It seems the interest for analytics in the software vendors community increases more and more, according to the requests I get by email. I believe in actionable metrics, so I decided to act and publish an updated version of the Analytics miniBible for Software Vendors.

No matter if you got the chance or not to download the first release, here are some changes and highlights in this analytics eBook for software vendors.

Switching to async tracking

When Google Analytics first introduced asynchronous tracking, a lot of people reacted as being one of the biggest improvements in web analytics in ages. The new tracking technology offers better accuracy and affects less (close to zero) the loading time of websites.

The Analytics MiniBible for Software Vendors offers step by step support on how to switch all your tracking needs to the new asynchronous technology.

Back in 1987, a group of independent software professionals created the Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP), with the mission of promoting the shareware marketing model and achieve a standard in the shareware industry that everybody could rely on.

Looking back at what they did, it’s obvious that they fully accomplished their mission: the “try before you buy” model is standard marketing for software.  The term “shareware” is free to use by everybody because of their efforts to protect it against trademark registration (just like SEO is free for all because of Rhea of Outspoken). The early American laws affecting software vendors have taken into consideration their say about it and correctly represented shareware vendors.

Unless you’ve been on holiday these past weeks, I’m sure you know by now that we are off to China again. Yep, we loved it so much last time and the feedback was so good, that we’ve decided to re-visit this fascinating culture (one of the oldest in the world!) that just happens to have to offer some of the best dishes on the planet :).

This time we are heading to Shenzhen, an area considered “The Valley” of China. Yep, that’s the center of the Chinese IT & software market.

So on Saturday, 5th of June, I’ll be sharing the conference floor with Tina, Avangate’s finest Asian market sales consultant;) and Andy, our coolest Chinese colleague. What am I saying here… if you are a software vendor from China, you might know these guys probably even better than me.

The debate topic this year: Conversion Rate.

Today the world celebrates Ada Lovelace Day (ALD), an international day of blogging to draw attention to women excelling in technology. Ada Lovelace is often referred to as the worlds’ first programmer, as she wrote a series of instructions for Charles Babbage’s proposed mechanical computer that would calculate Bernoulli numbers back in 1843.

The fact that the inventor happened to be a woman doesn’t necessarily make me feel prouder that I’m a woman, but I admit it’s a an argument I would probably bring on the table in a gender debate. On the other hand, I do find ALD to be a great opportunity to think about other wonderful women that I follow, admire and respect in the worlds of online marketing & software business.

It’s got to be the single-most asked question in the software business world. Beginning startups – both rolling in VC hay and bootstrapping – ask it. Existing software companies, as they get whacked around by a changing market (Mobile, where’d that come from?) and changing user expectations (You mean, I don’t just run in my browser?) ask it. The polite form of the question is, “How do I/we define what product to create?“. What they’re really saying is, how the hell do we invent (or re-invent) a software product that will sell like mad before we go broke like in out of business?

The traditional way to cope with this is,

1. Founder has brilliant idea,
2. Team works like slaves to bring it to market before anyone else,
3. Startup gets funded by VCs whom Founder sells idea to and lo and behold!,
4. the Software arrives at Market, to adoration and sales.

Except for the other 9 out of 10 startups whose software arrives to a vast collective yawn and are dead meat in 3 months.

What makes a person want to whip out their credit card and buy your software?

Hint: It’s not being nagged about how many days they have left in their trial every time they run your program.

It seems logical to nag the user.  Remind her that the trial is “time-limited, so act now!” like a fast-food commercial.  Remind her that she’s using your software for free, and doesn’t she feel guilty about that?

Sales people say “Pressure until they pay“, which for software trials means you should ask for money or at least guilt the user into paying. But you and I don’t like used-car sales techniques, and neither do your potential customers.