Archive for August, 2009

Dennis Crane

Video demo to help sell your product

Sue Pichotta has kindly published my guest post about my experience in making demo video for TBS Cover Editor.

Although I’ve already known that some steps in my process might be more optimal, I honestly described what I did. I hope that this article will be useful for many software vendors and internet marketers who sell products on-line. Check it out!

In the article I listed several ideas for using live demos to promote your software. Here they are:

  • Put it on your website in front of your visitors
  • Upload it to popular video portals like YouTube
  • Include a link to your live demo into your press releases and messages to bloggers, press editors, and prospects
  • Promote your video with social bookmarks like Digg.com, Reddit.com and StumbleUpon.com
  • Show it at off-line events: presentations, conferences, and trade shows
  • Add it to your giveaway promotional stuff on CD or USB flash
  • Put it on view in the reception area of your office

Now, I’ve recalled one more idea how you could use your demo video. If you demo isn’t just an overview of software features but shows how to accomplish a certain task then I recommend to submit it to archives of tutorials. Just search for “submit tutorial” to find appropriate sites.

Putting your live demo in front of thousand people who look for problem solutions on tutorial sites is a good way to increase the visibility of your product.

Feel free to add more ideas of live demo usage in the comments.

If your software was cracked, stolen, patched or keygened then most of warez downloads are likely hosted on RapidShare.com. Try to Google for your product name + rapidshare.com.
If you find links to your software cracks or keygens don’t hesitate to ask RapidShare to remove them. Actually, they react very promptly - usually in 12-24 hours.

Reporting is easy. Just send a e-mail to abuse@rapidshare.com with “Abuse report” subject line.

In the message body use the following pattern:

Hello,

I’m YOUR_NAME, a CEO of YOUR_COMPANY

We are the author of YOUR_PRODUCT software (http://www.YOUR_SITE.com) .

Please remove the pirated (patched and keygened) version of
our product from your server:
http://rapidshare.com/files/….
http://rapidshare.com/files/….
….

Thanks!

Sincerely yours,
YOUR_NAME
YOUR_PHONE
YOUR_CONTACT_DETAILS

This will take just about 15-20 minutes of your time to find and report warez links but the effect in sales, or at least in number of original trial copy downloads, may be significant.