In May 2009, IDC and Business Software Alliance released their sixth annual global software piracy study. It’s a useful insight that offers interesting data about the business development opportunities some countries and regions have.

Here are the major facts that stick out of this report:

• in 2008, out of the 110 countries studies, the piracy rate has decreased in more than half of them. This effect was mostly seen in Eastern Europe and some APAC countries;
• when looking at the global picture, the total piracy rate actually rose in 2008, continuing the trend set in the last years. This happened largely due to increasing PC shipments in high-piracy countries;
• the retail value of unlicensed software increased by 11% in 2008, including the exchange rates effect;
• the economic recession didn’t have an important effect on software piracy.

As I mentioned in my last post on how to recruit software affiliates, an important part of the recruiting process is the reason you give them to join your program. It may very well be a successful program with high commission rates, but sometimes this isn’t enough.

When trying to convince an affiliate to join your program (especially if it’s an important affiliate), nothing works better than something to welcome him with.

It’s not mandatory in any way, but like Geno Prussakov noted in his “Practical Guide to Affiliate Marketing” and from what I’ve experienced so far, an affiliate is easier to convince in joining a certain affiliate program if you offer her an incentive.

OK, so you have the software products to sell and you want to extend your sales force with minimal costs. Using affiliates is a perfect solution, but where do you find them? This is the first challenge that has to be faced by software vendors who are just discovering the affiliate marketing advantages and by newbie affiliate managers.

As I see it, the recruitment process involves 2 elements – finding / contacting the affiliates and the incentives you give them in order to join your affiliate program. Here are a couple of ideas in order to get you started.

When you sell software online, an important issue in the buying decision of the clients is the consistence and appearance of the website that sells, especially the shopping cart section. This is generated by the customers’ need to feel confident in your online store before they decide to buy something and give their credit card details.

But why is the shopping cart section so important?

Give it a little thought – how many of your conversions came directly from your website and how many from other websites directly in the shopping cart? That’s what we were also thinking :) – given the fact that many purchase leads enter directly into your shopping cart, it must be integrated with the rest of the website – e.g. the buyer should be able to see a “Contact” button, a link to a “Homepage” etc.

The main goal for a customized shopping cart is, of course, getting more conversions. This can be achieved very easily if you have the right tools to do it.

I recently did a research on what software vendors are doing in order to sell through affiliates. I looked on over 400 websites that sell software. After putting all the data together, the first thing that stands out is that most of the vendors haven’t implemented the minimum requirements in order to affiliate efficiently.

Most surely they would like to sell more through affiliates, but this isn’t going to “just” happen. Either they don’t have as many affiliates as they would like or they don’t help their current ones sell more.

Here are the key findings of my personal research:

• most of the vendors (55%) have an affiliate sign up page;
• just a couple of them (5%) are using a special email for affiliate matters;
• very few software vendors (5.5%) help their affiliates with marketing materials (e.g. banners, other web graphics);
• more than half of all software vendors don’t have any PAD files or they don’t update them with the affiliate section.

Vendors must understand they have to help their affiliates sell more through simple, yet effective ways. After all, it’s the vendors’ interest to get more revenue from affiliates, isn’t it?

Download free white paper: "Best Practices in Software Affiliate Marketing"

At any time, but especially during recession periods, a software vendor needs the most cost-effective tools that can bring him extra revenue or at least keep the sales volumes constant. He needs to have a good exposure of his brand and his product(s) on the Internet.

Affiliate marketing is one of the ways to go in the software business. The costs for doing such a campaign are low and the results can make the difference.

But how can a vendor attract affiliates that sell software?

Here are a few simple things to do in order to get the most out of an affiliate marketing campaign:

• Having an affiliate sign-up page on the vendor’s website
• Communicating through a dedicated e-mail address for affiliate matters
• Creating customized landing pages on the vendor’s website
• Sending marketing materials to the affiliates
• Being present on affiliate forums and blogs
• Keeping in touch with your affiliates

This is only the beginning. To be truly “affiliate efficient”, a software vendor must continuously monitor the activity of the affiliates and to pay them commissions according to their performance.

We’ve prepared a white paper: “Best Practices in Software Affiliate Marketing” (yes, it is free!) which will help you find out more about attracting affiliates, solving the channel problem and preventing affiliate fraud. We hope you’ll enjoy it and don’t forget to leave us some feedback on it.

Are you as “affiliate efficient” as you would like to be?