Internet Marketing Published date: July 3, 2008 More software sales with blogs and forums? Forums or blogs? Which one to choose? Bogdan Popescu, Online Editor, Avangate Internet Marketing, Published date: July 3, 2008 The problem of building communities like forums and blogs in order to achieve more sales has become a very fashionable and up-to-date topic nowadays. The war between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 hasn’t finished yet (or at least this is what seems to be the result of an ad-hoc research that we tried to conduct on the most popular software programs). We gathered below a list with some of the most common and popular software programs (besides giants like: Microsoft and Adobe) and we tried to see whether any connection can be made between their popularity and the fact that the developing companies use in their marketing strategy blogs and forums. The list was made up according to successful software tops such as those on download.com or tucows.com. Some of the software companies have no means of interaction with their clients; others have both blogs and forums. Product Norton WinRar Spyware Doctor DVD Cloner Cucusoft DVD to iPod Converter Kaspersky Power DVD Registry booster Quickbooks PRO WMware Dragon © 2008 Avangate Company Symantec WinRar PC Tools DVD Cloner Cucusoft Kaspersky Lab Cyberlink Uniblue Intuit VMware, Inc. Nuance page 1 Blog community.norton.com - Forum forums.symantec.com pctools.com/forum forum.kaspersky.com forum.cyberlink.com/forum quickbooksgroup.com/community vmware.com/communities www.avangate.com viruslist.com cyberlinkblog.wordpress.com blogs.vmware.com - Internet Marketing Published date: July 3, 2008 NaturallySpeaking Corel Rosetta Stone Vegas Movies studios Acronis True Image Nero McAfee Roxio Dazzle DVD recorder Final Draft MacSpeech Dictate TrendMicro Antivirus Spy Sweeper Corel Corp. Rosetta Stone Sony Creative Software Acronis Ahead Software AG McAfee Roxio Pinnacle Systems Finaldraft MacSpeech TrendMicro Webroot Check Point Software Technologies, Ltd. MailFrontier Lavasoft AB Citrix Systems, Inc. Grisoft SOFTWIN Borland VSO software Eset coreldraw.com/blogs avertlabs.com/research/blog blog.roxio.com/labs blog.trendmicro.com coreldraw.com/forums sonycreativesoftware.com/forums my.nero.com forums.mcafeehelp.com forums.support.roxio.com - ZoneAlarm blog.zonealarm.com forums.zonelabs.com/zonelabs MailFrontier Desktop Lavasoft GoToMyPc AVG antivirus Bitdefender Borland C++ COMPILER CopyToDVD NOD32 Antivirus lavasoft.com/company/blog eset.com/threat-center/blog lavasoftsupport.com freeforum.avg.com forum.bitdefender.com support.borland.com/community forums.vso-software.fr - © 2008 Avangate page 2 www.avangate.com Internet Marketing Published date: July 3, 2008 Avira Antivirus ArcSoft Showbiz Avast Antivirus WinZip Xilisoft video converter Stuffit Sunbelt Winamp BSPlayer ACDSee Privacy Suite RealPlayer iRocker F-Secure Mobile Security IsoBuster System Mecahnic Avira Arcsoft ALWIL Software WinZip Computing Xilisoft Corporation Mysmithmicro Sunbelt Software Nullsoft Bsplayer ACD Systems CyberScrub RealNetworks, Inc. Talking Panda F-Secure Corporation Smart Projects iolo Technologies free-av.com/community sunbeltblog.blogspot.com blog.acdsee.com realplayer.com/blog f-secure.com/weblog - forum.avira.com arcsoft.com/forum forum.avast.com sunbelt/Communities forums.winamp.com bsplayer.org/forum forums.acdsystems.com real.lithium.com/real forum.f-secure.com - The chart here represents the percentage of sites using blogs and forums respectively. In the first row we attempted to illustrate how many of the analyzed sites do have blogs and how many of them do not. Apparently, even in this web 2.0 overwhelming Internet, only 33.33% have integrated blogging in their online strategy as a way of promoting both the developing company and the products. On the other hand, the situation seems vice versa in the case of forums. Although no clear distinction between various types of forums has been made (e.g.: support forums were included), 54,17% still employ forums as a way to promote their company or products. © 2008 Avangate page 3 www.avangate.com Internet Marketing Published date: July 3, 2008 At a closer inspection nevertheless, if we calculate the sum of those using at least one of them, the situation changes: So, 58, 33% of the analyzed software developers employ at least one of these 2 methods. It seems therefore that software companies “like” to interact with their clients. Interacting with clients through blogs and forums is important judging form the various points of view like ROI or usability. More interaction with the client means more Return of Investment; similarly a usable website means more understanding on the part of the user. © 2008 Avangate page 4 www.avangate.com Internet Marketing Published date: July 3, 2008 Conclusion The bottom line is that for a software developer, it is of vital importance to use at least one of these forms in order to effectively communicate with the clients. Blogs, forums in general are sure to create the idea that there is really somebody behind the site, they are sure to build trust and readership and, finally, they are sure to help you sell more. It is of vital importance that you have the right attitude: even though you may have negative commentaries on your forum with regards to your person, it is important that you treat mistakes with much calm. However, building communities for business purposes may be hard to manage. If you want to make the most of such communities, you should know the rules of managing them right. *** Sign up now for the Avangate Digest Newsletter and receive our Internet marketing tips, shareware industry tools, techniques and resources as soon as they're released. E-mail this to a friend *** Copyright © 2008 www.avangate.com all rights reserved. This article was written by Bogdan Popescu, Online Editor at Avangate. This article may be reproduced in a website, e-zine, CD-ROM, book, magazine, etc. so long as the above information is included in full, including the link back to this website. Please e-mail at articles@avangate.com, before using the article. *** About Avangate Avangate provides solutions for electronic software distribution and reseller management, assisting software companies worldwide in successfully selling their products online and at the same time efficiently managing a distribution network. The company’s offer includes an eCommerce platform incorporating an easy to use and secure online payment system plus software marketing services and additional marketing and sales tools such as an affiliate network, automated cross selling options, software promotion management, real time reporting, 24/7 shopper support, and the ARMS reseller management program specifically designed for software sales. More information can be found on the corporate website, at www.avangate.com © 2008 Avangate page 5 www.avangate.com Internet Marketing Published date: July 3, 2008 Avangate Van Heuven Goedhartlaan 937, 1181 LD Amstelveen, The Netherlands Tel: +31 208908080 Email: info@avangate.com Fax: +31 202031309 Web: www.avangate.com .member of GECAD Group, delivering innovative IT solutions Worldwide since 1992 © 2008 Avangate page 6 www.avangate.com