Friday, June 29, 2007
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Getting ready for Healthy PC...
... in the last 5% of our jam-packed PC Diagnosis Software
When it began?
usually planing of RXS products start before we actually start developing. SniperSpy was planned a year ago, but I finally put hand on it from December'05 and we released it on 6-Feb-2006.
Our Healthy PC - System Optimizer (HPC)(NOT correct name) plan started with my mail to James, 25-Feb-07, same day APC got 5 tucows rating.
Planing for applications that were to be included kept adding up, 4-Mar-07, was the first finalizing mail of the utilities we were planing to develop and whom will develop them.
12-Mar-07, was the official starting of HPC, I demonstrated and explained the idea of the software to the office people. Then I put: 1 MAY 2007 as bold on board and said it would be the completion date. Only 45-48 days and 20+ utilities, sounds impossible, I was set to make it possible.
Scan Disk was the first utility I coded, which Alpha-1 was completed on 15-March-07, Our Project Management Graph kept rolling as I completed all the 6 utilities I had taken in hand, even though 1 May was too fast date for release, we were at strong position then.
I had my final engineering examination in the 1st-2nd week of May. I'd to force myself to not-open the IDE, but of course I can't resist. Same week 8th May 2007, another company, brought a low-budget mimic of the software.
I learned the lesson to keep my excitment to myself.
But as James wrote in the newsletter, "This minor setback actually gave Zeeshan Alam and our team of coders more time to "tweak" the program into a masterpiece."
HPC is by now actually a masterpiece, whether its in the utilities, quality of them, overall feel of the application, price, support, and everything that makes it the best choice. We understand we are competiting with established players: and we are not going to take any chances.
One of my favorite author Diana Gruber had said: the last 10% of the software takes exactly the same time as the first 90%. We have covered 95% and we are on go to cover the rest journey.
We are going to release the utilities pack in June. Each utility in itself is worth the price of the entire suite, you can think, you bought one and paid zero for 21+ others.
Cheers to RXS that had developed 21+ system utilities in no-time; (and we are not talking about media organizers, sticky pads applications, LMAO), we are talking about products that give your PC a clean bill of health!
The countdown has begun...
Sunday, June 03, 2007
Top Ten Ways to Promote Software
... which I think are important.
In no way this is an exhaustive list, only the 10 important stuffs one should try to increase his sales.
1. Shareware:
In itself this is huge topic, maintain and update a list of shareware directories. Submitting them is a very tedious job, while some of them will require you to do the manual submission yourself, you can hire out a service to do the job for you. Look for "Shareware Submissions" @ Google.com. The conversion rates are anywhere between 0.2% - 5%, which is of course worth the money.
2. Google Adwords
Adwords work. But if you know what you are doing, you will make it work for you too. You can teach yourself, or hire an expert. Look for Adword Qualified service providers.
3. SEO
Optimize and work on listing your web site for your target keywords. It may take 3-12months of continuous patienate work. But eventually it might save 1$ per click at Adwords.
4. Email Marketing
Sign up your visitors for News-letters and keep them informed. You can setup Auto-Responder to remind your users about usefulness and features of your software. System Mechanics does an excellent job with Autoresponders when you download it. GetResponse.com is a good service to get.
5. Press Release
Let the media know you built a high-tech pain solving software. If writing is not your piece of cake, hire one: DpDirectory.com is good.
6. User Awards/Testimonials
Let the visitors know how usefull your software has been to live people by putting testimonials and positive feedbacks you receive. Putting awards from shareware sites is also nice, even better if it is from Download.com or Tucows.com or similar.
7. Online Demo
FLASH demo gives the visitors chance to actually have a journey of the software w/o bothering to download the trial. Very useful to use them.
8. Partnering / Affiliates
Have an affiliate programs, your affiliates' sites might bring more sales than your actual sites. Recognize and be social with them.
9. Web site and Software Look
Keep a fresh and updated look at the web-site, looks sells. Stop using Turbo C++, if you have to use Borland, use Delphi. Use VC++ MFC but add CodeJock!
10. Customer Support
Live support / Phone support gives more guarantee to users, if not feasible make sure you have a Support form and there are responses sent to customers. Your customers can make or break the game.
Good Luck.
In no way this is an exhaustive list, only the 10 important stuffs one should try to increase his sales.
1. Shareware:
In itself this is huge topic, maintain and update a list of shareware directories. Submitting them is a very tedious job, while some of them will require you to do the manual submission yourself, you can hire out a service to do the job for you. Look for "Shareware Submissions" @ Google.com. The conversion rates are anywhere between 0.2% - 5%, which is of course worth the money.
2. Google Adwords
Adwords work. But if you know what you are doing, you will make it work for you too. You can teach yourself, or hire an expert. Look for Adword Qualified service providers.
3. SEO
Optimize and work on listing your web site for your target keywords. It may take 3-12months of continuous patienate work. But eventually it might save 1$ per click at Adwords.
4. Email Marketing
Sign up your visitors for News-letters and keep them informed. You can setup Auto-Responder to remind your users about usefulness and features of your software. System Mechanics does an excellent job with Autoresponders when you download it. GetResponse.com is a good service to get.
5. Press Release
Let the media know you built a high-tech pain solving software. If writing is not your piece of cake, hire one: DpDirectory.com is good.
6. User Awards/Testimonials
Let the visitors know how usefull your software has been to live people by putting testimonials and positive feedbacks you receive. Putting awards from shareware sites is also nice, even better if it is from Download.com or Tucows.com or similar.
7. Online Demo
FLASH demo gives the visitors chance to actually have a journey of the software w/o bothering to download the trial. Very useful to use them.
8. Partnering / Affiliates
Have an affiliate programs, your affiliates' sites might bring more sales than your actual sites. Recognize and be social with them.
9. Web site and Software Look
Keep a fresh and updated look at the web-site, looks sells. Stop using Turbo C++, if you have to use Borland, use Delphi. Use VC++ MFC but add CodeJock!
10. Customer Support
Live support / Phone support gives more guarantee to users, if not feasible make sure you have a Support form and there are responses sent to customers. Your customers can make or break the game.
Good Luck.
Advanced Parental Control Wins...
5 out of 5 Rating @ Download.Com
APC has become RXS's first product to be awarded 5/5 rating @ CNET's Download.Com, out of 147 software listed in Monitoring Section, APC is one of the three to have received this award!
:Check it out:
APC has become RXS's first product to be awarded 5/5 rating @ CNET's Download.Com, out of 147 software listed in Monitoring Section, APC is one of the three to have received this award!
:Check it out:
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