Another great way to increase sales is to consider partnering with other software developers that offer similar or complimentary programs. The co-promotion can be as simple as reciprocal newsletter promotion or as complex as integration or software bundles. The promotion should be designed to benefit both authors.

Additional items that are more commonly discussed that can be used to inexpensively market software are affiliate programs, link exchanges and newsgroups. Recently I have encountered resources that assist with monitoring these items. Name Protect monitors domain names and trademarks. Reports are generated monthly and show number of site links, and availability of similar domain names. Tracer Lock allows Deja News to be monitored for specific keywords. Email notifications are sent daily if indicated keywords occur in Deja archived posts. Bravenet is another free resource that has been very effective in generating referral traffic. A "refer a friend” script can be added to websites and Bravenet monitors number of customers utilizing script during given time frame.

Overall there are a number of creative ways available to software authors to promote their wares outside of traditional download channel, don’t be afraid to experiment and consider other approaches, you might be surprised.

Resources:

Software Marketing Buyers Guide Listings http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com/buyersguides.html Shareware Promotions Graph http://www.sharewarepromotions.com/case-studies.html Tracer Lock http://www.peacefire.org racerlock/ White Paper Sample http://www.notepage.net/whitepapers.htm Name Protect - http://www.nameprotect.com/freemon.html Bravenet http://www.bravenet.com

About the Author: Sharon Housley manages marketing for NotePage, Inc. http://www.notepage.net a company specializing in alphanumeric paging, SMS and wireless messaging software solutions. Other sites by Sharon can be found at http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com , and http://www.monitoring- software.net

Reasons I like to post to forums:

The main reason is for exposure and getting my website out there. Search engines will also find your links through these forums and message boards.

You will meet some neat and interesting folks out there as well as make some friends. Most individuals in forums are truly trying to help others with their posts. Some individuals are looking to stir stuff up but don’t get to caught up in those types of discussions!

There are a lot of users that just read posts and don’t respond. You can see how many people have viewed particular topics and get an Idea of type of traffic that is coming in.

Some of forums above are of message board variety where you do not have to register to post. The format is just a little bit different and there is only one category to post to.

Posting to forums can be a lot of fun and a bit addicting so keep it focused and budget your time and remember your goal for being there in first place.

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