Taking screenshots of software programs for website presentations is an essential need for every microISV. It’s often said that an image speaks a thousand words and the screenshot as an image should promote the very essential nature of the product. Looking at ASP members sites around the web I noticed that many vendors use screenshots of various quality.
In many cases, they show a beautiful virtual 3D box shot, but somehow neglect the same eye candy on their product screenshots. What I am talking about here is the use of various artefacts such as not properly clipped window borders, weird shadows or the most obvious “dirt” on background.
So it is important to have pixel perfect virtual boxes (which don’t even exist in reality), but the quality of screenshots of products itself doesn’t matter ? Or are there some other obstacles that make producing nice screenshots a hard task ? Lets have a look. Read more…
Milan Marusinec Articles microisv, screenshots, software, software marketing, user interface
We all know that we should be spending more time reading good books about business, sales and marketing. But it’s difficult to find worthwhile books. Here are some tips for locating the best business books, buying them affordably, and building a library that will pay dividends year after year.
Choosing Good Business Books
Amazon.com has more reviews than other book sites. But it’s often difficult to tell if the book being reviewed is relevant to the software industry in general, and to mISVs in particular. Many times I’ll buy a marketing book based on amazon.com recommendations, only to find that the book is targeted at larger enterprises. Most of us don’t need to read about strategies that ensure that our marketing staff is communicating effectively with our manufacturing managers. Read more…
Al Harberg Articles association, books, microisv, software
Here we are at another milestone – the ASP Blog launch day 
. I’m just as excited as you are when thinking of the things we will be able to do via this powerful tool. As a first post, let me tell you more about…
… the idea behind it:
This new resource is intended to help you as a member of the Association of Shareware Professionals share your experience and learn from others on various topics of your interest.
… main benefits you can get from the blog:
I’m sure many of you are advocates of blogs in general. What’s in it for you on this one? First of all, you will know how others handled various aspects of their business, what was successful and what went wrong. You can learn from their know-how and calibrate your strategy in the right direction, avoiding pitfalls.
Secondly, you can benefit from important advertising / promotion opportunities via the ASP Blog. Don’t get me wrong, we won’t encourage or accept blatant advertising. We encourage real knowledge, tips, ideas. The more you contribute, the more your name will be associated with Software Industry Professionals.
… contributing to the blog:
Any ASP member can post on the blog. You just have to send your request to blog@asp-shareware.org and you will get further details via email. Read more…
Adriana Iordan Announcements association, microisv, shareware, software
