From CNET’s Software Publisher Newsletter:

“As of March 16th, reviews on CNET Downloads are changing in a small but significant way. Since we began reviewing software nearly eight years ago, we have reviewed only the trial version of any software title that was also available for purchase.

Going forward, we will begin reviewing and rating software based on the full version, judging the software’s effectiveness as a complete piece of software.”

Not a bad move, but I’m guessing that many CNET visitors would be surprised to discover that they’ve been reading reviews of trial versions. After all, no-one buys a trial version, and the idea of the trial is for the user to evaluate an application for themselves.

Or could it be that CNET visitors don’t really care what the editors say, but instead judge software by votes, user reviews and number of downloads?

More importantly, has Google now made software sites redundant?

When’s the last time you searched for a software solution on a software site?

My Google AdWords MCC account allows me to access all of our client’s accounts without using separate login details for each.

It’s very useful, despite having a stupid name. MCC stands for My Client Centre, so ‘my MCC account’ means ‘my my client centre account’.

Anyway Google are in the process of updating their my client centre (I told you it was a stupid name), and when I choose the Budget tab, I can see each client’s budget, and a link to View daily budget recommendations:

A quick link on the link, and I get the following:

However:

- I didn’t get an email.
- I haven’t accessed and approved the suggestions.
- I haven’t accessed and disapproved the suggestions.
- The suggestions should be as applicable as they ever were.
- It’s 2010.

These are small points, but whether you’re spending single figures or tens of thousands a day on Google AdWords, you need to be able to trust the system.

If I log into my online banking and am greeted with “Welcome back Jeremiah”, I will most definitely start to worry whether my money is safe.

Al Harberg of DP Directory once noted that when he finds his meal tray on a plane dirty and stained, he wonders what else might be neglected by the airline.

Dirty trays don’t encourage airline passengers to eat. They’re too distracted wondering whether the engine is supposed to make that noise.

Experian Hitwise are reporting that in the week ending March 13th 2010, Facebook received more visits than Google:

The numbers suggest that this was far from a sudden/lucky surge, and I suspect we’ll be seeing more of this.

However it’s worth remembering that this is effectively dumb data. A significant percentage of visitors to Facebook will simply be updating their status, whereas almost everyone going to Google will be searching.

Still, a trend is a trend. Usually.

Facebook Reaches Top Ranking in US

The following may sound familiar.

My friend, Dr Buzz McHewan, one day came to me with an idea. I was more than a little sceptical, but four years later Buzz runs one of the world’s most successful X companies in the world….

Most likely the website you read this has an incredibly long home page, with plenty of bordered boxes, bonuses and highlighting. There’ll be lots of text, little by the way of information, and your mouse wheel will have a lot of scrolling before you finally find the price.

The other thing that these sites have in common are testimonials that decrease credibility:

Stupid #1: Who sends in a photograph with a testimonial?

Stupid #2: The testimonial looks a little over-optimised for the search engines.

Stupid #3: In the unlikely event that the testimonial is actually genuine, why anonymise it?

I’m a firm believer that a client saying something nice about our company carries more weight than anything I could possibly say. Which is why we sprinkle them throughout our website.

And I know testimonials work. Clients and companies we worked with in the past let us know whenever someone asks about our company. And we see how many of them sign up for our services.

Sometimes a potential customer just needs a little nudge to help them decide.

From the joint-horse’s mouth:

“Microsoft and Yahoo! have now received regulatory clearance to form the Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance in the United States and European Union. This milestone is an exciting step in our effort to give your business a time-saving and cost-efficient way to connect with a larger combined audience of potential customers.”

Let’s face it, Google could use a little competition.

Our blog post New AdWords Ads Increasingly Getting Stuck in the ‘Under Review’ Black Hole now has 50 comments – the majority of which express extreme frustration. Many AdWords account holders are eager for alternatives.

This could be the start of something interesting.

Hype is a powerful thing, but behind all great marketing has to be (at the very least) a good product. Otherwise it’s little more than noise.

Google Wave set out to be a solution to a problem that most people don’t have.

Which is why, according to Business Insider, web visits to Google Wave have dropped sharply.

Having used it myself, I can understand why. It’s confusing, buggy, and as good as pointless.

Next stop: the iPad.

Google Reader is one of those tools that I like, understand, but don’t really use. At least not until now.

I’ve been using FeedDemon longer than I can remember; certainly long before most normal people had ever heard of RSS feeds. And that’s the root of the problem with RSS: Most people have never heard of it, many of those who have don’t want to use it, and many of those who do find it more than a little frustrating.

The result of this is that until yesterday, the ‘average person’ had little or no use of Google Reader, but their new killer feature will most likely start to change that:

“Feeds make it easy to follow updates to all kinds of webpages, from blogs to news sites to Craigslist queries, but unfortunately not all pages on the web have feeds. Today we’re rolling out a change in Google Reader that lets you create a custom feed to track changes on pages that don’t have their own feed.”

In other words you can receive alerts when any web page has been updated. So whether you’re interested in new drivers for your graphics card, whether your local Pizza Hut will finally deliver to your address, what your competition might be up to or even want to make sure that your website hasn’t been tampered with, Google Reader might prove to be a very useful tool.

And the more you use it, the more you’ll rely on it. The more you rely on it, the more you’ll use it. It’s an inspired move by the Goooooogle folk.

Follow changes to any website

It’s 2010. The internet is neither new nor revolutionary anymore. Given this, why is it that so many of the website mistakes that were around in 1997 are still plaguing us today? Should we not know better by now?

1. “Welcome to our web site. We are a company who pride ourselves on our meticulous attention to detail, hard work ethic, and speedy response times.“

Yes. Great. But what can you do for me? What do you sell? How can your product solve my problems or improve my life?

Think about the last time you walked into a supermarket, or any other shop. Were you met at the door by a group of suited people who wanted to talk to you about their company ethos? Or were you perhaps instead greeted by colourful displays of tempting items, special offers, and seasonal goods? I’m betting it was the latter. Your website is a shop, too – if you want to sell your product, you’d do well to treat it like one.

2. “NEWS!  Our software is now Windows 2000 compatible!“

Okay, maybe that is a slightly extreme example. Seriously, though, how often do you visit a website, discover it’s not been updated in a year or two, and leave? It’s a scenario that’s all too common.  Maybe you have been working hard on your software and neglecting your website. Perhaps there have even been a couple of new releases, which a site visitor might discover if they venture deeper into the site. But if your index page has a cheerful little “New for 2008!” graphic and your latest blog post was in March last year, it does not look good.

3. “Contact us at sneakynsuspicious@hotmail.com or PO BOX 123 12.“

You expect people to hand over their money without knowing who you are, and without any real means of contacting you? Honestly?

Online shopping might well be deemed mainstream and safe these days, but that doesn’t mean that your visitors have turned stupid. Far from it – they’re probably savvier than ever.  If they discover that you’re unwilling to provide them with a phone number or a real address, they’re likely to be just as unwilling to provide you with their credit card details.

4. “Yes, I will tell you how much this product costs if you are willing to click your way to the seventh level of hell my website.“

Why are so many people scared of making their product price easy to find? Do they believe that by forcing their visitors to read umpteen pages of empty buzz words, they will then be too exhausted to realize that the $99 you’re asking is actually quite a bad deal?

If it was up to me, the starting price would always be prominently displayed on the index page. Chances are that your visitors are working within a budget, and don’t want to waste their time looking at a $5000 application when they can’t afford to spend more than $50. If pricing is complicated and depends on a variety of factors, fine – but please make sure your pricing structure is clearly displayed and no more than a click away from any given page.

5. “The graphics? Oh yes, I had a lot of help from my cousin, my neighbour’s wife and my pet hamster, but most of them I did myself.”

Of all the places to save money, I am constantly amazed by how many people choose their website graphics. If you use your site to keep a log of petrol costs for your radio-controlled boat, or to share the latest rail-related news with other trainspotting enthusiasts, fine.  Use any old jpegs you find lying around. If, however, you’re hoping to make a serious impression and make some money from your software: use a graphic designer. Today.

A good friend told me that he’d recently been buying a lot of things in preparation for the birth of his first child. And like any red-blooded male, he’s been doing most of his shopping online. The father-to-be that is, not the child.

Following almost every order, the company he bought from sent him an email containing a coupon towards any future purchases. As any parent can testify, buying for your first child is a never-ending task. So it’s no great surprise that he’s already used many of the coupons.

From the perspective of the companies, he’s a pre-qualified customer, so they already know that he has an interest in what they’re selling. This is a beautifully effective form of marketing, that is more targeted than most other forms of advertising.

Upselling after the purchase can convert a one-time buyer into a repeat customer. And if each subsequent purchase triggers another coupon, you may be able to turn the one-time buyer into a customer for life.

A newspaper headline is written in large letters, and is supposed to indicate the content of the article. Front page headlines are the most important, as they need to be eye catching enough to snare the interest of passers-by.

You can probably see where I’m going with this.

Our own company sells services to help (mainly) software developers increase their sales.

Read the above sentence again, and see if that would make a good headline.

Of course it doesn’t which is why our front page uses two brief sentences:

“You write the software.
We help you grow.”

We recently ran some usability tests on our website, and used people with no connection to our company or industry. One of the questions they were asked while browsing the website was “What do we do, and who are we targeting”.

Each and every tester was able to correctly answer that question within literally seconds of arriving at the website.

When I arrive at your website, do I instantly know what you sell and why I need it?

What’s your headline?