This is the second time Direct Access has been featured on Bits du Jour. Here’s a report of my first Bits du jour experience with the site.

For those who don’t know it, Bits du Jour is a deal of the day website for software. Every day you can get a different software deeply discounted (from 30% to 70%). Bits du Jour keeps 30% of the sale.

I offered Direct Access at 40% and the promotion ended with 40 licenses sold from Bits du jour plus other 9 that were generated directly from my website or my blog.

Bits du jour generate about about 6000–7000 visitors / day.

 Here’s how I managed the promotion:

• A couple of days before the event, I announced the discount via email to my customers.
• I displayed a banner on both my website and my blog announcing the promotion a few hours before the promotion started pointing the users directly to my sale page. This helped me to distinguish from the users who got to my homepage, discovered the discount and ordered the software from those purchasing from Bits du Jour (I got the idea from Nick Hebb. I also removed the promotion link from my website a few hours later (which resulted in a couple more sales)
• Watch the comments at Bits du Jour. A couple of users had questions and responding to them, resulted in few other sales.

From what I saw from my weblogs, on the 12th April, I got about 100 visits on my website from Bits du Jour. That means that many people tried the software before or purchased it on impulse without visiting my website. Traffic however, started to rise about a week before, when Ellen Craw (who manages the site) published the list of the new software on her blog. I’m still getting traffic from from it right now.

I think Bits du Jour is a great promotional tool to get the word out and increase the visibility of your product. Ellen writes the copy for you (which you can freely reuse on your website) and she’s a very talented copywriter.

So, my suggestion is to try it, both to find great software at discounted price and to promote yours!

Technorati Tags: bits du jour, direct access, nagarsoft

   

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Today, 12th April 2007, Direct Access is on sale at bitsdujour.

Therefore, you can get it for only $24.97 (that’s 40% discount of the $39.95 retail price).

Get your discounted copy now

Technorati Tags: Direct Access, Bits du jour, text expander

   

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…just a bit of celebration!

   

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I’m glad to announce the availability of Direct Access 1.5.

It’s a big step forward in ease of use and functionalities if compared to the old version.

Here’s a brief list of the new features:

1. Windows Vista support and a new interface. Direct Access now fully supports Windows Vista and has a new more coherent interface. All the commands information is directly available in the right pane.
2. Use shortcuts to create new commands. This was one of the most requested features. It was rather lengthy adding a new command in the past. Now, you can select a piece of text and press CTRL+SHIFT+W to create a new Autotext command. Likewise, pressing CTRL+SHIFT+A adds a new command to launch the active application.
3. Search for commands. This was another very requested features. You can now search for a command just typing a few keys in the search box. The results are filtered instantly.
4. Support for Macros. You can insert special fields in your command to perform certain operations when the command is executed: for example, you can be requested to enter a piece of text (useful to personalize the text inserted in your email, or to do queries on the web), insert the current date, a special character or position the cursor.

You can have a more detailed look at the new features from the what’s new page.

We also added a new user forum. You are welcome to post your comments and suggestions there. We are also planning to create a command data bank with common phrases organized by context.

Technorati Tags: direct access, autotext, text substitution, email automation

   

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Playing with Photoshop, I created a couple of buttons with Vista style that I’m using them at Nagarsoft to redesign my site for the upcoming version of the email automation software Direct Access. 

I’ve created the Download and Buy buttons that almost every microISV needs. Feel free to use them. Of course I do appreciate a link back or if you just drop me an email (but it’s not required).

I’ve included the transparent PNGs and the photoshop source (PSD) so you can freely to edit them. If you come up with variations you wish to share, I’d be happy to post them here. Enjoy.

Vista style orange buttons (PSD, PNG)  

Technorati Tags: buttons, photoshop, freebies, web design, glass, vista

   

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Bitbox contains a number of Windows Vista glass style graphics elements that you can use for free in your website.

The best thing is that it offers all the pictures in their native format (Illustrator or Photoshop) so you are free to customize them to your needs.

Vector glass buttons

Vector badges

Numbers

Technorati Tags: web elements, Aero glass

   

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After a long pause, I’m back again. A number of things have hindered my blogging, among which a new day job and hectic working on the new release of Direct Access (currently in beta) which is expected to be officially released the next week. You can read more and download a beta version of Direct Access from the Direct Access Beta page

1000 Inspirations is a blog run by Alex Choo is a MicroISV: as he says in his manifesto, he wants to give a voice to ordinary people working on their MicroISV. He’s also the cofounder of TipTap and has developed the TicTap Amazon Contextual Ads to show Adsense-styles Amazon product ads in your webpages.

I had the pleasure to be the first to be interviewed. You can read my story at  http://1000inspirations.wordpress.com/2007/01/28/question-time-with-andrea-nagar/

If you run a MicroISV and would like to be interviewed, Alex will probably be very interested in publishing your story.

1000 Inspirations
http://1000inspirations.wordpress.com

Technorati Tags: microisv

   

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Here are some anticipations of the new features you’ll get in Direct Access 1.5, which I expect to release in beta in January. Here are the main new features of 1.5:

• support for Windows Vista
• reduced memory footprint
• new, redesigned, easier to use interface
• instant search to quickly find your abbreviations
• new powerful functionalities for Autotext commands

The new interface of Direct Access

Office 2007 style tooltips

Commands are displayed so that you can get the maximum amount of information in a very reduced space. For each command you can clearly see its description, abbreviation (the word you have to type to activate it) and the preview. The little yellow ball tells you if the abbreviation requires a confirmation or will be fired immediately.

Instant Search

With Instant Search you can quickly locate your favorite commands typing a few keystrokes. The commands list is updated instantly to reflect your request.

Redesigned edit dialogs with a number of new features

The dialogs used to create commands have been redesigned to be much clearer and easier to use. A number of new commands have been added to perform special tasks:

• insert a manual text input: this allows you to perform a number of tasks: when the command is executed, a pop-up window is displayed asking for additional information: for example, you will be able to search google, wikipedia, a dictionary from any application and compose personalized messages executing a command and typing a parameter of your choice in the input window.
• insert the current date (using the time/date formats of your choice)
• insert special keys like TAB, ENTER
• insert an ASCII character typing it’s ASCII keycode
• have the cursor positioned at a certain place in the inserted text

OSD Command execution confirmation

Direct Access shows an OSD text confirming the execution of a command. So, you immediately know if the command has been correctly triggered.

I’m expecting to release Direct Access 1.5 in beta in January. All registered users will get the upgrade for free.

Technorati Tags: Direct Access, autotext, Nagarsoft

   

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I’m working on a new version of Direct Access which, among other new features, will add full support for Windows Vista. Thanks to the help of my good friend Marcus Tettmar, I found that the reason why in some cases drag and drop from Explorer to Direct Access didn’t work was due to the privileges Direct Access was running with. The behaviour happened only when launching Direct Access directly from the setup application.

The “Run the program now” checkbox that appears in many setup installations present a security risk with Vista: as all the processes that setup spawn inherit the same privileges as Setup (normally full administrative privileges) your application will be run with full administrative privileges as well.

This will not only create a security problem but may also cause other interaction problems between applications (for example, drag & drop from explorer to Direct Access doesn’t work).

The suggestion, therefore, is to remove the “Run the program now” from the installation final screen, as it’s suggested in the Innosetup FAQ at http://www.jrsoftware.org/iskb.php?vista

Technorati Tags: Vista, Installation

   

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A fellow ASP member mentioned the Virustotal website. You can submit any file and have it scanned with many different antivirus, so you can be sure that you application is not mistakenly identified as a virus or malware.

You can upload the file to the site or alternatively, send it via email. The service is free.

Virustotal
http://www.virustotal.com

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