Whether you have your own affiliate program or you use an external affiliate system such as Commission Junction, LinkShare, or countless others, we will review your program and outline how your affiliate revenue can be increased. This audit service, available upon request, is included as part of being a FastSpring client.  (Note: FastSpring does offer its own reseller and affiliate management system, though actual affiliate recruiting is covered through this standalone service.)

For ongoing affiliate program growth management after Affiliate Program Expert Audit, there will be an additional fee, which often can be structured with a performance-based component; once a baseline revenue benchmark is established, the fee can be earned from the incremental revenue which is generated from our efforts. Our leading expert began his affiliate career at Commission Junction in 1999 before managing programs for a number of software companies, and is a highly respected expert in the affiliate marketing industry. Current affiliate program growth management clients include eFax, Savings.com, Angie’s List, Callwave, and Stamps.com. Interested vendors should email us directly to request an Affiliate Program Expert Audit.

Benefits of the affiliate growth management program include the following:

• Ensure your affiliate program is actively managed by an affiliate expert who focuses on nothing but affiliate program growth
• Learn which US, international, and niche affiliate programs are the best for you to work with for your particular products and goals, in addition to your existing program
• Increase the performance of your ads
• Increase your overall website’s conversion rate
• Find out which of the top 1,000 super affiliates are not yet promoting your products and get them recruited
• Increase affiliate outreach and communication
• Increase the number of affiliates that generate sales every month vs. sit idle
• Benefit from the learning gained from managing dozens of other affiliate programs
• Learn how to optimize the program offer you’re making to affiliates so you attract the higher quality affiliates
• Get help with managing any channel conflict between affiliate and reseller channels
• Develop a more effective affiliate incentive program to better motivate your affiliates

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by Gordon Graham, Editor, SoftwareCEO

Originally published www.softwareceo.com, 9/29/2009.

Building a website for your software firm is one thing. Developing an entire e-commerce system to sell software over the web is another.

Ask any developer, and he’ll tell you, “Sure! I can do that in a few days.” Ahhhhh… would you believe 18 months?

That’s how long Dan Engel says one of his software companies struggled to build an e-commerce platform.

“I went down that path myself. We spent one and a half years trying to build a system. We wound up having something decent, but it took away from our focus on growing revenues. That’s how I learned the lesson.”

Engel should know what he’s talking about. He’s had a successful career at a number of software companies, including marketing for GoToMyPC (now Citrix) and Picasa (now Google). And he was in charge of online marketing for AdWords and AdSense for Google.

Then he joined Santa Barbara, CA-based e-commerce service provider FastSpring, a company focused on helping software publishers increase sales and save headaches on e-commerce.

“We’re dealing with one pretty large company now and they’re looking at outsourcing e-commerce because they’re losing so many opportunities there,” he says. “They can’t do promotions, they don’t localize their order page, they can’t deal with the VAT and all the taxes.

“They’re a $5-million software company trying to become a $10-million company, and we fully expect that we can grow their bottom line 25 percent over the next year.”

After chatting with Engel, we came away with these seven tips on how to boost profits with e-commerce.

“Each piece adds a few percentage points,” he says. “So if you get two percent here and three percent there, it starts to add up. And it will far exceed the cost of outsourcing this, in terms of slightly higher transaction fees.”

So before you sink another $50,000 into building your own back end, listen to some words of wisdom from an e-commerce specialist.

Boost profits with e-commerce tip #1: Focus on developing and marketing your software, not on building e-commerce

Building e-commerce is a lot like any other big project, cautions Engel, say renovating a house.

There are lots of unforeseen complications, and many issues you won’t see going in. It can easily become a major distraction that sucks up resources, but never gets finished.

“It’s a lesson that’s been learned many times over by many developers and business people,” says Engel.

“The best strategy, if you’re interested in generating revenue from software, is to focus on product development and marketing and sales, and completely outsource the e-commerce to a firm that specializes in nothing but e-commerce.

“It’s hard enough growing your software business, without being in charge of your own e-commerce too.”

Boost profits with e-commerce tip #2: Accept multiple forms of payment

Sure you can already accept Visa and PayPal, but how about American Express? A company check? A money order? A purchase order?

How significant are these other forms of payment?

Well, they can certainly add up, says Engel.

“Certain types of customers are more likely to pay with an Amex card. More technical customers are more likely to have a PayPal account. Old school, old-fashioned customers might want to use a check or money order.

“Sometimes schools or corporations order hundreds or thousands of units at once, but they do require a PO. When a school purchaser comes to your site, you have to cater to their needs; the last thing they want is someone who can’t deal with POs.

“At the end of the day, these multiple forms of payment make your sales appealing to a much wider audience. You don’t want to lose 10 percent of potential revenue because you don’t have a payment option for certain people.”

If you’re developing your own e-commerce system and negotiating with every partner, you’ll want to make sure that the demographics of each payment system work for you.

But if you can get one-stop shopping for all these options from a service provider like FastSpring, why not?

Boost profits with e-commerce tip #3: Increase sales with CDs and download protection

Engel says these two simple tactics can help build online sales.

“The variables are, is it opt-in or opt-out? And how complementary to the purchase is it?

“If you’re selling software to the average joe, and you ask if he’d also like it shipped on CD as an opt-out, we’ve seen 80 percent accept that CD for an additional $10.

“Extended download service doesn’t cost anything, but it gives your customer the assurance that they can come back and download in the future, if their computer crashes or whatever, so that’s a nice service that can get you another $5.”

The funny thing is, most companies would do this for free if a customer called in to say they needed to re-download.

So there’s a way to bump up most sales by $15 just for dropping a CD in the mail.

Boost profits with e-commerce tip #4: Don’t forget volume discounts and bundles

This one sounds like a no-brainer, but there are lots of sites out there without it.

“You want to give an incentive for a customer to buy five copies, or 10 or 50 or 100, so they make that purchase immediately,” says Engel. This applies equally well to seats for SaaS products.

And you likely want to offer a discount off your other products at the time of sale.

“Software is not like most businesses, you don’t have any physical product in most cases, so when you’re discounting or bundling products together, there isn’t really the same cost of goods sold that you have with something like hardware.

“You want to take advantage of that.”

Don’t overlook discounts and bundles, not to mention bundling third-party products too.

Boost profits with e-commerce tip #5: Start using rebates

“Companies are making a lot of money with coupons. But to date, rebates have been too much of a logistical headache for anyone to offer on software,” says Engel.

To overcome this, FastSpring recently partnered with another company to bring the concept of offline rebates to online sales.

Note: A “coupon” is a code a buyer can enter at the time of purchase for an immediate discount, while a “rebate” is an offer to send in for a check by snail mail.

The big difference: Everyone will use a coupon that’s in their hands, but not everyone will use a rebate. In fact, perhaps 60 percent will never get around to mailing in for their rebate… which puts that money back on your bottom line.

FastSpring’s rebate partner has mailboxes all over the world, so a customer in Germany can mail to an address in Germany and get their rebate dropped into their bank account in Euros.

Here’s a flow diagram that shows all this.

But wait, there’s more…

“We just did a study and found that only 20 percent redeemed the rebate: 60 percent never redeemed it in general, and we convinced another 20 percent to use the money on other software, instead of redeeming it for cash,” says Engels.

“Say on your home page, you have a product for $50. Now you can say it’s only $30 with a $20 rebate, knowing that 80 percent are never going to use the rebate.

“What I love about this is that you can reduce the price you present to the customer up-front, from $50 to $30 with a $20 rebate, and that’s really compelling. Imagine how many more units you can sell if you reduce your selling price by 40 or 50 percent?”

And to reduce your costs even more, you can offer to redeem the rebate for software instead of cash, bundling in another $30 program that you’ve discounted down to $20.

“Our clients are very excited to start testing this out, and we think it’s going to be a very big success,” says Engel.

Boost profits with e-commerce tip #6: Automatically localize language and currency for each visitor

Imagine your order pages being so “smart” that they automatically reconfigure to match the language and currency of your visitors.

Ideally your e-commerce system would analyze the IP address, mailing address, and browser settings of each visitor, and change to accommodate them. So if they speak Spanish and come from Spain, they see the European Spanish version of your order pages with the prices in € (euros).

That’s another development challenge that’s already been solved by FastSpring. Prices can be given in euros, pounds, yen, or Australian, Canadian, or American dollars, and the order pages support something like 14 different languages.

“On most sites, when you see a converted price, instead of $60, you see $59.23 or something. So we let our publishers determine what the price will be in each currency as a nice round number.

“And there are no currency exchange fees like those charged by banks; no one wants that extra $3 to end up on their credit card bill.”

FastSpring will also match the branding and look and feel of your original site to avoid turning off shoppers.

“If you don’t do that, people are more likely to abandon the shopping cart,” says Engel.

Boost profits with e-commerce tip #7: To optimize results, test and re-test your order pages

We’ve heard this advice before. But with all of Engel’s experience on so many sites, aren’t there some rules of thumb for what works best?

“I really wish there were,” chuckles Engel. “Then I could write a book and make a lot of money.”

But like most things, it all depends.

“It really depends on the type of product and the type of customer, whether they’re corporate, or consumers, or my parents’ generation. It’s foolish to assume that you know all this without testing.”

He suggests that software firms should run through between 25 and 75 orders for each variable being tested.

With FastSpring, you can re-test the whole order flow, the number of pages, the buttons, the cross-sells, anything.

“You can try a single-page order flow or three pages; you can try the credit card on the first page or on the third page. And all that stuff should be re-tested at least once a year,” he says.

“There is always something out there that you haven’t tried, some little tweak that makes a difference.”

We could go with the other features of FastSpring:

• Collecting sales taxes and VAT
• Eliminating chargebacks, with a rate below 0.5 percent
• Minimizing fraud, with a 12-point self-correcting algorithm
• Multiple merchant accounts, so you’re never frozen out due to a sudden spike in ordering activity or fraud
• A blog with lots of marketing tips and ideas.

So what does all this cost an ISV?

FastSpring charges either 5.9 percent plus 95 cents per transaction, or a flat 8.9 percent, with a minimum of 75 cents per transaction. You take your pick.

“Most companies think they’re paying 2 percent because that’s what gets quoted,” says Engel. “But they’re really paying between 3 and 4 percent. If they have transactions in AMEX or Paypal, or overseas, or anything other than the standard transactions, all of those cost significantly more.”

You can be up and running in as little as one day, with no setup or cancellation fees, and a lot of advice on tweaks you could make to increase sales.

We think that’s reasonable, and moving to a service like FastSpring makes a lot of sense.

About the author: Gordon Graham is an award-winning journalist with 30 years in the software industry. And as That White Paper Guy, he helps B2B software firms tell their stories with crisp, compelling white papers.

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Recently a vendor who sells software asked members of the Business of Software forum “Do you wait a while before issuing a requested refund?”.  Ken White, one of FastSpring’s Dedicated Account Managers, had an interesting response based on his experiences with a software firm he’s been involved with over the years:

“Not everyone will like this idea, but with my product line, which actually cost me something because of some 3rd party royalties, I sell the software products with a 30 day money back guarantee.  BUT, when I get a refund request, I first ask if there was any particular problem or something we can help with.  Then I tell them if they would like to proceed with a refund, visit our refund page.

That page describes that while we are happy to offer a 30 day guarantee and offer refunds, because of some licensing issues and the fact that some buyers in the past have purchased, downloaded, then asked for refund just to get the products free, we require that they print, sign, and mail the attached form to receive the refund.

What I’ve found in about 5 years of doing this is:

1) The ones who were just trying to steal get really upset about the whole process, yell, scream, etc.  I’ve pretty much decided the ones in this group were never going to be profitable for me, and even if somehow they were to eventually become customers, they would be the high-maintenance types that would cost us more than we’d make.  About 50% of these will actually send the form and eventually get a refund.

2) About 50% of the normal people who wanted a refund will end up engaging me more about their problems before jumping to the refund form, and with many of those I can help them work through the issue that made them want the refund to start with.

3) About 5% of the refund requesters will get angry and impatient and initiate a chargeback.  This is an acceptable level of that given that I’ve cut out about half the returns with the form.”

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Did you know rebate checks in 2008 totaled over $6 billion?  It’s a hugely successful and popular merchandising tool.  We just released a new feature for online vendors that increases profits by offering a mail-in rebate to your customers instead of a coupon. This is the first online-based rebate service of its kind, and it is unavailable through any other e-commerce service. Rebates have proven to boost sales and profits in the offline world, but to date they were difficult or impossible to implement online because the online customer base is truly global and the logistics were too much of an obstacle…until now!

While customers redeem coupons nearly 100% of the time, typically less than 40% of rebates get redeemed, so the difference gets added to your profit instead.  Run these numbers on your own coupon promotions and you’ll quickly see how much you can potentially increase your profit in short order by replacing some coupon promotions with mail-in rebate promotions.  Through the service’s global mail-in locations and payment options, customers mail a form in to an in-country address and get paid in the default currency for that country.  For example, a customer in Germany would be provided with an address in Germany to mail their rebate to and would subsequently be paid via an EFT in Euros.

While some rebate companies try to disqualify consumers, hold consumers’ money for a long time for no other reason than the float, or send the consumer something other than what you promise them, we take the exact opposite approach and make the experience fast and easy for the consumer so that they are kept fully satisfied at all times.  Since the rebate form is simple and the payment is done quickly and efficiently, it’s a positive experience for both you and your customer.

You also have the option to offer a complementary product (already at a special discounted price) to which the consumer can apply their rebate, instead of having to mail in the rebate and wait for weeks to get reimbursed.  This will further decrease the number of actual rebates fulfilled, constituting additional savings for you (and more new customers who will potentially purchase upgrades).

You can view a diagram that illustrates the flow here:
http://www.fastspring.com/features_rebate.php

I hope you enjoy the financial benefits of this innovative new feature we’re introducing as a new merchandising opportunity for FastSpring vendors.  If you’d like to learn more about setting this up, please contact your FastSpring Dedicated Account Manager.

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For “buy now” buttons, it’s helpful for the button to be a bright color (e.g. red), to be large enough on the page to be highly visible, ideally to be located above the fold.  When possible, it’s wise to have a purchase link on every page of your site (this link could just be in your navigation menu that appears at the top of each page) even if it’s not specifically a buy button that appears within every page.  You want to make it as easy as possible for those who want to buy to do exactly that, irrespective of where they are on your site when they make the decision to buy or to learn about pricing and purchase details.

Some of FastSpring’s better performing buy buttons are these:

You can view a larger selection of buttons here

(Upon request, we can at times redesign a button to fit your particular order page needs.)

Notice how the various payment options are listed next to the buy button, letting customers have an idea upfront regarding whether there is a a payment method that applies to them.  Given that most popular payment methods are covered in the graphics, most users find at least one applicable payment method that attracts them to then click the buy button and proceed with their purchase.

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Recently a consumer software publisher said they were approached by a big German PC magazine requesting to feature the software product on the PC magazine’s covermount CD. The magazine asked to bundle a fully functional version of the software product. No compensation was offered. What should the software company do?

It certainly wouldn’t hurt to ask for money upfront. Some magazines will pay, and sometimes they’ll pay well since they’re asking for a free copy of something others are paying significant money for. We’ve done a couple of deals where the software vendor was paid a one time upfront fee of $5-$8K, though that tends to be the exception more than the norm certainly.

The next best thing is to give them an older version which prompts users to upgrade to the new version, or to give them a Lite version which doesn’t have all features enabled, and when users click a non-Lite feature they are asked to upgrade from Lite to a higher version.

It would be great if they accepted a trial version but they generally don’t since it doesn’t have perceived value to their readers. Another option is to ask them for a free advertisement in their publication or a story included in that issue about your product if they haven’t already offered that. Either option gets at least some traffic to your site where hopefully you can offer their readers additional products or editions of your product.

Some software vendors just want the free exposure (think word-of-mouth) more than anything and are OK without having a way to monetize it at all, and that’s fine too if you’re comfortable with that. Especially since the magazine is based in Germany and most likely most of those magazine subscribers wouldn’t have found your particular product on their own anyway, so it’s not likely cannibalizing your business to any great extent by giving it away for free, unless your primary market happens to be Germany, though even so there are still advantages along with disadvantages.

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The question has come up a number of times — I’m a software company and I’ve been asked by a 3rd party company to bundle their software along with mine, should I do it?

I’ve managed a number of bundle deals in the past, including a little time spent working with the Google toolbar bundle distribution team while I was at Google.

Bundle deals can be very lucrative if they’re done properly with the end user experience in mind.   You need to be extra sure that the products you bundle are products that are considered user-friendly, useful and pleasant applications, not anything that has been considered spyware in anyway.  Enable your users to easily view and evaluate the 3rd party bundle offer and opt-in or abstain from it without any confusion.  The bundled product should be easily uninstallable by your users as well, with all components uninstalling.

The amount of money you make depends on which company’s product(s) you bundle, how much you are paid per install or as rev share, how many installs you receive of your own product, the geographic breakdown of your installs, retention of the 3rd party bundled product among your users and how often your users use the bundled product if it requires usage, etc.   For those bundle opportunities that pay you on a revenue share basis, you can expect to be paid 35-75% of the revenue earned, depending on the company you’re working with.  Examples of companies that at times pay on a revshare include Google, Yahoo, Ask, Conduit, and Visicom.

It’s hard to know if you’ll earn more from doing a revshare or a pay-per-install arrangement, the only way to know is to ask a lot of questions and test different bundles.  How much will you earn if you do a pay-per-install arrangement?  Say you generate 1,000 installs per day. In my experience, that can generate anywhere from $50 to $500+ per day, depending on the factors I’ve mentioned. I realize that’s a big range, but there are so many factors, and that’s why it’s good to test a few different bundles in case one makes you a lot more revenue than another.  If you find a good fit, you can definitely earn $300+ per day on 1,000+ installs per day ($.30 per install) with a decent geographic breakdown which includes a higher pay rate for US traffic, lower for non-US.  Some firms will pay as much as $2.00 for a US install, some will pay as little as $.25 per US install, it really depends on the situation.  Those firms which can do a good job monetizing your non-US installs might be willing to pay as much as $.75 for EU-based installs, though oftentimes they won’t pay more than $.10-$.25, especially for countries they consider less able to be monetized such as third world countries.  The better paying install countries are US, UK, Canada, the next tier down is generally other EU countries such as France, Germany, and perhaps Italy, then everywhere else is the 3rd tier which almost always earns only $.10-$.25.

Here are some questions, techniques, and tips to consider when you are evaluating a bundle opportunity:

- Ask the company who wants you to bundle their product with yours if they will pay you even if their product is already on the user’s desktop.  Some firms will only pay for unique installs and if a lot of your users already have their product installed, you lose out on a lot of installs - think Google Toolbar.

- Will they pay for installs on Firefox and other browsers as well as IE?  If 20% of your users are on Firefox and your bundle partner only pays for IE installs (this assumes the bundle product gets integrated with a browser and thus the browser type matters), you’ll make a lot less than you would with a partner who pays for Firefox installs as well, assuming all else were equal.  Check Google Analytics (FastSpring has it integrated) if you don’t know what % of your users browse with Firefox.

- Can they track the geographic location of your installs from their end of do they require you to?  If they require you to and they’re paying a different rate based on geography, you need to be sure you have a way to track the user location and that your partner will accept your tracking method as valid.

- Test out the 3rd party product with popular anti-virus/spyware programs and be sure those popular programs don’t get flagged by this 3rd party product.  If they do, then the bundle may not only damage your brand and reputation, but can also lead to fewer installs of your own product since users will be notified that your software is not safe.

- Is your bundle partner OK being bundled alongside another product, if you do already bundle something else?  Some companies will be OK with this, some not, and some will be OK with it so long as the other bundled product isn’t a competing product to theirs.  When you ask this, be sure to specifically ask about their product being bundled with a specific product you are already bundling or intend to bundle along with theirs.  The last thing you want is to find out at the last minute post-integration that they didn’t realize what else they were actually going to be bundled with, and they can’t accept the co-bundle as is.

- If you are planning to bundle on an opt-out or opt-in basis, be sure your partner is OK what the setup you prefer.

- If you want the installer/EULA page where you mention to your users that there is a 3rd party bundle to have a certain appearance or contain certain content, be sure your bundle partner is OK with it, and in your contract state both parties get to approve of the install page’s look and feel.  Include in the contract that you have the right to approve everything related to the bundle, so that your partner can’t insist on anything you aren’t OK with, you get to have final say.

- Have a short-term exit clause (ie. 30 days) in the agreement in case you need to pull out of it quickly.  You don’t want to find out the bundle is causing a problem for your business and then be stuck with your new bundle and no way to get out.

- Ask your bundle partner for financial projections based on your install volume and user profile (geography, browser usage) and their experience with other similar products they’ve bundled their products with.  Ask to talk to other clients of theirs who are bundling their products and ask those clients about the experience and whether it’s been a lucrative initiative for them, what if any issues emerged, etc.

- Find out if your partner will pay you for all installs or will deduct those users who uninstall within X days after installing.  If those uninstalls get deducted, you will earn significantly less than if you are paid for all installs no matter if the users uninstall at any point.  In general, you will find no two bundle partners tracks your installs the same, and so it is difficult upfront to accurately estimate what you will earn, but you might as well try for a rough estimate.  You may find that for every 100 installs you track, your bundle partner only credits you with, for example, 65.

- Find out what the bundled product will add in file size to your installer.  If your file is 5 MB you don’t want to bundle a product that is 4 MB as you’ve almost doubled your file size which means you may get fewer installs of your own product.  Many firms will offer a stub installer or another option that enables you to bundle a file that is far less than even 1 MB and that file will fetch the bigger file on its own or address the problem in another similar manner.

- Ask about how the bundled product will install/open/run/embed itself once the user has selected to install it.  Ask for screenshots to see all the steps the user will be presented with, or go through the process yourself if you can.  Be sure you are comfortable with how the installation process will work, how their product will be displayed to the user, their product’s behavior once on the user’s PC, etc.  Avoid behavior that is unattractive to your users, such as the bundled product running in system trays, spawning pop up ads, etc.  Put yourself in the shoes of your users and make sure you’re comfortable with the process and its result.

These suggestions should be helpful in evaluating 3rd party bundle opportunities.  At FastSpring, we provide marketing guidance to our clients, so always feel free to drop me an email if I can be of help.

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[Guest authored by Alison Simpkins of Access International. Access is a FastSpring partner that helps grow software publishers' revenue through their international business development team.]

If expanding into international markets is a key element of your overall growth strategy then you’ve probably already considered some of the challenges that adapting your software application for new regions can bring. The increasing pace of globalization, accelerated by the growth of e-commerce and availability of on-demand applications, is forcing software publishers of all sizes to consider their solutions within the context of a much broader marketplace and to further examine regional markets for new opportunities.

Localization services offer many software publishers an affordable, scalable method for international expansion, enabling them to successfully target global technology customers and build sales in regional markets. While some large publishers can afford to manage localization internally, most find it far more cost effective to outsource the work to companies that specialize in localization. But for smaller publishers faced with limited global marketing options, republishing may yet offer the most viable solution to international expansion — especially among those considering the traditional retail channel.

Republishing arrangements work especially well for publishers who want to ready access to the international marketplace, but who, for one reason or another, are not ready to bear the costs of new market development. The republishing model also allows publishers to reach new customers in several different regions simultaneously, allowing even small software publishers to compete in the rapidly developing global economy. Typically, a republishing arrangement is structured as a licensing agreement in which the original software publisher grants regional sales and distribution rights to a republisher — ideally one specializing in both the local market and in the original publisher’s application category.

While the specific terms of each agreement will vary according to the goals of the publisher and their republishing partner, most agreements will necessarily include localization for the targeted region. The republishing partner will also market and distribute the application throughout mutually agreed upon channels, providing all of the necessary support and logistics needed to ensure successful penetration within the designated market. Most often, this arrangement yields pure profit to the original publisher who does not undertake any of the risks inherent in new market development. Rather, the original publisher receives a royalty from the republisher in exchange for licensing its sales and distribution rights within the specified region.

If you’re considering the republishing model as a way to develop additional streams of revenue from international markets, then there are several key things to consider as you begin to explore your options.

If yours is a multi-regional strategy, then it’s likely that you’ll be working with more than one republisher. Few, if any, republishers are adept at localization and market development within all application niches, or across all global regions. Therefore, it’s absolutely crucial to carefully research and vet your potential partners within each region, as your choice of republishing partner will largely determine the success of your endeavor.

What are some of key things to look for in a partner?

Because most republishers tend to focus on a specific solution category (utilities or games, for example), it’s best to seek out those who already sell into your category and understand your niche. Make sure, too, that the republisher understands the regional culture and also has a micro-level understanding of the local market for your category. It also helps to have feet on the ground in the local market, especially if you’re focused on the retail channel. Is there someone within your organization who is already in the region, who speaks the language, and who knows the retailers? If so, this person would be ideal as he or she can visit the various retail locations, talk to retailers and identify which republishers are selling well within your category.

You’ll also want to know who the local competition is and which republishers are representing your competitors. Which republishers, if any, are successfully representing applications or solutions that complement your own? Remember that you want to find a republisher who is incentivized to sell your product. This often means someone who doesn’t already have your solution, but who needs it to extend or complete an existing line. This information will also come in handy later on when you’re negotiating with potential republishing partners. For instance you may be able to negotiate a higher licensing fee if you know in advance that a particular republisher needs your solution.

If you don’t know where to begin your search then seek recommendations from other software publishers. Do any of your partners or colleagues have personal experience working with a particular republisher in your target region? Try to get recommendations from as many other publishers as possible — especially those who are in similar lines of business. Getting recommendations before you begin your search will help you avoid the pitfalls of working with inexperienced publishers, or those who simply do not need or understand your solution.

If you’re simply too busy focusing on your core business to thoroughly research potential republishing partners, then you may wish to consider outsourcing your search to an international sales and marketing organization or other rep firm like Access International. These organizations work with international republishers in global regions everyday and can readily identify the best partners for your business with little, if any, up front investment. Some will even handle contract negotiations with republishers on your behalf.

If you plan to handle the contract negotiations on your own, then you’ll want to make certain that the terms of any agreement you make with your republishing partner clearly articulate the branding, channel and overall go-to-market strategy. Will the software be sold under your brand or under that of the republisher? Which channels of distribution will used; OEM, retail, online, or other? How will the product be supported within the channel and when will it go to market? Generally speaking, it can take up to three months from the signing of a contract for your product to get to market so you should carefully consider the timing of all republishing initiatives within the context of your overall sales and marketing plans - especially if your agreement calls for any form of local support from you, the publisher.

Whether you decide to outsource your search for republishers or go it alone, it helps to know in advance what to expect from your partners. Establishing a republishing relationship need not be difficult and can yield significant financial rewards. By taking the time to fully explore your republishing options in advance, you increase the likelihood that your global expansion efforts meet with success.

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Over the past few months, we’ve been getting a large number of companies signing up for FastSpring who are complaining about how their former e-commerce provider was handling fraud. We’ve heard from a few of our own clients who have stated that once they switched their e-commerce over to FastSpring, sales increased 10-20% simply because FastSpring is processing more of their orders as opposed to those orders being held up due to excessive fraud concerns from their former e-commerce provider.

In a number of cases, other e-commerce providers are holding back a significant percentage of their orders until they can verify the orders are not fraudulent through manual, automated, or other methods. Some e-commerce providers are even attempting to reach the customers at their homes through automated phone messages to validate the orders are genuine. Others are manually reviewing orders and creating significant lag time before a customer’s order is fulfilled, assuming the process gets to that point. Not surprisingly, these tactics have been leading to a lot of upset customers and of course to lost revenue due to so many orders going unfulfilled. A key reason why e-commerce providers want to avoid fraud at all costs is because we lose money on fraud orders, chargeback fees, etc.

FastSpring protects your store against fraud without having that type of negative impact on your revenue. We auto-analyze each new order prior to each transaction occurring, seeking inconsistencies and patterns worthy of further analysis, but ensuring as many of your prospective orders as possible get processed. Our fraud checks are real-time so you avoid upsetting customers and losing sales because there are no automated phone calls to customers, no lengthy delays due to manual fraud checks, less unnecessary order flagging, etc. The process we use works great for our clients, and our chargeback rate is extremely low despite that we allow so many more of your orders to complete. As we see it, other e-commerce providers being so excessive with their anti-fraud measures serves the interests of the e-commerce provider, not yours.

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This question was recently asked on a forum. Here’s my take on it…

Typically affiliate programs account for 7-15% of a company’s overall revenue. Every situation is different, but that’s an average for affiliate programs as a % of revenue. Since they are revenue share based, provided the setup costs are minimal (many programs cost nothing or just a few hundred dollars to setup), they are generally worth doing. For most smaller software companies I would not recommend using CJ.com which is among the largest because their upfront/ongoing costs are too high, it’s a pain to setup and many smaller software merchants have lost money on CJ b/c of their fees which don’t always get offset by affiliate revenue. One of our software vendors recently reported it lost about $5,000 by testing out CJ due to the fees.

But we recommend ShareASale.com, which only costs a few hundred dollars to sign up, attracts a nice range of affiliate publishers, and is easy to setup quickly. That’s why we’ve integrated ShareASale with FastSpring. Don’t expect overnight riches but after a few months it could increase your revenue 7-15% if a few decent affiliate publishers pickup your offer, like the results, and stick with it.

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This article was written by Jason Foodman, CEO of SwiftCD, a FastSpring technology partner.

Selling software online today is tougher than ever. Many of the things that worked three, or even one year ago don’t work today. For example, advertising online has changed immensely both in terms of its usage, value and effectiveness. I’d like to outline a few items the typical software author can try, with little or no investment (other than time) on his or her part, to add revenue each month. Note that no single idea presented here will double the size of your company - but each will contribute to growth and provide services/products some of your customers are looking for today, but not finding on your site.

BUNDLES are a ‘no brainer’. If you have multiple products (and many of us do), the first thing I recommend is to create a bundle (typically of three or more products). A bundle is a great way to generate individual sales at higher price points, and move more total units of your individual products. This works especially well if your products are somewhat complementary to one another, and you have one or two that are very popular and one or more that are less known. The basic idea here is to combine products into a single offering at a discounted price, so purchasing the products individually would cost more than the bundle price. One way this can work very well is if you have a product that sells very well and another that sells very little. Normally the less-popular product is heavily discounted. And keep in mind the bundle concept also works as an upsell. Say Product X is very popular and Product Y, which sells for $20, sells very little. On your order page for Product X you could give customers the option to add Product Y for only $9.95. Whatever you get from those extra sales is ‘gravy’. And don’t be afraid of extra support or partial refunds – yes, those things can happen but the added revenue will more than make up for the added headache. The good news is that most of the registration services can handle bundles as part of their core service (defining a bundle and then automatically dispensing License Keys for each product in the bundle, for example). I’ve seen time and time again where a bundle will outsell in gross dollars one or even most of the products. If you don’t offer a bundle today, try it, you’ve got nothing to lose! (Note: the only caveat I’ve seen to offering a bundle is that you’ll want to make sure your registration service can provide partial refunds - these may come in handy from time to time). (FastSpring Note: FastSpring supports partial refunds.)

CDs will generate extra revenue for you. Whether you have one or multiple products, offer your registered products and your demo(s) on CDs. Put every product on the CD, call it your Download Saver CD and offer that to your customers at a price point to cover the CD cost, and even make a dollar or two for yourself - you’ll be surprised, some percentage of customers will opt for CD delivery of your demos over downloading each one. And if your ecommerce service has CD delivery/backup-CDs, participate in that service. Each CD puts every one of your products into the hands of a potential customer, in many cases leading to subsequent purchases. SwiftCD.com, a company which I am affiliated with, provides an excellent service in this area. There are no sign up fees, no minimum quantities required, no dollars come out of your pocket, and you can change the CD contents anytime you wish (online). CDs can have dynamic contents, such as a registration code, so you can also offer delivery of pre-registered individual products via CD. Many of the popular registration services offer and integrate with SwiftCD services. If your registration service has a CD delivery program, participate, if not then request it. Incidentally, services like SwiftCD can also help you with on-demand hard-bound “real” manuals and ”retail ready” boxes. (FastSpring Note: FastSpring has integrated with SwiftCD.)

GUERILLA marketing was a popular term for quite some time, you don’t hear it used as much today but it remains a powerful marketing technique. The basic idea is to be creative, find places and ways to get your message out (and I’m not talking about buying up lots of banner impressions!). Think about places where your customers would be, things they would read, clubs they would belong to – and market to those locations. And think about how to creatively market, how can you reach those potential customers in a way other than a banner or popup? Or, for example–and this is really a grassroots guerilla approach–how can you reach your customers’ customers in such a way that they drive the need for your product to your customer? One general technique I’ve always found effective is to make it easy. Make it easy for one person to tell another person about your software (this is how “Tell A Friend” was born), make it easy for one person to ‘stumble on’ and get a copy of your software, make it easy to find, easy to understand and easy to purchase your software. Guerilla marketing means being creative, being patient, being aggressive, and if possible, measuring the results (to learn and be more effective). Tactics often include joining clubs, participating in related chat rooms, forums, newsgroups, newsletters, meetings, conferences, etc. Find common ground with your potential customer and exploit that commonality to build awareness. And have fun with it, the best guerilla marketing efforts are the ones that produce a good story. For more on guerilla marketing search the web (try www.clickz.com as a good starting point) or check out guerilla marketing related books by Jay Conrad Levinson or Michael Levine.

MERCHANDISING - Another no-lose service is to offer your product/company’s merchandise on your site. The most notable company out there in this space is CafePress.com, a company I have no affiliation with but have had good success with. The idea is similar to SwiftCD, no sign up fees or minimum quantities. Simply sign up online, upload your logos and you can offer T-shirts, mouse pads and mugs to your site visitors. You probably won’t sell a ton of shirts, but anyone who wants to pay $10 and walk around wearing a shirt with your company/product name on it, more power to them - don’t stop this person.

AFFILIATES are always a great thing–anyone willing to sell your program and share in the revenue (typical affiliate commissions are 30%-50%) is someone you want to empower to do so. There are a number of affiliate programs available today, including ShareASale, LinkShare, Commission Junction, and more. Furthermore, many of the popular registration services have built-in affiliate programs which simplify the setup and tracking you will need. You’ll want to make sure your program is well documented and easy to use to minimize support. One step beyond are co-brand situations, where someone puts their label/brand on your program. Take care when designing software to not hardcode strings which will make this difficult, it can be a lucrative and easy way to expand your market. Along the same lines is localization, offering versions of your software in various languages. Often with a localized program you can also do deals with distributors in that country (revenue share). One trick I’ve done numerous times over the years is offer a distributor in a county an exclusive and a higher percentage if they will translate the product (and updates) for you. Speaking of localization, some software companies have also localized their entire sites, either manually or using services like FreeTranslation.com. Of course, the proverbial “Catch 22”, what do you do when you offer your site in French and people e-mail in to you in French? (I’ve usually managed to get by with one of the online translation services, such as “Babel Fish”). (FastSpring Note: FastSpring has integrated with various affiliate programs, offers a separate affiliate tracking system, and order pages are presented to customers in various localized currencies and languages.)

COUPONS and incentives are worth trying. A clever implementation I saw recently had a popup coupon on the site that activated in such a way that it appeared to be random or unique to my visit, as if I had won something or stumbled on a special deal. The author reported to me moderate success with that tactic, if nothing else it seemed to push a few who were on the edge over the top to register. Upgrades probably fall into this area, for major upgrades to your product (example: 2.0 -> 3.0) it’s not unreasonable to ask for an upgrade fee from your existing users. Some users balk at this, most understand. (FastSpring Note: FastSpring supports coupons and discounting.)

WEB SITE SEO is real. Make your site clear, SEO (Search Engine Optimized) and use good grammar. Lack of clarity and poor explanations hold back numerous sites and products I’ve encountered. People should be able to see from your home page exactly what you do, what you have to offer, and choose to Download or Purchase…don’t overcrowd the page with huge amounts of text, keep it simple (one of the oldest Software engineering concepts, KISS). Speaking of your site, optimize your site for search engines! I’m not an expert in this area but I’ve seen the results time and time again. (FastSpring Note: FastSpring order pages are search engine optimized, and FastSpring has partnerships with SEO agencies which vendors can utilize.)

MAILING LISTS are still effective. We all agree that spam is a major problem (and seems to be getting worse), but don’t let that turn you off from having a mailing list. Give your customers the option to sign up for an Announcement list and use that list strategically (and carefully!). Don’t clog your newsletters and announcements with advertising, tell people about your product updates, some tips for using your products, what’s coming next, special offers, and on occasion partner products you think they might find interesting (that relate to your product line and hopefully where you are an affiliate!).

SITE LICENSES/VOLUME PURCHASING are almost always worth offering. Again, you’ve got nothing to lose and occasionally you might get surprised. If you don’t even offer it, chances are nobody will take the time to write you and request it. If you offer site licenses and volume discounts, at least you can be sure to capture anyone who was interested and ready to purchase more than one copy. (FastSpring Note: FastSpring supports site licenses and volume discounts.)

THINK ABOUT YOUR CUSTOMER and tune your pitch, pricing and distribution to match. It’s not uncommon for some products to have mass consumer appeal, revenue driven almost entirely by corporate sales, or vice-versa. I’ve seen time and time again where technologists and programmers develop and release software, not realizing that they themselves are NOT the typical user of their software, the ‘average consumer’ or business.

ASK QUESTIONS. If you want to grow your business you should think about how effective your website is, how good your product is, how well the product is priced, what are the strongest benefits of your product, etc. There is no better person to ask this to than your customers, yet very few people take the time to get real feedback. A common technique is to survey, offer your users (potentially in the newsletter mentioned earlier!) the chance to take a simple survey about their experience with your company and products.

You can also ask at least one question on your order form, often this is ‘How did you hear about us?’. Even more interesting may be finding ways to query those who arrived but didn’t purchase. What kept them from purchasing your product, was it the description, the price, the complexity, the language, etc. You need to find out and you won’t without asking. (FastSpring Note: FastSpring supports order page surveying.)

PARTNER. I can’t say this enough. Find companies who have products that don’t compete with your products but have synergy with your audience, and vice-versa. Offer their products to your users, your products to their users, swap space in your newsletters, chain installers (if you’re really brave), find ways to capitalize on your traffic by bartering it with someone else’s traffic. A good place to start looking is on your favorite file download site — put in general terms that describe your product and look at other products in the category that don’t directly compete.

Each of these are relatively simply ideas that will require only a small amount of time (and little or nothing out of your pocketbook) to implement. If you do want to invest not only time but money into your business, consider attending your nearest software/shareware related trade show, you will be amazed how much you learn, how many people you meet and how worthwhile the trip is. Have fun and Good Luck!

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