distributing your finished database

[NigelShaw]

Hi,

off the wall question. Ive now finished my application. All done & packaged with security so it is ready to go.

ive registered with various shareware sites using a PAD file and listed on Google Adwords with a small ad.

question is, what is really the best way to get your app out there?

Adwords in my opinion is rubbish. i have certain keywords which is obvious. some are popular, some are not. According to Google, the more popular keywords are more expensive because more people use them so by default, if your keyword was less popular then there should be more chance of your ad being seen if the word was searched!

Not the case.

also according to Google, my ad had been clicked about 150 times in 2 days yet, me, my brothers ( 4 ), my wife, my 10 staff at work and 3 Clients have tried ALL ofmy keywords and guess what, no ad so who exactly is clicking the none existent advert? i feel a conspiracy theory on the horizon.......

but seriously, getting back.

what is the best most effective way of getting your application seen? i have a website and it is registered too.

anyone have any advice?



regs


Nigel

 

[HiTechCoach]

off-line advertising work great!

 

[NigelShaw]

yeah but isnt it a bit cumbersome?

i'll look down different areas of advertising. i mean, to advertise offline opens up a whole new thing of "where do i advertise and in what brochure?" especially when its a tool rather than an application.

regs

Nigel

 

[Mike375]

I generate appointments from telephone cold calling but I have a background of selling insurance.

The batch of calling I just completed, which was to plumbers where the business would have about 5 to 10 plumbers and 3 office staff or it might supply large commercial plumbers gave the following results:

223 minutes of phoning (spread over a week)

29 people were spoken to, that is, I made contact 29 times with the person whose name I had which was usually the owner of the business

9 appointments were generated.

I have been to 4 of those appointments and obtained second appointments with 3 of them, where a demo will be done.

I have been doing this since the start of the year and have gradually refined things. My results are sales from 40% of the people who I first obtain an appointment with. The average sale is $750 but I don't sell pre packaged DBs. Most of what I sell is small things and in particular Access to Word and email etc. and also back up systems. Also a lot of converting Excel files where the business has an .xls file for each month etc.

I have the Access to Word to Email close to pre packaged and make it as a mini data base.

Not quite what you were asking Nigel but perhaps another string to your bow.

 

[NigelShaw]

Hi Mike,

I think different applications require different things. As your program currently is aimed at plumbers, then you have a limited target area fir marketing so what you is absolutely right. My current app is a small £15 tool to create splash screens. It would be hard to cold call as developers / access users don't list themselves in a directory as such.

I am on a different project where the application is targeted st HMRC tax systems for the construction trade. This will require different marketing strategies similar to yours although mine is a lot cheaper.

I was merely looking for a type of portal to list my app so that when people do a genetic search, it appears. My points on google are a bit of a dig at them because they offer a service that doesn't seen to work for me yet get page clicks for something that is impossible to find!


Regs

nigel

 

[Mike375]

Nigel,

Agree, cold calling would be a waste of time for a £15 sale.

Could you buy from "name listers" a list of your market and with email address and do a mass email or standard mail out.

 

[Alisa]

It sounds like something only developers would use . . . can you put a link to it in your signature? That way, every time you give someone advice on a forum, you would be advertising. Then give lots and lots of advice! I am curious, can you tell us more about the app?
Also, have you registered your site with google:http://www.google.com/addurl/? I heard that sometimes it can take a few weeks for google to notice your site, so maybe it hasn't been long enough yet?

To clarify: your signature in lots of OTHER forums

 

[Max D]

Adwords is a real power, don't judge it fast.

The key to it is a good words set. You don't need wrong people clicking - they enter and leave, you waste your money. So make word sets, that lead to result with big propability.

Activate google analytics along with adwords. You will see who clicks and what he does.

Check the statistics regularaly, and eliminate word sets, that give no real result. Setup nice result prices to estimate how much u can spend on ads.

 

[NigelShaw]

Hi Max D,

thanks for your reply. i will review my settings and adjust according.

Alisa,

my tool is simple. it creates a splash screen. you can build one from scratch and add it to your database in about 3 minutes. you have a choice of your own custom image taking the full screen or selecting one using the browser along with the integrated text that you can format.

there are options for transparency, how long your screen is shown and it will connect to your destination database, supply you a list of forms to select the one that will startup and save the forms & settings to that database.

my updated version will include

sizeable forms where the user enters the desired screen size
adjustable positions for the built in text items.

its a simple tool that assists. the best part of it is, the tool hides the application window on startup so the first thing you see is your splash screen rather than the application window then the splash screen.

HTH


nigel