What if I told you that five changes to your software could increase revenue 25-50%?

It’s possible because of two facts: most trials don’t convert, and you’re too close to your software to see its obvious flaws.

The conversion rate from visits to sales according to a study presented by Andy Brice is around 1% with specific variations.  But the abandon rate on software trials is astonishingly high.  In an informal poll of a few software company owners I know, everyone agreed that 80-90% of downloads never become real trials.

In a way, that’s good news, because it means there’s lots of room for improvement.  Think about it – if only 20% of your potential customers make the leap from download to trial, shouldn’t it be possible to squeeze out another 5-10%?  That would be 25-50% more trials even with the same number of downloads!  And more trials means more revenue.

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.

The Intel® Business Exchange Software Store in Europe has just been launched, bringing a new sales channel for selling software to European countries – with localized sites for the UK, Germany,  and France (official launch to follow by the end of the month). Good news.

We are, of course, proud to boast that Avangate provides the hosting, billing and process execution of the new market place… that the Avangate eCommerce platform is the core engine of the European Intel® Business Exchange… More good news.

Focused on SMBs
Yes, indeed, Intel ® BX is focused on SMBs – providing an advantage for this market. Why was there a need for this? Because SMBs often struggle to find technology products, services and support that fit their particular budgets and needs. The Intel ® BX Software Store helps them quickly and efficiently find the software solution they need to help implement business solutions. That’s why the store features extensive product details and facilitates customer ratings and reviews.

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.

Recently I’ve been working on my next book – working title The Software Startup Success Guide – and I noticed that easily one of the most important decisions you can make as a startup gets practically no attention: What platform are you going to build on?

Back in the age of Bill and Steve, startups could pick any platform they wanted so long as it was either Microsoft’s or Apple’s. Nowadays, you as a developer who’s going to go down the Startup Road have a huge and sometimes confusing range of platforms to build on.

Just going with the default – whatever platform you happen to know best – makes about as much sense as walking up to the next girl (or guy) you see and saying let’s jump in bed. Maybe it will work out, maybe some magic chemistry will occur, maybe you’ll be scarred for life.

Picking a platform is the startup equivalent of marriage: some sense it’s the right match is more that a good thing, it’s a must-have. In this post, I’d like to enumerate quickly what as of 2009 those platform options are and offer a few ideas about how to evaluate your platform options. Two caveats:

• This is not from a programming point of view, but more along the lines of the opportunities and tradeoffs in my opinion each platform provides.
• Secondly, I’m totally ignoring gamer platforms, mostly out of abject ignorance. I’d welcome any comments as to what the prospects are for game startups of the various game console platforms.

A week and a bit ago I attended an Online chat about Twitter and micro-blogging with Bob Walsh. I was actually @ home with my two young children and had joined in late (there were transcripts provided after – very useful. Thanks, Neil).

While I was trying to catch up with what had been said and make sense of the conversation, I realized that no matter what the announced theme was, people taking part could find something interesting to say, share, comment, digress to other topics and overall enjoy the experience. 25 folks joining in an online conversation on a work-related issue and having a good time – this would be my summary of the whole thing.