McFilter

Gary Elfring has been selling software through Elfring Fonts since 1979.

His talk is about something no-one here want to do: sell things.

Online software sales are $10bn/year.

Customers want: A solution to their problem.

You need to convince a stranger that you can solve their problem.

Trust is in the details.

Who is your customer?

• Tailor web site to your market.
• Can people find what they're looking for.

"Don't Make Me Think" by Steve Krug - good book on website usability.

• Search box
• Small logo to save space
• Big title makes it easy to see what the page is about

Product Page Basics:

• Give customer all the info they need
• System requirements
• Price
• Benefits of the software
• Include pictures
• Buttons are better than links for actions
• Money-back guarantee
• Use customers methods to buy - credit card / purchase order / fax / phone / etc. Make sure you accept what they'll want to use.
• Wink - free screenshot tool

Product details: (things to think about with the actual executable file)

• Ensure all the fields which show up when you right-click on the exe are filled in
• Code signing adds trust
• Provide a way to check for updates

Learn form others:

• Network
• Join trade organizations: ASP, AISIP, ESC or OISV
• Saturday morning book store visit - spend a morning at your local bookstore, choose a few business books and have a read through them. You might find some worth buying, and you'll even learn something from the ones you decide not to buy

For business software ~60% buy it on CD (in addition to electronic download)