A search for speed up my PC on Google (predictably) produces a lot of ads featuring surprisingly happy women. In fact five out of the first ten ads I clicked:

Clearly this segment of the industry believe that deliriously happy (usually blonde) women sell software, but why?

Could it be that they’re trying to sell to women? Unlikely. A Squidoo lens on Sellling and Marketing to Women estimates that around 75% of all buying decisions today are made by women, but I find it difficult to believe that women are the main user group for this type of software.

So why use pictures of women in ads aimed at men?

Is the idea that the man’s partner is delighted that her laptop (it’s always a laptop) is finally optimised for performance? That her hard drive is defragmented, her boot time is 15% faster, and that her cookie and temp files are finally cleared? Unlikely.

So what is being communicated here.

Woman + optimised laptop = ?

I know there are still an incredible number of shows and exhibitions that use young, attractive women to help sell their goods, but isn’t the software industry a little more progressive?

Surely such an imaginative and creative industry are better than Mad Men?

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After a recent (horrible) virus experience, I’ve taken all reasonable steps to protect my system. I use Google Chrome, and use the excellent NotScripts to protect my web browsing.

One of the useful features of NotScripts is that when I get to a website, I have to allow scripts to run, and if I’m not sure about a domain, I merely click a question mark to see how Google rate it on their safe browsing diagnostic page.

It’s useful information, but badly presented:

Not suspicious: no malicious software, and no suspicious content found on the site within the last 90 days.

So why does it then tell me that malicious software includes  2 scripting exploits and 2 exploits?

Is it safe to authorise or not?

When my Norton Internet Security runs a scan, the results have a clear and obvious graphic above them:

I instantly know that everything is fine. In fact I don’t even have to read the details unless I want to.

If your website, software or emails don’t communicate efficiently, then you’re annoying your visitors, potential users and customers.

Make it crystal clear and you can’t go wrong.

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Few would dispute that software companies lose money as a direct result of piracy.

The issue is how far the software company should go to prevent this.

On one hand, software piracy is theft. You can get as self-righteous as you feel you’re entitled to, but using a cracked, hacked or unlicensed piece of software is theft.

On the other hand, does it matter? You might argue that irrespective of how far you’re prepared to go to prevent piracy, it’s still going to happen.

As always, being the calm voice of reason that I am, I propose a common-sense approach.

When I go to bed each night I make sure all our ground-floor windows are closed, the doors are locked, and I activate an alarm system before going upstairs.

I don’t have bars on my windows, our moat isn’t filled with sulphuric acid, and instead of a roaming Rottweiler we have a house-rabbit.

Using some form of protection on your software is common sense, yet there’s a scale with reasonable on one side and off-putting on the other.

I know businesses whose policies will not allow them to buy software that has to be activated; not on ideological grounds, but based on practical concerns.

In general, the  more difficult you make your software to crack, you more you impose on your buying customers, and the more you risk losing them.

Crack Tracker is one of those “why didn’t I think of it earlier” type of applications. You enter your software details, and it crawls some of the more popular and more dangerous parts of the warez world, creates a list of the download locations and sends DMCA take-down notices to the offending websites.

It obviously won’t stop people cracking your software, but it might make distributing the cracks more difficult.

Once you know the extent of the problem, you can then decide for yourself what to do about it. Personally I’d recommend spending more time on developing and marketing your software than chasing cracked versions, but the choice is yours.

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Company Q have a great service that sells well. An impressive 5% of the visitors to their website buy what they sell.

With 200 visitors a day, their sales are reasonable, but they want more.

Company P are using marketing company SP to manage their Google AdWords account.

Their conversions are great, obviously, and they see around 20 sales a day (at a very reasonable cost) from their account. But they want more.

A search for how do I get more people to my website generates a staggering 754,000,000 results.

Yet a search for how do I get more targeted people to my website produces only 7,480,000.

[Take some reassurance from the fact that most people don't know what they're doing.]

Getting more visitors to your website is easy. I’d go as far as saying that anyone can do it.

Getting more targeted visitors is more of a challenge.

It boils down to this: Quantity is easy, quality requires skill.

Getting more incoming links to your website is easy. There are services that claim to deliver 1,000 one-way links for less than $10. It’s safe to assume that every one of them will be worthless, but you get what you pay for.

Getting more clicks from AdWords is simple. Raise your bids and raise your budgets. Oh and watch your ROI sink like a stone.

Quality requires skill.

A few mini-points to consider.

1 – Companies P and Q may be hitting as much of their market as possible. No matter what they do to try and get more it won’t work. They’ve hit the top of the curve. But there are other markets.

2 – The weak link in the chain may not be the company’s ability to hit their potential customers. The weak link may be their website’s inability to convert visitors to customers.

How can you get more of the right people to your website?

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It’s a common question.

Software developer leaves school or university and is great at churning out tight, functional, well-written code.

Software developer doesn’t want to work for someone else, and likes the idea of running their own software company. But s/he doesn’t know what to write that will sell.

They could start by following the wisdom of crowds through Google:

But crowds can’t be trusted.

Most successful software stories begin with a problem.

Software developer is looking for a simple solution for Problem X, can’t find anything particularly good, so writes Solution Y.

Solution Y turns into a business.

If you’re looking for your Product Y, you could do a lot worse than helping fix a very big problem.

Here’s my big problem.

About ten days ago my system became infected with some sort of trojan-virus thing. It spread through my system, trashed one of the hard drives, and left Windows unusable.

This was a Windows XP Pro system that was reasonably up to date with security fixes and updates, that was running an up to date version of Norton Internet Security.

Yet my system was wiped out.

Ten years ago I would have said that my system was watertight. I used a firewall, anti-virus software, NAT, kept my Windows Updates current and so on.

Today, as I can testify, we simply don’t know.

Give me an application that will secure my system. Even if it acts as a hub between my anti-virus, firewall, malware protection and windows updates.

It’s a big problem, and people will pay good money to fix big problems.

And it would be a marketing dream come true.

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This was captured by my wife when she went to book tickets online for an event at the Royal Albert Hall.

The team responsible for running the website and booking system clearly know that their server isn’t up to the task. So they’ve found a solution.

I don’t know who first invented the numbered ticket queueing system loved by under-staffed organisations throughout the world.

But applying it to an online ordering system lies somewhere between depressing and obscene.

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There are many talented software developers in the world, and many people with great business skills. And while there are some lucky enough to be both, they are a tiny minority. Hence the number of great software products that never become great businesses.

Software developers fall into the extreme-high-risk category of contracting Developer Syndrome. Although at first the symptoms may be mild, if left unchecked they can become life-threatening. If not to the developer, then certainly to their business.

Symptoms may include:

1 – Adding features because they can. Not because they’re needed, but because they can be implemented.

2 – Extreme rose-tinted glasses that block out all reason. “There are 500 million Excel users. If only 2% of them buy my add-in…” *

3 – Not seeing the forest for the trees. Customers aren’t interested in the code, they’re interested in how it can help them.

4 – Not seeing the trees for the forest. Visitors to your website aren’t influenced by the website. They’re influenced (or not) by very specific sections of very specific pages.

5 – “Build it and they will come”. They won’t, at least not initially.

Developer syndrome poses a serious threat to a software company’s well being. And that’s before we get into the fact that developers know as little about marketing as marketers know about coding.

Seth Godin’s Beware The Nile perch posting contained an ingeniously simple observation:

“There are bright shiny objects you can bring into your life (that project, that employee, that new office) that might just push the other useful items aside. You get hooked on them or they demand more attention or they make too much noise and the less-shiny projects or people whither away.”

My experience is that Software Developers see a lot of bright shiny objects. The difference between a good developer and a great developer is their ability to separate the diamonds from the pieces of glass that will do little more than cut their fingers. Developer Syndrome costs business lives. Forewarned is forearmed.

* I probably hear a variation of this principle once a month on average. Apologies to those who still believe this way of thinking.

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One of the less-than-ideal aspects of buying software today is the inevitable license tangles and restrictions.

Like it or not, you’ll invariably pay for aspects of the software that you won’t ever use, just to get the features you need.

Until now anyway.

“With the upcoming release of PRTG 8, Paessler takes a revolutionary step and completely simplifies its licensing model. Using our new add-on-free software product PRTG 8 you monitor your network without worrying about paying extra money for additional features. Everything is included in one license because we are confident this makes your work easier. Simply choose an installation size for your setup and benefit from the new functionalities PRTG brings to your network.”

We’ve been working with Paessler for ten years now, and wish them continued success in all that they do.

Paessler Celebrates the Release of PRTG 8

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The tenth annual European Software Conference will be held at the Marriott Hotel Courtyard Vienna Messe on November 6 and 7, 2010 in Vienna, Austria.

The conference focuses on topics that are vital to independent software developers who use the try-before-you-buy approach to marketing their applications. Seminar subjects include email marketing, Google Adwords, website conversion optimization, developing a trusted brand, software advertising, IBM’s Jazz product, development and marketing of Android products, software update strategies, and turning website visitors into buyers.

I myself will be there, and will be presenting on Google AdWords and Optimising Websites for Conversions. See you there!

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