that mixes upper- andlower-case letters with numbers and special characters cantake thousands of years to recover

If your application asks users to choose a password youcan help them select wisely Build a list of terrible pass-words into your application and donrsquot let your users selectthese easy-to-guess codes Examine the passwords that theycreate and encourage them to use longer passwords witha mix of characters

ldquoBe sure to remind your users of the flip-side of using acomplex passwordrdquo Andrei tells us ldquoIf you forget yourpassword it will be nearly impossible to recover itrdquo

Add your password protection information to yourwebsite and make it part of your software marketingpresentation By creating keyword-rich pages that describeyour thoughts about privacy security encryption andpasswords yoursquoll get more search engine traffic frompeople who include these words when they search forsoftware like yours

Use your applicationrsquos help file to provide your userswith a short explanation of why passwords are importantTheyrsquoll appreciate the guidance and theyrsquoll be much moreinclined to recommend your software to their friends andcolleagues Helping customers choose powerful passwordsis good software marketingSince 1984 Al Harberg has been helping software develop-ers write press releases and submit them to the editors Youcan check out h is press re lease services onwwwdpdirectorycom

ASP Member News

Slimbrowser ndash a Fast and Secure Tabbed Web Browser

FlashPeak Inc has released SlimBrowser V41 a compacttabbed browser that is super-fast easy to use and packedwith wonderful features including popup-blocker formfiller autologin spell checker site groups ad filteringquick search and much more

SlimBrowser manages web sites as child windows withclickable tab labels in a single main window to avoid taskbar clutter With SlimBrowser searching the web iseasyndashtype in the quick-search box and press enter to get thesearch results you want immediately You can either use thepredefined list of search engines or easily create your own

favorite search enginesSlimBrowser also includes a URL filter which blocks

web pages and components by address matching Further-more the advanced in-page ad-filter automatically elimi-nates the obtrusive floating images and flash animationsfrom the original web pages

SlimBrowser includes site grouping functionalitieswhich enables you to save a number of sites as a group andopen the group of sites next time with a single click Theform filler fills your personal information into web formswith the best field-detection accuracy and saves you a lot ofrepetitive typing

SlimBrowser is free from wwwflashpeakcomsbrowser

July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 15

Affordable Cloud-Based Speed Reading Software forColleges and College Prep

StepWare Inc announces the availability of AceReaderOnline the Cloud version of its flagship WindowsMacapplication AceReader Pro AceReader Online is a power-ful educational tool that assesses improves and monitorsstudentsrsquo reading speed fluency and comprehension

AceReader Online teaches students to break bad readinghabits such as subvocalization (pronouncing the words intheir minds as they read) and regression (reading passagesmore than once) This educational software also helpsexpand studentsrsquo eye fixation zone so they can readmultiple words at a time

The online version of AceReader offers features thatbenefit college university and high school teachers andstudents Students can work independently on a personal-ized self-adjusting reading course or choose from a libraryof reading assessment and improvement regimens Educa-tors can monitor each studentrsquos progress by viewing reportsfor each student consisting of reading speeds comprehen-sion scores graphs activity logs and much more

Since AceReader Online includes 13 levels of textcomplexity it is being used by younger students (ie gradeschools) and even for students who need vision training (iestudents with dyslexia)

AceReader Online has been used by 30 colleges andschools during the 20112012 school year with greatsuccess and is now is available to all education institutionswwwacereadercom

Create Handwriting Fonts In Many Major Languages

High-Logic BV has released Scanahand 4 an applicationthat makes it easy for each member of the family to createcustom hand-written fonts for use in Microsoft WordExcel PowerPoint Notepad and any Windows programScanahand lets you quickly create a font install it inWindows in seconds and use it immediately You can typenotes and cards in your favorite word processing softwareand print them in your own handwriting

Scanahand lets you create signature fonts set a font styleby going bold or italic has the ability to automaticallyinclude diacritical marks and provides full Unicodesupport New features in version 4 include a smart charactermapper that automatically links missing letters to theirupperlower case counterpart and a brand new algorithm forcalculating the best possible left and right-side bearings forthe basic Latin character set The tracing method used byScanahand has been further improved to generate evenmore stunning fonts

The Premium Edition also includes a Template Editorthat allows users to create templates each containing a userdefined set of characters This allows the generation of

fonts that support numerous languages not available in theStandard Editionwwwhigh-logiccom

News amp Press Corner

Microsoft Announces Windows 8 Upgrade Offer

Microsoft Corp announced the availability of the WindowsUpgrade Offer for consumers purchasing a qualifying newWindows 7 PC The Windows Upgrade Offer providesconsumers who buy an eligible Windows 7 PC the optionto purchase a downloadable upgrade to Windows 8 Pro foran estimated retail price of just $1499 during the time ofthe promotion which will be redeemable when Windows 8is generally available The Windows Upgrade Offer is justthe first of many consumer offers that will roll out inconjunction with the general availability of Windows 8

ldquoWersquove seen a great interest in Windows 8 especiallygiven the availability of the Windows 8 Release Previewthis week and yet we know many consumers want a newPC nowrdquo said Tami Reller chief marketing officer andchief financial officer of Windows at Microsoft ldquoTheWindows Upgrade Offer gives people the flexibility topurchase the new Windows 7 PC they need today with theknowledge they can easily get Windows 8 when itrsquos avail-ablerdquo

This program is available for consumers buying newWindows 7 PCs that are preinstalled with Windows 7 HomeBasic Home Premium Professional or Ultimate andinclude a matching and valid OEM Certificate of Authentic-ity The Windows 7 PC must be purchased new during theeligibility period June 2 2012ndashJan 31 2013wwwwindowsupgradeoffercom

WinZipreg Android App Now Available

WinZip Multi-platform Product Line Extends MobileSupport with Free Android App

WinZip Computing a Corel company today introducedWinZipreg for Android a new free mobile app now availableon Google Play

ldquoWith our free Android app wersquore extending the powerof WinZip to new mobile customers and delivering anessential tool for opening zipped files on the go Our firstmobile app WinZip for iOS enjoyed a great reception andhas already been downloaded by more than a millioniPhone and iPad users Now with apps for Android andiOS wersquore offering WinZip tools to customers on both ofthe industryrsquos most popular mobile platformsrdquo said PatrickNichols President of WinZipwwwwinzipcom

16 ASPects Convention Special July 2012

Supporting MembersIshai Shotten ACampG Software Ltd wwwbeejackcomAdriana Iordan Avangate BV wwwavangatecomYu Tao CHENGDU YIWO Tech Development Co Ltd wwweaseuscomDennis Reinhardt DAIR Computer Systems wwwdaircomAlexander Halser EC Software GmbH wwwec-softwarecomArmel Asselin Ellie Computing wwwelliecomputingcomErik Pelton Erik M Pelton amp Associates wwwerikpeltoncomGeraldine Joffre HDRsoft wwwhdrsoftcomGerben Abbink Monkfish XML Software wwwxmlblueprintcomMatt Smith Nevolution Digital LLC wwwnevolutioncomMiguel Cano Onekit wwwonekitcomCharles Born Plimus Inc wwwplimuscomIvan Radmore Pookanyoni Limited wwwpookanyonicomAndrew Butler R3 Data Recovery Ltd wwwr3datarecoverycomWilliam Shaw Regentstreet Research IncOmer Faiyaz Remo Software wwwremosoftwarecomRay Park Rescue Geeks Inc wwwutouchposcomMatt Humphries RevenueWire wwwrevenuewirecomAnna-Jayne Metcalfe Riverblade LimitedTim Thousand Scooter Software wwwscootersoftwarecomGarett Finney SoftwareCommercials Inc wwwsoftwarecommercialscomDana Doten TeamComp Inc wwwnewsbincomPiotr Sulgostowski TTS Company Sp z o o wwwttscomplMiguel Angel Martin Vittalia Internet SL wwweazelcomLiu Ping wwwhodosoftcom

Directors Officers and Committee Chairs Board of DirectorsMitchell Vincent Chair mitch ksoftwarenetDan Hite Dan TedCoSoftwarecomEd Pulliam pulliam ouisoftcomHoward Sobel howards wugnetcomJason Kiwaluk jkiwaluk shawcaMahmoud Metwally mkm giantmatrixcom

OfficersGianfranco Berardi President president asp-softwareorgVice President vp asp-softwareorgAndrei Belogortseff Secretary secretary asp-softwareorgTerry Jepson Treasurer treasurer asp-softwareorg

Staff Positions amp Committee ChairsRich Holler Executive Director execdir asp-softwareorgJerry Stern Coordinator of anti-spyware operations

ASPects Editor aspects asp-softwareorg

Sue Pichotta Conference Managerconference asp-softwareorg

Andrei Belogortseff Download Sitedsw asp-softwareorg

Events Coordinator events asp-softwareorgMichael Marshall Ombudsman

wwwasp-softwareorgombSteve Faleiro Outreach Chair outreach asp-softwareorgJoel Diamond PAD Chair pad-chair asp-softwareorgPublic Relations publicrelations asp-softwareorgSergeant-at-Arms saa asp-softwareorgVolunteer Coordinator

volunteer asp-softwareorgDon Waterfield Webmaster webmaster asp-softwareorgTom Guthery IV New Member Welcome

welcome asp-softwareorgWebsite Committee Chair president asp-softwareorg

ASP Membership Form

Before submitting your application for membershipvisit our website at wwwasp-softwareorgjoin andreview the membership standards and requirementsThere are two categories of ASP Membership Please makesure you have reviewed the appropriate information andstandards page

Mail applications toRichard HollerASP Executive DirectorPO Box 1522Martinsville IN 46151 USA

I have read the appropriate standards and agree toabide by them lsquo Yes lsquo No

Standards for Developer Members and Industry Membersare online at wwwasp-softwareorgjoin

Category of Membership

(Select either lsquoDeveloperrsquo or one of the various Industrycategories)

lsquo Developer

Industry Memberlsquo Vendorlsquo Online Distributorlsquo Online Developerlsquo User Grouplsquo PressMedialsquo Consultantlsquo Shareware Enthusiast

CompanyProduct Description(120 characters or less required if web site link is requested)

Please PRINT Clearly

REQUIRED FIELDS

Name

Company Name

Street Address

Street Address

CityTown

StateProvince

ZIPPostal Code

Country

Public Phone (Voice)

Public Phone (FAX)

Public Email Address

Web Site URL (Required if web site link is requested)

Private Phone (ASP use)

Private Email Address (ASP use)

Do you wish to have your listing included in the public

member database lsquo Yes lsquo No

Do you wish to have your website link included on our

ASP website lsquo Yes lsquo No

Signature

VisaMasterCardAmerican Express AuthorizationIf paying by credit card all the following fields are required

Credit Card Number

Expiration Date

Name of Card Holder

Amount to be charged $100 (USD)

CVV2 code (back of card)

Page 12: ASPects July 2012 Convention Special Issue · 2012. 7. 5. · July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 3 The Biggest Mistake You Can Ever Make by Jiri Novotny Dextronet.comT he biggest

12 ASPects Convention Special July 2012

rest of the time Definitely list your office hours and timezone near your phone number

Email address There has to be a way to reach you byemail on your web site It doesnrsquot have to be a plain-textemail address a working web-mail form is OK

Mailing address Yes your mailing address has to beon your web site I have to teach end users about onlinesecurity I show them how to tell if an order page is en-crypted how to see who the company taking orders is andsometimes how to look up the reputation of a site or see ifthere are complaints And I stress not ordering fromcompanies that hide their locations Look Irsquom not going toshow up at your door (Itrsquos happened to me once and thatcharacter did buy software but it took an hour to get himout the door again and I canrsquot work an hour for a $20 saleAnd thatrsquos why I use a post office box) But if you hideyour city and country you arenrsquot going to get sales fromyour neighborsndashremember that all search engines aremoving towards lsquolocal results firstrsquo And you wonrsquot getorders from anyone who knows that in case an online orderfails there has to be a way to reach someone to fix things

Again I hear cries of despair But Irsquom in LowerSlobbovia Or for those who havenrsquot heard of it EastElbonia is pretty much the same Itrsquos somewhere you wonrsquotadmit yoursquore from Perhaps the real problem isnrsquot that youroffices are remotendashIrsquove done business with great companieson six continents The good ones arenrsquot hiding theirlocations Companies that hide their locations are automati-cally suspiciousndashwhat else is hidden in their software

Web sites All of your web sites must work in all themajor browsers If you sell Mac software they had betterwork perfectly when viewed from an iPAD Preferablyevery domain you use should have a really sharp and goodlooking web site But if you have a domain you havenrsquottouched in years and canrsquot be bothered to update it thenredirect that domain to your best web site Kill the old sitemove on and donrsquot leave straggler web sites lying aroundIf you must leave an old site un-updated run a link checkeron it and fix whatever is broken

Donrsquot skip any steps on these checks It really does workbest if you leave your office and then try to communicatefrom the outside world Then you see that your web site hasthe wrong country code on the phone number or it doesnrsquotdisplay properly on other browsers or itrsquos blocked by websecurity software or the links are local and broken Or onebrowser is flagging a site certificate as bad or a securitytoolbar is popping warnings

Itrsquos the equivalent in a big company of dialing the mainswitchboard trying to get past the phone board past theexecutive assistant to the vice president and actuallyhaving an executive listen to you long enough to hear the10-second version of what yoursquore selling Sales pitchesdonrsquot work without communication donrsquot lose your salebecause you canrsquot be reachedJerry Stern is the editor of ASPects the ASPrsquos Coordinatorof Anti-Spyware Operations runs Startupwarecom andW o r d P e r f e c t o r g a n d i s o n l i n e a twwwsciencetranslationscom

July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 13

14 ASPects Convention Special July 2012

Software Passwords and Software Marketing

by Al Harbergthe press release guy from DP Directory Inc

If your software asks users to create a password toprotect the privacy of their information then you havean opportunity to offer additional value to your custom-

ers And that can mean increased software sales additionalrecommendations and good will for your company in yourmarketing niche

Help your users choose effective passwords Accordingto the ldquoWorst Passw0rdsrdquo article in the April 2012 issue ofAARP Bulletin online users have a terrible track record forchoosing effective passwords to protect their security

The most popular password the article tells us isldquopasswordrdquo Changing the lower-case letter ldquoordquo to a zero toform passw0rd is the 16th most popular password choice

The top 25 list includes such clever choices as 1234561234567 12345678 and 123123 ldquoqwertyrdquo and ldquoletmeinrdquoare also on the list of popular user choices

Every day computer users worry about their privacy Ifyour software asks your users to create a password thenyou have an opportunity to show that you care about theirprivacy and security Donrsquot let them create low-qualitypasswords

Andrei Belogortseff is the CEO of WinAbility Softwareat wwwwinabilitycom a Utah-based software developerof security and password utilities WinAbility marketsUSBCrypt a program that makes it simple to encrypt andpassword-protect your USB drive as well as other remov-able and fixed drives

ldquoItrsquos important to protect your data with a long complexpasswordrdquo Andrei tells us ldquoUse a mix of upper-caseletters lower-case letters digits and special charactersrdquo

USBCrypt has a built-in password recovery function thatlets users recreate lost or forgotten passwords On a typical

modern business PC it can take 30 minutes to recover athree-digit password that contains only lower-case lettersBy contrast a five-digit password made up of a mix ofupper- and lower-case letters can take up to 15 days torecover And a seven-digit password that mixes upper- andlower-case letters with numbers and special characters cantake thousands of years to recover

If your application asks users to choose a password youcan help them select wisely Build a list of terrible pass-words into your application and donrsquot let your users selectthese easy-to-guess codes Examine the passwords that theycreate and encourage them to use longer passwords witha mix of characters

ldquoBe sure to remind your users of the flip-side of using acomplex passwordrdquo Andrei tells us ldquoIf you forget yourpassword it will be nearly impossible to recover itrdquo

Add your password protection information to yourwebsite and make it part of your software marketingpresentation By creating keyword-rich pages that describeyour thoughts about privacy security encryption andpasswords yoursquoll get more search engine traffic frompeople who include these words when they search forsoftware like yours

Use your applicationrsquos help file to provide your userswith a short explanation of why passwords are importantTheyrsquoll appreciate the guidance and theyrsquoll be much moreinclined to recommend your software to their friends andcolleagues Helping customers choose powerful passwordsis good software marketingSince 1984 Al Harberg has been helping software develop-ers write press releases and submit them to the editors Youcan check out h is press re lease services onwwwdpdirectorycom

ASP Member News

Slimbrowser ndash a Fast and Secure Tabbed Web Browser

FlashPeak Inc has released SlimBrowser V41 a compacttabbed browser that is super-fast easy to use and packedwith wonderful features including popup-blocker formfiller autologin spell checker site groups ad filteringquick search and much more

SlimBrowser manages web sites as child windows withclickable tab labels in a single main window to avoid taskbar clutter With SlimBrowser searching the web iseasyndashtype in the quick-search box and press enter to get thesearch results you want immediately You can either use thepredefined list of search engines or easily create your own

favorite search enginesSlimBrowser also includes a URL filter which blocks

web pages and components by address matching Further-more the advanced in-page ad-filter automatically elimi-nates the obtrusive floating images and flash animationsfrom the original web pages

SlimBrowser includes site grouping functionalitieswhich enables you to save a number of sites as a group andopen the group of sites next time with a single click Theform filler fills your personal information into web formswith the best field-detection accuracy and saves you a lot ofrepetitive typing

SlimBrowser is free from wwwflashpeakcomsbrowser

July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 15

Affordable Cloud-Based Speed Reading Software forColleges and College Prep

StepWare Inc announces the availability of AceReaderOnline the Cloud version of its flagship WindowsMacapplication AceReader Pro AceReader Online is a power-ful educational tool that assesses improves and monitorsstudentsrsquo reading speed fluency and comprehension

AceReader Online teaches students to break bad readinghabits such as subvocalization (pronouncing the words intheir minds as they read) and regression (reading passagesmore than once) This educational software also helpsexpand studentsrsquo eye fixation zone so they can readmultiple words at a time

The online version of AceReader offers features thatbenefit college university and high school teachers andstudents Students can work independently on a personal-ized self-adjusting reading course or choose from a libraryof reading assessment and improvement regimens Educa-tors can monitor each studentrsquos progress by viewing reportsfor each student consisting of reading speeds comprehen-sion scores graphs activity logs and much more

Since AceReader Online includes 13 levels of textcomplexity it is being used by younger students (ie gradeschools) and even for students who need vision training (iestudents with dyslexia)

AceReader Online has been used by 30 colleges andschools during the 20112012 school year with greatsuccess and is now is available to all education institutionswwwacereadercom

Create Handwriting Fonts In Many Major Languages

High-Logic BV has released Scanahand 4 an applicationthat makes it easy for each member of the family to createcustom hand-written fonts for use in Microsoft WordExcel PowerPoint Notepad and any Windows programScanahand lets you quickly create a font install it inWindows in seconds and use it immediately You can typenotes and cards in your favorite word processing softwareand print them in your own handwriting

Scanahand lets you create signature fonts set a font styleby going bold or italic has the ability to automaticallyinclude diacritical marks and provides full Unicodesupport New features in version 4 include a smart charactermapper that automatically links missing letters to theirupperlower case counterpart and a brand new algorithm forcalculating the best possible left and right-side bearings forthe basic Latin character set The tracing method used byScanahand has been further improved to generate evenmore stunning fonts

The Premium Edition also includes a Template Editorthat allows users to create templates each containing a userdefined set of characters This allows the generation of

fonts that support numerous languages not available in theStandard Editionwwwhigh-logiccom

News amp Press Corner

Microsoft Announces Windows 8 Upgrade Offer

Microsoft Corp announced the availability of the WindowsUpgrade Offer for consumers purchasing a qualifying newWindows 7 PC The Windows Upgrade Offer providesconsumers who buy an eligible Windows 7 PC the optionto purchase a downloadable upgrade to Windows 8 Pro foran estimated retail price of just $1499 during the time ofthe promotion which will be redeemable when Windows 8is generally available The Windows Upgrade Offer is justthe first of many consumer offers that will roll out inconjunction with the general availability of Windows 8

ldquoWersquove seen a great interest in Windows 8 especiallygiven the availability of the Windows 8 Release Previewthis week and yet we know many consumers want a newPC nowrdquo said Tami Reller chief marketing officer andchief financial officer of Windows at Microsoft ldquoTheWindows Upgrade Offer gives people the flexibility topurchase the new Windows 7 PC they need today with theknowledge they can easily get Windows 8 when itrsquos avail-ablerdquo

This program is available for consumers buying newWindows 7 PCs that are preinstalled with Windows 7 HomeBasic Home Premium Professional or Ultimate andinclude a matching and valid OEM Certificate of Authentic-ity The Windows 7 PC must be purchased new during theeligibility period June 2 2012ndashJan 31 2013wwwwindowsupgradeoffercom

WinZipreg Android App Now Available

WinZip Multi-platform Product Line Extends MobileSupport with Free Android App

WinZip Computing a Corel company today introducedWinZipreg for Android a new free mobile app now availableon Google Play

ldquoWith our free Android app wersquore extending the powerof WinZip to new mobile customers and delivering anessential tool for opening zipped files on the go Our firstmobile app WinZip for iOS enjoyed a great reception andhas already been downloaded by more than a millioniPhone and iPad users Now with apps for Android andiOS wersquore offering WinZip tools to customers on both ofthe industryrsquos most popular mobile platformsrdquo said PatrickNichols President of WinZipwwwwinzipcom

16 ASPects Convention Special July 2012

Supporting MembersIshai Shotten ACampG Software Ltd wwwbeejackcomAdriana Iordan Avangate BV wwwavangatecomYu Tao CHENGDU YIWO Tech Development Co Ltd wwweaseuscomDennis Reinhardt DAIR Computer Systems wwwdaircomAlexander Halser EC Software GmbH wwwec-softwarecomArmel Asselin Ellie Computing wwwelliecomputingcomErik Pelton Erik M Pelton amp Associates wwwerikpeltoncomGeraldine Joffre HDRsoft wwwhdrsoftcomGerben Abbink Monkfish XML Software wwwxmlblueprintcomMatt Smith Nevolution Digital LLC wwwnevolutioncomMiguel Cano Onekit wwwonekitcomCharles Born Plimus Inc wwwplimuscomIvan Radmore Pookanyoni Limited wwwpookanyonicomAndrew Butler R3 Data Recovery Ltd wwwr3datarecoverycomWilliam Shaw Regentstreet Research IncOmer Faiyaz Remo Software wwwremosoftwarecomRay Park Rescue Geeks Inc wwwutouchposcomMatt Humphries RevenueWire wwwrevenuewirecomAnna-Jayne Metcalfe Riverblade LimitedTim Thousand Scooter Software wwwscootersoftwarecomGarett Finney SoftwareCommercials Inc wwwsoftwarecommercialscomDana Doten TeamComp Inc wwwnewsbincomPiotr Sulgostowski TTS Company Sp z o o wwwttscomplMiguel Angel Martin Vittalia Internet SL wwweazelcomLiu Ping wwwhodosoftcom

Directors Officers and Committee Chairs Board of DirectorsMitchell Vincent Chair mitch ksoftwarenetDan Hite Dan TedCoSoftwarecomEd Pulliam pulliam ouisoftcomHoward Sobel howards wugnetcomJason Kiwaluk jkiwaluk shawcaMahmoud Metwally mkm giantmatrixcom

OfficersGianfranco Berardi President president asp-softwareorgVice President vp asp-softwareorgAndrei Belogortseff Secretary secretary asp-softwareorgTerry Jepson Treasurer treasurer asp-softwareorg

Staff Positions amp Committee ChairsRich Holler Executive Director execdir asp-softwareorgJerry Stern Coordinator of anti-spyware operations

ASPects Editor aspects asp-softwareorg

Sue Pichotta Conference Managerconference asp-softwareorg

Andrei Belogortseff Download Sitedsw asp-softwareorg

Events Coordinator events asp-softwareorgMichael Marshall Ombudsman

wwwasp-softwareorgombSteve Faleiro Outreach Chair outreach asp-softwareorgJoel Diamond PAD Chair pad-chair asp-softwareorgPublic Relations publicrelations asp-softwareorgSergeant-at-Arms saa asp-softwareorgVolunteer Coordinator

volunteer asp-softwareorgDon Waterfield Webmaster webmaster asp-softwareorgTom Guthery IV New Member Welcome

welcome asp-softwareorgWebsite Committee Chair president asp-softwareorg

ASP Membership Form

Before submitting your application for membershipvisit our website at wwwasp-softwareorgjoin andreview the membership standards and requirementsThere are two categories of ASP Membership Please makesure you have reviewed the appropriate information andstandards page

Mail applications toRichard HollerASP Executive DirectorPO Box 1522Martinsville IN 46151 USA

I have read the appropriate standards and agree toabide by them lsquo Yes lsquo No

Standards for Developer Members and Industry Membersare online at wwwasp-softwareorgjoin

Category of Membership

(Select either lsquoDeveloperrsquo or one of the various Industrycategories)

lsquo Developer

Industry Memberlsquo Vendorlsquo Online Distributorlsquo Online Developerlsquo User Grouplsquo PressMedialsquo Consultantlsquo Shareware Enthusiast

CompanyProduct Description(120 characters or less required if web site link is requested)

Please PRINT Clearly

REQUIRED FIELDS

Name

Company Name

Street Address

Street Address

CityTown

StateProvince

ZIPPostal Code

Country

Public Phone (Voice)

Public Phone (FAX)

Public Email Address

Web Site URL (Required if web site link is requested)

Private Phone (ASP use)

Private Email Address (ASP use)

Do you wish to have your listing included in the public

member database lsquo Yes lsquo No

Do you wish to have your website link included on our

ASP website lsquo Yes lsquo No

Signature

VisaMasterCardAmerican Express AuthorizationIf paying by credit card all the following fields are required

Credit Card Number

Expiration Date

Name of Card Holder

Amount to be charged $100 (USD)

CVV2 code (back of card)

Page 13: ASPects July 2012 Convention Special Issue · 2012. 7. 5. · July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 3 The Biggest Mistake You Can Ever Make by Jiri Novotny Dextronet.comT he biggest

July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 13

14 ASPects Convention Special July 2012

Software Passwords and Software Marketing

by Al Harbergthe press release guy from DP Directory Inc

If your software asks users to create a password toprotect the privacy of their information then you havean opportunity to offer additional value to your custom-

ers And that can mean increased software sales additionalrecommendations and good will for your company in yourmarketing niche

Help your users choose effective passwords Accordingto the ldquoWorst Passw0rdsrdquo article in the April 2012 issue ofAARP Bulletin online users have a terrible track record forchoosing effective passwords to protect their security

The most popular password the article tells us isldquopasswordrdquo Changing the lower-case letter ldquoordquo to a zero toform passw0rd is the 16th most popular password choice

The top 25 list includes such clever choices as 1234561234567 12345678 and 123123 ldquoqwertyrdquo and ldquoletmeinrdquoare also on the list of popular user choices

Every day computer users worry about their privacy Ifyour software asks your users to create a password thenyou have an opportunity to show that you care about theirprivacy and security Donrsquot let them create low-qualitypasswords

Andrei Belogortseff is the CEO of WinAbility Softwareat wwwwinabilitycom a Utah-based software developerof security and password utilities WinAbility marketsUSBCrypt a program that makes it simple to encrypt andpassword-protect your USB drive as well as other remov-able and fixed drives

ldquoItrsquos important to protect your data with a long complexpasswordrdquo Andrei tells us ldquoUse a mix of upper-caseletters lower-case letters digits and special charactersrdquo

USBCrypt has a built-in password recovery function thatlets users recreate lost or forgotten passwords On a typical

modern business PC it can take 30 minutes to recover athree-digit password that contains only lower-case lettersBy contrast a five-digit password made up of a mix ofupper- and lower-case letters can take up to 15 days torecover And a seven-digit password that mixes upper- andlower-case letters with numbers and special characters cantake thousands of years to recover

If your application asks users to choose a password youcan help them select wisely Build a list of terrible pass-words into your application and donrsquot let your users selectthese easy-to-guess codes Examine the passwords that theycreate and encourage them to use longer passwords witha mix of characters

ldquoBe sure to remind your users of the flip-side of using acomplex passwordrdquo Andrei tells us ldquoIf you forget yourpassword it will be nearly impossible to recover itrdquo

Add your password protection information to yourwebsite and make it part of your software marketingpresentation By creating keyword-rich pages that describeyour thoughts about privacy security encryption andpasswords yoursquoll get more search engine traffic frompeople who include these words when they search forsoftware like yours

Use your applicationrsquos help file to provide your userswith a short explanation of why passwords are importantTheyrsquoll appreciate the guidance and theyrsquoll be much moreinclined to recommend your software to their friends andcolleagues Helping customers choose powerful passwordsis good software marketingSince 1984 Al Harberg has been helping software develop-ers write press releases and submit them to the editors Youcan check out h is press re lease services onwwwdpdirectorycom

ASP Member News

Slimbrowser ndash a Fast and Secure Tabbed Web Browser

FlashPeak Inc has released SlimBrowser V41 a compacttabbed browser that is super-fast easy to use and packedwith wonderful features including popup-blocker formfiller autologin spell checker site groups ad filteringquick search and much more

SlimBrowser manages web sites as child windows withclickable tab labels in a single main window to avoid taskbar clutter With SlimBrowser searching the web iseasyndashtype in the quick-search box and press enter to get thesearch results you want immediately You can either use thepredefined list of search engines or easily create your own

favorite search enginesSlimBrowser also includes a URL filter which blocks

web pages and components by address matching Further-more the advanced in-page ad-filter automatically elimi-nates the obtrusive floating images and flash animationsfrom the original web pages

SlimBrowser includes site grouping functionalitieswhich enables you to save a number of sites as a group andopen the group of sites next time with a single click Theform filler fills your personal information into web formswith the best field-detection accuracy and saves you a lot ofrepetitive typing

SlimBrowser is free from wwwflashpeakcomsbrowser

July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 15

Affordable Cloud-Based Speed Reading Software forColleges and College Prep

StepWare Inc announces the availability of AceReaderOnline the Cloud version of its flagship WindowsMacapplication AceReader Pro AceReader Online is a power-ful educational tool that assesses improves and monitorsstudentsrsquo reading speed fluency and comprehension

AceReader Online teaches students to break bad readinghabits such as subvocalization (pronouncing the words intheir minds as they read) and regression (reading passagesmore than once) This educational software also helpsexpand studentsrsquo eye fixation zone so they can readmultiple words at a time

The online version of AceReader offers features thatbenefit college university and high school teachers andstudents Students can work independently on a personal-ized self-adjusting reading course or choose from a libraryof reading assessment and improvement regimens Educa-tors can monitor each studentrsquos progress by viewing reportsfor each student consisting of reading speeds comprehen-sion scores graphs activity logs and much more

Since AceReader Online includes 13 levels of textcomplexity it is being used by younger students (ie gradeschools) and even for students who need vision training (iestudents with dyslexia)

AceReader Online has been used by 30 colleges andschools during the 20112012 school year with greatsuccess and is now is available to all education institutionswwwacereadercom

Create Handwriting Fonts In Many Major Languages

High-Logic BV has released Scanahand 4 an applicationthat makes it easy for each member of the family to createcustom hand-written fonts for use in Microsoft WordExcel PowerPoint Notepad and any Windows programScanahand lets you quickly create a font install it inWindows in seconds and use it immediately You can typenotes and cards in your favorite word processing softwareand print them in your own handwriting

Scanahand lets you create signature fonts set a font styleby going bold or italic has the ability to automaticallyinclude diacritical marks and provides full Unicodesupport New features in version 4 include a smart charactermapper that automatically links missing letters to theirupperlower case counterpart and a brand new algorithm forcalculating the best possible left and right-side bearings forthe basic Latin character set The tracing method used byScanahand has been further improved to generate evenmore stunning fonts

The Premium Edition also includes a Template Editorthat allows users to create templates each containing a userdefined set of characters This allows the generation of

fonts that support numerous languages not available in theStandard Editionwwwhigh-logiccom

News amp Press Corner

Microsoft Announces Windows 8 Upgrade Offer

Microsoft Corp announced the availability of the WindowsUpgrade Offer for consumers purchasing a qualifying newWindows 7 PC The Windows Upgrade Offer providesconsumers who buy an eligible Windows 7 PC the optionto purchase a downloadable upgrade to Windows 8 Pro foran estimated retail price of just $1499 during the time ofthe promotion which will be redeemable when Windows 8is generally available The Windows Upgrade Offer is justthe first of many consumer offers that will roll out inconjunction with the general availability of Windows 8

ldquoWersquove seen a great interest in Windows 8 especiallygiven the availability of the Windows 8 Release Previewthis week and yet we know many consumers want a newPC nowrdquo said Tami Reller chief marketing officer andchief financial officer of Windows at Microsoft ldquoTheWindows Upgrade Offer gives people the flexibility topurchase the new Windows 7 PC they need today with theknowledge they can easily get Windows 8 when itrsquos avail-ablerdquo

This program is available for consumers buying newWindows 7 PCs that are preinstalled with Windows 7 HomeBasic Home Premium Professional or Ultimate andinclude a matching and valid OEM Certificate of Authentic-ity The Windows 7 PC must be purchased new during theeligibility period June 2 2012ndashJan 31 2013wwwwindowsupgradeoffercom

WinZipreg Android App Now Available

WinZip Multi-platform Product Line Extends MobileSupport with Free Android App

WinZip Computing a Corel company today introducedWinZipreg for Android a new free mobile app now availableon Google Play

ldquoWith our free Android app wersquore extending the powerof WinZip to new mobile customers and delivering anessential tool for opening zipped files on the go Our firstmobile app WinZip for iOS enjoyed a great reception andhas already been downloaded by more than a millioniPhone and iPad users Now with apps for Android andiOS wersquore offering WinZip tools to customers on both ofthe industryrsquos most popular mobile platformsrdquo said PatrickNichols President of WinZipwwwwinzipcom

16 ASPects Convention Special July 2012

Supporting MembersIshai Shotten ACampG Software Ltd wwwbeejackcomAdriana Iordan Avangate BV wwwavangatecomYu Tao CHENGDU YIWO Tech Development Co Ltd wwweaseuscomDennis Reinhardt DAIR Computer Systems wwwdaircomAlexander Halser EC Software GmbH wwwec-softwarecomArmel Asselin Ellie Computing wwwelliecomputingcomErik Pelton Erik M Pelton amp Associates wwwerikpeltoncomGeraldine Joffre HDRsoft wwwhdrsoftcomGerben Abbink Monkfish XML Software wwwxmlblueprintcomMatt Smith Nevolution Digital LLC wwwnevolutioncomMiguel Cano Onekit wwwonekitcomCharles Born Plimus Inc wwwplimuscomIvan Radmore Pookanyoni Limited wwwpookanyonicomAndrew Butler R3 Data Recovery Ltd wwwr3datarecoverycomWilliam Shaw Regentstreet Research IncOmer Faiyaz Remo Software wwwremosoftwarecomRay Park Rescue Geeks Inc wwwutouchposcomMatt Humphries RevenueWire wwwrevenuewirecomAnna-Jayne Metcalfe Riverblade LimitedTim Thousand Scooter Software wwwscootersoftwarecomGarett Finney SoftwareCommercials Inc wwwsoftwarecommercialscomDana Doten TeamComp Inc wwwnewsbincomPiotr Sulgostowski TTS Company Sp z o o wwwttscomplMiguel Angel Martin Vittalia Internet SL wwweazelcomLiu Ping wwwhodosoftcom

Directors Officers and Committee Chairs Board of DirectorsMitchell Vincent Chair mitch ksoftwarenetDan Hite Dan TedCoSoftwarecomEd Pulliam pulliam ouisoftcomHoward Sobel howards wugnetcomJason Kiwaluk jkiwaluk shawcaMahmoud Metwally mkm giantmatrixcom

OfficersGianfranco Berardi President president asp-softwareorgVice President vp asp-softwareorgAndrei Belogortseff Secretary secretary asp-softwareorgTerry Jepson Treasurer treasurer asp-softwareorg

Staff Positions amp Committee ChairsRich Holler Executive Director execdir asp-softwareorgJerry Stern Coordinator of anti-spyware operations

ASPects Editor aspects asp-softwareorg

Sue Pichotta Conference Managerconference asp-softwareorg

Andrei Belogortseff Download Sitedsw asp-softwareorg

Events Coordinator events asp-softwareorgMichael Marshall Ombudsman

wwwasp-softwareorgombSteve Faleiro Outreach Chair outreach asp-softwareorgJoel Diamond PAD Chair pad-chair asp-softwareorgPublic Relations publicrelations asp-softwareorgSergeant-at-Arms saa asp-softwareorgVolunteer Coordinator

volunteer asp-softwareorgDon Waterfield Webmaster webmaster asp-softwareorgTom Guthery IV New Member Welcome

welcome asp-softwareorgWebsite Committee Chair president asp-softwareorg

ASP Membership Form

Before submitting your application for membershipvisit our website at wwwasp-softwareorgjoin andreview the membership standards and requirementsThere are two categories of ASP Membership Please makesure you have reviewed the appropriate information andstandards page

Mail applications toRichard HollerASP Executive DirectorPO Box 1522Martinsville IN 46151 USA

I have read the appropriate standards and agree toabide by them lsquo Yes lsquo No

Standards for Developer Members and Industry Membersare online at wwwasp-softwareorgjoin

Category of Membership

(Select either lsquoDeveloperrsquo or one of the various Industrycategories)

lsquo Developer

Industry Memberlsquo Vendorlsquo Online Distributorlsquo Online Developerlsquo User Grouplsquo PressMedialsquo Consultantlsquo Shareware Enthusiast

CompanyProduct Description(120 characters or less required if web site link is requested)

Please PRINT Clearly

REQUIRED FIELDS

Name

Company Name

Street Address

Street Address

CityTown

StateProvince

ZIPPostal Code

Country

Public Phone (Voice)

Public Phone (FAX)

Public Email Address

Web Site URL (Required if web site link is requested)

Private Phone (ASP use)

Private Email Address (ASP use)

Do you wish to have your listing included in the public

member database lsquo Yes lsquo No

Do you wish to have your website link included on our

ASP website lsquo Yes lsquo No

Signature

VisaMasterCardAmerican Express AuthorizationIf paying by credit card all the following fields are required

Credit Card Number

Expiration Date

Name of Card Holder

Amount to be charged $100 (USD)

CVV2 code (back of card)

Page 14: ASPects July 2012 Convention Special Issue · 2012. 7. 5. · July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 3 The Biggest Mistake You Can Ever Make by Jiri Novotny Dextronet.comT he biggest

14 ASPects Convention Special July 2012

Software Passwords and Software Marketing

by Al Harbergthe press release guy from DP Directory Inc

If your software asks users to create a password toprotect the privacy of their information then you havean opportunity to offer additional value to your custom-

ers And that can mean increased software sales additionalrecommendations and good will for your company in yourmarketing niche

Help your users choose effective passwords Accordingto the ldquoWorst Passw0rdsrdquo article in the April 2012 issue ofAARP Bulletin online users have a terrible track record forchoosing effective passwords to protect their security

The most popular password the article tells us isldquopasswordrdquo Changing the lower-case letter ldquoordquo to a zero toform passw0rd is the 16th most popular password choice

The top 25 list includes such clever choices as 1234561234567 12345678 and 123123 ldquoqwertyrdquo and ldquoletmeinrdquoare also on the list of popular user choices

Every day computer users worry about their privacy Ifyour software asks your users to create a password thenyou have an opportunity to show that you care about theirprivacy and security Donrsquot let them create low-qualitypasswords

Andrei Belogortseff is the CEO of WinAbility Softwareat wwwwinabilitycom a Utah-based software developerof security and password utilities WinAbility marketsUSBCrypt a program that makes it simple to encrypt andpassword-protect your USB drive as well as other remov-able and fixed drives

ldquoItrsquos important to protect your data with a long complexpasswordrdquo Andrei tells us ldquoUse a mix of upper-caseletters lower-case letters digits and special charactersrdquo

USBCrypt has a built-in password recovery function thatlets users recreate lost or forgotten passwords On a typical

modern business PC it can take 30 minutes to recover athree-digit password that contains only lower-case lettersBy contrast a five-digit password made up of a mix ofupper- and lower-case letters can take up to 15 days torecover And a seven-digit password that mixes upper- andlower-case letters with numbers and special characters cantake thousands of years to recover

If your application asks users to choose a password youcan help them select wisely Build a list of terrible pass-words into your application and donrsquot let your users selectthese easy-to-guess codes Examine the passwords that theycreate and encourage them to use longer passwords witha mix of characters

ldquoBe sure to remind your users of the flip-side of using acomplex passwordrdquo Andrei tells us ldquoIf you forget yourpassword it will be nearly impossible to recover itrdquo

Add your password protection information to yourwebsite and make it part of your software marketingpresentation By creating keyword-rich pages that describeyour thoughts about privacy security encryption andpasswords yoursquoll get more search engine traffic frompeople who include these words when they search forsoftware like yours

Use your applicationrsquos help file to provide your userswith a short explanation of why passwords are importantTheyrsquoll appreciate the guidance and theyrsquoll be much moreinclined to recommend your software to their friends andcolleagues Helping customers choose powerful passwordsis good software marketingSince 1984 Al Harberg has been helping software develop-ers write press releases and submit them to the editors Youcan check out h is press re lease services onwwwdpdirectorycom

ASP Member News

Slimbrowser ndash a Fast and Secure Tabbed Web Browser

FlashPeak Inc has released SlimBrowser V41 a compacttabbed browser that is super-fast easy to use and packedwith wonderful features including popup-blocker formfiller autologin spell checker site groups ad filteringquick search and much more

SlimBrowser manages web sites as child windows withclickable tab labels in a single main window to avoid taskbar clutter With SlimBrowser searching the web iseasyndashtype in the quick-search box and press enter to get thesearch results you want immediately You can either use thepredefined list of search engines or easily create your own

favorite search enginesSlimBrowser also includes a URL filter which blocks

web pages and components by address matching Further-more the advanced in-page ad-filter automatically elimi-nates the obtrusive floating images and flash animationsfrom the original web pages

SlimBrowser includes site grouping functionalitieswhich enables you to save a number of sites as a group andopen the group of sites next time with a single click Theform filler fills your personal information into web formswith the best field-detection accuracy and saves you a lot ofrepetitive typing

SlimBrowser is free from wwwflashpeakcomsbrowser

July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 15

Affordable Cloud-Based Speed Reading Software forColleges and College Prep

StepWare Inc announces the availability of AceReaderOnline the Cloud version of its flagship WindowsMacapplication AceReader Pro AceReader Online is a power-ful educational tool that assesses improves and monitorsstudentsrsquo reading speed fluency and comprehension

AceReader Online teaches students to break bad readinghabits such as subvocalization (pronouncing the words intheir minds as they read) and regression (reading passagesmore than once) This educational software also helpsexpand studentsrsquo eye fixation zone so they can readmultiple words at a time

The online version of AceReader offers features thatbenefit college university and high school teachers andstudents Students can work independently on a personal-ized self-adjusting reading course or choose from a libraryof reading assessment and improvement regimens Educa-tors can monitor each studentrsquos progress by viewing reportsfor each student consisting of reading speeds comprehen-sion scores graphs activity logs and much more

Since AceReader Online includes 13 levels of textcomplexity it is being used by younger students (ie gradeschools) and even for students who need vision training (iestudents with dyslexia)

AceReader Online has been used by 30 colleges andschools during the 20112012 school year with greatsuccess and is now is available to all education institutionswwwacereadercom

Create Handwriting Fonts In Many Major Languages

High-Logic BV has released Scanahand 4 an applicationthat makes it easy for each member of the family to createcustom hand-written fonts for use in Microsoft WordExcel PowerPoint Notepad and any Windows programScanahand lets you quickly create a font install it inWindows in seconds and use it immediately You can typenotes and cards in your favorite word processing softwareand print them in your own handwriting

Scanahand lets you create signature fonts set a font styleby going bold or italic has the ability to automaticallyinclude diacritical marks and provides full Unicodesupport New features in version 4 include a smart charactermapper that automatically links missing letters to theirupperlower case counterpart and a brand new algorithm forcalculating the best possible left and right-side bearings forthe basic Latin character set The tracing method used byScanahand has been further improved to generate evenmore stunning fonts

The Premium Edition also includes a Template Editorthat allows users to create templates each containing a userdefined set of characters This allows the generation of

fonts that support numerous languages not available in theStandard Editionwwwhigh-logiccom

News amp Press Corner

Microsoft Announces Windows 8 Upgrade Offer

Microsoft Corp announced the availability of the WindowsUpgrade Offer for consumers purchasing a qualifying newWindows 7 PC The Windows Upgrade Offer providesconsumers who buy an eligible Windows 7 PC the optionto purchase a downloadable upgrade to Windows 8 Pro foran estimated retail price of just $1499 during the time ofthe promotion which will be redeemable when Windows 8is generally available The Windows Upgrade Offer is justthe first of many consumer offers that will roll out inconjunction with the general availability of Windows 8

ldquoWersquove seen a great interest in Windows 8 especiallygiven the availability of the Windows 8 Release Previewthis week and yet we know many consumers want a newPC nowrdquo said Tami Reller chief marketing officer andchief financial officer of Windows at Microsoft ldquoTheWindows Upgrade Offer gives people the flexibility topurchase the new Windows 7 PC they need today with theknowledge they can easily get Windows 8 when itrsquos avail-ablerdquo

This program is available for consumers buying newWindows 7 PCs that are preinstalled with Windows 7 HomeBasic Home Premium Professional or Ultimate andinclude a matching and valid OEM Certificate of Authentic-ity The Windows 7 PC must be purchased new during theeligibility period June 2 2012ndashJan 31 2013wwwwindowsupgradeoffercom

WinZipreg Android App Now Available

WinZip Multi-platform Product Line Extends MobileSupport with Free Android App

WinZip Computing a Corel company today introducedWinZipreg for Android a new free mobile app now availableon Google Play

ldquoWith our free Android app wersquore extending the powerof WinZip to new mobile customers and delivering anessential tool for opening zipped files on the go Our firstmobile app WinZip for iOS enjoyed a great reception andhas already been downloaded by more than a millioniPhone and iPad users Now with apps for Android andiOS wersquore offering WinZip tools to customers on both ofthe industryrsquos most popular mobile platformsrdquo said PatrickNichols President of WinZipwwwwinzipcom

16 ASPects Convention Special July 2012

Supporting MembersIshai Shotten ACampG Software Ltd wwwbeejackcomAdriana Iordan Avangate BV wwwavangatecomYu Tao CHENGDU YIWO Tech Development Co Ltd wwweaseuscomDennis Reinhardt DAIR Computer Systems wwwdaircomAlexander Halser EC Software GmbH wwwec-softwarecomArmel Asselin Ellie Computing wwwelliecomputingcomErik Pelton Erik M Pelton amp Associates wwwerikpeltoncomGeraldine Joffre HDRsoft wwwhdrsoftcomGerben Abbink Monkfish XML Software wwwxmlblueprintcomMatt Smith Nevolution Digital LLC wwwnevolutioncomMiguel Cano Onekit wwwonekitcomCharles Born Plimus Inc wwwplimuscomIvan Radmore Pookanyoni Limited wwwpookanyonicomAndrew Butler R3 Data Recovery Ltd wwwr3datarecoverycomWilliam Shaw Regentstreet Research IncOmer Faiyaz Remo Software wwwremosoftwarecomRay Park Rescue Geeks Inc wwwutouchposcomMatt Humphries RevenueWire wwwrevenuewirecomAnna-Jayne Metcalfe Riverblade LimitedTim Thousand Scooter Software wwwscootersoftwarecomGarett Finney SoftwareCommercials Inc wwwsoftwarecommercialscomDana Doten TeamComp Inc wwwnewsbincomPiotr Sulgostowski TTS Company Sp z o o wwwttscomplMiguel Angel Martin Vittalia Internet SL wwweazelcomLiu Ping wwwhodosoftcom

Directors Officers and Committee Chairs Board of DirectorsMitchell Vincent Chair mitch ksoftwarenetDan Hite Dan TedCoSoftwarecomEd Pulliam pulliam ouisoftcomHoward Sobel howards wugnetcomJason Kiwaluk jkiwaluk shawcaMahmoud Metwally mkm giantmatrixcom

OfficersGianfranco Berardi President president asp-softwareorgVice President vp asp-softwareorgAndrei Belogortseff Secretary secretary asp-softwareorgTerry Jepson Treasurer treasurer asp-softwareorg

Staff Positions amp Committee ChairsRich Holler Executive Director execdir asp-softwareorgJerry Stern Coordinator of anti-spyware operations

ASPects Editor aspects asp-softwareorg

Sue Pichotta Conference Managerconference asp-softwareorg

Andrei Belogortseff Download Sitedsw asp-softwareorg

Events Coordinator events asp-softwareorgMichael Marshall Ombudsman

wwwasp-softwareorgombSteve Faleiro Outreach Chair outreach asp-softwareorgJoel Diamond PAD Chair pad-chair asp-softwareorgPublic Relations publicrelations asp-softwareorgSergeant-at-Arms saa asp-softwareorgVolunteer Coordinator

volunteer asp-softwareorgDon Waterfield Webmaster webmaster asp-softwareorgTom Guthery IV New Member Welcome

welcome asp-softwareorgWebsite Committee Chair president asp-softwareorg

ASP Membership Form

Before submitting your application for membershipvisit our website at wwwasp-softwareorgjoin andreview the membership standards and requirementsThere are two categories of ASP Membership Please makesure you have reviewed the appropriate information andstandards page

Mail applications toRichard HollerASP Executive DirectorPO Box 1522Martinsville IN 46151 USA

I have read the appropriate standards and agree toabide by them lsquo Yes lsquo No

Standards for Developer Members and Industry Membersare online at wwwasp-softwareorgjoin

Category of Membership

(Select either lsquoDeveloperrsquo or one of the various Industrycategories)

lsquo Developer

Industry Memberlsquo Vendorlsquo Online Distributorlsquo Online Developerlsquo User Grouplsquo PressMedialsquo Consultantlsquo Shareware Enthusiast

CompanyProduct Description(120 characters or less required if web site link is requested)

Please PRINT Clearly

REQUIRED FIELDS

Name

Company Name

Street Address

Street Address

CityTown

StateProvince

ZIPPostal Code

Country

Public Phone (Voice)

Public Phone (FAX)

Public Email Address

Web Site URL (Required if web site link is requested)

Private Phone (ASP use)

Private Email Address (ASP use)

Do you wish to have your listing included in the public

member database lsquo Yes lsquo No

Do you wish to have your website link included on our

ASP website lsquo Yes lsquo No

Signature

VisaMasterCardAmerican Express AuthorizationIf paying by credit card all the following fields are required

Credit Card Number

Expiration Date

Name of Card Holder

Amount to be charged $100 (USD)

CVV2 code (back of card)

Page 15: ASPects July 2012 Convention Special Issue · 2012. 7. 5. · July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 3 The Biggest Mistake You Can Ever Make by Jiri Novotny Dextronet.comT he biggest

July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 15

Affordable Cloud-Based Speed Reading Software forColleges and College Prep

StepWare Inc announces the availability of AceReaderOnline the Cloud version of its flagship WindowsMacapplication AceReader Pro AceReader Online is a power-ful educational tool that assesses improves and monitorsstudentsrsquo reading speed fluency and comprehension

AceReader Online teaches students to break bad readinghabits such as subvocalization (pronouncing the words intheir minds as they read) and regression (reading passagesmore than once) This educational software also helpsexpand studentsrsquo eye fixation zone so they can readmultiple words at a time

The online version of AceReader offers features thatbenefit college university and high school teachers andstudents Students can work independently on a personal-ized self-adjusting reading course or choose from a libraryof reading assessment and improvement regimens Educa-tors can monitor each studentrsquos progress by viewing reportsfor each student consisting of reading speeds comprehen-sion scores graphs activity logs and much more

Since AceReader Online includes 13 levels of textcomplexity it is being used by younger students (ie gradeschools) and even for students who need vision training (iestudents with dyslexia)

AceReader Online has been used by 30 colleges andschools during the 20112012 school year with greatsuccess and is now is available to all education institutionswwwacereadercom

Create Handwriting Fonts In Many Major Languages

High-Logic BV has released Scanahand 4 an applicationthat makes it easy for each member of the family to createcustom hand-written fonts for use in Microsoft WordExcel PowerPoint Notepad and any Windows programScanahand lets you quickly create a font install it inWindows in seconds and use it immediately You can typenotes and cards in your favorite word processing softwareand print them in your own handwriting

Scanahand lets you create signature fonts set a font styleby going bold or italic has the ability to automaticallyinclude diacritical marks and provides full Unicodesupport New features in version 4 include a smart charactermapper that automatically links missing letters to theirupperlower case counterpart and a brand new algorithm forcalculating the best possible left and right-side bearings forthe basic Latin character set The tracing method used byScanahand has been further improved to generate evenmore stunning fonts

The Premium Edition also includes a Template Editorthat allows users to create templates each containing a userdefined set of characters This allows the generation of

fonts that support numerous languages not available in theStandard Editionwwwhigh-logiccom

News amp Press Corner

Microsoft Announces Windows 8 Upgrade Offer

Microsoft Corp announced the availability of the WindowsUpgrade Offer for consumers purchasing a qualifying newWindows 7 PC The Windows Upgrade Offer providesconsumers who buy an eligible Windows 7 PC the optionto purchase a downloadable upgrade to Windows 8 Pro foran estimated retail price of just $1499 during the time ofthe promotion which will be redeemable when Windows 8is generally available The Windows Upgrade Offer is justthe first of many consumer offers that will roll out inconjunction with the general availability of Windows 8

ldquoWersquove seen a great interest in Windows 8 especiallygiven the availability of the Windows 8 Release Previewthis week and yet we know many consumers want a newPC nowrdquo said Tami Reller chief marketing officer andchief financial officer of Windows at Microsoft ldquoTheWindows Upgrade Offer gives people the flexibility topurchase the new Windows 7 PC they need today with theknowledge they can easily get Windows 8 when itrsquos avail-ablerdquo

This program is available for consumers buying newWindows 7 PCs that are preinstalled with Windows 7 HomeBasic Home Premium Professional or Ultimate andinclude a matching and valid OEM Certificate of Authentic-ity The Windows 7 PC must be purchased new during theeligibility period June 2 2012ndashJan 31 2013wwwwindowsupgradeoffercom

WinZipreg Android App Now Available

WinZip Multi-platform Product Line Extends MobileSupport with Free Android App

WinZip Computing a Corel company today introducedWinZipreg for Android a new free mobile app now availableon Google Play

ldquoWith our free Android app wersquore extending the powerof WinZip to new mobile customers and delivering anessential tool for opening zipped files on the go Our firstmobile app WinZip for iOS enjoyed a great reception andhas already been downloaded by more than a millioniPhone and iPad users Now with apps for Android andiOS wersquore offering WinZip tools to customers on both ofthe industryrsquos most popular mobile platformsrdquo said PatrickNichols President of WinZipwwwwinzipcom

16 ASPects Convention Special July 2012

Supporting MembersIshai Shotten ACampG Software Ltd wwwbeejackcomAdriana Iordan Avangate BV wwwavangatecomYu Tao CHENGDU YIWO Tech Development Co Ltd wwweaseuscomDennis Reinhardt DAIR Computer Systems wwwdaircomAlexander Halser EC Software GmbH wwwec-softwarecomArmel Asselin Ellie Computing wwwelliecomputingcomErik Pelton Erik M Pelton amp Associates wwwerikpeltoncomGeraldine Joffre HDRsoft wwwhdrsoftcomGerben Abbink Monkfish XML Software wwwxmlblueprintcomMatt Smith Nevolution Digital LLC wwwnevolutioncomMiguel Cano Onekit wwwonekitcomCharles Born Plimus Inc wwwplimuscomIvan Radmore Pookanyoni Limited wwwpookanyonicomAndrew Butler R3 Data Recovery Ltd wwwr3datarecoverycomWilliam Shaw Regentstreet Research IncOmer Faiyaz Remo Software wwwremosoftwarecomRay Park Rescue Geeks Inc wwwutouchposcomMatt Humphries RevenueWire wwwrevenuewirecomAnna-Jayne Metcalfe Riverblade LimitedTim Thousand Scooter Software wwwscootersoftwarecomGarett Finney SoftwareCommercials Inc wwwsoftwarecommercialscomDana Doten TeamComp Inc wwwnewsbincomPiotr Sulgostowski TTS Company Sp z o o wwwttscomplMiguel Angel Martin Vittalia Internet SL wwweazelcomLiu Ping wwwhodosoftcom

Directors Officers and Committee Chairs Board of DirectorsMitchell Vincent Chair mitch ksoftwarenetDan Hite Dan TedCoSoftwarecomEd Pulliam pulliam ouisoftcomHoward Sobel howards wugnetcomJason Kiwaluk jkiwaluk shawcaMahmoud Metwally mkm giantmatrixcom

OfficersGianfranco Berardi President president asp-softwareorgVice President vp asp-softwareorgAndrei Belogortseff Secretary secretary asp-softwareorgTerry Jepson Treasurer treasurer asp-softwareorg

Staff Positions amp Committee ChairsRich Holler Executive Director execdir asp-softwareorgJerry Stern Coordinator of anti-spyware operations

ASPects Editor aspects asp-softwareorg

Sue Pichotta Conference Managerconference asp-softwareorg

Andrei Belogortseff Download Sitedsw asp-softwareorg

Events Coordinator events asp-softwareorgMichael Marshall Ombudsman

wwwasp-softwareorgombSteve Faleiro Outreach Chair outreach asp-softwareorgJoel Diamond PAD Chair pad-chair asp-softwareorgPublic Relations publicrelations asp-softwareorgSergeant-at-Arms saa asp-softwareorgVolunteer Coordinator

volunteer asp-softwareorgDon Waterfield Webmaster webmaster asp-softwareorgTom Guthery IV New Member Welcome

welcome asp-softwareorgWebsite Committee Chair president asp-softwareorg

ASP Membership Form

Before submitting your application for membershipvisit our website at wwwasp-softwareorgjoin andreview the membership standards and requirementsThere are two categories of ASP Membership Please makesure you have reviewed the appropriate information andstandards page

Mail applications toRichard HollerASP Executive DirectorPO Box 1522Martinsville IN 46151 USA

I have read the appropriate standards and agree toabide by them lsquo Yes lsquo No

Standards for Developer Members and Industry Membersare online at wwwasp-softwareorgjoin

Category of Membership

(Select either lsquoDeveloperrsquo or one of the various Industrycategories)

lsquo Developer

Industry Memberlsquo Vendorlsquo Online Distributorlsquo Online Developerlsquo User Grouplsquo PressMedialsquo Consultantlsquo Shareware Enthusiast

CompanyProduct Description(120 characters or less required if web site link is requested)

Please PRINT Clearly

REQUIRED FIELDS

Name

Company Name

Street Address

Street Address

CityTown

StateProvince

ZIPPostal Code

Country

Public Phone (Voice)

Public Phone (FAX)

Public Email Address

Web Site URL (Required if web site link is requested)

Private Phone (ASP use)

Private Email Address (ASP use)

Do you wish to have your listing included in the public

member database lsquo Yes lsquo No

Do you wish to have your website link included on our

ASP website lsquo Yes lsquo No

Signature

VisaMasterCardAmerican Express AuthorizationIf paying by credit card all the following fields are required

Credit Card Number

Expiration Date

Name of Card Holder

Amount to be charged $100 (USD)

CVV2 code (back of card)

Page 16: ASPects July 2012 Convention Special Issue · 2012. 7. 5. · July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 3 The Biggest Mistake You Can Ever Make by Jiri Novotny Dextronet.comT he biggest

16 ASPects Convention Special July 2012

Supporting MembersIshai Shotten ACampG Software Ltd wwwbeejackcomAdriana Iordan Avangate BV wwwavangatecomYu Tao CHENGDU YIWO Tech Development Co Ltd wwweaseuscomDennis Reinhardt DAIR Computer Systems wwwdaircomAlexander Halser EC Software GmbH wwwec-softwarecomArmel Asselin Ellie Computing wwwelliecomputingcomErik Pelton Erik M Pelton amp Associates wwwerikpeltoncomGeraldine Joffre HDRsoft wwwhdrsoftcomGerben Abbink Monkfish XML Software wwwxmlblueprintcomMatt Smith Nevolution Digital LLC wwwnevolutioncomMiguel Cano Onekit wwwonekitcomCharles Born Plimus Inc wwwplimuscomIvan Radmore Pookanyoni Limited wwwpookanyonicomAndrew Butler R3 Data Recovery Ltd wwwr3datarecoverycomWilliam Shaw Regentstreet Research IncOmer Faiyaz Remo Software wwwremosoftwarecomRay Park Rescue Geeks Inc wwwutouchposcomMatt Humphries RevenueWire wwwrevenuewirecomAnna-Jayne Metcalfe Riverblade LimitedTim Thousand Scooter Software wwwscootersoftwarecomGarett Finney SoftwareCommercials Inc wwwsoftwarecommercialscomDana Doten TeamComp Inc wwwnewsbincomPiotr Sulgostowski TTS Company Sp z o o wwwttscomplMiguel Angel Martin Vittalia Internet SL wwweazelcomLiu Ping wwwhodosoftcom

Directors Officers and Committee Chairs Board of DirectorsMitchell Vincent Chair mitch ksoftwarenetDan Hite Dan TedCoSoftwarecomEd Pulliam pulliam ouisoftcomHoward Sobel howards wugnetcomJason Kiwaluk jkiwaluk shawcaMahmoud Metwally mkm giantmatrixcom

OfficersGianfranco Berardi President president asp-softwareorgVice President vp asp-softwareorgAndrei Belogortseff Secretary secretary asp-softwareorgTerry Jepson Treasurer treasurer asp-softwareorg

Staff Positions amp Committee ChairsRich Holler Executive Director execdir asp-softwareorgJerry Stern Coordinator of anti-spyware operations

ASPects Editor aspects asp-softwareorg

Sue Pichotta Conference Managerconference asp-softwareorg

Andrei Belogortseff Download Sitedsw asp-softwareorg

Events Coordinator events asp-softwareorgMichael Marshall Ombudsman

wwwasp-softwareorgombSteve Faleiro Outreach Chair outreach asp-softwareorgJoel Diamond PAD Chair pad-chair asp-softwareorgPublic Relations publicrelations asp-softwareorgSergeant-at-Arms saa asp-softwareorgVolunteer Coordinator

volunteer asp-softwareorgDon Waterfield Webmaster webmaster asp-softwareorgTom Guthery IV New Member Welcome

welcome asp-softwareorgWebsite Committee Chair president asp-softwareorg

ASP Membership Form

Before submitting your application for membershipvisit our website at wwwasp-softwareorgjoin andreview the membership standards and requirementsThere are two categories of ASP Membership Please makesure you have reviewed the appropriate information andstandards page

Mail applications toRichard HollerASP Executive DirectorPO Box 1522Martinsville IN 46151 USA

I have read the appropriate standards and agree toabide by them lsquo Yes lsquo No

Standards for Developer Members and Industry Membersare online at wwwasp-softwareorgjoin

Category of Membership

(Select either lsquoDeveloperrsquo or one of the various Industrycategories)

lsquo Developer

Industry Memberlsquo Vendorlsquo Online Distributorlsquo Online Developerlsquo User Grouplsquo PressMedialsquo Consultantlsquo Shareware Enthusiast

CompanyProduct Description(120 characters or less required if web site link is requested)

Please PRINT Clearly

REQUIRED FIELDS

Name

Company Name

Street Address

Street Address

CityTown

StateProvince

ZIPPostal Code

Country

Public Phone (Voice)

Public Phone (FAX)

Public Email Address

Web Site URL (Required if web site link is requested)

Private Phone (ASP use)

Private Email Address (ASP use)

Do you wish to have your listing included in the public

member database lsquo Yes lsquo No

Do you wish to have your website link included on our

ASP website lsquo Yes lsquo No

Signature

VisaMasterCardAmerican Express AuthorizationIf paying by credit card all the following fields are required

Credit Card Number

Expiration Date

Name of Card Holder

Amount to be charged $100 (USD)

CVV2 code (back of card)

Page 17: ASPects July 2012 Convention Special Issue · 2012. 7. 5. · July 2012 ASPects Convention Special 3 The Biggest Mistake You Can Ever Make by Jiri Novotny Dextronet.comT he biggest

ASP Membership Form

Before submitting your application for membershipvisit our website at wwwasp-softwareorgjoin andreview the membership standards and requirementsThere are two categories of ASP Membership Please makesure you have reviewed the appropriate information andstandards page

Mail applications toRichard HollerASP Executive DirectorPO Box 1522Martinsville IN 46151 USA

I have read the appropriate standards and agree toabide by them lsquo Yes lsquo No

Standards for Developer Members and Industry Membersare online at wwwasp-softwareorgjoin

Category of Membership

(Select either lsquoDeveloperrsquo or one of the various Industrycategories)

lsquo Developer

Industry Memberlsquo Vendorlsquo Online Distributorlsquo Online Developerlsquo User Grouplsquo PressMedialsquo Consultantlsquo Shareware Enthusiast

CompanyProduct Description(120 characters or less required if web site link is requested)

Please PRINT Clearly

REQUIRED FIELDS

Name

Company Name

Street Address

Street Address

CityTown

StateProvince

ZIPPostal Code

Country

Public Phone (Voice)

Public Phone (FAX)

Public Email Address

Web Site URL (Required if web site link is requested)

Private Phone (ASP use)

Private Email Address (ASP use)

Do you wish to have your listing included in the public

member database lsquo Yes lsquo No

Do you wish to have your website link included on our

ASP website lsquo Yes lsquo No

Signature

VisaMasterCardAmerican Express AuthorizationIf paying by credit card all the following fields are required

Credit Card Number

Expiration Date

Name of Card Holder

Amount to be charged $100 (USD)

CVV2 code (back of card)