Shareware Industry Awards and People's Choice Awards Update

from Marketing Resource Blog

SIA Voter Registration
Voter Registration for the Shareware Industry Awards will begin on April 1st and end on April 30th. There will be links to the voter registration area in the author area on CNET, the Tucows ARC area, and the author area on Simtel. There will also be a link on the SIAF Web site at http://www.sic.org/. In case you want to mark it in
your calendar this has been standardized so it will start the same time *every* year.

NOTE: IF you have registered to vote on the Shareware Industry Awards in the past, you do NOT need to register unless you have not participated in two years.

Program Submission
Program submission -- Goes live on the SIAF Web site on April 1st also. This is also standardized so it is the same each year. Beginning April 1st software authors will be able to submit their program(s) for consideration by those who vote on the Shareware Industry Awards by using a PAD format file. The link for submitting programs OR viewing those that have been submitted will be on the SIAF Web site. Those nominating will be encouraged to visit these pages.

Note: A product does NOT have to be submitted to the SIAF site in order to be nominated.

Shareware Industry Awards
The voting panel, which consists of five (5) members is the same group as last year. They will once again help in counting and verifying the votes for both the Shareware Industry Awards and People's Choice Awards.

The Shareware Industry Awards nominations will begin on Monday May 2nd, 2005 and will end at 12 Noon MDT on Monday May 9th, 2005. The nominees will be posted on the SIAF Web site by May 10th. Links will be included for each nominated program and the developers Web site.

From May 10th through May 22nd those who vote will have time to evaluate each nominated program. Voting for the Shareware Industry Awards will begin on Monday May 23rd and end on Monday May 30th at at 12 Noon MDT. Winners will be announced at the annual Shareware Industry Awards banquet.

SIAF People's Choice Awards
Lastly, the voting for the annual SIAF People's Choice Awards will begin on May 1nd, 2005 and will end on May 31st, 2005. Voting sites will be located on CNET, Simtel, and Tucows, and Simtel, as well as on the SIAF site.

And once again authors are encouraged to tell their users and Web visitors about the voting and include links to the voting page. The SIAF will have graphics available as it gets closer to the voting. And, this year we'll be using a new voting system that's even more secure and more user-friendly.

Digital River finally acquires SWReg

Digital River, Inc. (NASDAQ: DRIV), a global leader in e-commerce outsourcing, today announced it acquired SWReg, a provider of e-commerce services for software authors. Under the terms of the agreement, Digital River acquired certain assets and assumed certain liabilities, vendor contracts and intellectual property of SWReg for $8.8 million in cash. Digital River may make additional earn-out payments of cash based on achieving specific revenue and development goals over the first 12 months following the closing of this acquisition. This acquisition did not impact the company's first quarter 2005 revised financial expectations announced on March 17, 2005.

“This acquisition is a continuation of our strategy to extend our global footprint and expand our client base, software library and online sales network,” said Joel Ronning, CEO of Digital River. “Moving forward, we intend to capitalize on this strong foundation by offering our clients broader access to global online markets and new opportunities to drive online revenues and operational efficiencies.”

Digital River announces ICE Awards

What are the ICE Awards?

Once a year, Digital River formally recognizes its clients for their Internet Commerce Excellence - a.k.a. ICE Awards. The awards showcase small and large companies alike - savvy companies that are putting e-commerce best practices to work in creative new ways to drive revenues and efficiencies through their online stores. If you can tell a story about a B2B or B2C e-commerce strategy or campaign that generated compelling results, you could be one of Digital River's next ICE Awards winners.

Digital River will present each of its ICE Awards winners with a crystal ICE Award. In addition, they each will receive one complimentary invitation and admission applicable for the Fall 2005 Network Sales Summit. ICE Awards winners also will have opportunities to be recognized by local and national media.

Deadline for entries is April 11, 2005.

More info on Digital River ICE homepage.

Digital River acquires SWREG

from sharewareblogs

Yesterday, Steve Lee announced that he sold SWREG to Digital River.
Some changes at SWREG had already been announced: In a few weeks time, there will be a completely new user interface, and by the end of the year, there will be a powerful affiliate system.
It now looks like these changes had been initiated with the acquisition by Digital River in mind.
The appointment of Cyrus Maaghul last year as CEO for SWREG may also have been a move in that direction: Cyrus has previously sold Digibuy to Digital River.

Google News Adds Powerful Customization Feature

By Mark Fleming

Google News (amazingly still called a beta!) has added a very
powerful customization feature lately.

When you go to the Google News page you see that there are sections
of news-like World, Business, Sports. You are now able to not only
choose and rearrange the various sections of "standard" news, but
you can also add your own "custom" news sections as well. And,
here's the best part you haven't been told-you can use all the
various operators like OR's, excludes, "allintitles" and synonyms to
truly define your section, to be able to track your industry news, all on the Google News webpage.

The Game Developers Conference 2005

The Game Developers Conference (GDC) is underway this week.
Today was the Casual Games Summit. You may read about this summit on Gamasutra.

Google Toolbar Inserts Links in Others' Sites

from Personal Technology

...And That's a Bad Idea

What if you had worked hard to design a Web page, carefully placing links just where you wanted them and carefully selecting the Web destinations to which those links led? And then, what if a company with great power on the Web started adding its own links to your page, drawing visitors away from your page to other sites of its own choosing?

You might be more than a little upset. You might wonder what gives any third party the right to edit or alter your Web page without your knowledge or permission.

Yet that's exactly what Google, the powerful search-engine company, is doing. A new feature of the company's popular Google Toolbar for the Internet Explorer browser actually adds links right into the body of any Web page. The links lead to Google's own map site or to other sites Google selects.

Google notes that this feature, called "AutoLink," makes it easier for users to look up certain information. It also is strongly reminiscent of a Microsoft gambit of a few years back in which the software giant planned to program Internet Explorer to automatically add its own links to others' Web sites. Microsoft was forced to drop its "Smart Tags" feature after Web site owners and others complained.

read more here...

EU Body Endorses Software Patents Measure

By TechWeb News

A European Union government body has endorsed a controversial patents bill, handing a victory to large companies with substantial software patent portfolios, such as Microsoft. The directive, voted on Monday by the EU's Council, is slated to be presented to the EU assembly for yet another vote, as the issue promises to drone on for months.
At the last minute, opposition to the measure surfaced from Poland, Denmark, and Portugal, but the vote of the 25-country body overwhelmed the opposition. Open-source interests have opposed the directive, maintaining that it will stifle innovation.

Florian Mueller, campaign manager of nosoftwarepatents.com, noted that the measure will be returned to the EU Parliament for another vote. "We have a number of psychological and political success factors on our side," he said in an e-mail. "Still, the hurdle is very high in a second reading The European Parliament will now have three months to reject or amend the proposal."

Hugo Lueders, director of a trade association supporting the existing EU patent structure, hailed the vote, telling the Associated Press that it will "enhance further progress of technological innovation in Europe." Lueders is European public policy director of the U.S.-based Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA).

While the issue of software patents has been vigorously debated for years, it has attracted increased attention in recent months with the explosive growth of open-source software. Microsoft has been aggressively filing software patents, and Chief Executive Steve Ballmer has claimed that open-source software violates many of the company's patents.

What does it cost to develop a game?

From PhilSteinmeyer.com

The easy, and useless answer is 'It depends'

Here's some ballparks, based on my experience and industry scuttlebutt:

Console games A to AAA level games, single or multi-platform $4 to $12 million.

Console budget games (cheap licenses and the like) $500K to $1.0 million.

PC-only A to AAA level games $2-$15 million (though far fewer games are being budgeted at the high-end these days, what with PC game sales way down)

PC Budget games (the stuff you see at Wal-Mart for $10-20) - $50K to $200K
Actual numbers may vary widely. In general, console game budgets (for premium games) are expected to increase with the coming X-Box 2 and PS3, and PC game budgets are falling (as PC sales fall).

Another way to guesstimate budgets is to multiply man-years times cost/man year.

For man-years, look at the game's credits, count up, and try to adjust for those who weren't on the project the whole time. Cost per man-year tends to run $100-$120K for West Coast developers, and $70-90K elsewhere in the U.S. (note: these costs include salary, taxes, insurance, overhead, hardware, software etc). West european salaries tend to be a bit lower than U.S., but taxes and other costs are higher, and with the high Euro, development costs in the U.K., Germany and France are probably in roughly the same ranges as the U.S. costs. In eastern europe, development costs may be as low as $20-$30K per man/year.

A FAQ for game vendors

If you develop computer games, or plan to begin a career as an independent games developer, here is a great resource by Phil Steinmeyer about the computer games industry. He compiled a great FAQ about the games market, games development and computer games in general. He answers the questions like:

How big is the retail game market?
How big is the on-line game market?
How big is the games rental market?

or

What are the major job roles at a game developer?
How can I break into the games industry?
Do I need to go to a game-specific degree program to get a games job?

We will list the example from this great FAQ soon. In the meantime, take your time to visit Phil's website.

Selling on Amazon.com

Did you ever consider selling your software on Amazon.com? If not, check these resources:

Creating new Product Pages at Amazon.com
Selling at Amazon.com
Tips For Listing Your Software on Amazon.com

Overture is being renamed Yahoo! Search Marketing Solutions

Overture and parent company Yahoo! will combine their search marketing products under a new name - Yahoo! Search Marketing Solutions.

According to marketing materials, with this change, users will have convenient, one-stop access to the industry's most comprehensive suite of online marketing products and services. And ultimately, Yahoo! Search Marketing Solutions will enable easier, more integrated management of the entire online marketing campaign.

Once Overture makes this transition to Yahoo! Search Marketing Solutions early next quarter, all Overture accounts will continue to operate as they do today, however users will notice some changes, including:

The Overture name will be replaced with Yahoo! Search Marketing Solutions throughout the account.

The page user currently use to log into Overture account will move to a new URL. This new log-in page will also provide with access to tips, articles and tutorials to help make the most of advertising budget.

In addition, several Overture products will also be renamed. Those that may be of most interest include:

- Precision Match -> Sponsored Search
- Local Match -> Local Sponsored Search
- Site Match Self Serve -> Search Submit Express
- Site Match Xchange -> Search Submit Pro

In the future, users are promised that they can look forward to more innovative products and services from Yahoo! Search Marketing Solutions that are designed to help realize the full potential of their business.

LinkShare announces the forthcoming launch of enhancements

LinkShare is pleased to announce the forthcoming launch of several enhancements to our system. During the LinkShare Summit in January, LinkShare announced the coming launch of "Project Athena", an enhanced affiliate registration and management system.

We think that LinkShare's enhanced affiliate registration and management system will raise the bar for Affiliate Marketing. Most importantly, it will also set the stage for our launch of consolidated payment and direct deposit services later this spring. LinkShare are currently scheduled to launch the new registration system in early March.