slightly off-topic: software marketing issues

[Scott Kane]

Hi Viktoras,

> Can anyone recommend any good books or online resources on how to market 
> and sell software products, arrange beta testing, choose suitable type of
> licensing, avoid pitfalls (unsatisfied customers, money-back and related 
> things), creating product website, user groups, forums, mailing lists,
> software registration database; source code protection means and policies, 
> and what-else-to-take-care-of... Thanks in advance!

Yep.  I'm assuming you'll be allowing demos for download?  If so the best 
resource I know of is http://www.asp-shareware.org  at around US $100 it's a 
goldmine, I'm a member (ex Vice President and Director so I'm biased <g>) 
and the stuff the members know (over a thousand members) is incredible with 
hundreds of posts a week in the newsgroups (private).  Don't be put off by 
the word "shareware" as it no longer has a great deal of meaning,  It's more 
about small development companies now.  The next best is 
http://www.aisip.com at around US $30 a year.  I'm a founding member and 
while it is good it doesn't have anywhere the level of detail that the ASP 
has, but then the ASP is twenty years old.  ASP members include the makers 
of WinZip, Paintshop Pro and even Microsoft.  Free resources include the 
OISV http://www.oisv.com  - I'm also a founding member there but the info is 
nowhere near as good as the others as most of the members are programmers 
(where as the other groups include marketers etc as well as programmers) and 
of course I moderate news:comp.software.shareware.authors on Usenet where 
you are always welcome to ask questions.  Note though that the authors who 
know what they are talking about generally don't share info in the OISV or 
the public newsgroups.  They tend to save it for members of the first two 
groups and the ASP in particular.  I do intend to do some articles for the 
Rev newsletter on software marketing in the future, just busy right now 
working on something else.

Best Regards,

Scott Kane