Urgent...I have created a VB6 program

[batman321]

and need a software marketing company to promote it and sell it. I am from Auckland, New Zealand and have searched hi and low for these companies within my local but to no avail. I don't want to start a website and do SEO, links etc because it will take too much time and take ages.

I take it most people on this site are from USA, Canada, but I could be wrong.

Any tips are appreciated.

[Nightwalker83]

You could try selling your software on amazon, you could try this. I found a hole pile of links by searching "Sell my own software" in google.

[batman321]

I had problems selling it on Ebay (similar to amazon). Lots of people said they didn't trust software there from small/unknown sellers like myself. They said people sell viruses (in the form of software) so I got stereotyped. I will have a look at amazon and the link.

Thanks

(I know you didn't mention eBay, I'm just saying from past experience)

[Nightwalker83]

Well, people like that just like complaining there is no stopping them. How do they think companies such as Apple and Microsoft made it big if everyone was skeptical about their software?

[batman321]

True. I did have some buyers and there is no way I wanted to give up. I was working with a guy I knew on this project, and he said he had "marketing contacts" that could promote my software. Then it turns out, he doesn't speak with them anymore and suggested I set-up a website and do it myself.

[akhileshbc]

If possible, create a demo or trial app and upload it to various sites that provides free downloads (eg: brothersoft.com, etc.). You could find lots of sites like that by yourself. So, people would be able to try it out and if they are interested, they could contact you to buy the full product. It would also be a good idea to create a small product site of yours(you could use a free site builder or use something like WordPress with a business template - many free professional looking templates are available for WordPress, and most of the templates comes with search engine friendly format). So, mentioning the link to your site could possible bring more attraction.

Another marketing technique is to post details about your software(and your site) in free advertising sites, forums(don't spam), blogs, etc.

Post videos in youtube showing the UI or the working your app is another way.

[Hack]

Moved To General Developer

[dilettante]

You still end up needing to promote the software yourself to get many sales. There is a lot of noise out there for your message to get through.

You can delegate a lot of the sales mechanics to a 3rd party like http://www.payloadz.com/info-sell-software.asp or many others, but getting the customer to open that door can be challenging.

One way is to run a fairly basic Web site where you have useful giveaway software that you offer for free. Then you promote your for-fee products on those pages, again linking back to the 3rd party to handle payments, product downloads, key dispensing, etc.


If you know your target market and have a personal stake in the subject matter you can often find related forums sites where you can soft-pedal your freebies as solutions. Some of these forum sites even let you pay a small fee to become an "affiliated vendor" allowing you more privileges in terms of small ad links in your profile signature there. Some even go further and offer a forum specifically for vendor support Q & A between affiliates and users.

Policies vary, but in almost all cases the sites want you to be an active participant rather than merely a vendor hawking wares. And this site for example has fairly strict "no selling" rules.

I don't know of any that support posting blatant "buy my new whizbang software" posts though. So you need to follow the rules of the site, stay far away from hard-selling, and be a productive member of the community.


Beyond that do some careful SEO on your own site (but there are diminishing returns so don't over-invest in that black art). Also worth considering if your software fits a niche find some of the more competant and influential members of the community and offer them a free review copy in exchange for an honest review and link back to your site. Be honest and up-front about your promotion aims, and if your software is any good 3 out of 4 you approach will give the idea some consieration.

But don't try to saturation bomb these guys - try to target those who would seem to find your software the most useful to them. That means reading their blogs and such, and it doesn't hurt to spend some time up front becoming known (positively if possible ) in the community.

If you can approach a couple of these guys and say "I'm TooFish from AquaFora" and they've seen you around there it can help get your foot in the door.


So yeah. It's a lot of work. Just getting your software listed at a sales site doesn't get you many sales.

[batman321]

I have listed my software program at payloadz, here is the link, feel free to check it out:

I am not trying to advertise my product, just get feedback on my listing. I sense my product may be buried beneath the other thousands of products available on this site.

[Hack]

I have listed my software program at payloadz

Thats all we need to know.

I am not trying to advertise my product

Well, yeah, you are actually, and thats why I removed the link.

[RobDog888]

You need to be very careful advertising in signatures and posting links to your software on various forums as most will outright ban your account for spamming. If your post / link answers someones question or is a solution to someones problem then most times it may be overlooked as spam

[batman321]

Ok thanks.

[KiwiDexter]

You need to be very careful advertising in signatures and posting links to your software on various forums as most will outright ban your account for spamming. If your post / link answers someones question or is a solution to someones problem then most times it may be overlooked as spam

To build on this point, it's always worth asking if you can include links in your signature. Most sites wont have a problem but a few will, if they take advertising for example they may see it as eating into their core profit stream. Don't always rely on their published rules and regs, sort of a common law thing operating for forum citizenship. For example sitepoint.com get real upset if you have links in your sig to what they consider to be services that attack their own offerings, this isn't stated in their forum policy.

On another point, I'm highly unlikely to buy software over the net unless I know the software, or can go to a site and check out a demonstration and it looks to be strongly supported. But then I'm coming from a php perspective, it may differ for vb desktop and network apps.

The board is made up of North Americas, a fair few Brits, some Aussies and Kiwis, and a lot of other nationalities. We tend not to mention the South Australians as that would devalue the real estate

[Nightwalker83]

We tend not to mention the South Australians as that would devalue the real estate

What? You can talk! Look at the state of the NZ economy.