лллллллллллллллллллллллллллллллллллллллллллллллллллллллллллллллл NEWSLETTER UPDATE лллллллллллллллллллллллллллллллллллллллллллллллллллллллллллллллл Do you have a press release, an idea, a disk, a shareware catalog or a need for a program which relates to the shareware software industry? Shareware authors and vendors would like your information! Many subscribe to this publication! Send information and disks for possible inclusion in this newsletter. Submit text in ASCII on disk so we can import it directly into this package! Please note that older material from previous SMS newsletters, containing HIGHLY valuable marketing information, has been moved to the SMS archives disk which is available from SMS. Consult the GOODIES section of SMS for information on ordering this archived newsletter material. -------------------------------------------------------------- Newsletter: Spring 1992 Edition -------------------------------------------------------------- Seattle is overcast at this time of year. The pace is slow and the potted geraniums inside my house rely on an early Spring. Seattle is an improbable place for the silicon collar workers who populate the algorithm foundries at Microsoft, Aldus, Buttonware, Quicksoft and the raft of local high tech ventures who live and breathe for two reasons: produce code, market code. I usually extract core information for SMS from industry sources: shareware disk catalogs, press releases, telephone conversations with key vendors, contacts with authors and CompuServe messages. Hardcore idea surfing. It's curious, then, that the theme for this issue came from the February 19 edition of a local community newspaper, Eastside Week. A cover note promised an article on the high tech industry by Robert X. Cringley who writes for Infoworld Magazine and is, according to computer industry insiders, the ultimate computer industry insider. Cringley rarely writes about shareware. This time something buried in the article struck me. Cringley suggests you have to go back to the classic comic strip Pogo, the wise and witty possum of the Sunday comic strip which originated during a time in America when comic strips had something to say. One passage from a Pogo strip has the frazzled possum opine: "We have met the enemy and he is us." Everybody has heard this classic line at one time or another. But it is the next panel which reveals something about shareware. Pogo simply observes, "We are surrounded by insurmountable opportunity." Here's what I deduce from Chairman Pogo: The computer industry is the penultimate high frontier. It is where we are heading and will continue to head into the near and distant future. By obvious connection, shareware will continue to play an explosively larger role as more people acquire VERY inexpensive computers. 40 million computers are in consumer hands with more soon to be purchased. The insurmountability in this equation is that commercial software has the high ground while shareware, with its higher value and broader selection, languishes in relative marketing obscurity. That may be changing, however. If we can fix the problems, that is. For authors, an "insurmountability factor" arises from the vast quantity of shareware packages in place with which they MUST compete. A contrarian approach offers stunning market potential. Careful niche market research for untapped buyers and poorly programmed packages reveals financial return in tantalizing proximity. The same goes for shareware disk vendors who can spot a precise niche amidst the hundreds of other vendors. There are only two choices in this business: grow or decline. There are no plateaus. Shareware can be volatile. And lucrative. An opportunity factor involves a key window of time: one or two years. The time it takes any vendor or author to stay in the saddle with a package or vending operation before financial return kicks in. You can get into shareware for a few pennies. But for large income potential you have to STAY in and market cleverly. In some ways shareware is not yet a commodity item. In other ways it has moved past commodity status to a higher marketing frontier: anyone can play the game now that compilers, computers and a little cash is all it takes to do shareware. Insurmountable change. As soon as you have finished coding your package, printing your vendor catalog and shipping your orders, a newer compiler, mailing list, stack of author disk submissions or whatever puts you back at square one. No sooner have you finished the job when, insurmountably, you must start improving again. Excrutiating change. Probably faster than the commercial software market. Which can be an opportunity to leave your competitors in the dust if you think about it. Don't ignore the opportunity factor. The rates of return on shareware disk vending and authoring can be VERY good. 500% to 1000% markup or return on investment is not uncommon to hot vending and programming operations. There can never be ONE Bill Gates of the shareware industry when in fact MANY of us can become Bill Gates simultaneously. Another insurmountable opportunity. The try before you buy nature of shareware. How can authors REALLY encourage users to register the shareware they use? There are ways. In a future edition of SMS we'll discuss some options. For shareware USERS insurmountable opportunity also arises from too many shareware packages to compare, too much atrocious documentation, too many bugs and too much opportunity for a really great package to be lost for lack of adequate marketing. And that sinking feeling that computers and shareware can produce vast productivity increases but the average user cannot understand common shareware fixtures like self-extracting files, readme documentation and authors who have moved with no forwarding address. This could be the lingering insurmountable opportunity which continues to weaken this business - I don't see many folks repairing the damage in this area. Not the BBS systems, not the computer clubs, not the ASP and not the vendors. Shareware is GREAT stuff. Unfortunately that isn't good enough, given the state of the industry from the user's perspective. Even this is an opportunity for the right vendor or author. Here I would have to change the wording from insurmountable opportunity to inevitable opportunity. Pogo was half right and half wrong. For the record, Robert X. Cringley's book is aptly titled Accidental Empires: How the boys of Silicon valley make their millions, battle foreign competition and still can't get a date. Published by Addison Wesley. Get a copy if you want to understand the computer industry and where it will be in the years ahead. Cringley, a former journalism professor at Stanford reveals that in fact Robert X. Cringley is a pseudonymn and in fact the third person to write under that byline for Infoworld. Other tantalizing Cringley insights include the following: "Marketing is the stimulation of long term demand by solving customer problems . . . . Four major trends are about to shift PC users into warp speed: standards-based computing, RISC processors, advanced semiconductors, and the death of the mainframe." Where does this fit into the shareware scheme of things? A pattern emerges: Cringley asserts the mainframe will fade from history at exactly midnight, December 31, 1999 because original program source code for millions of dollars of mainframe software has been lost in shifting from one mainframe to another after years of use. Many of these mission critical software programs have key algorithms missing which can deal with date changes from the 20th to 21st century. Original mainframe programmers did not suspect that their programs would outlive them. This is serious stuff with a mainframe payroll or accounting system. The mainframe date algorithm bug and the lack of source code virtually dooms many mainframes since businesses will have to trash their software, start from scratch with new source code and move to a desktop, mini or microcomputer environment. Either that or attempt "digital archeology" by reverse engineering and updating antique code. Cringley is on to something that sounds very beneficial for the shareware industry. Mainframes will fade. Desktops will blossom. And everyone will be scrounging for GOOD software. As we approach the year 2000, chips will be faster and smaller than our current workhorse CPU's. This will be VERY good for shareware. The more people who have computers, the more shareware opportunities there will be. Simple logic tells us that shareware, for reasons of cost, availability and no-nonsense "try before you buy" licensing will eventually grab greater market share - if author's and vendors don't muddle things too badly in the meantime. The state of the art Intel 80486 contains 1.2 million transistors. The 80586 will have three million transistors. Extrapolating out, and there are no technical reasons why this is not possible, we could have 96 million transistors on a CPU chip by the year 2,000 - according to Cringley. The processing power dropped in our laps will be off the scale. With this much power one can hardly imagine the type of shareware we will be able to create. And sell. Turning the news about advanced silicon chips upside down, my suspicion is that commercial software companies will suddenly find small shareware companies as competitors in a global market since chips, programming languages, exploding niche market opportunities and new interfaces will create even more wealth for astute shareware authors and vendors. Cringley also chronicles the decline of new blood in the software and hardware industry which indirectly spells more good news for the shareware sector. The pioneers who develop operating systems and hardware are in their middle age. New university graduates and immigrant engineers only flesh out an existing technical force. It's not that we have too much old blood, it's that shareware will become the underlying software plasma as talented programmers find that, with the right marketing mix, there really is money to be made in shareware. If they are willing to REALLY work at it. Let's conclude by saying all signs point to a busy horizon for shareware. Three things will count for success in the shareware industry: 1) Product quality, 2) marketing savvy and 3) global connections to agents, authors and vendors. Let's move away from the future and into the present . . . Several news items popped up on my desk which will have SIGNIFICANT impact on the shareware industry. The recent implementation by CompuServe of a new basic rate package priced at a flat $7.95 per month will bring DRAMATIC change to the shareware industry. If authors and vendors see the potential, that is. The new flat rate package allows for transmission of about 60 messages per month to Compuserve members plus receiving an unlimited number of messages. Similar messaging capabilities allow you to send a FAX anywhere in North America - including Mexico and Canada - for about $1.00 per page using your modem to transmit an ASCII file; no need to own a FAX machine or FAX board! This change alone could allow authors and vendors to "dicker and deal" on a global scale for SERIOUS financial return! Until now the "pay as you go" plan at CompuServe has deterred many shareware authors and vendors from frequent messaging. Information sharing and timely market flow is the lifeblood of any software marketing strategy. The picture of a global shareware community of authors and vendors able to keep in touch inexpensively is now a REAL possibility. For example, two days after I converted my membership to the new plan, I began sending FREQUENT messages to Steve Lee, British publisher of PC Shareware Magazine as well as Nick Thompson, UK shareware agent for many authors. We'll talk more about Nick and Steve later, but the point is that I am contacting key shareware movers and shakers in the United Kingdom for pennies in communication costs compared to the equivalent FAX, postal, telephone or old CompuServe pricing system. Bytes don't get much cheaper than this. Obviously CompuServe designed the package in response to similar flat rate deals at America Online and Prodigy, but this new package which also includes access to other basic services such as Grollier's Online Encyclopedia, Peterson's college search database, Consumer Reports, news, weather, games, shopping and their incredibly useful CompuServe Magazine. By the way, my personal CIS ID number is: 72020,2176 if you need to drop me a note. CompuServe can be reached at 800/848-8199 or 800/848-8990. 5000 Arlington Centre Blvd, Columbus, OH 43220. More good news department: The new shareware magazine, Shareware Update, debuts early this Spring under the management auspices of shareware vendor Software Excitement! currently based in Central Point, Oregon. The publication will be edited by respected industry columnist Bud Sadler, who was formerly senior editor of three computer magazines in the IDG chain: PC GAMES, PC LAPTOP, and COMPUTERS IN SCIENCE. Bud was also chief copy editor for BYTE Magazine. Shareware Update Magazine, POB 2454, White City, OR 97503-9901. Writers, shareware news and submissions are actively sought. Financed by Software Excitement's solid cash flow and extensive customer mailing lists, Shareware Update Magazine is off to a solid start with subscription cards offering a free trial issue to be included in a Spring 1992 mailing to approximately 1.2 million recipients of newly revised Software Excitement! catalogs. Actual catalog printing was 1.5 million. In addition, 100 thousand Shareware Update subscription promotion cards will be placed in the May COMPUSERVE MAGAZINE. This is VERY serious marketing. The new magazine will be about 30 pages and will be eventually offered to everyone on a 500,000 count mailing list which Software Excitement! maintains. This in house mailing list and existing catalog mailing allows Shareware Update to promote its first printing affordably - at a cost of about $10,000 to print and bind subscription promotion cards in the existing Software Excitement! catalogs - compared to about $340,000 for a similar effort which would include printing, postage and name list rental for a comparable magazine promotion not having access to Software Excitement's existing resources. The seven new catalogs from Software Excitement! include: IBM Prospect, IBM House, IBM Windows, IBM Games, Macintosh, Apple, and Amiga. All display colorful screen dumps of shareware packages. One catalog specializes in windows only applications while others relate to games, utilities and business applications. Software Excitement! specializes in a limited offering of the best shareware and produces small, colorful catalogs mailed out to approximately 8 million PC users annually. Software Excitement! has 50 employees in two locations and $6 million in annual sales. Current reports are that the Windows-only catalog is outpulling all other catalogs as a percentage of catalogs shipped. Screen dumps of shareware programs outpull orders for disks 2 to 3 times compared to programs listed without screen dumps! Since going to color, order volume has risen 10%. For the volume of catalogs printed, color did not cost more compared to one or two color catalog printing, according to industry sources. Note that Software Excitement! can also process registration fees for shareware packages via an online CompuServe catalog of REGISTERED shareware packages. Includes credit card processing, 800 toll free order service, CompuServe email, FAX or telephone notification to the author of orders, payment checks each Friday. Cost to author is 20% commission (minimum $4.00) per package. Other options include author drop shipping or processing through Software Excitement! warehouse - with SE! paying the shipping costs in the latter case. Agreement can be terminated by giving 30 days notice. Contact SE! for an application form. This issue of SMS adds a large number of key overseas and foreign shareware contacts to main list of vendors (DATABASE.EXE). Nick Thompson of the Thompson Partnership in the United Kingdom and Francis Burns of The Langway Company in France are to be thanked for providing this information. The new second edition of WRITING AND MARKETING SHAREWARE by ASP author Steve Hudgik is now out. A revised and expanded classic which all shareware authors should read. Tips on registrations, pricing, copyrights, testing, documentation and quality. 304 pages. 25 illustrations. ISBN 0-8306-2552-6. $18.95 plus $3.00 shipping from the Steve Hudgik, POB 974, Tualatin, OR 97062. VOICE: 503/692-3732 FAX: 503/692-0382. Steve is also in the final stages of summarizing the results of this year's shareware author survey and may supply results to SMS readers in the future. This survey plots the trends of what is REALLY happening for shareware authors and makes for fascinating reading and a reality check on the profits and pitfalls of shareware authorship. Dave Beiter of Ritner, Kentucky, again shares with us an update to his DOLL vendor rating system in the letters to the editor section in this edition of SMS. If you want to see how your favorite vendor stacks up against the HARD COLD LIGHT OF TRUTH, see Dave's vendor rating system. Dave has told me in the past that the SMS vendor rating system (A, B, C) is not quite the REAL truth. Dave's system of rating vendors is, shall we say politely, the NAKED truth. The file CAVEDATA.EXE contains a larger superset of the data sorted three ways: by vendor name, vendor quality ranking and vendor responsiveness. Deep regrets department: I must note with some sadness that the beautifully crafted Alternative Software Bulletin Magazine (Binary Press, Brooklyn, MI) will be ending publication soon or merging with another shareware magazine. According to editor, Steve Enzer, the costs of printing, marketing and advertising have driven the magazine to less than profitable conditions. The magazine's detailed reviews of shareware packages were and remain some of the best in the business. According to Steve, current readers will have the remainder of their subscriptions transferred to PC-SIG-affiliated Shareware Magazine. Steve plans to continue writing articles for the shareware industry and we wish him every success. What's new in technology? Three items briefly. The Multibus Manufacturer's Group has been working on a new telecommunications/computer technology called "hot swap". Meaning? You can pull a card out of a system while running and swap in another without affecting operations in progress. Ideal for task sensitive critical data installations and routine maintenance. Micro Industries (Westerville, OH) already has products in the works. Intel and Siemens are working on the concept also. Sharp Electronics of Japan has signed a deal with Intel to build an $800 million chip fabrication line for Intel flash memory chips in Japan. Intel will market the chips in America with Sharp distributing the resulting chips in Japan. Flash memory will be very central to computers and software in the future. Ironically, Toshiba invented the technology of flash memory but Intel developed the concept and pushed it to global market in the most cost effective manner. Want to REALLY protect your system from virus damage? New idea from Trend Micro Devices Inc, Torrance, CA (800/228-5651) provides clever system protection by use of both memory resident software and "immunizer" hardware plug which mates to your PC's parallel port and contains a NONVOLATILE EEPROM chip which stores copies of your system boot sectors and partition tables on an ongoing basis. Real clever idea. Do these developments affect shareware? Not immediately, but you do get a sense that the future is racing towards us quickly and should be here in the next ten or fifteen minutes . . . Note that I have removed one category and created a new category in the SMS mailing list. If you use the SMS mailing list, you will be familiar with the fact that type "B" means BBS while type "D" means shareware distributor. The old "A" category is gone. It has been merged into the new category type "K" for Key shareware contact. Perhaps a better description is the folks who represent the "Who's Who" in the shareware industry. Since some of these people are agents, brokers, translators and other entities, we need a new type. Also note that the type field can now have MORE than one digit. For example, you might see type K,D meaning key contact who is a distributor. Or possibly type K, a key person. Or type K,B,D key bulletin board who is also a disk distributor. To locate all the key movers and shakers, simply request that your database search for all type "K" entries where the letter K appears ANYWHERE in the field. I guarantee you'll find some surprising contacts. And if you can suggest any new entries for type "K", please do so! I might be tempted to offer a registered SMS edition if you can provide sufficient quantity and quality for the new type "K" data entry. Reread the SMS file DATABASE.TXT for explanation of the mailing list. Note that Bob Ostrander, founder of Public Brand Software has been elected as President of the Association of Shareware Professionals. Inside sources reveal that a bit of rough sailing was encountered since Bob initially announced his intention to resign from the ASP Board of Directors in an open letter on the ASP's CompuServe forum. The three part message noted the problems Bob had experienced with the board and chairman Barry Simon who has since departed the board. Bob is a fundamental NICE GUY within the shareware industry and I think we can expect to see some positive energy and overdue changes in the ASP in the year ahead. Bob continues to run his new venture, Software Coop, as well as plan for the Summer Shareware Seminar in Indianapolis this Summer, plus act as a consultant to Public Brand Software, now owned by Ziff Davis. Apparently Bob has more energy than an 80486 processor without surge protection. Page ten of the March 1992 of PC Shareware Magazine (UK edition) shows photo of Bob with appropriate beer bottle and large grin - I think the ASP is going to rediscover a long overdue need: FUN. Bob shared with me the tentative agenda of the Summer Shareware Seminar which I will reprint a bit later in this newsletter. A letter crossed my desk from shareware author Terry Towle of Antioch, TN a few weeks ago. It is reprinted in unabridged form in the SMS letters section. A couple of paragraphs illustrate an UNDERUSED marketing method: vertical marketing. The point: if you are an author who religiously submits disks to vendors, clubs and BBS systems, you may be missing the mark by miles. Consider the POWERFUL MARKETING LESSON here. Dear Jim, You and your readers may be able to benefit from my experiences and avoid my mistakes. The first shareware program I wrote is titled SP-FOOTING. It designs reinforced concrete spread footings. Footings are what support buildings for all you people who don't care that much about construction/engineering. Talk about a vertical market! How did I go about marketing it? I uploaded it to 7 BBS's that had engineering sections in various parts of the country on 2/22/91. I also sent it to 7 disk vendors on 2/22/91. Results as of today - two registrations, one in September '91 and one in December '91.It took 7 months to get my first check -but it was SO SWEET! It took 10 months to get the second check. How did I do with the shareware vendors? LOUSY. What went wrong? 1. I wrote a program that would only interest structural engineers and maybe a few architects. Thin vertical market! 2. Only sent it to 7 vendors and 7 BBS's. Actually only made it into one catalog that I know of. 3. Didn't bother to do any vertical marketing. 4. Program wasn't flashy with pop-up windows, pull-down menus, etc. It just gave the right answers. 5. Registration was only $20.00 which included the source code, thick bound manual and handworked examples. The copying and postage costs ate up most of the $20.00. Lucky I didn't sell more. 6. Gave up on shareware vendors. WHAT I DID RIGHT: 1. Program was tested by several registered professional engineers before being released. 2. Documentation was extensive and accurate. 3. Included handworked verification problems so users could follow my methodology. 4. Gave them something substantial for their registration fee. My second effort was a Lotus 123 template that did earthwork cut/fill calculations. You would have thought I learned my vertical market lesson. Some people are just hard-headed, but at least I had a use for the program. I uploaded it on the same 7 BBS's and sent a copy to PBS back in November '91. Never heard from PBS, no registrations to date and although I only asked $10.00, I don't expect any now. Think about it - who is going to register a template?! My third effort and PAY ATTENTION, this could open up a market of free advertising for you. In my construction work I use a scheduling program extensively. I wrote a small program that makes life a little easier for people using the program. Not much, just a little. It took me two weeks of spare time. They have to be using the scheduling program for a specific task only (Vertical market again!), but hey - I wrote the program to make my life easier. Anyway, the company distributes a newsletter to users of the software. I wrote the editor a short note saying I had this utility available for $20.00 to anyone interested and would the editor include it in the newsletter. I had 50 calls the first day! In 3 months I sold 70 copies to just about every major construction firm in the U.S. (end of abridged letter) To add a postscript to Terry's insights about the potential of vertical marketing, your public library carries the ever-popular Thomas Register and Contacts Influential which list industries by SIC code or type. The Thomas Register is also available online from CompuServe. Your librarian should also be able to point you to references for magazines and periodicals for any given field or industry sector. In addition, at the END of this newsletter section of SMS I have listed some online resources for specialized databases which might lead you to other industry niche markets. Speaking of authors of shareware programs, note that DB-DUPE, the SUPERLATIVE duplicate checker for mailing lists and dBase format files has recently been updated and now includes a VERY USEFUL registration bonus of DB-ZIP which cross-checks mailing lists for accuracy of zip codes! I have also included a letter from DB-Dupe author Kevin Clark in the SMS letters to editor section. You can obtain a shareware copy of DB-DUPE by checking the SMS file GOODIES.TXT. Christopher Noyes, member of our informal SMS Net author uploading group (see RAPID.TXT), is an author with an interesting program and some VALUABLE information to share about registrations he has received for his ASTRO package which provides astrology analysis. Richard has kindly shared his statistics on program source and registration totals for ASTRO which might give you some valuable marketing clues. I hope other authors will be able to share similar data with SMS in the future so that more may benefit! You can contact Richard about ASTRO or these statistics as follows: Christopher Noyes Software, 718/625-2262 718/625-2262, 28-Douglass Street, Ground Floor, Brooklyn, NY 11231. Next follows a compilation of registration statistics: VENDOR/COMPANY QUANTITY REGIST TOTAL INCOME 3rd Eye BBS 1 $49.95 ADV SW 1 $69.95 Altamante Sprin 1 $39.95 APS 2 $111.95 BBS 47 $2,540.95 BL Software 1 $54.95 Brother 2 $69.95 Budge Shareware 1 $60.00 Byte 1 $54.95 Calif Freeware 5 $334.30 California Shar 1 $49.95 Cape Software 4 $306.95 Catalog 3 $145.85 Channel 1 2 $139.90 Choice Marketin 1 $39.95 Cloud 9 BBS 1 $69.95 Comp Mart 1 $39.95 Compute Shopper 1 $39.95 Computer Fair 11 $579.45 Computer Shoppe 1 $39.95 CWI 9 $514.50 Data Outlet SW 1 $84.95 Data Trust 1 $49.95 Deaver/Cook PD 1 $39.95 Delphi BBS 1 $65.00 Distant Market 1 $74.95 DOS Shareware 1 $52.95 Exchange BBS 1 $69.95 Exec PC BBS 1 $72.95 Finans-Butikken 1 $69.00 Firesign 3 $132.90 Florida PC Lib 1 $54.95 Fotomanual SRL 1 $39.95 FPCL 1 $39.95 FRIEND 17 $1,054.30 Gemini 49 $2,690.95 Gemini BBS 1 $69.95 Gemini Software 2 $99.90 Gift 1 $0.00 Gift from 1 $0.00 Gift to Chip Uh 1 $39.95 GIFT 1 $0.00 Guelph BBS 1 $49.95 H.G.Shareware 1 $72.95 HG Shareware 2 $102.90 HPSL 10 $499.55 Local BBS 1 $69.95 London Drugs 1 $69.95 Magazine ad? 1 $54.95 Matrix Almanac 1 $69.95 Micro-Mart 1 $44.95 P.C. Arcade 1 $54.95 P.C. Software 1 $39.95 P.D.Warehouse 1 $39.95 PC Arcade 6 $304.75 PC Serve 2 $79.95 PC Shareware 1 $39.95 PC Swap Meet 1 $69.00 PC Works 1 $55.00 PC-ARCADE 2 $119.90 PC-EXEC 1 $69.95 PC-OHIO 1 $69.95 PC-SERVE 2 $94.95 PCNL Holland 1 $55.00 PD PACS 1 $39.95 PD Shareware 1 $54.95 PD Software 2 $79.90 PD Softwarehous 6 $254.70 PD-Service 1 $60.00 Pro Softw Monte 1 $69.95 PSL 8 $442.60 Public Brand SW 1 $29.95 Raintree 1 $39.95 Rainware 11 $429.50 Referral 1 $49.00 Sector Systems 1 $72.95 Selective Software 2 $139.91 Selective Ref 1 $69.95 Seltec 7 $392.75 Shareware Labs 2 $154.90 Shareware+selec 1 $49.95 Show 1 $39.95 Shows Unlimited 1 $49.95 SIM-COM Service 1 $29.95 Softcell 1 $80.00 softw. show 1 $39.95 Software Labs 66 $4,317.75 Softwarehouse 1 $39.95 STR Computers 1 $54.95 Sun 1 $49.95 Sun Software 4 $179.80 Sunmap BBS 1 $69.95 SWAP MEET 5 $263.85 Swapmeet 1 $54.95 TSL The Software Labs 6 $402.70 UIUC.EDU archiv 1 $69.95 Unitech 1 $69.00 User BBS 1 $69.95 Walden's 1 $49.95 ALL 368 $30,163.27 Please share your registration statistics with SMS so that more authors can benefit! If necessary, identity of author can be kept confidential! Same goes for vendors who wish to publish program ordering volume. (end of statistics report) Next, a marketing opportunity for shareware vendors and authors involved in financial and spreadsheet packages. Lotus publishes a postcard pack or "deck" with advertising mailed to customers who are 62% top or middle managers in companies having more than 1,000 employees. Lotus proclaims that the folks on their mailing list - probably derived from industry sources and their own popular Lotus magazine - will buy $8.4 billion in PC hardware and $550 million in software in the next year. I've seen shareware vendors KWN systems (Freehold, NJ) and Reasonable Solutions (Medford, OR) advertise in this card deck, so there must be serious shareware purchasing potential for those using the Lotus Card Pack advertising program. Further information: Cathleen Cavanaugh, Lotus Card Pack, POB 9160, Cambridge, MA 02139-9930 617/225-6803. Perhaps the HOTTEST NEW TREND among disk vendors is rack sales. I am getting MANY calls from existing and startup disk vendors who prefer to bypass the mail order disk vending route - which is somewhat saturated anyway - and setting up or negotiating rack sales of shareware direct to consumers from small convenience stores, printshops, college bookstores, discount shopper clubs and more. This probably will be the next EXPLOSIVE expansion phase for vendors in the 90's and it raises public visibility of shareware another notch - always a good thing. Industry disk vendor PC-SIG and Shareware Magazine have fired a competitive salvo at low budget disk vendors by slashing disk prices to $2.00 in the latest issue of Shareware Magazine and including one of the largest shareware "mini-catalogs" I have seen in any recent issue of the magazine. Other recent changes at Shareware magazine have seen the recent departure of long time editor Marilyn Young and VERY recent departure of editor Claudia Graziano. Word from sources in close proximity to Shareware Magazine is that the March-April 1992 issue of the magazine was a MAD DASH effort which reflects internal changes and personnel "adjustments." On the upside, the magazine IS GETTING BETTER under new Editor-in-Chief Michael Callahan. In fact I was pleased to see a writeup on page 9 of that issue noting the Johns Hopkins award for my own PC-Learn package. On the downside no mention was made in the same issue of Shareware Magazine of the errors made in the Jan-Feb issue regarding this package, The $hareware Marketing $ystem. Although I sent a letter to the editor, reprinted in the last SMS letters section, nothing was printed to correct Shareware Magazine errors such as the erroneously reported $129 registration price for SMS. Shareware Magazine may also be facing competition from larger shareware magazines published in the UK such as Shareware Shopper and PC Shareware Magazine. It should be interesting this year to watch shareware publications evolve. Let's spin the dial and talk about news from disk vendors. Address and telephone information for the following vendors is contained in the SMS file DATABASE.EXE. Search for the address by scanning the main SMS list by company name combined with location or name of the person to contact . . . The recession in America does indeed affect our industry. SMS reader Richard Bonin of Kernersville, NC reports that the large disk vendor PD Select of Gastonia, NC has gone out of business. Richard spoke to the PD Select owner in December 1991 when staff had been reduced from 8 to 2. By late January or early February, 1992 the phone had been disconnected and mail directed to PD Select was being returned. The main SMS mailing list has been revised to reflect the change. Small details make all the difference. Disk vendor Shareware Plus of Carmichael, CA sent me their latest catalog and note requesting input and corrections to my program listings. But the nice marketing wrinkle they add is $1.00 gift certificates in exchange for address of each PC compatible user referral you send them. In addition, they motivate users to REGISTER SHAREWARE by offering the choice of one additional free disk for each program registered with any author. Shareware Plus is a vendor with a small but well organized catalog. I urge authors to send them a disk and put them on your quality vendor disk update mailing list. Hope other vendors see the wisdom in these small, but nice marketing touches. New vendor with THREE LOCATIONS and good registration potential is Discount Computers which maintains locations in Monroe, Middletown and Miamisburg, Ohio. According to President Edwin Morrow, this vendor retails computers as well as carrying about 350 shareware titles. A file is installed on all disks explaining both HOW and WHY shareware should be registered. Suggest you send them a disk! to their central Middletown, Ohio office. New shareware vendor on the scene: Southern Enterprises of Marion, VA. Owners Roger and Barbara Boardwine promise professional distribution in quantity, explanation of the need to register for customers who use shareware and courtesy catalog sent to each author so that program description can be checked. Drop them a disk in the mail soon. New vendor with hot market potential. Send a disk to GOOD TIMES HOME VIDEO CORP of New York. Large chain of video rental stores setting up rack display sales throughout their chain! Mr. Kris Thomson is the contact person. I recently received a large envelope with a coop mailing from Bill Dickson, president of SHAREABLE SOFTWARE who arranges coop mailings for groups of authors. Coop is the way to go for many small authors and you might want to contact Shareable since their enclosures and VENDOR QUESTIONANNAIRE are slick and very professional. See detailed press release from Shareable later in this newsletter. Their address also in the mailing list database. Another new disk vendor entry for your disk submission is FACTORY DIRECT of Metairie, LA. Mr. Doug Ellingson is getting their opertion up to speed and URGES authors to submit a disk! They promise to actively promote to their customers in the Louisianna area. Good potential and they seem honest and sensitive to author needs and responsiveness. Vendor with ORIGINAL IDEAS: Professionware of St. Petersburg, FL. Features most current version of shareware packages, full ACCURATE descriptions of shareware programs direct from the author, RETAIL RACK SALES PROGRAM, UNIQUE VOICE MAIL catalog so that customers can call in and hear about the program IN THE AUTHOR'S OWN VOICE and mailbox for authors at no charge with message length up to five minutes. The voice mail message about the program from each author is set so it can be UPDATED so authors can run registration specials, comments about new program updates, etc. Professionware can also record the message for the author if preferred. Contact Dean Vander Woude, President, Professionware. Clever idea! And not to be outdone in the ORIGINAL IDEAS department you might want to make note of another new vendor with some REALLY NEW concepts. THE SHAREWARE CLUB of Duvall, Washington is on to something. Authors can set up a special free BBS account with this vendor which provides: Sales tracking - vendor tracks your shareware sales and posts it to YOUR email box on their BBS, includes info on whether customer purchased via mail order or downloaded. Product returns - find out if your disk was returned by dissatisfied customers. Customer support - consult your email box if customers complain of problems running or installing the program. Monthly newsletter - shareware reviews, new releases, updates. AUTHORS CAN WRITE ARTICLES FOR THE NEWSLETTER - submit articles on disk or post via email. Altogether a pretty hot package. As a side note, observe that this startup is located in Duvall, Washington - home of industry giant Gemini Marketing and shareware author operation Expressware. Something unique is cooking in this tiny town! Duvall is sprouting into a "mini- shareware" marketing and development hub. Lawrence Backstrom is Director of Marketing at The Shareware Club which also prefers to use a pre-printed author submission form to aid processing of submitted disks. A new BBS and disk vendor has popped up who specializes in investment related and financial shareware: RGJ Systems of Provo, Utah. Send SYSOP Bob Jarvis a disk if your shareware fits that particular niche! Addresses for BBS systems are pretty rare, so this is a nice addition to the SMS mailing list! Bob is editing and publishing an investment newsletter distributed on the Wall Street West BBS which also includes integrated communications and newsletter viewing software. Advantage Plus Distributors have several new products for startup disk vendors. Review the following press release. Advantage Plus can be reached at 813/885-1478 and is also listed in the SMS database. Their Shareware Solutions CDROM is a complete shareware distribution business for storefront, mail order, nmetwork or BBS use and includes both a CD as well as disk-based catalog. Ownership of the CD includes license for BBS and buinsess use. Quality disk selections are reprodouced exactly as received from the authors. Includes easy to customize floppy Disk Catalog containing entries describing nearly 3,000 disks of software direct from authors. 80% are less than one year old. Disk descriptions include performance rating and hardware requirements. Expands to over 2 Gigabytes. Published quarterly. $149/single issue or $400/year. Why spend hours and $$$ to assemble a disk library when $149 gets you into the disk vending business? Advantage Plus has also released a three CD set of over 2,500 shareware programs, most direct from the author for those wishing to retail CD-ROM disks to the public. Each CD is easy to use, network friendly, contains directory program of contents and individual program requirements. CD's include Education Master CD-ROM with over 1,000 education program. Game Master CD- ROM with over 500 games. Business Master with over 1,000 business related programs. Introductory reseller pricing begins at $60 for two sets of 3 CD's (6 CD's total.) Droege Computing of Durham, North Carolina is an unusual vendor who is new to disk vending. Originally specializing in consulting and training for the medical and technical industry, Droege is releasing a dazzling catalog of over 125 shareware programs, many with a medical focus plus a large variety of general utilities and mainstream applications. The core focus of the library of shareware will be medical software - an area in which Droege has long excelled with custom vertical market applications. Authors are urged to submit their packages whether medical or not - all categories welcome! Contact Mike Hillerbrand. GAMES vendor for authors writing for the games/entertainment market: GameKing of Huron, OH. Keith Vlasak, owner. Authors working in this market should submit a disk to Keith. New vendor in Ravenna, Ohio who offers retail shareware, mail order, BBS and sells computers: Dave's Place. Vendor for those interested in the Philippines market: Mr. Eduardo Guzman of E & J Global Enterprises. Can handle registrations and vending. Staying with the international market, in New Zealand a good disk vendor is HAMSOFT which began as a Ham Radio or Amateur Radio club some years ago and got involved with shareware in a big way. A focus of the group remains amateur radio - a good marketing channel for authors focused on this market niche. Their library grows at the rate of about 25 to 50 disks per month according to club coordinator Anthony Briggs. A menu driven catalog is available and virus checking is rigidly enforced. Users are frequently informed to register programs which are in use. A cover screen to this effect is added to all disks. Send them a copy of your disk! Another hot outlet for your disks submissions in the international market is the large Computer Time Store in Delta, Britsh Columbia, Canada. This computer retail store also features shareware and actively encourages author submissions. Contact Marianne Farmer at Computer Time. ASP disk vendor Shareware Outlet is expanding again with new stores in Ogden, Utah (3880 Kiesele Ave, South Ogden, UT 84405 801/399-1100) and Corvallis, Oregon (101 - 21st St NW at Monroe, Corvallis, OR 97330 503/758-5424). New and improved best of Shareware Outlet catalogs are slimmer, feature more new shareware and better organization. Top programs have expanded descriptions and moved to front of catalog. Older programs have slimmed or one line descriptions and positioned at back of catalog. A new BBS system (The BBS or TBBS) has replaced the old system which can still be reached at 206/646-0886. Authors should keep disks updated with the corporate office in Bellevue, Washington. The new Public Brand Software catalog is out - Vol 8, No 1. Clean graphic look which reflects the continuing upgrade by new owner Ziff-Davis. The new Ziff-Davis "look and feel" is also seen in the large back page advertisement for the PC Computing Guide to shareware, another Ziff publication written by Preston Gralla. Turning the pages of the catalog, some informational tidbits jumped out worth sharing. On page 31 of the catalog PBS notes some good ideas for shareware which needs creation: Hotel/motel/resort reservation system, speed reading course, graphics-based stamp cataloguer, daycare center records billing, nursing home management, windows laser printer controller, autocad libraries, postscript tools for pascal and C, needlecraft/quilting layout, budgeting system for movie/video production, backup/restore system which runs in background. Also note the continuing popular PBS submission contest which awards either $100 worth of disks or $50 worth of disks for newly submitted programs. As mentioned in earlier editions of SMS, Public Brand will be hosting the second annual Summer Shareware Seminar June 19 through 21 in Indianapolis, IN. Detailed information on the Seminar including agenda and awards Banquet can be found at the end of this article and were submitted by Bob Ostrander via CompuServe link as TENTATIVE working schedules at the time this edition of SMS was published. Computer Outlet, disk vendors in Orlando, Florida have also sent along their updated catalog which has grown to over 65 pages. I am using their new author advertising system which allows shareware programmers to purchase advertising space immediately below their program listing in the Computer Outlet catalog. Full, half and quarter page advertising space is also available. This is a good idea which gets authors greater visibility and helps vendors subsidize catalog costs. Computer Outlet is also moving into CD ROM titles at fairly attractive savings. Everything from the CIA world book to a 21 volume encyclopedia. Tsunami Software of Redondo Beach, CA has a BRILLIANT IDEA. $100 instant credit form for shareware customers. Works like this. Fill out the credit application on the back of their catalog. First time customers require $25 payment with order. Thereafter pay just $25 per month on outstanding balance. No annual fee. No interest payments. Must be 21. No available in Alaska, Hawaii or outside continental US. Neat idea! Wish more vendors did this. Niche market disk vendor of the month award to: Shareware Source of Greenville, SC. Owner Pete Steveson offers shareware disks to the market for HOME SCHOOLING PARENTS (teaching children at home) and also school conventions across the country. Pretty amazing niche! Send him a disk if your shareware fits his profile! Disk Vendor Kevin King of Disk-Count Data in Sacramento, CA has a few worthy marketing wrinkles. His BBS system, MY FAVORITE BBS, (clever name!) maintains a test description file on each program in the author's own words. Many descriptions are over 30 lines long. No membership fee and first time users can call and download on the first use. Kevin's program, FOR HOME AND PROFIT, which includes interesting money making ideas is moving well through vendors, but over 80% of the followup on that package is through BBS echo mail. Kevin thinks that BBS systems probably move and REGISTER a higher percentage of shareware than any other channel. Whenever Kevin sees a new upload pop up on his board, he WRITES the author asking for permission to distribute the package and a late update if applicable. One author from Georgia was so impressed they called long distance to Kevin's board to upload their program which took a solid twenty minutes of connect time at their expense. Kevin also sent along a few additions to the BBS list for the Sacramento area which have been added to the SMS mailing list for all authors to share. Send a disk to the Atlanta PC Users Group Librarian Stanley Plager in Stone Mountain, GA. The group is one of the largest clubs in Georgia and also maintains a BBS with over a gigabyte of online storage. ASP vendor. The Organization of Shareware Writers and Distributors located in Union City, California solicits memberships from interested vendors and program submissions from authors. Fees solicited are $250 for basic vendor membership. $350 for advanced vendor membership and $450 for deluxe vendor membership. Member services include discount pricing on labels, displays and diskettes, a monthly mailing service, new program releases, support, free access to a toll free BBS ($18.00 per hour for program downloading), capability to advertise affiliation with the organization including cutouts, logo and .com file with membership information suitable for copying to saleable diskettes. Contact Mr. Vance Venable or Mr. Benjamin Drake. Finally, San Diego disk vendor Soft A'Ware is moving further into the rack sales arena along with other vendors. Owner George Van Valkenburg is establishing outlets on the east coast with rack sales in a variety of retail outlets. Initial estimates are that the local retail store will earn 20% on sales, the local vendor who supplies the retail outlet will receive 20% and Soft A'Ware will receive the balance less costs. Next a quick tip for those interested in disk submissions to BBS systems. LARGE BBS located near a university campus of over 45,000 students. The Voice in Stadium Village BBS, POB 14786, Minneapolis, MN 55414-0786 BBS Tel: 612/378-0946. Adding to news from the BBS community, note that THE BBS CALLERS DIGEST can be obtained by calling 800/822-0437. A monthly magazine of about 40 pages dedicated to the modem user/BBS caller. Loads of shareware reviews by Uncle Hank, caller profiles by Lana Fox, RelayNet articles by Mike Brunk, TBBS by Phil Becker, PCBoard represented by Richard Kozik and Steve Catmull. News releases, books, BBS info and more. Our thanks to Uncle Hank's Shareware Review Newsletter for this tip. Women in shareware. There are some SMART women in shareware out there, for example Diana Gruber, senior programmer at Ted Gruber Software and Darlene Wagner of disk vendor Wagner Enterprises. With that focus in mind here is a quick tip for women considering shareware and needing a resource: The federal Small Business Adminstration partially funds 25 demonstration centers nationally which advise women entrepreneurs who want to start or grow a small business. Small fees are charged but are well worth it. Most centers offer one-to-one counseling on all aspects of business from raising money to accounting to marketing. A free list of the 25 demonstration centers can be obtained by contacting SBA, Office of Women's Business Ownership, Demonstration Project Sites, 409 Third St SW, Washington DC 20416. Money saving tip. I have mentioned this disk supplier before, but a repeat is necessary. Want to purchase USED recyclable diskettes VERY affordably? Example: fourteen or fifteen cents per 5-1/4 inch floppy? Contact Ann Deaver Enterprises, 2897 Gavilan Drive, San Jose, CA 95148 408/274-5795. Ann purchases overruns and previously used disks which are BETTER quality than cheapie disks from most media suppliers. Ann's disks have better surface gloss, lubrication, and lower error rates than second rate disks from China and Taiwan. All you do is slap a blockout label (which Ann can also supply) over the original disk label and you are in business. Here's something simple related to shareware marketing for authors and vendors. Dress up your 6 x 9 inch paper disk mailing envelopes with a little printed message! My following batch file uses a standard utility (printc from the Scanlon SEBFU batch file utility set) to send printer control codes to output double high, double wide advertising messages on the face of disk mailing envelopes. You can use just about any printer control code utility similar to printc. I actually have a huge linked batch file print registration letters, registration number, diskette sleeve messages and so forth. Notice how different typefaces are used on my panasonic 1124 printer as I proceed down the face of the 6 x 9 inch envelope. By the way, you can order the SEBFU batch file utility set containing PRINTC from the SMS GOODIES.TXT section of SMS. Here's the batch file: rem Next line initializes prtr, sets for small typeface rem and prints return address printc 27 64 24 27 120 1 27 107 1 echo $hareware Marketing $ystem>prn echo PO Box 1506>prn echo Mercer Island, WA 98040>prn rem Next line produces a few blank lines printc 10 10 10 10 rem Next line prints postal message echo DON'T BEND: SOFTWARE - DON'T BEND: SOFTWARE>prn rem Next item skips a few lines printc 10 10 rem Next, set printer to double high, double wide, underlined printc 27 87 1 27 119 1 27 69 27 45 1 27 115 1 27 65 18 echo The $hareware Marketing $ystem is HERE!>prn echo Over 4,000 key vendor addresses and>prn echo MASSIVE Shareware Marketing Newsletter>prn echo Public Brand Software says:>prn echo "This software rates a trophy Award!">prn rem Next line forces envelope to eject printc 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 rem Next line resets printer prntc 27 64 24 rem That's all folks Shareware packages of note (many of which appear in the SMS GOODIES section) have recently been upgraded. Contact Plus, the venerable and feature-rich contact manager is now better than ever with a tutorial and host of new features. Likewise, the BOXER text editor has also been updated and is turning out to be a marketing success story for author David Hamel. See the GOODIES section for further shareware package update and release information. Fast takes in good reading. Consider grabbing the book MAKING IT ON YOUR OWN by S. Norman Feingold and Leonard Perlman, published by Acropolis Books. Over 400 cutting edge ideas for businesses and marketing you've NEVER seen before. Business ideas like computer tutoring, human spare parts matching service, divorce mediation, truffle nurseries. $12.95. Sorry I don't have an ISBN number, am assuming your book vendor can track it down for you. Next shareware notes from around the globe. Address and telephone information for following contacts in the SMS file DATABASE.EXE. George Margelis, owner of the Australian disk vending operation Budgetware sent me a nice note on CompuServe a short while ago regarding his visit to the U.S. He will be landing in San Francisco near the end of March and then driving up to Seattle April 3. Should be some interesting information exchange regarding the Aussie shareware market and the potential for authors to increase registrations since George can act as an Australian agent to handle these matters from his office in Newtown, Australia. News from my sources is that George will be launching the premier issue of his new Australian shareware magazine in March called Alternative Computing Magazine. Readers will be served in both Australia and New Zealand. I will be meeting with George and other authors during the Seattle leg of his trip, and will update you on George's insights in the next edition of SMS! George also maintains a U.S. postal address if you want to ship him a disk update inexpensively! Address in the SMS database under BUDGETWARE. France is an interesting market for software. But there are pitfalls as with any foreign software venture. A key contact in France is Mr. Francis Burns, Langway S.A.R.L Company, 7 Avenue du Granier, 38240 Meylan, France. Tel: 76411939 or 76411315. Langway, which has 3 employees, specializes in translations for industrial software development companies which make control systems, measurement devices, toll collections systems, sound and voice recording retrieval boards and so forth. However Langway can also convert software packages and translate and "localize" them for the French market. Localize is a hot word in the software and shareware international community. It means not only converting the words of your packages, but also providing suggestions for the menus, look, feel and handling of the package for a foreign user. Example: in Japan the familiar Lotus spreadsheet package is usually set to display a grid over the number display which is a "localized" preference of Japanese users. In the U.S. we usually prefer a blank screen with cell address bars above and to the left of the display. Localization is the key. Back to observations and discoveries about the French software market. Mr. Burns notes that 1) shareware is probably not a lucrative market in France. Not enough incentive to register and general distaste for shareware with its nutty menu and file conventions which vary widely from package to package. 2) French users want the package to work CLEARLY AND SIMPLY, and do not have ANY patience for fiddling around. The package MUST be in French to even warrant a glance. 3) Therefore my PC-Learn package will probably be translated and localized for France by Langway but be released as a commercial package with Langway handling advertising, sales and promotion. 4) Retail software prices in foreign countries are MUCH higher than U.S. prices. Mr. Burns speaks with some authority since he has also designed and released other software packages - for example, Astromart a commercial astrology program which has received HIGH marks in the commercial French software press. Astrology software is a BIG deal in France. Special thanks should be given to Mr. Burns who kindly shared a a list of European disk vendor addresses which have been appended to the main SMS database. I'll keep you posted on proceedings from the French quarter. I recently received a registration for my PC-Learn beginners computer tutorial from the Sultanate of Oman in the Gulf. Other authors might want to follow up on this one. Mr. Tim Hatch (Scientific Institute for English and Computers, PO Box 26717, Nizwa, Sultanate of Oman) is setting up a series of courses on computers for beginners. Needs shareware for course offerings. Curiously he also asked me for permission to reprint ALL of PC- Learn onto paper for government approval of class materials. The point I read between the lines is that in Muslim Middle East countries, STRICT religion-mandated limitations are imposed on printed and transmitted materials. You might want to contact Tim if you have something pertinent to education which is shareware. Potential for further registrations as his students scatter your disk about the middle east. Want to increase your registrations AND BENEFIT YOUR FELLOW MAN? A recent letter from Peggy Ferguson, Executive Director of the STEP Program of Canada (POB 497, Lower Sackville, Halifax Co, Nova Scotia, Canada, B4C 3G4 902/865-6170 FAX: 865-6448) outlines her unique use of shareware. Peggy coordinates a non- profit Canadian government facility known as the Sackville Training and Employment Program. It is a computer assisted learning facility using the PLATO system and encourages shareware donations to help train unemployed individuals and high school dropouts. Typical courses include life and work skills, basic math, high school skills, reading, writing, science, social studies, bedford accounting, lotus, dBase, manual accounting and data entry, wordperfect, basic computer literacy. Shareware disk submissions ENCOURAGED! Switching from Canada we hop next to Britain and the UK shareware market. Nick Thompson of the Thompson Partnership is a key player on the British shareware scene. He represents U.S. and foreign authors in the U.K market and acts as a full service agent to include package distribution, promotion, packaging and registration. Current ASP president Bob Ostrander recommended I contact Nick - a noteworthy recommendation indeed. Nick was also kind enough to share an extensive list of UK shareware disk vendor addresses which have been added to the SMS database. Nick Thompson can be reached at: The Thompson Partnership, Churchcroft, Bramshall, Uttoxeter, Staffordshire. ST14 5DE England Tel: +44(0)889 564601, FAX: +44 (0)889 563219 CIS: 70007,5560. I am also reprinting in the letters to the editor section the text of a blank contract which Nick uses in representing shareware authors. Very enlightening and could provide outline for your own contract design when dealing with foreign shareware agents and brokers. I am completing negotiations with Nick (via Compuserve link) to represent both PC-Learn and SMS in the UK market. Next, news regarding the Summer Shareware Seminar. Quite a bit of additional SMS news follows this information, so keep reading! From Bob Ostrander: An updated preliminary detailed schedule for the Summer Shareware Seminar follows. Please note that these people are NOT confirmed panel members except those marked >. Those marked ? are pending reply The others are just ideas based on who I expect will attend. This area is very flexible right now. The 1992 Summer Shareware Seminar in Indianapolis is a confirmed go for June 19th through the 21st. Friday and Saturday will be full days and it will conclude with more sessions on Sunday morning. Last year 210 people attended; this year we anticipate 400. This necessitates a split of the forums into two tracks. This and hosted receptions on Thurs and Fri evenings will keep everybody busy. There are planned sessions for new and experienced authors, disk distributors, BBSs, and user groups. The emphasis will be on learning how to make the business of shareware more profitable for everybody. The panel discussion format with audience participation will be retained. Scheduled for Saturday evening is a gala dinner where the Shareware Industry Awards will be presented (organized by a committee of authors). This will honor the best and most innovative shareware products over the last 10 years. More complete details of who, what, etc. will be constantly posted in ZNT:PBS section 7 and fliers will be mailed out in March. I'll be glad to give more information via email or feel free to call me at 317-856-6052 (voice) 10a-8p eastern time. Bob Ostrander Tentative schedule: Thursday, June 18 1:00p-4:00p Open house at PBS (2 miles from hotel). A shuttle bus will run from hotel lobby to PBS. 2:00p SIA Selection panel meets 7:00p-9:30p Registration open in Hotel Bar 7:00p-?? Unofficial Get-together in Hotel (ASP Sponsorship) Friday, June 19 9:30a-2:30p Registration open (Newcommer's Track) 10:00a-11:00a Writing Better Software (tips for ease of use) Tom Guthery - Animated educational series > Eric Isaacson - A86, Zipkey > Marcia Meier - PBS > Paul Mayer - Z-Pay Payroll Systems - Grab + ??? 11:15a-12:15p Hints from the Pros I (general marketing tips) > Nels Anderson - Mah Jongg, etc. > Gene Davis - Datamicro Inc - Lotto Prophet > Ross Greenberg - Software Concepts Design - Flu_Shot+ > Joe Kertschmer - Tea Time Software - TypeTrek ? Rudy Ramsey - Rams' Island Software - InContext 2:00p-3:00p Association of Shareware Professionals (the shareware trade association introduces itself > Gary Elfring - Chairman of the Board > Paul Mayer - Board of Directors > Ron Roberts - Author Membership Chairman > Eric Robichaud - Vendor Membership Chairman 3:15p-4:00p Preparing your Distribution Version (making it usable by everybody) > George Abbott - Pro*Dev Software - Pro*Dev Quote > Bob Burns - PBS > Jim Green - Software Testing Laboratories > Steven Hudgik - Homecraft > George Pulido - PC-Sig 4:15p-5:00p Writing Better Documentation (making it usable by everybody) > Steve Enzer - Alternative Software Bulletin > Jerry Olsen - free-lance writer > Rob Rosenberger - Barn Owl Software - PCF Dial > Dennis Scarff - PBS Sigrid Vaubel - PC Doctors (Experienced Track) 10:00a-11:00a Coping with Growth (becomming a full-time company) > Dave Berdan - Expressware - File Express > Gary Elfring - Elfring Soft Fonts > Paris Kariaholios - Trius - As Easy As - Randy MacLean - Formgen - Formgen > Marshall Magee - Magee Enterprises - Automenu 11:15a-12:15p Publicity from the Writers Viewpoint (hints from experts) > Michael Callahan - Shareware Magazine > Preston Gralla - Ziff Publications > Steve Townsley - PC Shareware Magazine (UK) ? Trudy Neuhaus - Ziff Publications > Paul Mullen - free-lance writer > Jerry Olsen - free-lance writer 2:00p-3:00p Public Relations (advertising - free and paid) > Rozalia Deborde - Hooper International - TCB > Ross Greenberg - Software Concepts Design - Flu_Shot+ ? Lisa Landa - Ziff Communications > Jim Perkins - Formgen - Formgen 3:15p-5:00p Hints from the Pros II (more hints and tips (and a break in the middle) ? Sidney Bursten - Sub Rosa - VP Info > Rozalia Deborde - Hooper International - TCB > Paris Karahalios - Trius - As Easy As > Dave Berdan - Expressware - File Express > Marshall Magee - Magee Enterprises - Automenu > Scott Miller - Apogee Software Productions - Keen > Jim Perkins - Formgen - Formgen > Tom Rawson - J.P. Software - 4DOS > Sandy Schupper - Brown Bag Software ? Bob Wallace - Quicksoft - PC-Write 5:30p-10:00p Display Booths open 7:00p-10:00p Hosted Reception (Sponsored by PBS and Display Vendors) Saturday, June 20 9:30a-2:00p Registration open (Distributor's Track) 10:00a-11:00a The Disk Vendor Business (how to be profitable in a changing world) James Carvin - CWI > Mike Comish - Software Excitement > Jim Green - Shareware Testing Laboratories > Erv Salski - PC-Sig > Terry Ramstetter - PBS 11:15a-12:15p Interacting with Authors (for Vendors, BBSs and User Groups) > Dave Burton - PBS > Adrian Mardlin - Nildram Software - Flexiback Plus (UK) > Eric Robichaud - Rhode Island Soft Systems - Blank-It > Charles Schell - Unicorn Software - SoundZ > Dan Veaner - Emmasoft - Super-Maint 2:00p-3:00p The BBS Business (how to be profitable) > Nels Anderson - Xevious BBS Ron Brandt - Satalink Info Systems > Jay Caplan - The Consultant BBS > Jim Edwards = PBS-BBS Neil Fleming - Canada Remote Systems > Jack Rickard - Boardwatch 3:15p-4:00p CD-ROM Considerations (should you be in this market?) Dennis Burke - Quanta Press John Dilday - Advantage Plus Distributing Laura Falk - Falsoft Duane Franke - Digital Publishing (Shareware Gold) > Steve Landau - PC-Sig George Mankin - HDIS Inc. 4:15p-5:00p Rack Vending (shareware to the masses) > Bill Dickson - Shareable Software International > Jim Green - Shareware Testing Laboratories > Paul Jacobsen - Digital by Design (Author's Track) 10:00a-11:00a Going Retail (getting your product in stores) > Paris Karahalios - Trius - As Easy As > Randy MacLean - Formgen Corp - Formgen > Marshall Magee - Magee Enterprises - Automenu ? Bernie Melman - Sub Rosa - VP Info > Ron Roberts - Brightbill-Roberts - HyperPad 11:15a-12:15p Interacting with Distributors (for Authors) > Bill Dickson - Shareable Software Intl > Jay Caplan - The Consultant BBS > Bethy Couzzo - Software Excitement > Craig Kerwien - ZiffNet > Joyce Mosier - PBS Bob Sanborn - APCUG 2:00p-3:00p The International Marketplace (getting overseas representation) > Steve Lee - Shareware Publishing (UK) ? Ian Mackay - Manaccom (Australia) > George Margelis - Budgetware (Australia) > Nick Thompson - The Thompson Partnership (UK) Serge Tremont - Software International (Spain) 3:15p-4:00p Registration Incentives (what works and what doesn't) Ken Flee - Jamestown Software - QFiler > Rich Harper - RGH Software - TTime > Dave Snyder - MVP Software - Robomaze Gordon Wanner - Starlite Software - Galaxy Lite > Sandy Schupper - Brown Bag Software 4:15p-5:00p Problem Applications (tough shareware markets) Mark Haney - Klassm Software - Skyglobe > Everett Kaser - Solitile, Snarf, Sherlock > Gary McNutt - Retailware - The Retailer ? Jeannine Wolf - Browse/2 6:30p-? Eric Isaacson's First Annual Shareware Waterslide Party 7:00p-11:00p Shareware Industry Awards Dinner Sunday, June 21 10:00a-11:00a Legal Aspects of Shareware (your questions answered by an expert) > Lance Rose - Copyright and Trademark Attorney 11:15a-12:00n Technical Support (satisfying your customer) > George Abbott - Pro*Dev Software - Pro*Dev Member > Jeff Frownfelter - PBS Jim Hass - Microfox - HDM IV ? Ken Mocabee - Advanced Support Group > Steve Twonsley - Shareware Marketing (UK) ? Bob Wallace - Quicksoft - PC-Write 1:00p-3:30p ASP Membership Meeting and Luncheon End of schedule listing. Next, awards banquet details: Shareware Industry Awards ``10th Anniversary of Shareware'' Objectives P/R for the industry Recognition of achievement Encouragement of excellence/new authors Awards Custom Design High-tech look One winner only - no runners up Presented on stage Venue Adams Mark Hotel 2544 Executive Drive Indianapolis IN 46241 (317) 248-2481 Date & Time During Summer Shareware Seminar Saturday, June 20, 1992 7:00 - 8:30 dinner 8:30 - 9:30 awards 9:30 - ???? entertainment / bar Awards Night Catered banquet Dress: semi-formal Price: $20.00/person Organization SIA and SIA logo to be owned by SIA Foundation to be incorporated in Indianapolis. First Board of Directors to be composed of Steering Committee members: - Mike Callahan - Paris Karahalios - Randy MacLean - Bob Ostrander - Jim Perkins SIAF will be responsible for organizing and operating the awards as an industry-wide event on an annual basis into the future. It will also control the use of the logo, sponsorship funds and other property associated with the awards. Bob is initiating the incorporation process in Indianna. SIA Logo SIA logo has been developed by Mike Coman of Shareware Magazine. Lance Rose has undertaken to do the legal work associated with obtaining a trademark on the logo. Sponsorship Sponsors will: - have the right to associate with the awards on the Olympic model - be listed on display card at podium - be listed in the program Sponsors to date: Budgetware ....................................$1,000 FormGen Corp...................................$1,000 Hooper International...........................$1,000 Michael E. Callahan (Dr. File Finder)..........$1,000 TRIUS, Inc.....................................$1,000 Public Brand Software ....................$dinner bar Sponsorship monies to be spent on: - Award trophies - SIAF incorporation - SIA logo trademark - Decorations - Program printing - Panel meeting - Publicity (pre and post) - Professional M/C - Entertainment - Reducing the cost of the dinner - surpluses (if any) to be held for '93 awards Award Categories "Best of" awards: 1. Utilities Additional functionality for DOS, Windows, and other (including retail) programs. (ie. List, 4DOS, PKZIP, disk copiers and catalogers, menu syetems, Icon Master, Zipkey, @Last, AutoRender, PopDBF, dProg, TextOut/5, WOPR, and other Ventura, Lotus, SimCity, Mean 18, Print Shop, dBase support, etc.) 2. Major Applications DataBase Mail List Communications Spreadsheet Word Processing Form Generation 3. Graphics CAD Business Graphics Clip Art Graphics Utilities Paint Programs 4. Business and Finance Applications Accounting, bank account management, home records, stock tracking, financial calculators, specific business oriented (vertical market), etc. Vertical Marketing Investment 5. Programming Languages/Tools Both compilers and toolboxes 6. Education General and specific applications including foreign languages and computer education. Note: Teacher's gradebooks, etc. are vertical market applications 7. Entertainment 8. Home/Hobby Ham Radio, astronomy, collections databases, religion, health, cookbooks, occult, lottery, sports, genealogy, music, etc. 9. Math and Engineering Stats, Mandelbrot, linear programming, SPC, etc. This year, winners will be from the first ten years of shareware. In the future, no repeat winners unless there has been a significant re-write of the winning software. 10. Best new product Judged by panel Package must have been introduced in calendar year prior to SSS. 11. Best Overall Judged by panel selected for technology / utility 12. Peoples' Choice Award Award is for "best" or "technical excellence", and not for popularity and is to be determined by returned user ballots (information via vendor-, BBS-, and magazine- polls). Voting is open to anyone except panel and steering committee. A random draw from ballots recieved will be held to reward the voters. Three winners will recieve a prize consisting of one registered version of each of the SIA winning products. Ballots will be sent to each ASP disk vendor and BBS as the primary voting for "best of" awards (ASP might let us put the ballot/letter into the group mailing). 13. Achievement Award This is an award to a person, rather than a package Judged by panel Recognizes outstanding achievement Need not be awarded each year Panel Appointed by steering committee Must be knowledgeable about broad range of offerings Will nominate products for awards by June 1, 1992 Will research nominated products Will vote on finalists in Indianapolis on Thursday, June 20, 1992 Bill Dickson.............Shareable Software International Bob Burns................PBS Bob Ostrander............PBS Craig Kerwien............ZiffNet George Margelis..........Budgetware (Australia) George Pulido............PC-SIG Jack Rickard.............Boardwatch Magazine Jerry Olsen..............freelance writer Jim Green................Software Testing Labs Mike Callahan............Shareware Magazine Preston Gralla...........PC Computing Steve Enzer..............Alternative Software Bulletin Steve Townsley...........Shareware Marketing (UK) Tom Knackstedt...........Software Excitement! Program: A program for the awards will be developed and printed. Bob will handle the DTP work and manage the printing. Should include: - schedule - sponsors - history of SIA - advertising??? Hotel/Motel accomodations: The arrangements are finally complete with the Adam's Mark. Got into a bit of flack last week because of an incompetent salesman who didn't reserve enough space but... Rooms: Single or Double, 1 or 2 beds - $74 / night (plus 10% tax) MUST REFERENCE the Summer Shareware Seminar for this rate (about $13 off normal) Reserve via mail to Adam's Mark 2544 Executive Dr Indianapolis, IN 46241 or phone to 317-248-2481 (a reservation card will be in the flyer next month). Suites are available for an _extra_ $95 to $300 (ranging from a parlor to an attached room with a conference table that seats 35). Not cheap, sorry. On a separate note, if you remember the somewhat crowded conditions last year (we expected 125 people and got 210 ) - this is FIXED. The two meeting rooms will total just over 10,000 sq ft of space! We're set to hold more than 500 people. (plus 2,000 sq ft for the Thursday get-together, 4,000 for the Friday reception, and 3,800 for the Saturday SIA awards dinner). кФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФП Г ! WIN ! * * * 1992 Shareware Industry Awards * * * ! WIN ! Г Г ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Г Г As part of the Tenth Anniversary of Shareware Celebrations in Indianapolis Г Г this June, the first Shareware Industry Awards will be presented to the Г Г authors of the best software in the industry. You can participate by Г Г voting for your favorite shareware program, and have a chance to win your Г Г own copies of all the top programs. Ten lucky winners will receive fully Г Г registered versions of all 12 award winners. Г Г Г Г To be eligible to win, fill out the ballot below and mail it to the Г Г address at the bottom of the form. Winners will be selected by random Г Г draw on June 21, 1992. Entries must be postmarked by May 15, 1992. Г Г ФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФТФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФ Г Г Best Shareware Program: Г Name: Г Г ГФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФ Г Г ФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФГ Address: Г Г Why it's the best: ГФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФ Г Г Г City, State: Г Г ГФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФ Г Г Г Country: Г Г ГФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФ Г Г Г Zip: Г Г ФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФСФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФ Г Г Shareware Industry Awards Box 279 North Andover, MA 01845-0279 Г РФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФФй Contact: Jim Perkins (416) 857-4141 SHAREWARE INDUSTRY AWARDS ANNOUNCED BEST OF THE BEST HONORED! Indianapolis - As part of its 10th Anniversary of Shareware celebrations, the shareware industry will honor its best shareware authors and publishers at the Shareware Industry Awards. The Awards ceremony promises to be the highlight of the Summer Shareware Seminar, to be held this year between June 19 and 21 in Indianapolis, Indiana. It will be a formal occasion on the Saturday evening during the seminar. The winners will be presented with their award at the Awards ceremony to recognize their outstanding achievement. Awards will be presented in fourteen categories, including Best New Utility, Best New Major Application, Education, Entertainment, the People's Choice Award, and the Lifetime Achievement Award. The Summer Shareware Seminar is a full three day event where authors and publishers meet to exchange technology and marketing experiences, benefit from the expertise of industry leaders, and introduce new products to the press and major vendors. All shareware authors, publishers and vendors are invited. Contact: FormGen Corp., 13 Holland Drive, Bolton, Ont. L7E 1G4 (800) 263-2390 (416) 857-4141 FAX: (416) 857-4531 End of Summer Shareware Seminar news. Time to switch gears . . . Let's talk about credit. In the last issue of SMS I mentioned the ins and outs of obtaining merchant status so your customers can pay for shareware orders and registrations with a credit card. The other side of the coin is locating the lowest rate card or bank for your own personal credit card. Consider obtaining a monthly update to CardTrack published by Ram Research which surveys 300 largest credit card issuing banks and organizations. The list provides names and phone numbers for cards with lowest customer rates nationally. For latest issue of CardTrack send $5 to Card Track, POB 1700, Frederick, MD 21702. Or call Ram Research at 301/695-4660. Want to be a better shareware author? Broaden your educational horizon with radio. My favorite program is Marketplace - a light and VERY lively review of business news. Marketplace follows another one of my radio favorites: All things considered. You may have to make a few calls to local radio stations in your community to locate the Public Radio or Educational channel. Here in Seattle All Things is carried on KUOW (94.9 FM) both mornings and evenings with Marketplace in the evenings immediately following All Things. Once you have listened to Marketplace for business news, you'll be hooked! Marketplace can also be contacted at the following address: Marketplace Radio, Los Angeles, CA 90089. Telephone: 800/733-2229. Tapes of previous broadcasts and lists of national affiliate stations are available. And while on the subject of radio, note that industry columnist John Dvorak began broadcasting a nationally syndicated radio program in early January of this year. Lots of computer industry gossip and celebrity visits. For a station in your area, contact Cybernet Radio Network, 213 Upper Terrace, San Francisco, CA 94117. Final tip: set a timer to tape record programs you might miss then listen to a cassette in the car when opportunity presents itself! Sign of the times department: clearly commercial software companies are profoundly aware of the shareware channel. In an interesting marketing move which further validates shareware marketing channel vigor, Central Point Software of Oregon released a special shareware version of their Anti-Virus program configured to detect the Michelangelo virus. The special edition of the program was released on February 21 and required a mere 5 days to reach most major BBS systems and vendors throughout America - a validation of the maturity and size of the shareware distribution channel. The virus detection package also helps expose a functional, though limited, working copy of the popular Central Point Software program which should boost sales for their full featured version in the future. Central Point Software BBS (2400 bps) (503) 690-6650 CompuServe: GO CENTRAL. What's hot and what's not department: an edition of SMS would not be complete without a scan of shareware programs which have made the top seller's list among vendors. Let's pause and discover what's hot! Shareware Express, Ashland, Oregon disk vendor, placed the following hot programs on their top ten list. In order of popularity: Print Partner, World29, Windows Icons, Skyglobe, Zipkey, Music Trans, LQ, Family Fun, King of Kroz, BOOT.SYS. The January edition of PC Sources Magzine recommended: Checkmate Plus, dtSearch, 4DOS, Instacalc, List, Telix, VSUM, Wampum, and Winbatch. Actual top ten weere Commander Keen, Viruscan, Skyglobe, Duke Nukem, Icondraw, Desktop Paint, By Design, Print Partner, Animated Math and As-Easy-As. Finally, recommended DOS 5.0 utilities in that same issue were DOS 5.0 Memory management kit, TSR utilities ver 3.1, and DV Tree. The March-April edition of Shareware Magazine, published in affiliation with PC-SIG awarded top ten ranking to Duke Nukem, Viruscan, SkyGlobe, School Mom, Crystal Caves, Graphics Workshop, Print Partner, PKZIP, and Zipkey. The previous January-Febrary edition of Shareware Magazine bestowed editor choice awards on 4DOS, 4Print, Animated Series, As-Easy-As, Back and Forth, Boxer Editor, Commander Keen, Duke Nukem, Command Post, Commo, Contact Plus, EZ-Format, Form Gen, Frac, Gogol Math, Grab Plus, Hard Disk Director, HDM IV, Hooper Finance, LCD, List, Logik Menu, Metz Utilities, Moraff Games, PC-File, Paint Shop, PC-Write Standard Level, PK Menu, PKZIP, TSR Download, Laserjet soft fonts, Unicom, Viruscan, VPIC, Zipkey, 4Edit, 4zip, Boot.sys, PMK and School Mom. Houtston, TX based PSL awarded best of 1991 awards to: Wincheck, Painless Payroll, Verbal Vanquish, Pre & Grade School, Commander Keen, Due Nukem, Jumpman Lives, Crystal caves, Dark Ages, Robomaze, Fairy Godmom, Hugo II, Whodunit, Intra-Galactic battles, Quatris Pro, Friday Night Poker, Las Vegas Craps, Desktop Paint, Interstate Traveler, Starware, Fastmenu Gold, Back Desk, Fish and Iconmaster. Finally, PC Shareware Magazine, a publication from England published by Steve Lee of Shareware Limited, noted in their recent, March 1992 edition that top twenty shareware programs in the UK were in order of priority: Driving Simulators, Commander Keen, Page Financial Controller, Draft Choice, Educational Word Games, Optiks, Imageprint, Primary Education 2, Desktop Paint, As-Easy-As, Amy's First Primer, Flodraw, EasyCASE, Advanced Utils 3, Wampum, PCX Borders, Graphics Workshop, Hornback PCX, French and Sharespell. This listing is interesting because, unlike other vendors, symbols next to each program shown in the Magazine indicate a "rising and fallling" in position of the program compared to the last listing. Sort of like a music album listing which shows who has risen and fallen since the last top twenty listing. Clever? Let's continue the last paragraph for a moment. PC Shareware Magazine from Shareware Limited is an ASTONISHING resource. Shareware is a VERY popular and highly visible software style in the UK. The density of information of the magazine and its companion order catalog is a meaty 80 pages for the March 92 edition, substantially beyond the size and publication frequency of similar U.S. publications. PC Shareware Magazine articles scan a spectrum of topics: new international vendors and agents, specific games and titles localized to European shareware markets, author news, program reviews, program ratings and exceptional illustrations and screen dumps. The advertising from shareware disk vendors is dense, full-page and richly illustrated. Author interviews with the likes of Tom Rawson (4DOS, J P Software) and Dave Shulz/Paris Karacalios (As-Easy-As, Trius, Inc) delve into how shareware programs are developed and marketed effectively. I recently made arrangements with Steve Lee of Shareware Limited to exchange subscriptions to our mutual publications as well as mutually draw news items from each other's publications which should prove valuable for SMS readers. Incidentally, the companion shareware disk catalog from Shareware Limited, simply called the Shareware Book is a modified version of the familiar Public Brand Software catalog with UK and European shareware offerings added. PC Shareware Magazine. Publisher: Steve Lee. Editor: Ken Hughes, Belgrave House, POB 43, Rossendale, Lancashire BB4 5PJ. Tel: 0706-222370. Fax: 0706-212027. PC Shareware Magazine readers and editors also hang out on Compuserve at GO UKSHARE. US subscriptions are available. If you work with mailing lists as a vendor or shareware author, sooner or later you bump into the need to convert database formats. Customers, vendors and authors swap mailing lists like crazy and the variety of data formats is insane. Hot new product: DBMS/COPY converts INCREDIBLE NUMBER of formats and also does SOPHISTICATED DATA MANIPULATION AND ANALYSIS. Formats which can be interchanged and translated include: Macintosh ASCII, IBM ASCII, free format, SPSS, entrypoint, Alpha Four, Clarion, Fox, GURU, Smartware, Reflex, dBase, Knowledgeman, Axum, Sigma, Excel, 123, DIF, Quattro, Symphony, ACT accounting, BASS, STAT pack and DOZENS MORE! Once you have the data you can run MIND BOGGLING ANALYSIS and string manipulations to include log, gamma, date, time, binomial, inverse, matrix math, trig functions, upper lower case conversions, string conversions, right/left justify and TONS MORE manipulations. Get the brochure and check out this product which will blow you away if you work with varied database formats: DBMS/COPY PLUS for DOS. SPSS Inc., 444 North Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL 60611 800/543-9258. Neat stuff department: We've all seen imprinted products. Things like pens and t-shirts with company logos imprinted. But if you stop and think for a moment, disk vendors could do some interesting promotions with the concept as well as authors promoting package registrations. One of the COOLEST catalogs of promotional imprinted merchandise comes from Sales Guides and contains a gorgeous assortment of goodies onto which you could imprint your company logo or name: pens, glasses, toolkits, calendars, address books, post-it note pads, watches, calculators and on and on. Much the merchandise is VERY high quality and would make a good impression on ANY potential customer. Get the catalog and decide for yourself. Sales Guides, 10510 N. Port Washington Rd, Mequon, WI 53092-9986 800/352-9899 or FAX: 800/352-9501. Fred Parker has shipped his first mailing list disk of shareware customers and clients to authors participating in the shareware SWAPS program. For some authors, this may be an affordable low key, low cost alternative to ASP membership. Fred's initial disk for SWAPS members contains THOUSANDS of mailing addresses of shareware users/customers and the shareware package types they have registered! The source of this list is dozens of author- pooled customer lists which are compiled, cleaned and checked for dupes. Fabulous resource! Fred also maintains a central mailing list of all shareware author addresses for the benefit of the industry. I'll reprint some of the SWAPS program goals shortly, but first Fred's address: Fred Parker, POB 4684, West Palm Beach, FL 33402 407/687-7738 SWAPS (Shareware Authors' Promotional Services) Central to the plan is to create a shareware focal point to reduce distribution costs and increase author registrations. SWAPS is a for-profit, member supported program, conceived and managed by USE-FULL(TM) SOFTWARE ANTHOLOGIES, Fred's company, to promote shareware authors' financial interests. Premises: 1) One thousand, or more, shareware authors, with common interests, working in concert, can achieve and earn more at lower costs than an equal number of authors working alone. 2) Income earned from individual effort is limited by one's time, energy and available capital. Income earned from the efforts of others can be unlimited. Based on these premises, SWAPS goals are to: 1) Enroll all shareware authors in the SWAPS program. 2) Enroll vendor, BBS, computer clubs and user members. 3) Establish a central BBS distribution point through which all member software and updates shall pass. Authors upload to one BBS, authors have no postage or material costs. 4) Vendors, BBSs and other members download from one up-to-date source. Huge mailing costs to authors becomes a small cost to vendors who will profit most. Authors save time and avoid telephone charges uploading to multiple BBS systems. No modem? No problem. SWAPS can upload it. 5) Encourage a 25% courtesy discount on registrations among members. Members will have an incentive to promote and place registration orders for other members products. Creates more income for members in a recession prone economy. 6) Maintain the current address for members who move. 7) Promote sharing of information about contract programming, joint ventures and other employment opportunities. In the last few weeks, SWAPS has already referred one registrant seeking a software program to an author who could fill the need - matching of customers to programs and authors. Other successful matches include address referral to a vendor seeking to register an author's program, author referral to a local business seeking a QB2 programmer. Future services may grow to include: 1) Coop mailings among members 2) Credit card registration service and processing 3) Introduce Peer awards for author member programs 4) Coordinate reciprocal beta testing among authors 5) International distribution of shareware 6) Quantity discount buying for systems and supplies 7) Assistance to new authors 8) Regional service centers operated by authors 9) Track downloads of each author's program and post information in private message center 10) Encourage vendor members to provide program sales figures for compilation and posting. Vendors only need upload sales by program to one board. Overcomes excessive workload objection. 11) Maintain member directory 12) Maintain registered users mail list. SWAPS charter members would receive a 15 month, first year subscription since some services would not be available for 3 to 6 months from start-up. Comments about the feasibility of this program appreciated. Replies to Fred Parker at addresses listed above. "Free advice" tips from Fred Parker for SWAPS authors: Stop using cardboard disk mailers (increases postage by .23 and cost .24 each). Instead use paper 6 x 9 envelopes (.04 each). Savings: .47 per mail piece saved x 300 pieces = $141 savings! Avoid pre- printed envelopes: 6 x 9 envelopes pre-printed cost .10 each. Instead use gummed shipping labels which you print with your printer at about .012 each. Savings: .088 x 300 per average mailing = $26.40. Use rubber stamp reading "Computer disks - Do not bend" at one time cost of $3.50. Do not use pre-printed disk labels which cost .07 each. Use Terry Lustofin's "Piclabel" or F. Verser's "Labelmaker" software programs. Savings: .07 x 300 = $21.00. Included with the SWAPS mailing was a BEAUTIFUL full color brochure on the BOXER text editor by author Dave Hamel who PREPARED THE BROCHURE HIMSELF. Dave might just have discovered a skill more authors can use! Also included with the SWAPS mailing is the Shareware Sales Tracker software program which has been added to the SMS GOODIES section. Need to dabble in converting parts of your program to Windows? George Cole (14608 - 25th Ave SW, Seattle, WA 98166 206/246- 3647) programs in Visual Basic which is a FAST development system - you might find some synergy contacting George if you have been considering producing a Windows product. George is working on a Windows conversion of my PC-Learn package. Want to learn about advanced and automated methods of testing software? Neat factoids like how your software upgrades can degrade another part of your software system once installed, top down versus bottom up testing, using CASE tools and event positioning for software testing, code doping, reverse software engineering and more. Consider attending the "Improving the software testing process" seminars to be given by Data Tech of Clifton, New Jersey. Seminars are held as follows: May 4-5, Atlanta. May 7-8, Dallas. May 11-12, Phoenix. June 8-9, Seattle. June 22-23, Chicago. June 25-26, San Jose. For information contact DATA TECH, POB 2429, Clifton, NJ 07015. VOICE: 201/478- 5400. FAX: 201/478-4418. Automated software testing system which generates custom reports for the suite of tests you design. Non-intrusive, hardware assisted. Can also test mainframes and minis. Elverex Evaluator, Eastern Time Inc., POB 310, 117 S. St., Hopkinton, MA 01748. 508/435-2151. A few words about SDN, also known as the Shareware Distribution Network. This not-for-profit group is represented by BBS sysops who believe strongly in the principle of shareware and are dedicated to rapid and highly organized distribution among BBS systems. Both ASP and non-ASP shareware is distributedby this efficient national network of BBS systems. As a key organization for shareware marketing, authors should consider contacting Ray Kaliss who is the SDN project manager at his address or BBS listed in the main SMS database mailing list. You may be able to legally limit your tax liability by forming an S Corporation which avoids double taxation on corporate tax status. Book available: How an S Corporation can Save you Tax, by Joseph Oliver, CPA. $14.95 plus $2.50 shipping. Enterprise Publishing, 725 N. Market St, Dept VL-1XL, Wilmington, DE 19801. Speaking of taxes, you can locate some tasty CompuServe files having to do with taxes and advice for those working from home. GO Work, Library 9 for the following. SETAX.THD expains stragegies on self-employment tax and retaining a larger share of earnings. WTHKID.THD discusses proper tax procedures on witholding for employment of your own children in your business. STRTUP.THD presents a clear explanation of start-up expenses, equipment pruchases and tax liabilities. BUYCAP.THD presents notes on buying capital equipment such as furniture, computers and other capital expenditures. BOOKS.THD discusses proper bookkeeping methods and ways to save time and energy on your accounting records. Several shareware authors contacted me last month regarding organizations involved with the disabled and computing applications - such as software, hardware and shareware - for that unique market. A brief list of contact organizations which should assist authors and vendors interested in that market: AbleData, Adaptive Equipment Dept, Newington Children's Hospital, 181 E Cedar St, Newington, CT 06111 800/344-5405 Accent on Information, POB 700, Bloomington, IL 61702 309/378-2961. Apple Computer, Office of Special Educ. and Rehab., 20525 Mariani Ave. MS 43F, Cupertino, CA 95014 408/996-1010 Closing the Gap, POB 68, Henderson, MN 56044 612/248-3294 Direct Link of the Disabled, POB 1036, Solvang, CA 93463 805/688-1603 Easter Seals Systems Office, 5120 S. Hyde Park Blvd, Chicago, IL 60615 312/667-8626 IBM National Support Center for People with disabilities, POB 2150, Atlanta, GA 30055 800/426-2133 Proceedings of Johns Hopkins National Search for Computing Applications to Assist Persons with Disabilities. IEEE Computer Society Press, 10662 Los Vaqueros Circle, POB 3014, Los Alamitos, CA 90720-1264 American Foundation for the Blind, 15 W. 16th St, NY, NY 10011 212/620-2000 Trace Research and Devmpmnt, Univ of Wisconson, Madison Room S- 151, Waisman Ctr, 1500 Highland Ave., Madison WI 53705 608/262-6966 National ALS Association, 21021 Ventura Blvd, Ste 321, Woodland Hills, CA 91364 818/340-7500 Next, let's discuss online databases which you might find surprising marketing resources. Advanced modem users are going to shrug and say they can access this through a CompuServe gateway. WRONG! You can usually access a SUBSET of the data, not the entire database! For MUSCULAR MARKET RESEARCH you need to go online direct to the database. A 1990 Small Business Association survey revealed that of 2,000 businesses owning a PC, few were using it for marketing research with business and marketing databases available via modem. These databases reveal new customers, potential geographic marketing concepts, foreign trade possibilities, suppliers, competitors and key executive contacts. Online census data can be accessed to determine a precise geographic area which is ideal for a new product introduction. Next, a listing of specialized online database services. Calling a specialized database directly may yield more detailed information since gateway services such as Compuserve obtain only a PORTION of the entire database. Realize that there are over 4,250 online databases of specialized research and business data! Two master indexes are available which describe ALL online services. The directory of Online Databases is available for $75 from Cuadra Associates and can be found on the Orbit service at 800/456-7248 or DataStar at 800/221-7754. You might also consider the more detailed Computer Readable Databases index for $165 from Gale Research which is available through Dialog at 800/334-2564. Databases of interest in alphabetical order: BRS Gateway. 800/345-4277, 800/289-4277. Accesses many business and special research databases described within this tutorial. Business Dateline. 800/626-2823 or 502/589-5575. Complete text articles of over 200 US and Canadian business magazines. Also available on CD ROM. Also available through Dow Jones News, Nexis and other services. Businessline. 800/866-2255. Statistical reporting servce on over 8 million businesses, including number of employees, sales line, number of businesses in a geographical area in a specific product line. BusinessWire. 800/227-0845 or 415/986-4422. Carries announcements and press releases about new products, services, research findings, financial reports. Also available through Delphi, Dow Jones, and other services. Cendata. 301/763-4100. Economic data on domestic and foreign business trade including retails sales, building permits, employee staffing levels, etc. Conference Board Abstract Data base. 317/872-2045 or 800/421- 8884. Specialized research areas on business management, decision making, case studies in management of individual companies, speeches by corporate executives, management consultants and government researchers. Topics also coverlabor relations, merit pay, executive compensation. Consumer Spending Forecast. 215/660-6300. Forecasts and past historical trends on consumer spending, credit use patterns, retail sales. Consumer Trends. 212/725-4550 or 212/725-5954. Contains references, citations and cross referenced bibliography regarding consumer trends articles and research. Corptech. 617/932-3939 or 800/333-8036. Profiles of small and emerging growth companies or those with innovative technology. Useful for identifying customers for your product or candidates for stock purchase, merger, technology transfers or mutual research arrangements. Daily Developments. 317/872-2045 or 800 421-8884. Contains over 180,000 articles concerning governmental actions, pending legislation, environmental developments, international trade, tax rulings and similar topics. Track the evolution of a regulation which may affect your business from introduction through final enactment. Usaeful for personnel professionals needing latest insights on legislation concerning employee rights, unions, urban planning, drug and alcohol abuse. Superb up to date information on tax legislation. Dialog Information Services. 800/334-2564. Accesses many business and financial database services. Disclosure Database. 212/581-1414. UIpdated financial reporting data on over 14,000 publicly owned companies whose stocks are traded on the NYSE and other public exchanges. Also available through Compuserve, BRS, Dow Jones and other services. Donnelly Demographics. 203/353-7474. Contains US census data which is highly valuable to marketing and sales analysts. Useful for planning expansions of retail stores or analyzing a region's labor pool by age, education and race. Includes Arbitron Press Areas of Dominant Influence, AC Nielsen Desginated Market areas. Also includes current and five year projected estimates and demographic analysis of US census data. Dow Jones News. 609/520-4000. Timely business, financial and government news bulletins which include articles from Wall Street Journal and Barrons National Business. Business and market professionals can learn about emerging legislation, business mergers, economic forecasts, financial disclosures and banking regulations hours before general media report the story. DRI/NPDC County Business Patterns Service. 800/541-9914 or 617/860-6385. US county employment data including SIC code and business patterns census data. Includes payroll, staffing, number of firms referenced by number of employees. Dun's Million Dollar Directory. 800/526-9018. Contains financial, marketing and address data for over 190,000 companies whose net worth exceeds $500,000. Also available on Dialog. EconBase. 215/667-6000. Unique analytical database with state by state or industry tabulations of foreign currency changes over time, electricity use, agricultural output or use of aluminum. Useful for forecasting, business relocation planning, raw materials planning, economic trends, manufacturing output. Data recorded back to 1948. Encyclopedia of Assocations. 313/961-2242 or 800/521-0707. As its name suggests this online service descriptively lists national and international associations, trade groups, unions, societies, non-profits, clubs and patriotic groups. Over 77,000 groups in all. Knowing the right organization can point you in the right direction to authorities on a given topic or field. VERY useful for shareware authors trying to nail down a market niche and needing to find a starting point! Harvard Business Review Online. 212/850-6000. Contains full transcript of all articles of the esteemed Harvard Business Review from 1976 to the present. Business topics include statistics, marketing, ethics, automation, robotics, foreign trade, forecasting, negotiating and employee training. Insiderline. 301/738-1400 or 800/231-DATA. Provides up to the minute specialized information on corporate executive stock trades as required by SEC forms 3 and 4. Trader name, company postion, share volume traded, value, total shares owned. Market Analysis and Information Database. 212/245-3513. Over 36,000 reports on marketing methods and trends for specific industries and countries. Electronics, agriculture, silk screen printing, food and beverage, consumer habits, demographics and more. Covers over 730 business and trade publications in 22 languages - all translated into English. Newsline servce offers fast breaking trends and is updated daily. Mead Data Central. Nexis Research Service. 800/277-9597. 800/277-8379. Moody's 5000 Plus. News and financial reporting data on 14,000 companies which are publicly traded. Also available on CD ROM. NewsNet. 800/345-1301. News and business database service. Newsearch 800/227-8431 or 415/378-5329. Index of over 4,200 news stories, books, reports and libraries on businesses, products, finance, marketing trends. Standard and Poor's News Service. 212/208-8622. High level financial reporting data on over 18,000 companies to include mergers, aquisitions, management and staffing, earnings. Telescan Financials. 713/952-1060. Allows investors to scan over 10,000 stock offerings for particular investment profile such as SIC code, profits to earnings, price, etc. Historical data reveal a target company profile and growth. Complete transcripts and analysis of trade shows, investment seminars, wire service news. Thomas Register. 212/290-7291. Who makes what and where in the U.S. Over 160,000 businesses, 50,000 classes of products and over 100,000 trade names of products. Also available on Compuserve. HOT shareware source since you can search for addresses of key contact business in a specific niche, from plumbing to video rentals. Trade and Industry Index. 800/227-8431 or 415/378-5329. Index to over three million articles on industry, trade, commerce. Also available on CD ROM. TriNet. 201/267-3600 or 800/874-6381. Information on over 200,000 private and public companies. Arranged by conventional SIC code categories. Private company information is especially difficult to obtain and TriNet seems to the the best and locating it. Western Union. 800/527-5184 Gateway for most major business databases. Next, for those joining SMS for the first time, a reprint of news from the previous Winter edition . . . -------------------------------------------------------------- Newsletter: Winter 1991-1992 Edition -------------------------------------------------------------- Welcome to the Winter 1991-1992 edition of SMS! The flow of marketing specific information within the shareware industry is nothing less than phenomenal. The information density which arrives daily by telephone and postal delivery is apparently bottomless. It is not unusual that most mornings require almost 45 minutes just to open the mail directed to SMS, let alone read it. Rest assured, though, I scan the content of every piece and weave the best ideas into each quarterly SMS edition. I want to thank our readers and contributors for their VALUABLE suggestions, press releases and ideas. If anything, send MORE so that shareware will continue to grow and vendors and authors can benefit mutually. Let's begin the Winter 1991-1992 newsletter . . . Please note that SMS prices for registration and subscription - previously at $25 and $90, respectively - will be revised to $49.95 for registration and $175.00 for subscription on January 1, 1992 to reflect costs of production, research and support necessary for a large package of this type. Current registrants and subscribers who have paid for SMS will have those agreements honored at current prices. Vendors who distribute SMS should note the revised price structure in their shareware catalogs. An additional note. Vendors who are not paid SMS subscribers and who wish to CONTINUE receiving four free quarterly SMS updates, need to help SMS. Vendors are now REQUIRED to submit four press releases to SMS annually about shareware industry news to remain on our mailing list and receive four free quarterly unregistered SMS updates. News examples: what shareware disks are popular orders, programs you wish authors would prepare, marketing changes, new ideas you'll be pursuing, ASP news items, changes of address, a letter from a customer with an intersting problem or shareware question, etc. You may continue to carry older SMS editions if you choose not to keep us updated, of course. Press release preferred on disk in ASCII. News items on paper hardcopy accepted as an alternative. Vendors who already provide press releases or are paid subscribers are obviously exempt from this requirement. The reason for this change is that MANY vendors are requesting free quarterly SMS updates but apparently, judging from lack of registrations derived from certain vendors, producing little actual distribution of SMS. Let's move on and pass along a tip for vendors: Most disk vendors would sit straight up if I said I knew a sure fire way to DOUBLE YOUR REPEAT DISK ORDERS FROM NEW CUSTOMERS. It is amazing no vendor has thought of doing the obvious: a short videotape on how to use shareware with highlights from a few simple shareware packages. DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE THE MARKETING POWER OF A VIDEOTAPE FOR NEW SHAREWARE USERS. Let's expand this . . . The one complaint I hear from vendors is they receive an order from a first time customer and TYPICALLY nothing more. Shareware is an odd commodity for a first time user WHO IS YOUR BIGGEST POTENTIAL REORDER SOURCE. Funny file names, strange conventions, documentation on disk. Some new users can learn about shareware by reading "quick help guides" in vendor catalogs, but EVERYBODY can watch and learn from a good videotape. Some REALLY SHARP VENDOR will sooner or later plop a video output board into a pc, and generate a short videotape along the lines of my own SHAREWARE USERS TUTORIAL diskette which can be found either inside my PC-Learn package or as a freestanding User's Tutorial available from the goodies section of SMS. Do a little post production work on a video editor, add sound, some nice animated screen dumps of a word processor, spreadsheet, a couple of games, a business application and a household manager. Fold in a mini DOS lesson. Wrap the whole thing up in UNDER 20 MINUTES RUNNING TIME. Charge folks raw cost for the blank cassette, maybe $2.00. Do an in house version with your logo and a generic version which can be licensed to other vendors. Warning: if you do a second class production job you can expect second class results. Look at some of Apple Computer's hardware and software videotapes: short, totally professional, small budget. Look at Compuserve's video demo. Second step in shareware/videotape marketing: video catalogs from vendors highlighting screen dumps and COLORFUL PROGRAM RUNTIME SEQUENCES from new monthly releases. Have the AUTHOR OF THE PROGRAM narrate how and why it works. Most authors would jump at the chance and viewers would get to meet the genius behind the code! Just interview the author over the phone and then audio mix in his comments at post production time. Third step: yearly or quarterly "best of shareware" videotapes. Fourth step: business and corporate video tape demos of the best and most powerful shareware business applications mailed to key corporate shareware users. Fifth step: work with authors of top selling packages to produce complete video documentation and demos of their packages. Send me a beta videotape soon for review in SMS! Public Brand Software of Indianapolis Indiana (address information in the main SMS mailing list) is on the move. Their latest purple cover version of the famous PBS catalog (Vol. 7, No. 4) represents an interesting variation of the current orange cover PBS catalog which also remains available. The new purple catalog features a redesign by Ziff-Davis. Same descriptions and similar content as the orange catalog, but a different look. So what does this mean for other vendors and authors? In talking with PBS staffer BOB OSTRANDER several things are on the horizon. The computer publications goliath Ziff-Davis recently bought PBS and is now probing more deeply into shareware marketing. The new purple catalog, according to Ostrander, is a Ziff-Davis marketing trial which will be sent to a large number of computer users to see how it sells. On the horizon is a second redesign and additional customer mailing to see how a second catalog concept might work. Market testing on a grand scale as Ziff-Davis zeros in on what designs and mailing lists produce the best results. Bob Ostrander also shared with me another insight: PBS is currently running four, 9,600 baud modems day and night transferring copies of the entire PBS library to Ziff-Davis' ZIFFNET operation on Compuserve. In fact, suggests Bob, another reason Ziff-Davis acquired PBS is to make available IN ONE FELL SWOOP the contents of the PBS library for CD-ROM. It is hard work to select shareware titles, write descriptions, prepare catalogs and maintain a good shareware library. By acquiring PBS, Ziff-Davis thus obtains 1) completely updated and indexed material for a profitable CD-ROM library of shareware 2) a substantial upgrade to their ZIFF NET online service 3) a way to use their substantial mailing lists in another market. In my OPINION things are gearing up rapidly at PBS for a marketing shift of considerable importance. Ziff-Davis has two things a shareware vendor needs: 1) substantial mailing lists of computer users and 2) money for SERIOUS market test mailings. By changing the design format of their catalog I read between the lines that PBS is gearing up for a determined marketing effort. Some time ago I talked to staffer Bob Ostrander who mentioned that his days in direct mail marketing taught him that several times of the year are excellent seasons to mail out promotional catalogs - right after holidays such as Christmas being one example. Things could get very serious for other shareware vendors as PBS emerges in this muscular new course. Another comment Bob Ostrander made confirms my own suspicions from other sources: THE SHAREWARE INDUSTRY IS NOT RECESSION- PROOF. Many mid sized vendors are reporting decreases in disk sales of up to 50% over the same time last year. The numbers do not appear as bad at the very largest and very smallest vendors, but the mid sized distributors - those with moderately high overhead and moderately large operations or storefronts - are suffering. Note that June 19, 20 and 21 of this year will mark the second annual SUMMER SHAREWARE SEMINAR in Indianapolis, Indiana. This three day seminar is the equivalent of COMDEX to the shareware industry! Last year's event was attended by hundreds of authors and vendors eager to learn about the latest trends and technology in shareware marketing, design and distribution. Everything from international marketing to BBS systems. This is the one to attend if you are SERIOUS about shareware! Note that this year a SPECIAL AWARDS BANQUET is in planning which will select shareware programs and people who have made a positive difference! Expect to see categories and awards for BEST NEW PACKAGE and other awards. According to the latest issue of Shareware Magazine, expect to see awards in categories such as Best New Utility, Best New Major Application, Education, Entertainment and People's Choice Award. According to Bob Ostrander, ballots will be made available to a variety of industry sources and the final selection will represent the best and brightest shareware individuals and packages! Audio tapes of last years proceedings are still available if you would like a flavor of what is to come. Representatives from the largest vendors, authors, international distributors, BBS sysops and computer clubs will be in attendance. Fabulous opportunity! For more information, contact PBS at 800/426-DISK or write Public Brand Software, POB 51315, Indianapolis, IN 46251. Page 58 of the PBS catalog also features an updated list of successful shareware authors, some of which may give you STRONG marketing ideas about what REALLY SELLS IN THE SHAREWARE ARENA. Examples: Bob Ainsbury: Technojocks Toolboxes. Nels Anderson: Cipher, EGA Trek, Mah Jongg, Shooting Gallery. Chris Anthistle: Payroll USA, Payroll Canada. Alan Avery: Elftree. Gene Davis: Lotto Prophet. Vern Berg: List, Arce, FV. John Friel: PC-Disk, Qmodem. Mark Harris: LQ, Active Life. Dick Kelly: Billpower, Ramdesk. Frank LaRosa: Searchlight BBS. Keith Phipps: Sagewords. Hans Salvisberg: Boot.sys. Karl Thompson: Solveit!, Amortizeit! Dan Veaner: Darn! Neil Wagstaff: Family Ties. And a final note from Bob Ostrander: Currently the ASP is doing COOP mailings (many author's disks share one mailing package to selected disk vendors) of about one COOP mailing per month. This applies only to ASP members and the mailing is, apparently, only to ASP vendors. Other channels are opening up for using this powerful marketing method by independent authors, and I'll keep you posted as the situation evolves. Over at Seattle disk vendor Shareware Outlet, Inc. dynamic changes are afoot. I had a pleasant afternoon meeting with corporate president THOMAS BOOKHAMER who explained several new marketing ideas which are evolving at that company. For starters, their catalog has been redesigned from the previous "newspaper" size to a 136 page "book" sized format which works better. An index of program titles has been added and exciting plans are underway for the new Winter-Spring edition. The Fall-Winter catalog offers over 290 new shareware titles. Additional new titles are released by the research department at the beginning of each month. Each supplement usually contains 100+ new titles and updates. Beginning with the Winter-Spring edition, explains Bookhamer, "best of shareware" catalog updates will move top selling (and top supported) programs to the front of the catalog with EXPANDED DESCRIPTIONS and less popular (or poorly supported) programs to the back of the catalog with shorter descriptions or simply a title only. "Best of shareware" titles will probably be limited to about 1,000 programs for any given "best of shareware" catalog update, although additional programs will be available upon customer request. A nice detail is that customers can avail themselves of a computer at store locations and attend short "mini-DOS" training classes offered by Shareware Outlet which gets beginners off on the right foot and brings back repeat shareware orders. All titles are also available on the Shareware Outlet BBS which is probably one of the best kept secrets in the shareware business. For a smaller board, it rivals giant Public Brand Software's BBS in variety of titles and timeliness of updates. I subscribe to it personally since it is easier for me to "dial and download" titles I need urgently rather than searching for hours through many Seattle public BBS systems. Another new feature currently underway at Shareware Outlet is attractively packaged shareware "volumes" or collections such as games packages, business packages and so on. This idea is seen from time to time at other vendors, but Shareware Outlet has really DONE IT RIGHT THIS TIME by selecting programs which are CREAM OF THE CROP unlike other vendors who approach this "collected volumes" idea with an annoying "anything that fits on ten disks" mentality. Bookhamer also explained his logical evolution in author submission policies such as file dates newer than 24 months, no X or R rated shareware, adequate documentation and prompt delivery of all promised registration benefits. In exchange Bookhamer markets shareware via direct mail nationally and through a series of distributorships which gives authors potent marketing muscle. Shareware Outlet, Inc. has also uniquely based its growth on the development of walk-in retail store locations. Every store has experienced staff familiar with the applications and able to advise and assist in finding the right application for an end-user's special needs. The message I read between the lines is that for authors willing to do a package right, Bookhamer will go the marketing distance in getting your package distributed. Down the road I see Shareware Outlet rising into the upper vendor tier with the likes of TSL, Public Brand, Software Excitement!, and Shareware Express simply because they dwell on SMALL DETAILS, expand by distributorships and WANT TO REACH AUTHORS AND TRULY COOPERATE. I see a lot of shareware catalogs daily. Shareware Outlet has probably the most accurate and clear catalog descriptions of any vendor INCLUDING PUBLIC BRAND AND PC-SIG. Descriptions include ASP designation, author registration fees, hardware, video and memory requirements, version numbers. Authors who also want to investigate vending might consider a Shareware Outlet distributorship since corporate does the hard work so each distributor can concentrate on selling. Founded in 1988 by Thomas Bookhamer, the company is dedicated to such fundamental policies as fully functional applications, no crippling or disabling of advertised features, complex product evaluation, virus protection, providing full disks, complete and adequate documentation available on disk, current versions and customer service. I recommend a disk submission! Librarian is Elizabeth Gills, Research Department, Shareware Outlet. 713 - 110th Ave NE, Suite 207, Bellevue, WA 98004. 206/646-3571. Send them a disk department: Stanley Plager, Librarian for the Atlanta PC Users Group urgently requests all authors to submit shareware disks! ASP member. LARGE library and active shareware distribution with over one gigabyte on their BBS. Atlanta PC Users Group, ATTN: Stanley Plager, 5143 Oakleaf Terrace, Stone Mountain, GA 30087 404/469-2800 Computer Outlet, shareware disk vendors based in Florida, have recently updated their catalog and are also accepting paid advertising from authors. This is becoming more popular in the industry and is, on balance, a good idea for those authors who want to explore a niche with a particular vendor or shareware title. Ad prices at Computer Outlet range from $395 (full page front inside cover) to $50 for an ad insert placed under your program's listing in their catalog. These are VERY GOOD rates when you consider that their next catalog printing of 10,000 copies to be published January 15, 1992 will go to quite a few shareware users. Contact them for ad space in future catalogs if you miss the January printing. You can reach them at POB 555098, Orlando, FL 32855-5098 407/843-5544. Sometimes it's the little things such as sending authors a Christmas card. This year, vendors who passed along greetings and a holiday card to me include: Software Excitement! (Central Point, Oregon) and Wagner Enterprises (Ravenna, OH). The point may be a small one but, Software Excitement! is VERY large while Wagner is small. Both will remain on my update list since they obviously value both high tech AND high touch. Keep an eye out for vendors who dwell on DETAILS as you market your shareware. Glance at the letters to the editor section of this edition of SMS. Shareware author Chris Noyes provides insights in his dealings with PC-SIG, Selective Software, TSL and other vendors. Interesting reading! Gemini Marketing, disk vendors from Duvall, Washington sent along an interesting letter from a shareware customer who has an idea for a simple but useful program. Glance at the letters to the editor section of SMS. I would like to see MORE disk vendors send me customer letters which shareware authors and vendors can review within SMS. Tidbit #1: what is the average size order to a disk vendor from a FIRST TIME SHAREWARE USER? My industry sources say about 10 to 12 disks for most vendors. Anybody care to revise this figure? Tidbit #2: Want a college English professor and FELLOW SHAREWARE AUTHOR to help produce, edit or review package documentation or catalog descriptions and layout? Contact: ERDMAN BILL 503/666-6009 503/666-6009 ABRAXAS RESEARCH POB 560 FAIRVIEW OR 97024 Late night viewers of cable television in Dallas, Texas may soon be treated to shareware disk promotions by shareware vendors in that community! No specifics as to vendor and cable channel to watch, but this could be the glimmer of yet another marketing innovation for the shareware industry. One of the more interesting news items involves The Software Labs of Los Angeles, California. It seems IBM is doing extensive compatibility testing on the soon to be released version 2.0 of OS/2. The technical head for IBM's four testing departments has ordered the ENTIRE shareware library from TSL for testing under OS/2. IBM rightly assumes that testing of OS/2 for compatibility with the top 200 or so commercial programs is not a sufficient test for the broad range of programming methods which programmers might use. Apparently the virus-free certification which TSL provides to customers was a second reason for IBM's vendor selection. The interesting side issue to me is that shareware is now a SIGNIFICANT MARKET FORCE IN THE SOFTWARE INDUSTRY and IBM surely does not want to disappoint customers who might be running shareware as well as commercial software. This might be the start of another trend as more commercial software houses beta test their offerings to ensure compatibility with shareware programs. A surprising discovery I made recently was to examine a copy of SHAREWARE SHOPPER which covers the shareware scene from a British perspective. At almost one hundred pages long with detailed shareware reviews, articles on setting up shop as a shareware vendor, unusual programs from Europe, articles about Windows shareware and more, this is a stunning resource! Most shareware authors and vendors are familiar with PC-Sig's SHAREWARE MAGAZINE which is a fine resource, but skimpy in comparison to the scope of detailed information which SHAREWARE SHOPPER offers. The conclusion I draw after reading the magazine is 1) sooner or later it will appear on our shores 2) shareware is taken very seriously in Europe and England - much more public awareness than shareware receives in America. This is an exceptional reference magazine which welcomes articles for publication and disks for review. Published by Europress Publications, Europa House, Adlington Park, Macclesfield, UK, SK10 4NP. Telephone: 0625 878888 (all departments), 051-357 2961 (subscriptions), 0625 879966 (fax). Speaking of magazines of interest to both shareware authors and vendors, you might want to try a subscription to BUSINESS MARKETING which covers marketing news, direct mail issues, business strategy, focus group research and other not-so-exotic "power tools" familiar to marketing mavens. 12 issues, one year for $35. Contact Business Marketing, Circulation Department, 965 E. Jefferson, Detroit, MI 48207-9974. Another resource for shareware disk vendors searching for display racks, wire frame product displays, disk holders and similar retail display items is the detailed catalog from Siegel Display Products, POB 95, Minneapolis, MN 55440. And finally, mention of a magazine which should be very useful to your customers who a computer novices and really need "start up" information. Consider tossing in a one year subscription as a "support" service to your customers who really need help. PC Novice Magazine. 12 issues, $24 per year. Contact: Venture Communications, 60 Madison Ave, Third Floor, NY, NY 10160-0981. New vendor of note to whom you should submit a disk: P.C. Software Depot, 968 E. 830 S., Pleasant Grove, UT 84062. 801/785-9507. Contact Mr. Bruce Henriksen. The thing which appeals to me about the Depot is that they seem genuinely interested in suggestions and sharing with authors. Initial mailing of their first catalog will be to 10,000 computer owners and software users, and with their neighborhood populated by the likes of Wordperfect, Novell and Softcopy you have a very positive synergy of high technology operations! They sound very responsive to author concerns and input and have some UNUSUAL MARKETING CONCEPTS they will be pushing early this year! A special word to American shareware authors about Canada which is home to MANY shareware customers, authors, high quality vendors and BBS systems. Make every effort to encourage a sense of "hospitality" in your documentation and shareware which will be viewed by potential Canadian customers and vendors. Small details like currency exchange courtesy will go a long way. Canadian customers and shareware vendors are very sensitive to overtones that you may consider them a "foreign country". For example, your registration documentation may suggest $25 registration fee for US customers and $35 for foreign orders. A small notation that "Canadian orders honored at $25 (US funds) will earn you many friends! Likewise be cordial about returning long distance calls to Canadian customers in need of support. Maybe even include some examples of Canadian towns and city names if, for example, your program includes zip code or telephone area code sorting. Canadian zip codes are different than US zip codes. Can your program handle sorting and searching BOTH formats? The bottom line: Canadians resent the status as a "foreign" country and many prefer to be considered as North American neighbors and not foreign trading partners. You'll be surprised what a little fine tuning will do to increase registrations in the VAST canadian market! I have mentioned shareware Fred Parker in previous editions of SMS as being an industrial strength resource. Now Fred has pushed ahead on a project which ALL authors should find useful. If fully implemented, it could provide the basis for an organization parallel in purpose to the ASP, but focused on the larger group of independent shareware authors. Fred's SWAP concept is now in full operation. Basically interested shareware authors submit to Fred on disk in quote and comma format a list of their registered users plus $25 for processing, list compilation and handling. What you get back in a few weeks is a FABULOUS mailing list containing THOUSANDS of registrant addresses from EVERY author's list! Preliminary reports from Fred suggest that a variety of shareware authors and companies have committed to supplying addresses for in excess of 65,000 shareware users and registrants. See also the SWAPS questionnaire in the letters to the editor section of this edition of SMS. The obvious question regarding Fred Parker's concept: what if another author upgrades his package and solicits your customers? SO WHAT! You can solicit his and THOUSANDS of other customers. This may be the best $25 you'll ever invest! Along with your new master mailing list Fred will also supply details on how you can use the list to CREATIVELY increase your registrations, reduce distribution costs, bulk purchase supplies, coop mail, register other authors packages at professional courtesy discounts and more! Always security conscious, Fred will remove references to the shareware author who supplied each list so no one can identify the source of the list. Fred will also attempt to categorize the individuals on the list so that you can roughly determine, for example, that a certain group of addresses registered spreadsheet software while another group registered word processing packages. Fred has contacted SMS regarding the possibility of a professional courtesy registration discount on the SMS package to those who participate in this program. Disk vendors should also note that Fred maintains one of the LARGEST AND MOST POTENT address lists of shareware authors in the industry and is also expanding a mailing list of shareware users. If you are a vendor, Fred's author mailing list is the one to use. Obviously authors should keep Fred posted on any change of address or telephone number. Fred Parker is at POB 4684, West Palm Beach, FL 33402. 407/687-7738. Now a note about the SAMPLE PROGRAMS available with this issue of SMS. Note that on one of your disks you will find TOOLS1.EXE and TOOLS2.EXE. In TOOLS1, machine code guru Paul Scanlon has created the answer for ONE OF THE MOST TROUBLESOME problems which bedevil shareware programers and disk vendors: a user calls and says a shareware program does not run or install correctly. Sound familiar? Paul's first toolkit offers a READY TO USE set of utilities which can be run separately, together or linked by an automated batch file of your own design to PROVIDE A COMPLETE printout or disk report profile of a user's computer. You could, for example, mail or modem a diagnostic disk or file to your user, instruct them to run a batch file which implements Paul's utilities, and then have the customer mail or modem the disk containing an ASCII file report (or printout if you prefer) back to you for closer examination! Check out what the utilities can do: GETMCB is a small utility to display a list of memory usage. This utility will display a list of programs residing in RAM (lower 640K) in a list which includes Start Segment, Size, Owner and program Name (if your DOS supports this feature). All values will be in hex. This is how you find out what is actually in memory and where these TSR's are. This list is only part of what is in memory, additional information can be supplied by executing GETDEV and INTLIST. GETDEV lists the devices, as loaded by the CONFIG.SYS file, at boot time. This can be seen, by displaying your CONFIG.SYS file, and observing any lines starting with 'DEVICE='. INTLIST utility generates a listing of all 256 interrupts and who is the owner (has first access). In some cases, an interrupt can be taken over, and other TSR'S will NOT be allowed access to the interrupt, including DOS. This is especially true, when a specific TSR is requested or popped up, via a hot key. BIOSDTA lists the memory area called the Bios Data Area, which contains information about DOS, such as printer port addresses, serial port addresses, video mode and other video information and much more. All utility outputs can be re-directed using the DOS re-director character on the command line. The DOS re-director is the '>' character. Thus output can be sent to a disk file or printer. In TOOLS2 Paul provides some quick small programs which could be used when working with the large SMS mailing list. Details below. Note: PRG programs are dBase program files. EXE files are standard executable files. SMS.PRG creates an intermediate file called SMS.TXT, which is a quote/comma delimited mailing list file. SMS.PRG then calls XLATE.EXE which makes the mailing label format file SMS.LBL, which is CR delimited, and the city, state and zip are put on one line. There is a blank line between labels (4 lines per record). XLATE.EXE program then deletes the SMS.TXT file upon completion. SMS2.PRG simply counts the records in the data base. SMS.TXT is a sample output from the SMS.PRG before running XLATE.EXE. SMS.LBL is the final product, ready to import into most label programs etc. If the user wants to have only the quote/comma version, simply edit the SMS.PRG (using any text editor) and delete or rem out the line beginning with RUN. Small efficient ways for using the SMS mailing list. Speaking of mailing lists and similar ideas, Home Office Computing Magazine has a great way to send a thank you gift to all of your customers: Send them a list of friends who are computer users, or interested in computing or business in a home or office environment and they will send a free issue of their magazine, thank you card with your name on it and great subscription offer to everyone on your list. Contact Michael Sheehy, Home Office Computing Magazine, POB 53561, Boulder, CO 80322-3561. Great way to thank all of your customers and give them something which is interesting and relevant to the computer scene. Although there is no intentional editorial theme within SMS which distinguishes each quarterly edition, if I had to select a focus for this issue, it would be BBS systems! Several reasons come to mind: the SMS mailing list database has recently added MANY NEW mailing addresses of BBS systems. The easiest way to locate BBS systems which contain addresses is to load the SMS mailing list into your database and search for records which are TYPE "B" and are NOT blank in the address field - this is an easy search condition with most database packages and you should locate a nice selection of addresses in no time! Addresses for BBS systems are difficult to obtain. SYSOPS are intelligent folks and generally don't want their home or office addresses floating around for security reasons. Charles "Luke" Lukey of Expressware, providers of File Express, Express Graph and other fine shareware packages and also Dave Snyder of MVP Software have both graciously shared good BBS mailing lists with SMS. In previous issues of SMS, many readers have suggested that perhaps my bias is towards promoting disk submissions to disk vendors. Hardly! BBS systems account for a SUBSTANTIAL volume of my registrations for both SMS and my PC-Learn package. BBS SYSOPS are, as a group, receptive to the latest shareware offerings and are usually pleased to hear from authors. If your shareware offering is good, a SYSOP can MAKE news of your software travel at the speed of light throughout the nation! Dwelling a bit longer on BBS opportunities for shareware authors, note that the Intellicom modem/term package has finally been released in beta version .093 by Wayne Duff of Canada. I discussed the package in the Fall 91 edition of SMS, but seeing the real system in operation is delightful! I have added Intellicom as an available package you can order from the SMS GOODIES section. By way of reminder, here are the stats from the Fall edition of SMS concerning Intellicom: Intellicomm allows AUTOMATED AND UNATTENDED UPLOADS TO ALMOST ALL MAJOR BOARDS! Intellicomm combines the best features of Robocom, Telix and Liberator in one package written in tight C code. Intellicomm should present an advantage to the astute shareware author who realizes the marketing muscle an unattended and fully automated uploader can do to push a shareware package out into the BBS world! Duff claims early compatibility with PC Board, Wildcat, RBBS, QBBS and others. The package is not just an automated uploader. It is a full featured telecommunications package including x/y/zmodem, editor, script language, scrollback and keyboard buffers, mouse support, EGA/VGA, 3 way file sorts, autotagging, and more. $29.95 or $19.95 if submitting proof of purchase from another comm program. Wayne points out that fully automated sessions will require that the user spend a reasonable amount of time - anywhere from 15 minutes to an evening - preparing a BBS information file, known as a BIF, so that Intellicomm can understand the prompts and structure of that particular BBS. Once this configuration file is available (and many boards will have the file available for download), the program can work its magic. Duff can be reached at Liberation Enterprises, 3091 Eglinton Ave E., Suite 602, Scarborough, Ontario, Canada, M1J 2G1. Package can also be ordered as shareware from most vendors or by consulting the SMS GOODIES section. While on the subject of new shareware communications packages, Bob Ostrander's new venture, Software Coop has released a honey of a program: Odyssey. This telecommunicatons program features easy to use popdown menus, scripts, multiple protocols, sophisticated configurations and more. While not as fully automated as ICOM, for those using Telix or Procom and wanting a "friendlier" interface with sensible features, Odyssey may be worth a look. The Software Coop can be reached at 5437 Honey Manor Drive, Indianapolis, IN 46241 317/856-6052. Odyssey even has a clever script which will automatically call the Software Coop and process your registration online! Nice touch, wish more communications package offered this clever wrinkle! Other packages offered by Software Coop include Layout, DMPLAS and Clipbook. Note that our informal shareware author uploading network "SMS Net" is growing. Review the file RAPID.TXT for updates and new names which have been added since our last SMS edition. Want to upload your package to a HOT Las Vegas, Nevada BBS tollfree? Call Public Access BBS at 800/659-8750. They claim they will even upload your programs to Compuserve, if requested. The board has 9600 baud modem with standard V.32/V.42vbis features. Sounds like a good idea to me! And finally wrapping up my discussion of bulletin board systems of note I need to mention that you MUST consider sending a disk on to KBBS of Los Angeles. Talk about slick marketing! This BBS features gorgeous printed stationery, business cards, envelopes, even a KBBS bookmark calendar for users of their service. Hosting over 2,200 calls per day, this powerhouse BBS has been reported in the Los Angeles times as THE place for singles to meet online, download files, and more. KBBS was featured as the "Best of LA 1990" selection of things to do. The quality of their printed promotional materials is fascinating. Hurry and send them a disk! This is a BBS that knows how to MARKET and serve a client niche very well! Contact: KBBS LOS ANGELES, POB 10281, CANOGA PARK, CA 91309-0281 MR. DALE PORTER, SYSOP DAY TEL: 818/886-9457 BBS TEL: 818/886-0872 FAX TEL: 818/886-9457 Next a quick release from Austin ProSoft: December 26, 1991 Austin ProSoft announces the release of its first catalog devoted solely to Windows based Shareware and Public Domain software. Included are complete collections of graphics tools, laser printer applications and fonts, file launchers, program managers, wallpaper managers, virus and security utilities, games and sounds. In addition, ProSoft maintains the most extensive collection of Public Domain Adobe Type Manager fonts, Icons, and Windows wallpaper currently available. Austin ProSoft is a Texas based distributor specializing in educational and general purpose shareware and public domain software. The release of this catalog marks a major shift in emphasis by Prosoft from DOS based to Windows based software. A free catalog can be obtained by calling 800-594-7769 or by writing Austin ProSoft, P.O. Box 1811, Austin, TX 78767. SMS editor's note: the printed Windows catalog which was submitted with the above press release, looks good. Suggest you update ProSoft especially if you have a Windows product. End of Press Release. Shareware problem note: word from industry sources is that Herb Kraft's legal guide shareware package is raising a few eyebrows. One item is that the ASP Ombudsman has been involved in several reports that users send registration checks and receive back no documentation or acknowledgment as promised in program materials. PSL and PBS may be dropping the disk set for these and other "author support complaints." The BBS line which was set up by the author to support this package is also unplugged. Kraft, according to industry sources, may be close to departing the ASP. Strange when a legal package by an attorney has problems of this type. Quick byte: High volume diskette duplication equipment for unattended and economical use. Princeton Diskette. 1101 Richmond Ave, Pt. Pleasant Beach, NJ 08742 800/426-0247. These folks can also provide duplication services, custom labels, packaging and shipping if you need service rather than equipment. A catalog which has recently been revised is the BEAUTIFUL Software Excitement! catalog from Central Point, Oregon (address in the SMS mailing list.) Although deliberately small and highly selective of only the best shareware titles, this STUNNING catalog features some of the best screen displays and color inking of ANY shareware catalog I have seen. The reason for the small catalog size, according to Mike Comish of Software Excitement!, is that by limiting offerings to a smaller catalog of only the best quality shareware they receive HIGHER VOLUMES OF REPEAT BUSINESS. The logic is simple: if customers (especially first times users of shareware) have a GOOD FEELING about their first exposure to shareware they will come back for more. A simple and effective marketing message here. The Software Excitement! February catalog will contain over 100 color screen dumps of top shareware packages. Software Excitement! is also branching out into hardware witnessed by catalog offers for mice, trackballs, surge supressors, books and so forth which is a trend more shareware vendors will be forced to consider in the ever spiraling revenue game of "keep up." Staying with Software Excitement!, vendors should note that ULTIMATE SOFTWARE is a part of Software Excitement! and produces such shareware programs as Ultimate Spanish, Ultimate French, and Ultimate Geography. Prepared by a talented programmer under contract to Software Excitement!, this is a revenue stream more vendors are pursuing since they can quickly spot the need for new packages. Software Excitement! president Mike Comish notes that his business avoids writing programs that compete too closely with those of existing shareware authors with whom they work, but adds that they have several programs in planning and a few close to completion. Other vendors such as PBS and Automated Systems, to name a few on a rapidly expanding list, also write shareware and distribute other authors works. Authors may groan at this trend as being unfair and a conflict of interest. My opinion is that the MARKET decides what shareware packages, authors and vendors will survive. It is very much a keep up or keep out game and will stay that way for the near future. Be sure to read the Software Excitement! press release regarding their new Compuserve "store" in the letters to the editor section of this edition of SMS. Reveals some interesting marketing statistics about this company if you read closely. Hint: per their press release, Software Excitement! has annual sales of $6 million with current marketing efforts including the mailing of over 7 million catalogs per year to computer users. Shareware IS BIG BUSINESS. Over at shareware disk vendor Wagner Enterprises creativity is afoot. You've got to see their latest TALKING catalog of shareware! Great menu system and some nice demo programs on disk, but the talking part is the best. This combines great vending ideas with some shareware I have seen recently such as SW-Talk. The disk is available from Wagner or can be ordered from the SMS GOODIES section. Wagner Enterprises is at 5271 Newton Falls Rd, Ravenna, OH 44266-9603 216/297-9330. Send Wagner a copy of your shareware while you are at it! Authors investigating COOP and reduced rate mailings might want to contact Chris Kangley of Shareware Distribution Services, PO Box 52, El Paso, IL 61738 309/527-8579. Pay only for the amount of mailing space and weight your program takes, choose disk vendors or computers club and others as you wish. Even mention of a rebate program. Power User tip: Folks evolve various ways of capturing tidbits of information from long ASCII documents. Maybe you read through this newsletter and hit Shift-Print Screen when you find an interesting tidbit. Maybe you print four sheets to a page. Best tip yet is load the ASCII document file into Vernon Buerg's LIST program. When you see a screen you want, tap ALT-O (Alt and O keys together). List will ask for the name of a file to create. Supply something like C:\notes or whatever. Now continue tapping ALT-O whenever another screen of useful info comes up. That screen will be APPENDED to the continually growing "clippings file." When you are done, you have a personal "clippings and extracted tidbits" file you can print (reload your "clippings" file into LIST and tap Control-P) or edit with your word processor and then save or print. Great idea for working with this newsletter or other long documentation file from which you want to extract a little bit here and there! Meanwhile, at PC-Sig in California (address in the SMS mailing list) their HOT SHEET is out which boasts prices as low as $1.66 per disk in volumes as low as 12 quantity. PC-SIG could force a LOT of other vendors to dramatically lower prices on shareware, so this a trend worth following. PC-SIG is also marketing combination packages which has been a popular course with many vendors. Their Essential Home and Business Collection features over 300 of the BEST programs on one CD-ROM for $49. However, according to one industry observer with whom I spoke recently, there may be some problems with the HOT SHEET which has shareware authors upset. It appears that the HOT SHEET is directed at first time buyers who may interpret phrases like "Reg. $55" at the end of program descriptions to mean "regularly $55" rather than "registration fee $55." For first time shareware users who see the HOT SHEET as a great way to BUY software, some concern may arise. Nevertheless we are now seeing major vendors like PC-SIG responding to lowball prices from other disk vendors. Incidentally, if you glance at page 27 of the current (Jan-Feb 1992) issue of Shareware Magazine you will note that PC-SIG is also pushing 99 cent diskettes for selected programs. Now even the Mom and Pop 99 cent disk vendors will feel pressure from the large vendors as competition increases. 1992 as a year, should be very interesting on both the author and vendor side of the competition equation. Another emerging trend will see a few of the more successful shareware disk vendors snapped up by larger corporate entities as the year unfolds. The profit margin in vending shareware is too attractive for a corporate America searching for better revenues and profitable software driven technology. I suspect some of the marriages yet to be made might include the following: Acquiring Grooms: Tandy Corporation, PC Zone, Europress Ltd, Scholastic Inc, Costco and PTN Publishing. Blushing Brides: Shareware Express, The Software Labs, Shareware Outlet, Gemini Marketing, Reasonable Solutions and CWI. Note that these comments are speculative in nature and do not reflect any "inside" information which I have uncovered at this point. The second tier of this activity will probably move into the trenches where the real development action unfolds as corporate entities move down the food chain and acquire shareware author operations of note. Leo Nikkora of Microsoft has taken a large equity interest in QuickSoft and PC-Write, for example. Finally a SIGNIFICANT TREND which shareware authors should watch is the release of more FORMERLY COMMERCIAL PACKAGES INTO SHAREWARE. I routinely receive phone calls and letters from small to mid-sized commercial software businesses seeking to switch to shareware distribution. Examples: Immigration Tracking 2.0, an exceptional package which helps employers automate paperwork needed to comply with the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. It has received substantial press coverage from the likes of Infoworld, PC Magazine and other major publications and formerly carried a $285 commercial price tag. The shareware version carries a $99 price and is now aggressively marketed as shareware. In the last year we've also seen Xtree and VP-Info also revised from commercial to shareware status. Likewise the Professional Real Estate Analyst, a formerly commercial package for brokers and real estate investors features slick menus, help screens, automated macros and more. The Analyst received glowing reviews in Lotus Magazine and other journals and represents another commercial package gone shareware which may edge out existing shareware packages. The writing is on the wall: 1) superb packages are now entering the market which will give older shareware packages a stiff run for the money 2) These packages fill specific niches and are feature rich and well documented 3) This trend will increase among both vertical market packages as well as broad horizontal market packages. Conclusion: If your package is clunky, poorly documented and infrequently updated you will soon be someone else's lunch. In fact I suspect that the best and brightest of the commercial software houses will shortly begin scanning through shareware catalogs and selecting shareware packages which they can easily CLONE with better features and improved interfaces to test broader shareware concepts! Formerly we have seen shareware authors clone commercial concepts. Now the bird may come home to roost as commercial firms clone unique shareware concepts. Shareware authors call and ask me to boil down my "secrets" concerning shareware financial success. Kind of like asking for a five minute synopsis of a badly tattered copy the New York yellow pages. At any rate, here is my windy opinion: 1) Find a niche that isn't filled or filled poorly at the moment 2) Look at lots of vendor catalogs first to see what/who your competition is 3) Realize it will take one year and maybe two to achieve market recognition - EXTREME PATIENCE 4) Distribute your disk(s) to at least 500 vendors, 500 computer clubs, 500 BBS systems, 50 magazine writers 5) distribute to the major foreign vendors 6) Start your next package 4 months after you have started your previous package - regardless of whether your previous package is completed 7) Be totally straight arrow with customers: cash checks after shipping goods, be prepared to return long distance calls, have an outside support service (e.g., AGC or other company) do your support and order fulfillment if necessary due to volume 8) Have at least $5,000 to finance your modest startup 9) get outside programming help if your program interface is lacking, your documentation is poor or your customers suggest a change beyond your capability 10) Get and use this package: SMS 11) Don't give up EVER 12) Frame a xerox of first registration check to give life reality 13) spend 50% of your time marketing and 50% programming. I think closer to 80% marketing and 20% programming would be more realistic, but 50/50 is a primitive start. 14) realize that you are probably doing this because you are addicted to computers and are rationalizing (at the early stage of the game) the possible financial income 15) Have as a modest goal two good package releases per year for life 16) Beta test the dickens out of your package then PAY someone to really beta test it 17) When you ship your package to vendors and BBS systems include a piece of paper that makes SENSE (who, what, where, when, why, phone number, etc). 18) LISTEN to what others say about your package and don't be defensive - it is just code. Criticism is a form of flattery turned inside out. Quick takes: The November 28, 1991 edition of the Seattle Times reports that the two LEADING NEWSPAPER WRITERS ON THE COMPUTER INDUSTRY are John Markoff of the New York Times and G. Pascal Zachary of the Wall Street Journal. A press release on your package is obviously in order if you desire industry attention. Your library should have addresses for the editorial desks for both of these papers. I might also add influential industry guru Stewart Alsop of the P.C. Letter, Richard O'Reilly of the Los Angeles Times, Barry Nance of Byte Magazine and finally Preston Gralla of PC Computing. Knowing the right name and publication makes all the difference when mailing press releases. Hope this list of "movers and shakers" moves you higher up the food chain. I have added several packages to the SMS GOODIES section which authors might care to order. Briefly... LHA (formerly LHARC) is the compression/archiving package I use with SMS. No charge to register or use as long as you abide by a few minimal licensing requirements. LHA recently was awarded PC Magazines Editor's Choice Award. ARJ is another new archiving package has also been added to the GOODIES section. Very good compression ratios and some clever features which neither PKZIP nor LHA has. I have also added the EXCEPTIONAL Lookbook package from Bill Kavanaugh of Red Oak Data Systems. Lookbook deserves a VERY CLOSE EXAMINATION by both shareware authors and vendors. Lookbook is an electronic book and reference system for publishing disk based documents such as program manuals, text files, catalogs, ASCII files and more. Has TSR features if needed, editor, hypertext functions. It is SO GOOD that Public Brand Software selected it for both a trophy award and their catalog on disk. It is vaguely like the older IRIS hypertext electronic book system but MUCH better. It has some of the best documentation, features and intuitive feel I have seen in ANY shareware package. There are hundreds of ways Lookbook could be useful to MANY authors and I strongly urge a "looksee." Another update to the GOODIES section is two additional issues of ZIP magazine (for a total of four back issues.) ZIP MAGAZINE is an electronic magazine which reviews shareware and discusses new developments on the shareware scene. Zip editors will attempt to review your disk if submitted to them. ZIP magazine circulates on BBS systems throughout the world. Also consider ordering the NEWLY REVISED ASP catalog on disk which has been updated and features revised listings of ASP packages, author addresses, vendor addresses, BBS systems with addresses and more. A treasure trove all authors should browse for a detailed marketing focus. SMS disk 102. Another worthwhile package for author investigation is the PC Products Database Demo from EMS and Baker Enterprises. This unique disk features LOADS of product reviews and speeds up the search for hardware and software items you may need. Very slick product. Also take a look at the INFOLIST disk which features many electronic freebies and addresses of companies who supply them. Lots of FREE demo disks, videocassettes, books, magazines and more. You CAN get something for nothing! Consider DB-DUPE which is a POWERHOUSE duplicate record checker for those maintaining mailing lists and needing to "weed and feed" lists and purge duplicate entries. Network compatible. 43/50 line mode. memo file support. Browsing. Swap fields. Start search from any record and more. FAST duplicate checking. And while still on the subject of duplicate records testing, note that the latest release of File Express from Expressware of Duvall, Washington also has a duplicate record testing function. Again, the above shareware disks can be obtained from SMS by consulting the GOODIES.TXT section of this package. Continuing on with our "useful files" discussion, note that the ASP maintains some files which may be of interest to authors, vendors and sysops. While I am not a member of the ASP, I think SMS readers should at least be aware of these files which are available on Compuserve for download with your modem: ASP Approved vendor requirements. VENDOR.ARC, SHAREWARE forum Library 2, 4k size. Requirements which ASP Approved Vendors must follow. Authors may review ASP requirements for disk vendor affiliation/associate membership. ASP BBS Membership Application. ASPBBS.ZIP SHAREWARE forum LIB 2, 20k size. ASP application rules and files for posting. $40 annual membership fee. ASP Catalog for BBS Systems. Name: not available. 200k size. Catalog of ASP shareware. ASP Catalog for CompuServe. CATLOG.ZIP SHAREWARE forum LIB 2, 200k size. Catalog of ASP shareware. ASP Catalog for GEnie. Name: not available. 200k size. Catalog of ASP shareware. ASP List of Approved BBS systems. APPBBS.ZIP, SHAREWARE forum LIB 2. 8k size. ASP Approved BBSs list. BBS name, address, phone number, conferences, lines, protocols, network affiliations. ASP List of Approved Vendors. VENDOR.EXE in SHAREWARE forum LIB 2, 15k size. ASP Approved Vendors by country and state or province. Updated monthly. How to join as a "beta" author BETA.TXT in SHAREWARE forum LIB 2, 3k size. Messages and text files explaining how potential shareware authors can apply for membership in the ASP before releasing their first shareware program. IBM PC Author Application. APPLIC.EXE, SHAREWARE forum LIB 2, 35k size. Information on joining the Association of Shareware Professionals as an author member. Information about copyrights. COPYRT.ARC, SHAREWARE forum LIB 4, 3k size. Text files, messages on why & how you should copyright a shareware program. MacIntosh Author Application. APPLIC.SIT, SHAREWARE forum LIB 2, 35k size. Information on joining the Association of Shareware Professionals as an author member. Moving along to the issue of noteworthy vendors, I strongly suggest you consider a disk submission to the following vendor since this is a LARGE business which also sells PC systems, offers consulting and training and many other services which can expose your shareware package to the public in many ways! I visited with owner Jeff Tocket by phone and he sincerely wants to help authors. PD CONNECTION 5454 WESTERVILLE RD, WESTERVILLE, OH 43081 JEFF TOCKET, PRES DAY TEL: 614/895-1108 BBS TEL: 614/891-DISK EVE TEL: 614/891-3329 TOLLFREE ORDER TEL: 800/593-3870 LARGE VENDOR, ALSO RUNS BBS SYSTEM AND SELLS PC'S LARGE CATALOG ON DISK. GOOD QUALITY Next, here's a highly interesting lead about a Canadian investor who is interested in researching and investing in high quality software which can be marketing by either commercial or shareware methods. I met with David Smith in Seattle and he genuinely seems interested in software packages and has access to the funds necessary for strong marketing efforts. He currently has acquired several commercial packages which will be released as shareware and also seeks authors with original programming ideas! Tell him you spotted this in SMS... DAVID G.M. SMITH 604/988-6575 INTERFACE SOFTWARE 3115 CAPILANO ROAD, NORTH VANCOUVER, B.C., CANADA V7R 4H4 I want to dwell one additional moment on the previous item which might be more in the realm of speculation than fact. Canada has a somewhat more liberalized policy of immigration than the U.S. and is currently a favorable destination to MANY folks from Hong Kong as that colony approaches reunification with China. Many wealthy Hong Kong investors are selecting Canada as their new home and bring with them two things which could bode favorably for shareware in the distant future: 1) a high comfort level with computer technology and software as a good investment or business 2) Substantial investment funds from previous lucrative ventures in Hong Kong to finance technology products in North America. 3) Finally, Vancouver B.C., where many of these folks are settling, has a VERY DIFFERENT stock market and investment system than U.S. stock offerings and features various "penny stocks" which can be financed RAPIDLY in a freewheeling and "informally frantic" manner which is very much to the advantage of software developers and investors alike. Bottom line: watch Canada for new shareware, new types and methods of financing shareware vending and development operations, and RAPID makeovers and marketing of formerly commerical software into shareware packages. Dave Beiter, our friendly and OUTSPOKEN critic and shareware author from Ritner, Kentucky has sent along an interesting list of his personal picks and pans among shareware vendors which I have reprinted in the letters section of this edition of SMS. Dave reviews such things as vendor responsiveness to authors and the infamous DOLLS vendor index rating (date of last life sign.) Amidst the chuckles, there is some SERIOUSLY useful marketing information here which Dave has obtained from mailings for his shareware package, SURVEY IT YOURSELF. Check out the DOLLS index. This issue's chuckle: According to SMS editor, Jim Hood, SMS was started as a SIMPLE mailing list. However, industry sources report that Hood is now considering a new marketing effort to repackage SMS with sexy diskette jackets and sell it next to National Enquirer at supermarket stores: Aliens open 99 cent/disk shareware outlet in New Jersey, Ziff-Davis buys Taco Bell and uploads recipes to Ziff Net, Woman who gave birth to shareware author claims to be Cher, SIF verifier system made industry standard at Borland two weeks before copyright suit by rival Microsoft claiming similar SIF Verifier "look and feel", shareware version of OS/2 now "repositioned" to run under Timex Sinclair DOS. Back to reality... Pausing for a moment to discuss copyright news of interest to the shareware community, note that U.S. Copyright Law number 201.26 will probably be in force within the next 90 days of publication of this issue of SMS. This law, specifically created to address the needs of the shareware industry, allows for shareware authors and companies to deposit on file with the U.S. Copyright Office a copy of the licensing information accompanying a shareware package (e.g., granting a user a 30 day trial period of use or other restrictions). One favorable result for our industry is that by keeping a license on file with the Copyright office, the defense of "innocent infringement" is denied to a corporate or individual shareware user who later claims that "they were not aware of a license or limitation of use" since they obtained an allegedly hacked or damaged copy of the shareware devoid of licensing restrictions. The original planning began in May of 1991 and was published in the U.S. Federal Register in October, 1991. A period of public comment was made available and original versions of the proposal were sent to large and small vendors, authors and the ASP. Authors are not required to avail themselves of license filing under 201.26, but may find its special protection useful in the case of successful or popular packages which require additional copyright protection. The bottom line of 201.26 is that it firmly puts the onus or burden of registration firmly on the end user. Over at the ASP the new category of PUBLISHER is in the works. On the way out, in all probability, is the ASSOCIATE MEMBER category which will be relegated to members of the press or others without a direct financial interest in the shareware industry. Vendors will probably receive full voting rights early in 1992, according to industry source Bob Ostrander of Public Brand Software. Hot tip: authors seeking to locate a good agent to represent their shareware package in the United Kingdom might want to contact Nick Thompson, 10 Churchcroft, Bramshall, Euttoxeter, Staffs, England ST14 5DE. Apparently a fine fellow who can handle overseas registrations and package promotion for you in that country. A service which authors might consider for their shareware fulfillment is EZX corporation which is itself a shareware development and distribution house. I have reprinted the COMPLETE TEXT of their press release in the SMS letters to the editor section (LETTERS.TXT) elsewhere in this issue of SMS, but here are a few brief highlights from their press release. Attention Software Authors!!!! From the Desk of Ed Marion 713-280-9900 (Voice) 713-280-0525 (FAX) 713-280-8180 (BBS, 9600, N81) Evenings and Weekends 713-480-0432 (Home) Mail: EZX Distributing 17077 Texas Av., P.O. Box 58177 Webster, TX 77598-0080 USA Announcing EZX Distributing's Software Fulfillment Service! No up-front money. Most of our fulfillment services are on "spec". That is, we don't collect until you do. We'll take orders for your product directly via our TOLL FREE VOICE and TOLL FREE FAX lines. We'll process credit cards, bona fide purchase orders, and talk directly to your customers during normal business hours. We can even provide technical support during business hours directly to your customers. We can do your packaging, duplication, or any service related to the sales and distribution of your product. When you become one of our fulfillment clients, we'll even provide unlimited consulting services to you. EZX has been in the software business since 1983: we can help you market your software more effectively. We'll even give you access to our meticulously maintained in-house press release contact list. End of abridged press release. And here's another fulfillment service authors might consider. You can now use the Advanced Support Group to process VISA and Mastercard payments for your package, provide telephone support and many of the services you may not be able to provide as a small business. Paul Mayer, ASP shareware author, as well as many independent authors use ASG to free them up from the routine business activities of shareware authorship so they can concentrate on programming and research. Contact Ken Mocabee at the Advanced Support Group (1-900-456-HELP), 268 Lamp and Lantern Village, Town and Country, Missouri 63017 Alternate telephone number: 314/256-3130. These are good folks and genuinely care (and specialize) in the support of shareware authors and their packages. Let's expand the VISA card topic further. Small businesses such as vendors and shareware authors call me and ask for the straight line on obtaining VISA merchant status. Within the BBS community, taking a VISA card online is a REQUIREMENT for successful operations. Industry source Jack Rickard of Boardwatch Magazine suggests a FOURFOLD increase in business for boards who accept charge cards. The problem is that smaller home based businesses are denied charge card status by most banks. Curiously, as reported in a recent issue of Marketing Week (Jan 7, 1991) the market share for the major charge cards is as follows: VISA 45%, Mastercard 28%, American Express 22% and Discover 5%. Market share, of course, means what percentage of the consumer market each card represents in purchases when consumers go shopping. An American Express merchant account is easier to obtain that a VISA or Mastercard account. Discover card merchant status is reportedly about as difficult to obtain as VISA or Mastercard merchant status. There are three methods for obtaining merchant status: First, your local bank ESPECIALLY IF YOU MAINTAIN AN ACCOUNT such as checking, mortgage loan or business loan is your primary AFFORDABLE resource for merchant status. One way you can cleverly increase the chance of acceptance is to offer opening a savings account, money market account or certificate of deposit for around $1,000 to $2,000 to be HELD AS A BOND OR PLEDGE against possible losses in your first year or two of business. This sweetens the deal to the cautious average banker who is uneasy with home based businesses and will find the whole concept of shareware "curious." The second method is to obtain merchant status through a business or trade group such as the Direct Marketing Association or other retail vendor group. Lists of these groups are available in your local phone book (see ASSOCIATIONS) or try investigating Gale's Encyclopedia of Associations at your library. The third, albeit most expensive method, is to try various commercial bank agents, card brokers and sales groups. The catch here is you pay a higher transaction fee on each customer purchase than if the processing is handled through your local bank. Perhaps 5% to 7% transaction fees versus 2% to 5% via merchant status arranged through your local bank. Typical bank brokers and commercial sales groups who can arrange this are: Data Capture 605/341-6461, International Bancard 303/691-2513 and Cardservice Intl 818/593-3500. By the way, if you want to avoid doing business with a WEAK BANK you might consider contacting Veribanc, a Massachusetts research group which investigates the earnings and assets of savings banks, commercial banks, and credit unions. $10 charge for first bank report and $3 for each additional report. 800/442-2675 or 617/245-8370. Time for a little tax education pertinent to shareware authors and vendors. Many of us work in a home office setting and to no great surprise the U.S. Internal Revenue Service has created the new 8829 form specifically designed to elaborate reporting requirements for those folks taking a deduction for a home office. The form was created at the insistence of the service's examination department which noted than home office taxpayers seem to consistently make errors when claiming a home office deduction. It used to be you checked of a box on schedule C and itemized deductions within that schedule. Now the specific home office deductions have been broken out onto their own form 8829 which will leave many home office business operators scrambling to and fro with yardsticks and calculators to determine area measurements for the home office. However, don't be shy about using the 8829 since once you have qualified for the home office deduction you can legally deduct prorated portions of your mortgage interest, home maintenance, insurance, utilities, and even your home's value on a depreciated basis. These deductions can be substantial if you qualify and will help offset self employment taxes as well as income taxes. One instance when not to take the home office deduction concerns those homeowners who plan to sell their homes while the home office is still in use. This is because if you have depreciated a portion of your home as a business expense and then sell for a gain, you must pay capital gains tax on the portion of the home you previously depreciated. Of course this affects renters differently: those folks can continue to deduct rent, utilities and insurance on the prorated portion of the home until the day they move out. For homeowners in this situation (moving or selling) there are two solutions: either continue deductions for mortgage interest, taxes and utilities but discontinue depreciating the house OR stop using the home office as a prinicipal and exclusive place of business and discontinue the deduction. While on the subject of taxes for home business owners don't forget these two goldmines: 1) Consider a Keogh retirement plan by the end of the year since you can save up to 20% of your income or $30,000 per year in a tax deferred account - much more than the lowly IRA. 2) Don't forget that instead of depreciating equipment such as computers and office equipment over their estimated life you can, according to section 179 of the tax code, legally claim the ENTIRE amount during the year in which the equipment was purchased and placed in service. There is a limit of $10,000 per year for this deduction so plan to buy LESS than this amount in any given year for your equipment purchases if you plan to use rule 179. There are some other technical exclusions for use of rule 179, but it is a goldmine for those that know how to use it. Final suggestion for the home office: at tax time buy the latest printed tax guide at the bookstore you can find and always use a software program to prepare your taxes to prevent errors. My favorite guide is J.K. Lasser's tax guide. Other books of interest to the shareware community: How to Write a Business Plan by Mike McKeever $14.00 Nolo Press 415/549-1976. Also consider: How to Prepare and Present a Business Plan by Joseph Mancuso. $11.00 Prentice Hall Press. 212/373-8500. By the way, sample business plans are available on Compuserve in the International Entrepreneur's forum. GO USEN. Library 8. Please note that disk vendor Disk-Count Data owned by Kevin King has relocated to Sacramento and now has a permanent mailing address as follows: DISK-COUNT DATA, POB 277482, SACRAMENTO, CA 95827-7482 DAY TEL: 916/381-8746 BBS TEL: 916/381-2851 Kevin runs an excellent operation and is very much worth keeping on your update list since he does such a fine job of promoting shareware, writes a respected column for Church Bytes magazine and is forever repeating the phrase "register if you use shareware." Send Kevin a disk today! Speaking of promoters, I was delighted to hear from Howard Schwartz of Marketing Services Corporation of America, another excellent vendor. Howard's new idea is to publish a newspaper syndicated computer education column which explains shareware and other computer issues. Howard's background in direct mail marketing should find this new effort quite successful and I would urge all authors to send Howard a disk since YOUR program could be the subject of one of his columns! Contact MSCA, #1 Marketing Centre, 3157 Madison Street, Waukesha, WI 53188-4409 414/521-8057. Howard sent along a copy of his first column which is EXCELLENT. If you mention that you heard about this from Jim Hood at SMS, I'll bet he might send you a copy or update of his column from time to time! Keep him posted both regarding disk submissions and useful ideas for his column. Want something for FREE which could greatly improve your skills and opportunities as a shareware author? Pick up the phone and call toll free 800/445-7899 and obtain your copy of the Programmer's Paradise catalog of software tools and technology. Not only does this jewel contain pertinent information on the latest software tools, compilers, libraries, editors and linkers, but it contains HIGHLY INFORMATIVE articles on the state of the industry from a programmers perspective. A recent feature of the catalog presented lucid articles on software patching/update technology, using DLLs, Windows programming, and application frameworks for OOP technology. There IS such a thing as a free lunch! The catalog is a publication of the Voyager Software Corporation, 1163 Shrewsbury Avenue, Shrewsbury, NJ 07702 USA 908/389-8950. Get it NOW. Another free item of interest is SMALL BUSINESS SUCCESS, a publication updated annually by the Pacific Bell Directory and the U.S. Small Business Administration. At 72 pages, it includes a variety of up to date information for the small businessperson such as obtaining bank loans, coping with recession, FAX machine selection, computers and more. The publication offers a wealth of pertinent information and even includes an 18 page directory for further reading. Contact: Pacific Bell Directory, 101 Spear Street, Attn: Communications Dept. P-CWS4, Room 429, San Francisco, CA 94105. Promotion of shareware takes different forms. Several months ago I spotted a small article in Shareware Magazine about a national contest sponsored by Johns Hopkins with a focus on locating and awarding computer technology and software to assist the disabled. Out of curiosity, I entered by PC-Learn beginner's tutorial system and was recently accepted for regional competition here in Seattle with possible display at the national convention at the Smithsonian in Washington D.C. Whether I win, lose or draw the PUBLICITY from this kind of competition is invaluable to a small shareware author and in fact something even larger software firms wish they could garner. By enclosing a copy of the competition notification with my press releases I gather a lot of interest. The point: consider non-traditional ways of exposing your shareware to a niche market (e.g., the disabled) which can provide both good will and fabulous advertising mileage! Sometimes you do well by doing good. By the way, PC-Learn received a regional winner's award and was placed in the top ten entries in the regional competition. The press coverage is and will continue to be INVALUABLE to my marketing efforts. Lately I have received a few comments about an apparent incompatibility of the SMS dBase format mailing list with PC- File from Buttonware. Sure enough, when you load in the SMS mailing list, an automatically created "header file" or HDB file is incorrectly generated due to some unknown bug in PC-File. On the screen several fields of information are "overwritten" by other fields. The data is there, it just will not display properly. The SMS dBase file imports to most other packages fine, but PC- File requires an HDB file to layout the screen and a few other functions. The records are intact, because if you switch to list/browsing view you can see all of the company names, addresses and so forth. You can either try the simple repair outlined below or contact SMS for a correct copy of the HDB file (available to registered SMS registrants and subscribers.) I can't fix the bug in PC-File, but I can provide a correct header and the following instruction so that problems disappear. Here is how to fix the the problem with PC-File when importing the SMS database. Load the SMS file DATABASE.DBF into PC-File DB. The program will ask for an index field so it can generate an alphabetically sorted NDX file - most users decide to select the SMS field "Company." The program will proceed to generate an NDX file and an INCORRECT header HDB file usually called DATABASE.HDB. This process is called "adopting" by PC-File. Now, load the incorrect DATABASE.HDB file into any ASCII text editor or word processor in PURE ASCII MODE and notice the lines at the BOTTOM of the HDB file which I have marked as errors due to a bug in PC-File. The error lines represent the row and column location for display of the Remarks1 and Remarks2 fields. NREMARKS1 TC L80 IN R3 ---- error! C53 ---- error! V65 NREMARKS2 TC L80 IN R4 ---- error! C53 ---- error! V65 Zend Next the repair operation: Using your ASCII text editor, change the lines to the correct display location using my notes below which adjust the row and column display values of the HDB file. When you are finished, save the corrected HDB file, remove the bad one (if it remains) and restart PC-File and load in the SMS database mailing list. The corrected HDB file will provide proper screen display information! NREMARKS1 TC L80 IN R21 ----- New, correct value C14 ----- New, correct value V65 NREMARKS2 TC L80 IN R22 ----- New, correct value C14 ----- New, correct value V65 Zend If you are curious about more information concerning how the HDB file is used and other adjustments you can make, use the special program contained with PC-File called DPRPT.EXE which generates a report and provides clues about HDB file layout. Here is a typical DPRPT report display which shows you how the HDB file is used by the SMS database and PC-File. You can easily determine the values of the HDB file. PC-FILE DATABASE DESCRIPTION Printed Wed Jan 08 08:38:30 1992 Database: C:\TEMP\DATABASE Description: Adopted dBASE file Next UNIQUE number will be: 1 FIELD NAME TYPE LENGTH DEC INDEX ROW COLUMN WINDOW ---------- ---- ------ --- ----- --- ------ ------ 1. COMPANY C 41 A 3 14 2. ADDRESS C 50 4 14 3. CITY C 30 5 14 4. STATE C 30 6 14 5. ZIP C 12 7 14 6. DATE_REVIS D 8 8 14 Mask :09// : 7. TYPE C 1 9 14 8. RATING C 2 10 14 9. LABELTOP C 40 11 14 10. FIRSTNAME C 20 12 14 11. LASTNAME C 20 13 14 12. POSITION C 30 14 14 13. DAY_TEL C 28 15 14 14. BBS_TEL C 19 16 14 15. FAX_TEL C 15 17 14 16. TOLLFREE_O C 13 18 14 17. AFFILIATIO C 13 19 14 18. PRINT_ C 1 20 14 19. REMARKS1 C 80 3 53 65 20. REMARKS2 C 80 4 53 65 Back to the news... Speaking of software bugs, here's another ESSENTIAL TIP. Always check your shareware disk for incompatabilities with OTHER programs which are popular such as 4DOS. I recently had problems with my PC-Learn package whose installation routine uses a small file called INKEY.COM. To my surprise, a few users found that when running 4DOS, which has an internal reserved keyword named INKEY, my PC-Learn installation bombed out. There are many other shareware and commercial packages which can also conflict. In general you can't fix everything, but be aware of 4DOS and other popular packages which should be at least beta tested with your product. Shareware vendors and authors alike are interested in cost effective use of postal services to move shareware around the world. With that in mind you might learn a lot by reading the article concerning Arc Tangent software in the June 25, 1991 issue of PC Magazine, Vol 10, N 12. Arc Tangent is the aristocrat of commercial direct mail marketing packages and has recently seen some attractive price reductions from direct mail software suppliers. This commercial package has more cost effective ways to manage bulk mailing than you can shake a stick at. But I digress. The focus is not that you need the Arc Tangent package, just be sure to READ THE ARTICLE to see how good software can manage your mailings and save you both time and money. Read between the lines of the article and see if some of the methods which Arc Tangent uses couldn't be adapted simply with your current software. A lot of inside information about postal regulations and bulk mailing I never knew! Very eye opening piece. Along this same line of thought, note these press releases from PrairieWare: ATTENTION MASS MAILERS Do you want to get more postage for your postage dollar? There are two things you need to do. First send for your very own FREE PrairieWare disk Catalog. The next thing is pick out one of the many label printing programs to print the new 5 digit Postal Bar Code on the labels that you mail out. There are even programs to print the 9 digit codes and the carrier route to save even more money. Check the listings PR042, PR046, UT163, MS143, and UT236. Send for your FREE disk catalog. Send your request to PrairieWare, PO Box 265, Great Falls, MT 59403-0265 or call 800-759-8596. TAX TIME Have the Income Tax blues got you down, look in your latest PrairieWare Catalog and pick out one of the many Tax assistance programs listed and change your cloudy day to sun shine again. Some of the programs print an approved IRS form while others over print the official IRS form. Some of the programs to choose from are BS109, BS110, BS116, BS127, BS190, BS256. Regardless of which program you choose you will get all the help you need since all the programs contain extensive help screens. To get you started order your latest, FREE, PrairieWare disk catalog. All you have to do is call 800-759-8596 or write to PrairieWare PO Box 265 Great Falls, MT 59403-0265 Changing gears we move along to another item . . . With sadness I must mention that ASP author Steve Hudgik has removed many of his excellent shareware packages from distribution and turned over their marketing to American Software Distributors. Steve has been quite ill in recent months and we will miss his enthusiasm and wit. Vendors should check their catalogs carefully. Steve's software was distributed under the Homecraft brand name. Programs include: For Photographers, Home Money Manager, Your Financial Adviser, Play n' Learn. Security programs sought by European firm. Encyption, password, menuing, etc. Herr Graziano, Company: Techno-Treuhand GMbH, Bahnhofstrasse 21-25, 2150 Buxtehude, Germany. (fax) 011- 49416152277 (voice) 011-49416153862. Another European vendor which you might consider: Herr Garnet Brown, Company: The Pearl Agency, W-7845 Buggingen, Germany (voice) 011-4976314042 (also ext 4043). They claim continuous 2 page ads in the top 16 European computer magazines and a massive 16 page insert in several other shareware magazines. 4,000,000 readers per month see their ads, claim company spokesmen. Also consider contacting them for information about a European magazine with a shareware focus: DOS-Trend Magazine which has a purported circulation of over 120,000 European computer users and is published by a sister company of Pearl. Source code deal of the year department: Paul Scanlon, assembly code programmer extraordinaire, is offering a hot deal on the source code for his SEBFU utility set! $89.95 gets you a no royalty, no limit license plus source code disk. Get a copy of the original SEBFU batch file utilities to check out this rich toolkit and then contact Paul if you want access to the source code. $5.00 discount if you mention you heard about it from SMS. Paul also provides consulting and machine code libraries to boost the performance of your packages. Paul Scanlon, 38354 - 17th St. East, Palmdale, CA 93550. 805/272-4827 Over in Britain shareware promotion is big. A nice twist is that the massive Personal Computer World magazine promotes special offers to encourage subscriptions and renewals. Among the offers are sample disks of ASEASYAS, PC-Write, Best PC Games, and others. Wouldn't it be nice if American publications also tried this "value added" strategy to increase subscriptions? A little shareware magazine popped up on my desk the other day and I suggest that MOST AUTHORS should submit a disk for review! The Shareware Report is a small 8 page newsletter published monthly by Shareware Publications, POB 295, Portage, OH 43451- 0295. Subscriptions are $36 per year. Topics include review of new shareware releases, vendor lists, book recommendations, and information on ordering disks which have been reviewed. Send editor John Hasselman a copy of your program! John can be reached on Compuserve at 72027,3142. A nice idea that surfaced the other day is VENDOR COOP MAILINGS. What this means is that unlike AUTHOR COOP MAILINGS (many authors share a mailing to distribute several disks to selected vendors) instead several vendors share a single mailing to a large group of authors. Maybe vendor A needs to communicate a change of address. Vendor B is requesting certain utilites be written. Vendor C is offering media sales and disk duplication to authors. I am hearing rumblings of this taking off at several middle sized vendors. Fred Parker (mentioned earlier in this newsletter) has the largest mailing list of authors for those considering vendor coop mailings. Next, a long, but very useful press release from Shareable Software. More SMS newsletter updates follow the press release so keep reading! SHAREWARE AUTHOR SERVICES FROM SHAREABLE SOFTWARE INTERNATIONAL, INC. January, 1992 Table of Contents Introduction.................................................. 1 Latest News................................................... 2 BBS Upload Service............................................ 3 Disk Vendor Mailing Service................................... 4 Non-ASP Vendors.......................................... 5 ASP Vendors.............................................. 5 U.K. Vendors............................................. 5 Publishing Your Products...................................... 6 Mass-Media & Other Writing-Related Services................... 7 Cost Charts................................................... 8 BBS Upload Service....................................... 8 Non-ASP Vendors.......................................... 8 ASP Vendors.............................................. 9 U.K. Vendors............................................. 10 Mass Media & Other Writing-Related Services.............. 10 Order Form.................................................... 11 Introduction Program distribution and promotion are vitally important for the success of a Shareware program. Shareable Software International, with the introduction of Shareware Author Services, provides shareware authors with cost-effective methods of increasing this distribution and promotion. This document covers four areas: 1. Disk Vendor Mailing Service 2. BBS Upload Service 3. Contracting out the publishing of your program 4. Mass media and other writing-related services. Shareable Software International (SSI) and its President, Bill Dickson, have served the shareware industry since 1989. SSI is also an ASP Vendor Member in good standing. This document is updated monthly. Contact us via Runway BBS, 215-623-6203 (join Conference 77), on CompuServe User ID 76226,2652, by voice at 708-397-1221, by fax at 708-397-0381, or in writing to PO Box 59102, Schaumburg, IL 60159. You can find the current version of this document on Runway BBS as a free download. The BBS name of this document is SSISASxx.ZIP, where xx is a number representing the month of release,(e.g. SSISAS01.ZIP is January). A copy of this document will be sent to each participant in this service. LATEST NEWS If there is sufficient interest shown, we will also make a Disk Mailing Service to ASP BBSes available, let us know what you are interested in. Through a special arrangement, SSI is offering the Programmer's Productivity Pack (ProPak) for only $49.00 plus $4.00 shipping and handling. This product normally sells for $79.00! ProPack is a software package designed to provide the utilities and reference tools most frequently needed by programmers. Each individual tool or "attachment" within ProPack was designed to be the best, most powerful, most flexible, and easiest to use in its category. Features include: Programmer's Calculator that works simultaneously in decimal, binary, hexadecimal, and octal. Addition, subtraction, multiplication, integer division, and modulus mathematical functions. SHL, SHR, ROL, ROR, SAL, SAR, RCL, RCR bit manipulation functions. AND, NOT, OR, and XOR logical functions. MUCH, MUCH, MORE! TOO much to list here. Available as shareware, look for PPP261.ZIP. Call 800-622-2793 to order. BBS UPLOAD SERVICE SSI offers a BBS Upload Service at a very reasonable cost. We currently upload to 150+ BBSes. Your program will be uploaded, and you will receive a list of the BBSes to which your program has been uploaded, so when someone would like to download your program, you can give them the number of a BBS near them. The cost is $.25 per 70k increment per BBS, plus a $5.00 set-up fee. We require a deposit for 100 uploads and will invoice you for the number exceeding 100 (we will accept an order for less than 100 uploads, but this must be paid in full at the time of the order). For example, 153k archived version of your program uploaded to 125 BBSes will cost $93.75 plus the $5.00 set up fee for a total of $98.75. We also have 20 UK BBSes available for uploads at $.25 per 70K increment, plus a $10.00 set up fee. You may tell us where we can download your program (first-time calls only), you may mail it to us with the check, or you may upload it to Runway BBS, Conference 77. In the case where we pick up the program, you must provide us with credit card details, which are subject to a 4% surcharge. DISK VENDOR MAILING SERVICE The Disk Vendor Mailing Service is also an inexpensive method for shareware authors to increase the distribution of their products. It is divided between non-ASP vendors, ASP vendors, and U.K. vendors. The charge for this service is $.70 per disk per vendor in the US and Canada (non-ASP and ASP) and $1.75 for U.K. vendors. This includes disk duplication, label, paper sleeve, and of course shipping. If you want to provide your own label, feel free (no change in price), but you must provide the proper amount. We will print out labels with the program name, version number, and your name on a laser printer. If you want to include a flyer with your program, you may provide us with the proper amount or we can copy them for an additional $.06 each single sided or $.12 double sided. These flyers will be folded to fit in the disk sleeve. We will combine and print the program description files (of programs without flyers) into a mini-catalog for each vendor. The full fee must be included with the order. We will be shipping every two weeks; the sooner you get your order in, the sooner your disk will go out. You must provide SSI with a master 5 1/4" diskette, the master flyer, or the appropriate number of copies of the flyer, the appropriate number of labels if you want your own label on the disk, and a check or credit card details for the proper amount, (don't forget the 4% surcharge for credit card orders!). Your program will be shipped to the requested number of vendors and you will receive a disk containing the list of the vendors shipped to, and of course a printed receipt. Well, who knows what other goodies we might send you too! For multiple disks, you may subtract $.20 for the second and subsequent disks. This applies to all of the vendors, non-ASP, ASP, and U.K. vendors. The charge for 720k disks is $1.50 per vendor for US disk vendors, and $3.60 for U.K. vendors. All other aspects of the mailing remain the same. NON-ASP VENDORS (US and Canada) We use Jim Hood's $hareware Marketing $ystem for our base mailing list for non-ASP Vendors. The minimum requirement is a mailing to 200 vendors, and then in increments of 100 to a 500 vendor total. This, we believe, is the vast majority of the "quality" disk vendors. ASP VENDORS (US and Canada) Each month, we will be updating our list of ASP vendors with information directly from the ASP. Each month the number will be going up, so you must make sure you have the current version of this document. Currently, the number of ASP vendors (US and Canada ONLY) is 233. You must either ship to the entire list of ASP vendors or none of them. As above, you will receive a disk with a list of the vendors shipped to, and a printed receipt. U.K. VENDORS Two things differ for the U.K. Disk Vendor Mailing - the cost, and the number of vendors. The cost for each vendor is $1.75, and the number of vendors is 50. You must ship to all or none of the U.K. vendors. PUBLISHING YOUR PRODUCTS Shareable Software International is also a shareware publisher. We will take your program on a royalty basis. This varies from product to product. If we (or you) are not comfortable with the royalty basis (ie, percentage of the registration fee) our services are available on a pay-as-you go basis. This includes 800-number order taking, credit card orders, product shipping, manual production, technical support, and pretty much anything you need. MASS-MEDIA & OTHER WRITING-RELATED SERVICES SSI has arranged for its customers in the shareware industry to receive promotional and additional writing-related services from one of the most active authors in our field at discount rates. This individual has been a nationally-published author since 1973 and has simultaneously provided writing, phototypesetting, graphic design and related services to private clients since 1978. Currently, he also writes his own columns and additional articles for the leading shareware publications in North America, the U.K. and Australia. He also understands our industry from the inside, having created shareware, public- domain and commercial software since 1985. Services are generally contracted on an hourly basis (currently $36/hr. to SSI customers--a full 25% discount over commercial rates!). Services include (but are not limited to) the following areas. Inquire about others. 1. MASS-MEDIA RELEASES, COMPLETE MASS-MEDIA KITS AND MASS-MEDIA CAMPAIGNS If you already have a "press release" or kit, it will be evaluated and professionally edited for a flat, one-hour fee. Alternately, if the evaluation indicates significant rewriting or redesign is appropriate, you will receive a critique with which you may revise the materials yourself or contract the work from SSI's author. If you don't currently have a release or kit, one can be developed for you on an hourly basis. If you have limited understanding of what an effective media kit should contain or its proper format and would like to develop your own, consultations are available. Similarly, if you have a limited understanding of the unique value of a media campaign (properly coordinated mailings), our author can perform this service for you or consult with you about establishing your own campaigns. If your product warrants, the SSI author may publicize it in his magazine columns or articles without charge. Important: To maintain his professional credibility, published reviews are never based upon his private services for you; they're based solely upon his determination of product merit. However, products for which he provides private services have the distinct advantage of receiving our author's attention, unlike the large volume of otherwise-unsolicited products he receives on a continual basis. Where else can you received guaranteed evaluation of your product by the leading shareware publications around the world? 2. MASS-MEDIA MAILINGS SSI's author will mail your kits to his select "insider" list of media contacts. Rates vary depending upon quantity of material mailed, number of recipients you desire (approximately 1,000 available) and country or countries to which you desire your kits mailed. 3. PRODUCT DOCUMENTATION The SSI author can edit, write or consult on your product's on-disk or printed documentation. 4. PRODUCT EVALUATION SSI's author is uniquely situated to critique your software product. In his role in the industry, he receives and evaluates thousands of products from around the world. Let him advise you to best develop and position your product among them. 5. GRAPHIC DESIGN, PHOTOTYPESETTING & PRINTING Our author owns a professional phototypesetting machine (interfaced with his computers) and design studio and has produced materials ranging from business cards and disk labels to full-length books. He can produce your materials whether or not he has written them on your behalf and maintains trade discounts with a variety of printers best suited to any type of printing product. Often he can subcontract your printing with just the right printer for your job at rates you won't find yourself. He can receive your materials in virtually any DOS, Mac, CP/M or typesetting file format because of a commercial typesetter conversion program he markets. He also can scan and typeset from your hardcopy and--of course--directly keyboard text. SUBMISSION DETAILS To obtain any of the above services, send all related materials (including a copy of your software) and a one-hour initial fee to SSI. If your needs don't fall within the above categories, you may contact SSI first with an inquiry. But please understand that due to the nature of the work in these areas it generally is not feasible to estimate total charges without the initial evaluation of your materials. With our author there are no surprises and you are never locked into extended contracts. After the initial critique, you may submit as much or as little of a deposit as you desire based upon the mutually-agreed services to be performed on your behalf. You will be kept advised of the status and may continue to seek additional services to the degree you desire through subsequent deposits. You may terminate services at any point, obligated only for services provided to that time. (Any unused deposit will, of course, be refunded.) COST CHARTS BBS UPLOAD SERVICE ARCHIVE SIZE PER BBS 0-70K $0.25 71-140K $0.50 141-210K $0.75 211-280K $1.00 281-350K $1.25 CONTACT US FOR LARGER THAN 350K ARCHIVES REMEMBER $5.00 SET-UP FEE FOR EACH ARCHIVE, $10.00 FOR U.K. NON-ASP DISK VENDOR MAILING SERVICE PER DISK YOU PROVIDE EACH THE FLYER FIRST ADDITIONAL 200 100 360K DISK $140.00 $70.00 ADDITIONAL 360K DISK $100.00 $50.00 720K DISK $300.00 $150.00 ADDITIONAL 720K DISK $260.00 $130.00 PER DISK WE COPY EACH THE FLYER FIRST ADDITIONAL (1 SIDED) 200 100 360K DISK $152.00 $76.00 ADDITIONAL 360K DISK $112.00 $56.00 720K DISK $312.00 $156.00 ADDITIONAL 720K DISK $272.00 $136.00 PER DISK WE COPY EACH THE FLYER FIRST ADDITIONAL (2 SIDED) 200 100 360K DISK $164.00 $82.00 ADDITIONAL 360K DISK $124.00 $62.00 720K DISK $324.00 $162.00 ADDITIONAL 720K DISK $284.00 $142.00 ASP DISK VENDOR MAILING SERVICE PER DISK YOU PROVIDE THE FLYER CURRENT 233 360K DISK $163.10 ADDITIONAL 360K DISK $116.50 720K DISK $349.50 ADDITIONAL 720K DISK $302.90 PER DISK WE COPY THE FLYER CURRENT (1 SIDED) 233 360K DISK $177.08 ADDITIONAL 360K DISK $130.48 720K DISK $363.48 ADDITIONAL 720K DISK $316.88 PER DISK WE COPY THE FLYER CURRENT (2 SIDED) 233 360K DISK $191.06 ADDITIONAL 360K DISK $144.46 720K DISK $377.46 ADDITIONAL 720K DISK $330.86 U.K. DISK VENDOR MAILING SERVICE PER DISK YOU PROVIDE THE FLYER CURRENT 50 360K DISK $87.50 ADDITIONAL 360K DISK $77.50 720K DISK $180.00 ADDITIONAL 720K DISK $170.00 PER DISK WE COPY THE FLYER CURRENT (1 SIDED) 50 360K DISK $90.50 ADDITIONAL 360K DISK $80.50 720K DISK $183.00 ADDITIONAL 720K DISK $173.00 PER DISK WE COPY THE FLYER CURRENT (2 SIDED) 50 360K DISK $93.50 ADDITIONAL 360K DISK $83.50 720K DISK $186.00 ADDITIONAL 720K DISK $176.00 MASS-MEDIA & OTHER WRITING-RELATED SERVICES HOURLY RATES FOR MOST SERVICES: $36/HR. MASS-MEDIA MAILING SERVICE: (varies--see text and call) INITIAL REVIEW/CRITIQUING: $36.00 accompanying your materials ORDER FORM BBS UPLOAD SERVICE (US) ARCHIVE SIZE OF _____ ($.25 per 70K) IS $____ X ____ BBSes = $______ SET UP FEE $______ BBS UPLOAD SERVICE (U.K.) ARCHIVE SIZE OF _____ ($.25 per 70K) IS $____ X 20 BBSes = $______ SET UP FEE $______ NON-ASP DISK VENDOR MAILING SERVICE FIRST 360K DISK TO 200 = $140.00 $______ FIRST 720K DISK TO 200 = $300.00 $______ ADDITIONAL 360K DISK TO ____ VENDORS = $____ $______ ADDITIONAL 720K DISK TO ____ VENDORS = $____ $______ ASP DISK VENDOR MAILING SERVICE 360K DISK TO 233 = $163.10 $______ 720K DISK TO 233 = $349.50 $______ ADDITIONAL 360K DISK TO 233 = $116.50 $______ ADDITIONAL 720K DISK TO 233 = $302.90 $______ U.K. DISK VENDOR MAILING SERVICE 360K DISK TO 50 = $87.50 $______ 720K DISK TO 50 = $180.00 $______ ADDITIONAL 360K DISK TO 50 = $77.50 $______ ADDITIONAL 720K DISK TO 50 = $170.00 $______ COPYING OF FLYER NUMBER OF VENDORS _____ X $.06 SINGLE SIDED = $______ NUMBER OF VENDORS _____ X $.12 DOUBLE SIDED = $______ MASS-MEDIA & OTHER WRITING-RELEATED SERVICES INITIAL REVIEW/CRITIQUING AT $36.00 $_____ SUB TOTAL $_____ ADD 4% IF USING CREDIT CARD $_____ TOTAL $_____ End of Press release. The last few issues of Shareware Magazine from PC-SIG offer some interesting opportunities. In the Nov-Dec 1991 issue publisher Richard Petersen offers a FREE six month Shareware Magazine subscription to any business person who might be interested in - or need convincing of - the advantages of shareware. A second offer from Petersen is ONE FREE PC-SIG DISK of your choice for every name and address you provide of anyone interested in software or owning a PC. Petersen poses questions to readers (and shareware authors) and would like to personally hear the answers from you. Consider and send along your comments on Petersen's questions: Do you buy disks from PC-SIG. Why or why not? Where do you obtain shareware? What is your opinion of Shareware Magazine? What should be added or subtracted from Shareware Magazine? Do you register your own shareware and why? What sort of programs should be developed which are not now available. Does your company use shareware? What are your areas of expertise if you are interested in becoming a shareware reviewer? Final offer from Petersen in the Nov-Dec issue: tell him what programs you've registered and receive a free disk for each one registered. By the way, the same Nov-Dec issue provides a fascinating list and review of foreign shareware vendors as well as domestic US vendors. The writer of the foreign vendor article URGENTLY requests press releases, product announcements events and trends plus new foreign shareware vendor addresses. Pertinent to all shareware authors. Contact Jerry Olsen. 1130 S. Michigan Ave, Ste 1816, Chicago, IL 60605 (voice) 312/939-3300 (modem) 312/939-4411 (compuserve) 70322,3160. Jerry's company, Advocate Enterprises, also provides services for shareware authors including diskette and mailing label design, copywriting, ghostwriting, software design, documentation and media kit distribution. Continuing with a different editorial from Richard Petersen in the Sep-Oct 1991 issue of Shareware Magazine, obvious and not so obvious observations pop out. According to Petersen successful shareware seems limited to PC compatibles. Successful shareware disks tend to be first in a particular area. Windows is hot. The ASP is a good place to share experiences and swap marketing information but has had limited impact on public awareness of shareware. More commercial programs are popping up in shareware versions. Foreign shareware marketing in growing. Visibility of shareware to the broader market of computer users is still low. Petersen even suggests creation of an association for the purpose of promoting the concept of shareware. Something beyond the ASP. That last statement seems to indicate the achilles heel of the shareware industry. Visibility remains surprisingly low despite larger vendors, despite the ASP and despite the vast numbers of PC clones. I think this may change slowly this year as industry giant Ziff-Davis gradually brings Public Brand up to marketing speed. Another surprisingly interesting venue that may change shareware perceptions is that gradually more sellers of PC's are incorporating shareware on the hard drive with every computer sold. By the way, one of my industry sources says that despite high circulation claims (inflated by including total printing and/or news stand circulation), ACTUAL paid subscriptions to Shareware Magazine may be in the region of about 17,000 to 20,000. This is not meant as a negative insight about the magazine, which is excellent and IMPROVING under new Editor-in-Chief Michael Callahan, but rather a reaffirmation that shareware visibility in the larger public arena is still low. Software U.S.A. passes along this press release which is reprinted verbatim as supplied by company president Justin O'Neal: If you're a shareware buyer, vendor, or author then SOFTWARE U.S.A. of Tulsa, Oklahoma has a service that meets your need. SOFTWARE U.S.A. carries a complete line of shareware programs. Each has been thoroughly tested and is of the utmost quality. In support of the shareware idea, SOFTWARE U.S.A. will even pay 10% of the registration fee (not to exceed $10). They also carry a full line of commercial programs and hardware accessories for the IBM, Macintosh, Apple, Commodore, Amiga, Atari, Nintendo, and many more. SOFTWARE U.S.A. also has an unbeatable diskette replication service. Charges are only 15 cents per disk, and there are no set-up charges. Minimum of 50 diskettes. ATTENTION SHAREWARE AUTHORS SOFTWARE U.S.A. has a service that will knock your socks off. It's called Direct Diskette Distribution (DDD for short). Here's how it works>>> SOFTWARE U.S.A. takes your program and places it on their catalog disk. When they mail their catalogs, your program goes right along. This means that everyone who receives a SOFTWARE U.S.A. catalog, receives your program. This dramatically increases circulation of your program and your chances of people registering. Catalogs are bi-monthly and are mailed to approximately 1200 people in that time frame. Charges are $40 per 500 persons mailed or 8 cents a name. Minimum reservation is 500 catalogs. Guaranteed returns at 2.5%. In other words: If your registration fee is $15, and you reserve a complete bi- monthly mailing (app. 1200 catalogs), and you receive a 2.5% response (1200 * 2.5%), you can expect dollar returns of $450 (minimum). They can also mass mail your programs to selected target areas for a very reasonable cost. In addition, SOFTWARE U.S.A. has formed a new subsidiary company called VECTOR PUBLICATIONS. A mail list management firm that is devoted to bringing the best leads to people at the best prices. Below is a short price list. Other categories are available. These are the highest quality of names VECTOR PUBLICATIONS offers. No name is over 30 days old. Category: Shareware Users Class: A (Hotline names) Min. Order: 200 names. Prices>>> 200 names..............$20.00 500 names..............$30.00 1000 names..............$50.00 2000 names..............$90.00 3000 names..............$140.00 4000 names..............$185.00 5000 names..............$230.00 10000 names..............$450.00 *Large quantity orders (5-10 thousand) may take up to 7 days extra to process. Names are cycled, and no two orders within 90 days will ever have the same names. Below is a listing of the SOFTWARE U.S.A. departments with their respective addresses. Also is a listing of the department heads. SOFTWARE U.S.A.- Technical Services & Customer Support 3717 E. 82nd Ct. Suite #217, Tulsa, OK 74137 SOFTWARE U.S.A.- Main Office (located in the Fountain Plaza) 4845 S. Sheridan, Suite #505, Tulsa, OK 74145 SOFTWARE U.S.A.- Orders and inquiries P.O. Box 471883, Tulsa, OK 74147 PHONE OPEN 24 hours a day. FAX 918-481-6533 918-622-7889 Justin O'Neal President Bradley McClure Vice President, Author Services Joel Henshaw Vice President, Customer Service Jeff Woods Operating Director, Vector Publications лллллллллллллллллллллллллллллллллллллллллллллллллллллллллллллллл Please note that older material from previous SMS newsletters, containing HIGHLY valuable marketing information, has been moved to the SMS archives disk which is available from SMS. Consult the GOODIES section of SMS for information on ordering this archived material if you do not have previous editions of SMS. лллллллллллллллллллллллллллллллллллллллллллллллллллллллллллллллл