Web 2.0’s theme was the Power of Platforms.  It should be no surprise that a lot of people positioned their solutions as a platform, even if a year ago they were considered a web portal or something similar.   Some of the other non-platform related topics were Freemium, APIs (certainly not a new technology, but definitely a big buzz), and HTML 5.

With this theme, and cloud applications seeming to be around every corner, I expected almost every conversation to be about the cloud or Mobile.  But, there was not nearly as much talk about the cloud as I expected, although Microsoft was prominently displaying its suite of “cloud” products/platforms, Azure, in its booth.  There was not a lot of additional talk about the cloud; and most surprisingly, nothing about Google Chrome OS, despite its scheduled release for later this year. 

I think the highlight presentation, and rightly so, was Tim O’Reilly’s, “The State of the Internet Operating System”- a highly recommended read.  In this, he poses the question,  “What is the operating system of a Google or Bing search? What is the operating system of a mobile phone call?” They all work the same across many devices, so what is that operating system, where does it live and who will decide?  It seems like a crucial question to answer as we move forward.   From my experience, I see this as another cycle.  It was nearly two decades ago that mainframes and dumb terminals allowed organizations to centralize the workload of computing in an organization.  Now it appears that the cloud and netbooks will be taking that same concept to the next level. 

There was a lot of talk about Facebook as a platform, and a new positioning of Facebook seems to be no longer a social network, but the platform for the internet.   Facebook clearly stated that they want to be the place that a user does everything from on the internet, everyone’s personalized hub of information. 

Freemium and Beyond

There was a lot of talk about Free and the freemium model.   Chris Anderson, the author of the book, “Free: The Future of a Radical Price,” moderated a forum with Christopher Dean from Skype, Brad Jefferson from Animoto, and Joe Kennedy from Pandora sharing their experiences with the freemium model.  Pandora’s story is especially telling in that they started with a subscription model, went to an ad-supported model, and then offered a higher-quality freemium to their current ad-supported model, with no ads.  The trick, they say, is to make sure that your free product is really good. 

Another presentation from YouSendIt’s co-founder, Ranjith Kumaran, focused on the lifetime value of freemium clients.  This was a great presentation on applying the analytics that matter, such as your cost to convert a relationship to the lifetime value and not just “vanity” analytics like number of clients. 

In addition, there was a well-attended ‘Birds of a Feather’ session on Free and application discovery, as well as many other discussions on virtual currency.  Ironically, there was not a lot of conversation about the newly announced Facebook Credits and the impact they would have going forward.

APIs

Facebook may have started the big buzz on APIs just before the conference with the announcement of Open Graph, but there was plenty of information on APIs at the conference.   The strength of the API is to allow the community to fill in the gaps in your application.  The owner of the API still controls the logic and data layers, but it is the interface that the community has access to.  This power means that the owner of the API still maintains the valuable portions of the application, while many users can control the user experience. 

Another advantage of using APIs is that the API puts the workload on the server, not on the interface, so it’s not a CPU hog.  This allows for a much better battery life on the myriad of mobile products that are now available.

Mobile

This was a show with a theme about platforms, but mobile as a platform has taken a decidedly different twist in the past several months.

There was definitely a presence, but not so much on the mobile phone, but on the iPad.  Nearly every presentation given for a web app was done through an iPad.  In fact, the stage included a specific setup to allow presenters to set their iPad down and show you how their application worked with the touch-screen interface. 

The use of the iPad allowed a dual purpose for people demonstrating their products; it showed the strength of HTML 5 as well because it forced everyone to avoid Flash, since Flash is not supported on the iPad. 

HTML 5

This had the potential to be uncomfortable, especially when Kevin Lynch of Adobe was put in the interview chair.  Mr. Lynch praised HTML 5, saying that Flash filled a void that was needed, and now HTML 5 just posed a challenge for them to fill the next void. 

Of course, there were iPads showing up in a lot of demos.  Scribd announced they had switched completely to an HTML 5 format and were no longer using Flash for the documents that they posted.   The two big hot points for HTML 5 are:

• Flash optional – a large amount of the video capabilities from Flash can now be handled by HTML 5, although, HTML 5 does not prohibit the use of Flash for the things that it is still best for, such as color correction and audio control. 
• Web fonts – a simple solution with a powerful impact; companies using unusual fonts, meaning not Arial or Times, for their branding do not have to make graphic images to place on their website.  They now have as much control on the web as they do in print and the information is indexable, which, of course, graphics are not.

With these two advancements alone, HTML 5 was looking to be the greatest thing since sliced bread.  

All in all, a great Web 2.0 conference!  The Keynotes are available online as are many of the presentations for the key topics of Freemium, APIs, Mobile and HTML5.

If you were not able to attend the conference, I would strongly recommend visiting the site http://www.web2expo.com/ and viewing some of the presentations. 

Kristin Oberhaus, Product Manager, W3i Holdings, LLC
Kristin has over 13 years of product management experience and is a certified usability analyst. She is an avid believer in pragmatic marketing.

MinneBar 2010, an (un)conference aimed at getting Minnesota tech and design communities together, was held on May 22^nd at Best Buy Headquarters.  Here’s a short recap of the event and what’s new on the Minnesota tech scene:

Opening remarks were by MinneBar co-founders Luke Francl and Ben Edwards. They thanked sponsors, including W3i.

The first session I attended at MinneBar 2010 was “Legal Implications of Limewire on File-Sharing Business Models” by Ryan Miest of Robius Kaplan Miller Ciresi, which described how most of the copyright concerns involving file-sharing networks go back to the Sony BetaMax VCR law suit from 1984. No one thought Napster had a leg to stand on. Others like Grokster andLimewire were able to continue after learning not to be centralized like Napster. The Limewire decision is likely to be appealed with respect to the courts findings of personal liability of their CEO. I didn’t think they sufficiently covered veil piercing.

Graeme Thickins briefly introduced me to Rick Mahn founder of Social Media Breakfast Minneapolis and Myke Roventine. I joined about 75 others to hear Myke’s MinneBar session, “Social Web Design: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back”. Myke pointed out what he felt were flawed design strategies by the market leading social media players like Facebook, Twitter, Google and Yahoo. Does everyone need to put their Twitter feeds on their blog? The Twitter feeds miss the context of the conversation, and aren’t making the web better when being on others’ blogs. He also commented that Facebook has changed functionality multiple times unnecessarily, such as moving the search box several times over the past couple of years. These unnecessary changes caused confusion for users. He also commented how Twitter’s “infinite scrolling” for tweets could be improved by adopting additional UI controls such as those found on BlipFM. He said the big guys are trying the changes instead of user testing. Phil Wilson remarked during the session how this was “try fast, fail fast.”  Also during the session Steve Borsch announced that he just deleted his Facebook account due to privacy concerns.

Next I went to “Bowling for Market Share- How to Grow Your Startup by Narrowing its Focus” by Curt Prins. Curt provided very good start-up marketing advice. Curt laid out his very pragmatic approach to B2B marketing for tech start-ups, and the developers in the audience definitely seem to embrace his methods.

Over lunch, Robert Stephens who was so gracious to advocate for Best Buy to allow Minnesota techies to use their space, briefly remarked on Best Buy’s strategy around digital televisions, and his recent trip to Google IO.

Next at MinneBar, I caught Aaron Kardell’s iPhone app marketing session entitled, “Getting started with iPhone & iPad Development.” Aaron is the founder of Performant Design and developer of the popular iGarageSale app.  Aaron shared his lessons learned in iPhone app marketing, such as the importance of getting on the top 100 lists, requesting app store reviews within your app, ideally after the user has been using it for about a week, some ideas on how to get noticed by Apple (such as taking out ads in Cupertino on Facebook), using roadblock ad campaigns at popular Apple/Mac blogs, using incentive app downloads to burst your downloads, and using vendors like Tapjoy and Flurry App Circle.  After the business discussion, Aaron coded an Italian food finder iPhone app using Yelp’s API and Mapkit.

The next MinneBar 2010 session I attended was “How to Measure P&L When Your Price is Free” by W3i’s Product Manager, Kristin Oberhaus. With users wanting free apps on the Internet, you need to balance the demand gained for free app versus paid app promotion.  Kristin pointed out various models to drive revenue for free applications, including cross-subsidy, three-party, freemium, and nonmonetary.  When free is your model, your P&L must be based on the value driven by your free app and not the price.   

Next I spoke on a panel of Minnesota tech thought leaders, and discussed “How Can Minnesota be Better”. Thank you to Jeff Pesek and Mike Bollinger for inviting me to participate. The session was largely centered on the culture of risk aversion in Minnesota, how Minnesota tech start-ups need to focus on home runs and not just niche singles and doubles, and funding. Jon Dahl, co-founder of YCombinator-backed, Zencoder said that if Minnesota was going to try an incubator concept like YCombinator or TechStars the incubator would need a lot more cash, given the lack of local angel funding and VC activity, and a mentorship program– both essential elements of YCombinator.

MinneBar 2010 proved to be a great place to network with top Minnesota tech experts. I spent a couple of hours after the sessions ended schmoozing with several new faces, including Derrick Shields & Dylan Petersson & of WebproLeads, Matt Bauer of Pedal Brain, and Thomas Grabowski, co-founder of LogLogic. I also listened in as the first ever Minnespark award winners were announced. 

Further, it was refreshing to hear a lot of buzz about Minnesota tech jobs. I gathered that W3i is not the only company hiring right now. It seemed to be a common theme that Minnesota tech jobs are in abundance as many of the companies present indicated they have positions available.  Minnesota Recruiters survey indicates that there is optimism for job growth in 2010 and an increase in personal job security. Minnesota’s tech scene has a large, highly skilled, and growing workforce demonstrated by the energy and attendance at MinneBar and the tech job buzz being generated there.

Thanks to the organizers and attendees, along with Best Buy for allowing us to use their campus (which is absolutely cool) to promote Minnesota tech and design.  As evidenced by the increase in attendance over the 2009 event, MinneBar rocks.

Rob Weber, Vice President of Business Development and Co-Founder, W3i, LLC
Rob is an Internet marketing pioneer with over ten, profitable years evolving W3i in the consumer application industry.

If you didn’t get a chance to go to San Francisco, here are some of the Ad:Tech 2010  trendy topics that the W3i team picked up on:

Data Collection and Privacy Concerns:

• Data Collection – Nearly every speaker addressed the importance of data in targeting and optimizing.  In The Changing Business Landscape M&A overview, Gus Tai made a strong point that the companies that connect with the audience and know them intimately will win.   Quantcast’s Adam Gerber stated, “there are only two parts of the funnel that matter: the top (audience) and the bottom (conversion).”  Also for social advertising to become more of a brand marketer’s focus, brands need to move from measuring impressions to measuring engagement.   
• Interest Based Advertising  Icon – With 2/3 of online consumers concerned about privacy, IAB is rolling out interest based advertising, a self-regulated program that allows consumers to click on the icon shown with an online display ad and see how the ad was targeted to them.   This is in direct response to calls on the Internet ecosystem by the FTC to develop more robust and effective self-regulation of online behavioral-based advertising practices.

Mobile Marketing:

Advanced Mobile Marketing, Japanese-style:

• Due to 3G penetration and because most users pay for unlimited usage, Japan is a great testing ground for technical advancements in applications, including augmented reality.
• iButterfly, created by Mobile Art Lab,  is an augmented reality application that makes collecting coupons fun.  The app tasks its users with catching virtual butterflies, each representing one or more coupons.
• More social page views in Japan are mobile.  Mixi, Gree, and Mobagetown are the three largest social media sites in Japan.
• Coca-Cola Japan is designing their vending machines so that thirsty customers can use an embedded payment chip found in their cell phones to pay for their purchases, also enabling point-of-sale coupons.

Group Buying

With the success of Groupon.com, other group buying services are popping up.  Homerun.com is combining social, local, simple, and value into their group buying site.  The site encourages you to interface with Facebook and includes a loyalty program that rewards user invites and offer uses to accumulate cash-bonuses.  They are also leverage a psychological tactic of the exclusivity of “Private Reserve,”    a collection of exclusive high-end offers presented to most valued members. 

The W3i team enjoyed meeting with so many partners and networking at Ad:Tech SF.  Marketing with apps is thriving as engagement with the audience skyrockets.   We’d love to talk more about how to make your application business successful.

Rob Weber, Vice President of Business Development and Co-Founder, W3i, LLC
Rob is an Internet marketing pioneer with over ten, profitable years evolving W3i in the consumer application industry.

Consumer apps were everywhere at the 2010 CES show.  Here are five of the application trends for online application marketers that I noted from my attendance at CES:

1. Optimism rules at 2010 CES show.  Gary Shapiro, Chief Executive of CES, said the CES show “seemed more upbeat than a year ago, reflecting a return to optimism for the industry,”  reports Dean Takahashi, lead writer for GamesBeat by VentureBeat. Attendance at the 2010 International Consumer Electronics Show reportedly reached 120,000 visitors this year, an increase of about 6 percent from last year.  Participants were reverberating with the latest device and the latest apps to go with it. 
2. Apps will be everywhere.  Thanks to Apple, apps are now sexy and offer the consumer more value from their device, and the marketer the ability to enhance their device with little effort, as well as a potential new source of revenue.
   • Apps in television set-top boxes: Samsung announced the launch of Samsung Apps, a multi-device application store with content partners, including Blockbuster, USA Today, and others.  Samsung plans to make apps available for a range of devices from mobile phones to HDTVs.
   • Apps in car electronics: Ford recognizes that users want information on demand.  Ford’s Sync feature uses an 8” touch-screen in the dashboard as well as voice commands.  You can catch up on Twitter, listen to Internet radio, check movie times and get free online maps with turn-by-turn directions.
     
     http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ces-ford8-2010jan08,0,4905917.story\
   • App Store for Netbooks - Intel launched a beta version of its app store, called the Intel AppUp center for netbooks.  Currently offering about 100 apps.
3. Integrated, multi-platform app strategies are being considered. Brands should create apps that are integrated across multiple devices:  mobile, desktop, social, browser, and other emerging platforms like television set-top boxes and car electronics.  Cooliris bases its success on building its app for both mobile and desktop platforms.   They were recently selected to develop Media Gallery for the Nexus One Device.
4. There will be a mobile app for almost everything, but adoption outside of iPhone is still low.   With the phenomenal growth of the Apple AppStore fueling over 2 billion downloads from some 100,000 plus apps, the race is on from other mobile device companies to woo app developers. (Living in Minnesota, one of my favorites announced at CES is the SmartStart app by Directed for remote starting a car from a smartphone.)
5. Top app marketers will start focusing on improving their key operating metrics.  Most app marketers are doing a poor job of developing key operating metrics and reporting surrounding their app marketing initiatives and campaigns.  There is a lot of emotional decision making rather than data driven decision making. This appears to be starting to change, as better analytical thinking and tools are starting to take root with top app marketers.

If you identified other app trends, share your thoughts by submitting a comment.  

Rob Weber, Vice President of Business Development and Co-Founder, W3i, LLC
Rob is an Internet marketing pioneer with over ten, profitable years evolving W3i in the consumer application industry.

When looking to distribute free consumer software, there are many different methods of distribution.  Some of the more successful distribution methods are:

• Online marketing promotions
• Affiliate programs
• Physical distribution through retail
• Word of mouth

If you can get all the software distribution you need from the latter, then this blog post probably isn’t for you. But for the rest of us who can’t ever get enough, here’s a tactic that tends to get overlooked -software aggregators. 

There are many benefits to hosting your free software or trial software on sites like Download.com, Tucows.com and Softonic.com.  One of the most important things to look for when researching software aggregators is reputation, look for companies like Softonic.com that are a trusted source of downloads. If it’s not a trusted site don’t use it!  Many software aggregators  offer multiple benefits such as:

• Free listing programs
• Pay per download (PPD) programs at very reasonable rates
• Scalable bandwidth  

Listing your downloads with software aggregators can free up bandwidth.  If your product has a large file size or high traffic influxes, these sites have the ability to provide unlimited downloads to potential users without the worry of servers crashing and bandwidth overage charges.

Working with software aggregators does come with a couple of caveats.  The first is turnaround time.  This problem is mostly caused by us–marketers, developers, etc.  Due to the high volume of requests for listings on these popular aggregators, turnaround times can be days or weeks.  It can also take the same amount of time when you’re trying to remove a product from the site.  Be sure to plan ahead.

The second is the lack of reporting.  You don’t get much visibility into reporting, so before adding this method of distribution to your marketing strategy, be sure to know your Key Performance Indicators (KPI) so you have the ability to optimize.

And now the W3i plug! Apart from software aggregators there is another tool available to you to increase distribution; it’s advertising in the installer.  W3i has created a proprietary Application Network where the advertiser’s popular consumer applications are offered during the installation process.  This distribution method is performance-based and user generated.      

Just like when football coaches tell their players to keep their heads on a swivel, the same can be said for marketers of this generation.  There are many different vehicles of software distribution that you can use to get your software in front of consumers. Just make sure the vehicle you choose fits your marketing strategy and instead of telling you to think outside the box, because I hate that cliché, I will suggest that you work smarter, not harder, when trying to find new vehicles of distribution.

Mitch Bain, Marketing Manager; W3i, LLC
Mitch has 4 years experience focusing on Display Advertising, Search Engine Marketing, and Mobile Marketing, in the Integrated Interactive Media industry.

On November 21st over 600 developers and entrepreneurs got together to discuss what’s important to Minnesota tech start-ups. The halls that Best Buy legendary founder, Dick Schulze, built made for a great location for the next wave of Minnesota entrepreneurs to begin spreading their wings.

Several Minnesota start-up thought leaders were on hand including Graeme Thickens of Minnov8, Robert Stephens, founder of GeekSquad, Justin Porter of the University of Minnesota Venture Center, and John Roberts attorney at start-up friendly New Counsel. There were many young Minnesota entrepreneurs on hand including Mynul Khan, founder of FieldNation, and Adam Sellke of Evolve, who was a recent semifinalist at The Minnesota Cup. I was surprised that there were several Minnesota entrepreneurs who had multiple successful companies with exits.

Minnebar co-founder, Ben Edwards, led a very interactive roundtable discussion for web app builders. Ben’s leadership was clearly on display as a large group of primarily independent developers came forward with their questions on how to market the technology they built. It was very interesting to hear a group of developers discuss marketing issues. From my first hand experience as an internet company founder, I know you need to wear a lot of hats.

The most heated discussion of the day was “Bootstrapping Your Tech Start-up” led by Kevin Spreng of Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi. Kevin provided tips for bootstrapping entrepreneurs such as hire contractors rather than employees, go without an office, and focus on execution. Near the end of his session, Kevin stated that marketing agencies were a black hole because marketing agencies spend a lot of money, and he advised start-ups to handle their own marketing.  Curt Prins, Executive Director at District 202 and marketing guru, responded with his disagreement and said not all marketers needed a large budget to accomplish results for start-up entrepreneurs.  A rather lively debate ensued (see tweets under #minnebar). Nice work Kevin and Curt in driving a stimulating discussion on the topic of bootstrapping.

Justin Grammens led a packed session on how to develop Android applications.  Justin explained how, unlike iPhone apps, Android apps require no certification or approval. He also created a simple “Mobile Twin Cities” app during the session. I was amazed at how simple creating a basic Android application can be.

Dan Frankowski and Max Harper from Blue Shift Labs led a discussion on coding with Google’s App Engine that intrigued a number of developers. The crowd was very engaged. The scripting seemed pretty straight forward.

Mike Bollinger provided an introduction to HTML5. The tweets that followed said that HTML5 looked “amazing” and that users should stop using Internet Explorer 6 to increase the adoption rate.

Ryan Weber and I provided a summary of the top trends and winners in the application industry. Ryan forecasted that the integration of social and location-based mobile technology would be one of the most significant drivers of growth and change in the mobile app space.

My favorite discussion was the one facilitated by co-founder of Minnebar, Luke Francl, entitled, “Midwestern Startups: What is Possible?” Luke started by asking for those entrepreneurs that had worked in Silicon Valley to compare their start-up experience there versus their Minnesota start-upexperiences. One such entrepreneur answered Luke’s question by saying Silicon Valley start-ups aren’t as afraid to fail as those in Minnesota. Another entrepreneur said the biggest difference was how much deeper the talent pool was in the valley. Finally, someone joked that when he was in Minnesota, whenever someone asked where he worked, he responded with “I work for at a start-up.” When asked the same question while at an iPhone meet-up in Palo Alto, the response was met with laughter. Why? In Silicon Valley, everyone works for a start-up. The discussion next turned to several ideas on how we can make Minnesota a better place to create a tech start-up. Among the ideas identified were creating an incubator fund modeled after Y Combinator, getting the University of Minnesota to raise money to fund local tech start-ups similar to what the University of Wisconsin started a year ago, the creation of a new TechCrunch-like Minnesota focused community site, and taking advantage of Minnesota’s significant number of Fortune 1000 companies to provide a distribution channel for Minnesota-brewed new tech. Michael Gorman of Split Rock Partners, one of the sponsors, closed Luke’s discussion by saying he was looking forward to seeing where we would be in another year. Judging by all of the energy, and the way the Minnesota developer and entrepreneur crowd is starting to support each other, I am confident we will see continued growth in the Minnesota tech start-up community. I am looking forward to Minnebar 2010.

Rob Weber, VP of Business Development and Co-Founder, W3i, LLC
Rob is an Internet marketing pioneer with over nine, profitable years evolving W3i in the Integrated Interactive Media industry.

Please pass more turkey and mashed potatoes!

I am an art lover and an art creator.  Unfortunately, these aspects of my personality often clash with my job, designing banners, much like blaze orange clashes with pea green.  (Shudder!)  In an industry where user “clicks” are the goal, we are sometimes asked to do things that should be illegal; such as using designs that are copy-heavy and garish in color.  Why are users more likely to click on the least artistic banner on a webpage?  Are they honestly more attracted to tacky and gaudy?  Or maybe, just maybe, that designer has figured out how to lure in the unsuspecting user with the use of subliminal messaging saying, “click me… click me… click me…”  (Note to self: search “subliminal messaging conferences” and sign up.)

In the midst of all of this thinking (and contemplating Thanksgiving at the same time), I have come to a conclusion.  Designing “clickable” banners is a lot like planning for Thanksgiving dinner… add as many salads and gourmet goodies as you can, but stop fooling yourself!  People are really only coming for the turkey and mashed potatoes.  They do not care that Great Aunt Ermintrude has outdone herself in her use of Jell-O in the salad this year.  All your family wants is a chance to overdose on grilled turkey and gorge themselves on mounds of creamy mashed potatoes.  This is what I mean: users are looking for the meat and potatoes (the hearty stuff) of an advertisement.  Let them know exactly who you are and what your product is as quickly as you can.  Take out the fluff, take out the pretty.  Get to the heart of the matter so they can decide immediately if they are interested or not.  People don’t want to stare at the Jell-O salad for five minutes, trying to figure out exactly what surprises are in it.

Let’s take, for example, two of our display banners:

Version 1:                                                                      Version 2:

Version 1 outperformed Version 2 by nearly 100%!  At first glance, this may not solidify the point that I’m trying to make.  But what you can’t see in the screenshot is that Version 2 needs time to scroll through the different screensavers and features available before finally getting to the screen that is shown above.  Conversely, Version 1 shows everything from the get-go.  No waiting needed.

Do you see what I mean?  Beautiful is not always better in designing banners.  It may be easier on the eyes.  It may prompt us to hang it on our wall.  But it does not always translate into user “clicks.”  I can only speculate on the reasons for this behavior… Perhaps the user likes to see the branding and product throughout the whole process.  Possibly, loud colors naturally draw the eye and compel users to click on them.  It could even be the voices in their head telling them that the world can be saved by clicking on that banner.  (Have you come across other reasons for users’ actions?)  Whatever the motivator, it doesn’t mean that you should stop fighting for gorgeous designs.  What it does mean, though, is that there should be a way to mesh these two taste palates together.  How can that sprig of parsley be added to the turkey?

Keep in mind when designing banners what the user is looking for; hook them with straight-forward facts and a strong call to action!  Art will not always need to be sacrificed for a concept that works, but strive to simplify your designs and feed your users’ need for information quickly.  In the words of Thoreau, “simplify, simplify.”  Take away the funky Jell-o creations and give them what they want – the hearty stuff that will keep them content and satisfied.

Jessie Schroder, Marketing Specialist, W3i Holdings LLC
Jessie uses her experience in internet marketing, graphic design, and testing to guide W3i’s focus of marketing promotions.

As I am making my preparations for the Web 2.0 Expo in New York this November, I have been reflecting on where the world of computer technology has gone.

It is amazing to me how far the web has come in the past 15 years, back when I first finished B-school. I remember buying my first 14K dial-up modem and being on the cutting edge of things, or when CompuServe email address were nine-digit numbers with a period in the middle that no one could ever memorize. How did we ever survive if we couldn’t have an email address like piggyduck749?

My first big project in the business world came from moving a partner kit that was several binders to a CD-Rom that was cheaper to produce than the paper copy, practically free-to-ship compared to the hard copy and was met with so much resistance because not everyone had a CD-ROM drive.

I suppose that this is the new generation’s version of hearing “I had to walk to school, in the snow, uphill – both ways.”

So, what is the point of all this ruminating?

Just to put it in perspective how quickly things change. As I look at the Exhibitor list, even old standbys such as Microsoft and IBM are not nearly in the same business as when I started in software — the Internet was not even an industry at that point. The social networking in the world has replaced the days of pen pals (pen used to refer to the tool you used to write to a friend, not short for penitentiary) and Tweets seem to replace breaking news interrupting the day’s soap operas.

With all this, there are so many more opportunities for everyone – people can create applications and now have a method to reach people who want apps without the process of packaging and shipping and finding shelf space. Now there are ways to distribute, like through our application network, where people can create their own businesses through the money made in that process.

The Internet is an amazing place. It will be interesting to see what’s new at Web 2.0.

If you are attending Web 2.0, or are in the New York area, and are interested in meeting with W3i to discuss distribution, revenue, or engagement opportunities for your consumer apps, contact either myself or Josh Fiedler, and we will be happy to set up a meeting with you while in New York. You can also stop by our Birds of a Feather session “Distributing *.ware for Fun and Profit” at 7pm on Nov 17.

Kristin Oberhaus, Product Manager, W3i Holdings, LLC
Kristin has over 13 years of product management experience and is a certified usability analyst. She is an avid believer in pragmatic marketing.

Recently the FTC published its guide on endorsements to address the application of Section 5 of the FTC act. This prompted some confusion and questions. Following by way of overview, I attempted to de-mystify the guide.

First, the guide contemplates endorsements and written testimonials. The examples provided in the guide make clear that activity subject to the guidelines must meet one of three criteria:

1. Expression of or appearing to express an opinion by words or acts. This criteria classically applies to the celebrity endorser who appears in a commercial;
2. Compensation to individuals. This criteria applies to the regular Joe who might write a blog post about a product received for free and to blogging services where persons are compensated for posting; or
3. Reviews of products. An independent reviewer who is quoted creates potential applicability if the excerpting of the review does not reflect the substance and thereby distorts the reviewer’s opinion.

Second, the guide generally prohibits the following acts:

1. Presenting an endorsement out of context;
2. Distortion of the original endorsement;
3. Unsubstantiated claims; and
4. Failing to disclose material connections with the endorser.

The specific proscriptions above, notwithstanding liability, accrues where there is an attempt to mislead by presenting as an independent endorsement, or in the alternative, the endorser’s statement is untrue. Note too than an advertiser can be liable for unsubstantiated, unprompted claims (if it does not attempt to refute and halt such claims) made by a paid endorser.

Third, consumer endorsements are scrutinized:

1. Claims made must be substantiated (including where applicable with scientific evidence); and
2. Where the depiction in advertisement implies actual consumers, actual consumers must be used or otherwise there must be a conspicuous disclaimer.

The guide gives attention to consumer endorsements because consumer endorsements are powerful and a significant opportunity for misdirection. Bottom line conspicuous disclaimers where applicable and substantiated claims (results of the endorser must set reasonable expectations) are required.

Fourth, expert endorsements by individuals or organizations require special care:

1. The endorser must have the expertise with respect to the endorsement;
2. The expert endorser must have credibly evaluated the product and the findings must be consistent with the endorsement (e.g. when claiming superiority).

Finally, when there is a connection between endorser and seller of the advertised product that might materially affect the weight and credibility of the endorsement, such connection must be fully disclosed.

The blogosphere has been uproarious in its critique of the guide requirements, so in closing I note instances where the guidelines do not apply:

1. Employees posting on a company website or blog;
2. Bloggers who post personal opinions without remuneration or connection;
3. Person’s using a clearly demarcated company sponsored Twitter account;
4. Posts to any social network site Facebook, Myspace, LinkedIn where the post is associated clearly with a company’s attempt to self-promote.

In the end, the guidelines serve to clarify allowed and disallowed activity and, regardless of where you come down on their efficacy, are intended to promote forthrightness in company promotion to the consuming public. I for one commend the FTC for their attempt.

Hayden Creque, VP and General Counsel, W3i Holdings, LLC
Hayden counsels W3i on intellectual property, Internet law, privacy, and employment law issues. W3i strives to meet or exceed industry best practices. To learn more, click here.

It is always great when you can talk to Internet marketers face-to-face and learn some of their insights first hand.  I attended ad:tech San Francisco this week,  meeting with a handful of top marketers in charge of various types of Windows applications.

Their Windows applications include:  a cutting edge Outlook plug-in, security applications primarily geared for consumer use, various types of utility applications for helping users to get their PC to operate at the best possible level, and a top video player application. Each of the marketers talked to me about their various marketing campaigns, and all of them stressed how important it is to meet ROI goals, especially in light of the current economic condition.

• Paid search is working for many… The marketer from the cutting edge Outlook plug-in stated that since their app is so new to the world, most users haven’t discovered a need for the product category yet and, therefore, there isn’t much search traffic available to market this new application.
• Radio is not worth it… The marketer at the utility application company stated that if he had to do it all over again, he would have never invested into getting a radio advertising campaign off the ground. He said measuring the ROI has proven challenging, and way too much effort for what he gets out of it.
• Co-promotion has some legs… The security application company was working to white label their technology to a handful of very large security companies to ramp up their growth.
• Social marketing is helpful, but too unpredictable… The utility application company has a Windows application with a social marketing strategy, and was in the process of winding down the product because it never got any traction. The cutting edge Outlook plug-in company was quite pleased with the social traction he was getting, but wanted to ramp up faster, and in a more controlled manner. Even successful social marketing campaigns need a spark to light the fire.
• Bundling works… All four of the marketers at these Windows application companies stated that bundling was an area they were going to invest more energy and budget into because the ROI was very measurable and the volume of distribution was very meaningful.

If you have a Windows application, and haven’t figured out how to generate a meaningful ROI by participating in bundling, we should talk.  Contact W3i to learn more. 

About the Author:
Rob Weber is the VP of Business Development and Co-Founder of W3i Holdings.  Rob has over nine years experience developing innovative ways to increase revenue and distribution for Windows applications.