There are any number of theories out there on how to dress a page, which elements to chose, the flow and process, etc., etc. to convert shoppers into customers.  Of course there are proven methods that work and those that don't.  Beyond the obvious and the best practices, the art of converting shoppers to customers is just that, an art.

And this art is one that Avangate does so well.  Not only does the team behind the scenes at Avangate have years of experience dialing up the conversion percentages, but we also have the tools to do it.

If you want to learn more about how the team drove IObit's revenues through these practices, and learn how you too can accomplish this goal, check out the latest case study here.

Turn shoppers into customers and win big smiles ;)

Recently I've been working with some big names in software on unique opportunities and out-of-the-box ideas that work within our existing infrastructures and capabilities.  In other words,, how can we take what we have and realize its maximum potential through additional productization... or said in plain English: do more with what we've got.

These meetings and projects are always fun.  We've all invested time, in many cases, years on these products / platforms / partnerships.  We know the space, and some brilliant ideas and left field thoughts are all being thrown against the wall.

Here's one that seems obvious, become a software affiliate and run your own ads to fill your ad inventory.  It doesn't matter if you sell used Beanie Babies, write a blog on fiber optic splicing or rant against the world.  One sale can make you $25.  What other ads offer that upside on the action conversion?

Here's how- Signup for Avangate's affiliate program by clicking this link.  Register for the top promotions, create little banner ads for the products or use the ones the affiliates provide, and put "Buy Now" links in your ad space.

Excess inventory put to good use.

If you're speaking to the press, pitching analysts or up for an award you've either got a killer product, spent money on PR, or both.  Chances are you have a very talented sales staff who is used to giving 5 minute pitches and responding to tough questions about your product.

USE THEM.  You have professionals dedicated to doing pitches on your payroll.  This doesn't mean you shouldn't have your product managers, development leads or other execs on the line.  Whom ever you depend on to close your big deals should be leading the pitch.  

It is after all a pitch.

The SquareSpace iPhone app is awesome. Not only does it allow me full posting capabilities, but I can now obsessively watch the stats! Come on people- it's been live for a whole day!!

It seems to be common sense that if 5 malware researchers identify, reverse engineer and publish results on the same threat it should have the same name.   Unfortunately, as SunBelt points out in their blog here, and as they quote from Panda, there are over 55k new threats each day, thats 20M a year!

The majority of consumers are imaginably confused by a dozen different names for the same piece of malware.  The majority of the key (aka damage inflicting) viruses I've encountered while doing operations and security were typically detected by heuristics or behavior based mechanisms.  The real nasty ones, those were caught purely by behavior.  

In late 2002 I was chasing an operational problem that started as CPU cycle spikes and proceeded to bandwidth degradation.  My network monitoring was able to watch the virus scan thousands of internal IPs in seconds and crawl from vulnerable device to device... I unplugged the uplink, isolated the VLAN, and contained the virus.

The AV and IDC heuristics caught it allowing us to stop it.  As a security professional I started my research with activity based discussions, not by Googling names.  When you push the security envelope and run operations such as those by the major banks (I personally have experience with many, none of whom come close to those of Fidelity out of Boston), you have to defend against threats invented moments before they hit your front door.

Even the US govt figured this out a few years ago and here's a few comments on the Einstein Program.  Threat mitigation starts with behavior detection and more.  Focusing on unification of threat behavior research and information would allow the thousands of researchers to collaborate... virus naming only seems to support marketing.

I wrote my first BASIC app when I was about 10.  The app took my very powerful 8088 and made a bunch of really cool colors and designs on-screen- think Windows 3.1 screensaver.  After years of taking computers apart, building applications and living in data centers, I've become convinced that there are either 1. magical gnomes causing mischief or 2. Sun Spots.

Since I will not be admitting that magical mischief gnomes exist in public, I'm blaming sun spots.  In case you don't know what sun spots are, check this out.  

NASA released a study last year (2009) providing evidence that a massive solar storm similar to those of 1859 would cause catastrophic damage to the worlds communication, banking and even health infrastructures.  FOX News provides some coverage of the threat here, and as with all FOX News coverage, its super scary.  

The end of 2009 saw some additional coverage from the Naval Research Labs, readable here.  The below graphic shows how a massive solar storm, or sun spot, would impact the earth and travel through our atmosphere.

In 2008 scientists reported the start of an 11 year solar storm cycle and issued warnings for the start of that year of impending storms.  As a result of scientific advances fueled by miniscule NASA funding and private sector demand, we can actually see a weather forecast for solar storms by visiting this site.

So, apparently all my technical "issues" are the result of magical gnomes.  According to NASA, we haven't had any severe events since December.  Summary of events below and more here:

Alerts Issued in December 2009

Space Weather Message Code: WARSUD
Serial Number: 67
Issue Time: 2009 Dec 25 1619 UTC

WARNING: Geomagnetic Sudden Impulse expected
Valid From: 2009 Dec 25 1710 UTC
Valid To: 2009 Dec 25 1810 UTC
IP Shock Passage Observed: 2009 Dec 25 1550 UTC

Space Weather Message Code: ALTTP2
Serial Number: 693
Issue Time: 2009 Dec 22 0533 UTC

ALERT: Type II Radio Emission
Begin Time: 2009 Dec 22 0457 UTC
Estimated Velocity: 531 km/s

Space Weather Message Code: ALTTP4
Serial Number: 315
Issue Time: 2009 Dec 17 1556 UTC

ALERT: Type IV Radio Emission
Begin Time: 2009 Dec 16 2212 UTC

One of my "traits" that is most often discussed by my friends / co-workers / family is my persistence.  However, they usually call it my obsessive determination, persistent annoyingness or worse...  Just ask Alana, she has several thoughts on the topic.

And for those of you who've wondered about the value of this trait, just ask any Phi Gam and they'll tell you:  

“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan "press on" has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race”

Calvin Coolidge, 30th President of the United States of America