TidBITS#647/16-Sep-02
=====================
Having trouble marketing software, or frustrated that your
favorite developer isn't doing it well? Read the second part of
Mike Diegel's look at marketing software for tips on getting the
message out and converting prospects into customers. Also, Matt
Neuburg reviews WorkStrip X, an interesting application launcher
that groups related documents and applications into workspaces.
Finally, some advice for anyone owning or using .Mac accounts.
Topics:
MailBITS/16-Sep-02
WorkStrip Comes to Mac OS X
Marketing Software, Part 2
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MailBITS/16-Sep-02
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**Dealing With .Mac Trials Ending** -- Consider this a brief
reminder to the Mac community. According to Apple, iTools accounts
that were automatically converted into .Mac trial accounts will be
going away in two weeks on 30-Sep-02. Our advice is to ask anyone
in your address book using a Mac.com email address if they plan to
keep that address or if they'll be switching. If you have a
Mac.com account that you're planning to let lapse, we encourage
you to change your mailing list subscriptions before the change
happens (unsubscribe from your Mac.com address and resubscribe
from your new address - look in the headers of every issue of
TidBITS for links you can double-click) and let your regular
correspondents know of your address change. Finally, search
through your Web bookmarks and visit any at Mac.com to see if
the owner is providing a forwarding page. On the flip side,
if you aren't planning to continue a .Mac-based Web site, we
recommend putting up a notice informing visitors where your
files have moved. If your site is purely personal, such as Web
photo albums uploaded from iPhoto, it's worth informing the people
to whom you originally announced the photos of the new location.
A little forethought can make this transition a lot easier for
everyone. [ACE]
WorkStrip Comes to Mac OS X
---------------------------
by Matt Neuburg <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Back in the days of System 6, I couldn't have managed without
Now Utilities, and especially Now Menus - in particular, its
capability not only to remember my recently used applications
and documents, but also to associate each recently used document
with the application that opened it. In Now Menu's listing of
recently used applications, the documents recently opened with
each application appeared as a hierarchical submenu of that
application. This was a wonderfully quick, easy, and natural way
to find stuff I'd recently been working on. Apple later imitated
it, putting recent applications and documents in the Apple menu;
but Apple's implementation lacked any interface association
between recent documents and their applications.
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbser=1225>
To see why this association is important, think of the sheer
numbers involved. The relationship of applications to documents
is one-to-many. A list of my thirty most recently used
applications might be useful, but a list of my thirty most
recently used documents is likely pointless. A list of the
thirty documents most recently used by _each_ application is
what I need! But a single indiscriminate list of these, shown
alphabetically, would be disordered (since one often thinks
in terms of applications first) and unwieldy (since it would
contain 900 items).
The solution in Now Menus, on the other hand, was perfect; and
I remained faithful through its transition into System 7, and
then used Power On Software's Action Menus to maintain the same
functionality after Now fell by the wayside. The latter served
me right up through Mac OS 9.
<http://poweronsoftware.com/products/actionUtilities/>
With the coming of Mac OS X, though, this functionality hit a
glass ceiling. Apple's own Recent Items in the Mac OS X Apple
menu still doesn't associate documents with applications, though
at least in Jaguar you can increase the number of remembered items
to 50. Action Utilities hasn't made the transition. Proteron's
MaxMenus, the closest thing to a Now Menus clone on Mac OS X,
presents the same Recent Items as the Apple menu, again with no
application-document association. What to do? I was in a funk,
until a Macworld Expo San Francisco glimpse of Softchaos's
WorkStrip running on Mac OS 9 gave me hope. If this utility
could migrate to Mac OS X, I might be saved.
<http://www.proteron.com/maxmenus/>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06687>
WorkStrip did eventually make the transition, but the first Mac
OS X release was a background CPU hog, and the second had a buggy
way of treating documents opened by browsers. However, Softchaos's
chief technical officer, Matt Gough, was extremely responsive with
regard to these problems; and as of the recently released version
2.02, they are a thing of the past. WorkStrip X is now ready for
prime time.
<http://www.softchaos.com/products/overview_wsx.html>
**A Good Look** -- WorkStrip X is basically an application
switcher and a launcher of applications, documents, and folders.
So too, of course, is the Dock; and you can think of WorkStrip as
a Dock supplement. It would be wrong, though, to describe it as a
Dock replacement; a true Dock replacement is impossible, because
the Dock possesses secret knowledge and capabilities to which
Apple has allowed no one else access - the list of windows open
in every application, the capacity to switch to a particular
window, the capability to display a special application icon
(such as iCal's display of the current date), and so forth.
WorkStrip X is a background-only application, without menus or
a place in the Dock. It's represented by a row of icons at one
edge of your screen; for each icon, what you see is a roughly
rectangular white area (which I'll call a "pedestal") butting up
against the screen edge, and overlapping this and sticking further
into the screen, the icon itself. The icon is not embedded in a
rectangle; its shape is the icon's shape, and this shape casts
a shadow onto the white rectangle. The effect is like a row of
little statues of the icons, each standing on its own white
pedestal; it's absolutely gorgeous. There are various modes for
displaying and summoning WorkStrip; I particularly like the one
where all you see is a single icon (which floats over all your
applications, off in a corner somewhere) until you move the mouse
over this, whereupon all the other icons appear.
A shortcoming of the Dock is that one row of icons functions both
as a launcher (of items that you've dragged into it) and as a
switcher (between currently running applications). WorkStrip
operates the same way, but it overcomes the shortcoming by
allowing you to define "workspaces." A workspace is simply a set
of items you've dragged into WorkStrip. The combination of items
to form each workspace is completely up to you; it might be a
category of application, such as Internet programs or games, or
it might be the applications and folders needed for a particular
task, such as writing a certain book. WorkStrip always displays
exactly one workspace at a time, along with a special "system-
level" workspace whose items are always displayed.
The icons displayed at any given moment in WorkStrip X are: the
main WorkStrip icon, to which you drag items to add them to the
system-level workspace; the current workspace icon, to which you
drag items to add them to this workspace, and whose contextual
menu switches workspaces; the items of the system-level workspace;
the items of the current workspace; and the currently running
applications. Various colors and sub-icons tell you why an icon
is being displayed - it's part of the workspace, it's currently
running, it's currently running and frontmost, it's currently
running and also part of the workspace, and so on. There is no way
to tell by looking whether a workspace item is part of the current
or system-level workspace; I regard this as a flaw.
The various things you can do with an icon are very much what you
would expect. Click an application, document, or folder icon to
open it or switch to it (with various Dock-like modifier keys).
Control-click an icon to bring up its contextual menu. In the
case of a folder, the contextual menu shows its contents
hierarchically, but with a striking twist: at every level the
items appear sorted, showing first folders, then applications,
then documents - themselves sorted by type. Another nice thing
about these hierarchical menus is that you can choose either a
file or a folder. Once you've navigated into your hard drive this
way, you may never want to do it any other way; it's wonderful.
**The Documents in the Case** -- WorkStrip X lists recently opened
documents as items of the Recent Items menu, which is itself a
hierarchical submenu that can appear in three places:
* in the WorkStrip icon's contextual menu;
* in the workspace icon's contextual menu, if that workspace was
active when you opened the document; and
* in the application icon's contextual menu, if that application
was visible in WorkStrip when you opened the document.
In the case of the Finder, whose icon is of course always present,
its "documents" are folders; WorkStrip can thus manage recent
folders as well as files.
Mac OS X doesn't offer utilities like WorkStrip X any way of
hacking into the system as Now Utilities did under earlier
versions of the Mac OS, so WorkStrip X can't "see" you open a
document by double-clicking it in the Finder, or by using an
Application's Open dialog. WorkStrip X can "see" what you do
only within WorkStrip X; in other words, the only documents
WorkStrip X can track are those you open using WorkStrip X.
This could mean dragging a document onto an application icon
in WorkStrip X, or navigating down the hierarchical menu of
a folder icon in WorkStrip X, to find and open a document.
WorkStrip remembers only the last 100 Recent Items that you've
opened. This minor limitation is made up for, though, by the fact
that a Recent Items document can be promoted from temporary to
persistent status. The interface for this is ingenious; you
click not on the application's icon but on its pedestal, whereupon
a drawer opens showing a list of the application's associated
documents, both temporary (Recent Items) and persistent. Here
you can perform document management tasks, such as moving a
document's status between temporary and persistent, navigating
its path, showing it in the Finder, removing it from the list,
and even deleting it.
**WorkStrip Conclusions** -- WorkStrip X is lovely to look at,
and is a marvel of programming ingenuity. It comes with good
documentation. I haven't mentioned everything WorkStrip X can
do, but what I've said describes the bulk of its abilities as a
launcher and especially as a manager of documents in association
with applications. That management can be very good indeed, but
it will require some practice and some revision of one's normal
habits - such as remembering to open things through WorkStrip and
not through the Finder. You may also have to modify your thinking
a bit in order to appreciate WorkStrip's strengths.
For example, you may find disappointing the restriction that
WorkStrip doesn't associate a document with an application that
happens at that moment to be in a different workspace. I was
disappointed by this too, at first. Then I started to understand.
WorkStrip's basic unit of thought, as it were, is not the
application but the workspace. What WorkStrip is trying to help
you do is to manage the applications and documents you need for
some particular task. To see what I mean, think what should
happen if an application, such as BBEdit, appears in two different
workspaces, such as Writing and Programming. What should happen
if a document is dragged onto BBEdit's icon in the Writing
workspace, and later a different document is dragged onto
BBEdit's icon in the Programming workspace? Surely the presumption
is that these are two very different working contexts for you,
and therefore BBEdit should be treated here as essentially two
different programs. The documents associated with BBEdit the
Writing program should thus not be allowed to mingle with the
documents associated with BBEdit the Programming program. That
is how WorkStrip behaves, and it makes sense. If that's not how
you wanted WorkStrip to treat BBEdit, you should have made it
part of the system-level workspace.
I must admit that WorkStrip X is not my favorite interface for
a launcher; I find it too mouse-oriented and clumsy, and somewhat
restricted. My launcher of choice remains James Thomson's
DragThing. DragThing's paradigm is superbly simple: any number
of docks, each populated through drag-and-drop with any number
of items, where each item can be an application, file, folder,
or script, and supported by a full array of keyboard shortcuts
and contextual menus. Frankly, if DragThing could remember
documents opened in each application, I would probably have
no desire to use WorkStrip at all.
<http://www.dragthing.com/>
But DragStrip doesn't have that ability, and WorkStrip does. The
result is that although I don't use WorkStrip all the time, when
I'm engaged on one or more particular projects, such as the Cocoa
application I'm writing at the moment, WorkStrip is an absolute
lifesaver, mustering and organizing the ever-shifting
constellation of applications, documents, and folders involved.
In short, even if this isn't a program that uses the mouse and
keyboard the way I do, it's a program that _thinks_ the way I
do. At the same time, too, tastes vary; you might actually find
WorkStrip's Dock-like, mouse-oriented interface just your cup
of tea. In any case, it costs you nothing to find out; a 30-day
trial version is yours for the downloading (4.8 MB).
<http://www.softchaos.com/downloads/downloadform.html>
WorkStrip X costs about $40, varying with the current exchange
rates for the UK pound. It requires Mac OS X; there is also a Mac
OS 9 version which I haven't tried, but which presumably offers
similar capabilities, albeit with a somewhat different interface.
PayBITS: Did learning about WorkStrip save you time and effort?
Show your appreciation to Matt with a few bucks via PayPal.
<http://www.paypal.com/xclick/business=matt%40tidbits.com>
Read more about PayBITS: <http://www.tidbits.com/paybits/>
Marketing Software, Part 2
--------------------------
by Mike Diegel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Have you done your homework from last week's article? In preparing
to market your software, have you done the research, readied your
product, and crafted your marketing messages? Good. Now, let's
talk about delivering the message and making the sale.
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06933>
I'll focus on online distribution and sales, because unless you're
prepared to make a six- or seven-figure investment, it will be
extremely difficult for you to put your software in a box and
get it on the shelf at CompUSA or Best Buy. So, you first need
a Web site where people can learn about your product, download
it, and purchase it. While a complete discussion of what makes
an effective Web site is beyond the scope of this article, there
are some guiding principles to keep in mind.
**Simple and Effective** -- First and foremost, you need to
establish the purpose of your site. Although the Web offers many
possibilities, you want to do three things and three things only:
attract visitors, turn those visitors into prospects, and then
turn those prospects into paying customers. That's it. Everything
you do related to your site should contribute to those goals;
otherwise, why do it?
Strive for a clean and simple site. A fancy Flash presentation on
your home page will baffle search engine spiders and cause them to
pass you by, wasting all the work you need to do to get included
on Google, Yahoo, or other sites.
<http://www.google.com/>
<http://www.yahoo.com/>
At the same time, your home page must state clearly what the
visitor will find there, and how to find it. Make good use of
your Web statistics reports to judge how well you're accomplishing
that goal. For example, I have a client whose site was clean and
simple, but it wasn't clear. When I looked at their Web stats, I
could see that the home page was near the top of the entry page
list, but it was also one of the top 10 exit pages. That's not
good. Combined with some other information, it meant visitors
were finding the home page and going no further into the site.
Another important design consideration to keep in mind is
scrolling. More than 90 percent of visitors never scroll
horizontally to see page content, and about 30 percent won't
scroll down to view any content "below the fold," or the bottom
of the window. A significant portion of your visitors could miss
any important information or links located in those places -
links like a Buy button, for instance.
**Build Awareness** -- To get customers to your site, you must
engage them in phase one of the buying decision-making process
discussed last week: the awareness phase. At this stage, the mass
media tend to be the most effective means of communication. That's
not to denigrate word-of-mouth. It simply means that word-of-mouth
takes on more significance later in the process.
In most people's minds, the three most common ways to drive
traffic to your site are search engines, paid advertising (and
here I include putting your URL on stationery, trinkets, etc.),
and free media, otherwise known as press coverage. You can also
learn a lot of other creative ways to drive traffic at sites such
as Trafficology or MarketingSherpa.
<http://www.trafficology.com/>
<http://www.marketingsherpa.com/>
The key to search engines is to make sure the keywords you select
are the ones that your customers are likely to use. Too often, you
can get caught up in industry jargon and assume that's the
language that everyone uses. Test your keywords by entering them
in some search engines. Do your competitors appear? Are the
results showing the types of sites you want to be associated with
in a customer's mind? If not, you need to examine your keywords.
Paid advertising online includes ads or sponsorships in
newsletters like TidBITS, banner ads on sites, and pay-per-click
ads, which also depend on keywords. For Sustainable Softworks, a
Mac developer I consulted with for nearly a year and a half, the
pay-per-click approach was the most effective form of paid
advertising, with targeted electronic newsletters coming in
second. Again, you must target and test for your audience.
If you buy a keyword on Google or Overture, you will likely drive
Windows users to your site. If you're a Mac-only developer like
Sustainable Softworks, you're paying for someone who might never
use your product, but remember that many Windows users will
download software at work for use on Macs at home.
<http://www.overture.com/>
Other than releasing updates, which I recommend you do every six
weeks or so, the single most effective way I've found to drive
traffic is media coverage. That's especially true for online
media, where a direct link to your site can be included. Every
time we sent out a press release about a Sustainable Softworks
product, we saw a significant spike in the number of software
downloads, even if only one media outlet picked up the story.
The field of media relations is another topic in itself, but you
should know that the Mac community is blessed with many Web sites
and traditional publications devoted to informing Mac users about
the latest and greatest products. Use that resource. (Start by
checking out Adam's "Hacking the Press" series starting in
TidBITS-539_).
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbser=1172>
Learn to write a good press release. You may have heard of the
traditional five Ws of journalism - who, what when, where, and
why - but more and more editors want to know the "how" of the
story as well; and who's better equipped to talk about it than
you? You can take an inexpensive course in writing for the press
through local adult education programs or community colleges. Many
local business groups offer seminars in the topic as well. If you
take the time to learn something about the journalism profession,
and can show editors by your releases and by how you treat them
that you respect what they do, you can see a tremendous payoff
in coverage of your product.
**Prospecting for Gold** -- Now that you've created awareness and
driven visitors to your site, you're ready to convert them to
prospects. At this point, the customer is gathering information,
evaluating the value your software has for him or her, and getting
into the trial phase.
Here you want to emphasize any kudos you've collected for your
work. Include links to press coverage and reviews, even if they're
for another product you've done. It's also valuable to quote from
beta testers (with their knowledge and permission, of course);
with a new product, those quotes may be all you have available.
As you collect feedback from prospects and customers (a subject
I'll come back to in a minute), ask for their permission to post
positive comments on your site. Psychologically, it's critically
important to a potential customer to know that other people have
used the product and approve of it.
What form should your software take for these prospective users?
In my experience, fully functioning trialware is the way to go.
I have nothing against shareware - it's a great idea and one that
has led to the creation of cool software that never would have
appeared otherwise, especially in the early days of personal
computing. But as a developer, perhaps you want to maximize your
selling opportunities so that you can afford to write more great
software. Do a little social engineering and avoid the word
"shareware." Too many people have come to equate it with
"freeware."
Resist the urge to cripple the trialware by disabling some
features. Give your prospects the chance to download a full
version of that terrific software you wrote. After all, why would
you not want a prospective customer to see everything your product
can do? Instead, build in a time limit of three to four weeks,
after which the software quits working unless the user purchases
a registration key. Alternatively, consider limiting the number of
times prospective users can launch your program - that eliminates
a potentially stressful or irritating deadline while still making
sure that people who want to use your program purchase it.
**From Try to Buy** -- Now that the software is installed on the
prospect's hard drive, how do you convert him or her to a paying
customer? _Follow_up_. At Sustainable Softworks, we created a
system in which we asked for customer information - on a voluntary
basis - and stored it in a database. Each day, I would go through
the records from seven days before and send those people a follow-
up email.
The message was low-key, simply asking if the software was working
properly and if there was anything we could do to help (even if
the customer hadn't yet paid). We included a reminder about the
trial period expiration and a link to our registration page.
After sending out thousands of email messages, the feedback
we received was overwhelmingly positive. Comments such as "I am
impressed at the focus on customer satisfaction," and "This is
the first time I have ever received email from a software
publisher that had a helpful and friendly, instead of nagging,
tone" were proof that the system enhanced the company's reputation
for good customer service. It was also the best way we found to
collect quotes from users that we could use for promotional
purposes.
But the system's real value was in the conversion of prospect to
buyer. We increased those conversion rates from 25 percent to 40
percent, depending on the product. In addition, we achieved
conversion rates much higher than the typical one percent.
Those numbers contributed directly to the bottom line.
We also devised a similar system to follow up with customers
who tried to register products, but for whatever reason didn't
complete the process. We were able to save a number of sales
that otherwise would have been lost.
**When It Works, Keep Working** -- Now you have a broad outline of
an integrated marketing and public relations program that cost-
effectively produces sales. There's just one more thing - once
you've gone through this process, do it again and again. Question
your assumptions. Study your results. And be sure to keep up with
the market by consulting additional resources, such as
Trafficology and MarketingSherpa, mentioned earlier, and the
AdMarketing discussion list and resource section of
Netpreneur.org. You can also email me at <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
for a free copy (in electronic format only) of "Media Relations
Made Simple," a short publication I created discussing low-budget
ways to achieve press coverage.
<http://www.netpreneur.org/>
Make this process an integral part of your business. The market
changes constantly, and if you want to be successful, you must
change along with it.
[Mike Diegel is a strategic marketing and public relations
consultant specializing in helping small businesses and other
organizations to more effectively use the Web. He can be reached
at <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>.]
PayBITS: Has Mike's expertise helped you market your product
more effectively? Consider sending him a few bucks via PayPal.
<http://www.paypal.com/xclick/business=mdiegel%40emortals.com>
Read more about PayBITS: <http://www.tidbits.com/paybits/>
$$
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