• Embed Doc
  • Copy Link
  • Readcast
  • Collections
  • CommentGo Back
Download
 
 
Interviews
Published date: April 02, 2007© 2007 Avangate page 1
www.avangate.com
 
Interview with Bob Walsh
Adriana Iordan, Web Marketing Manager, Avangate
Interviews, Published date: April 02, 2007
We are starting our series of Web VIP interviews, and it was my pleasure tohave Bob Walsh as our first guest. Bob is a very active figure in the microISVworld. MicroISV stands for Micro-Independent Software Vendor.He is the managing partner of  Safari Software Incorporatedand has just published a new book called"Clear Blogging: How People Blogging areChanging the World and How Can You Join Them", after the successful book"MicroISV: From Vision to Reality".I wanted to learn more about his microISVbusiness, his experiences writing the second book, how blogging changed his life, and his thoughts on what it takes to succeed as an independentsoftware vendor.
Adriana Iordan
:
 
Can you tell us a little about yourself, your background and how you came towrite your books?
Bob Walsh
:
I‟ve
started in this business
–
first as a consultant, then contract programmer,now microISV - back in 1983 when I decided that the life of a news reporter was not as what Ithought it would be and switched professions. While the ride up of the dot com boom here inthe San Francisco Bay Area was great, the dot com bust was not and I started thinkingseriously about daring to write commercial software seriously in 2003.I finished MasterList Professionalin early 2005, only to realize I knew zip about how to be a "software startup" or "shareware author" as far as marketing, ecommerce, web site design,product positioning, tech support and about a dozen other things. The only books I could findon the subject were pre-Internet!Fortunately, I came across the Business of Softwareforum at Joel on Software.I realized I
wasn‟t alone trying to make a go of what the forum‟s moderator Eric Sink called a micro
-ISV. I
 
 
Interviews
Published date: April 02, 2007© 2007 Avangate page 2
www.avangate.com
 
further realized if I were going to have do all of this research on marketing and business etc, Imight as well do it right and write a book about it.That's how Micro-ISV: From Vision to Realitycame into being. While I was writing MIVR, I
realized there was a whole „nother big story out there: blogging. While I had started a 
blogback in O
ct. 2004 during the long beta of MasterList Professional, and I‟d seen what a blog
could do for other micro-ISVs like Ian Landsman's UserScape, my long-dormant "newspaperman's nose" was smelling that blogging was becoming , big, big news. Blogging hasthe potential to disrupt, remake and change economic, political, social established orders andgive individuals the chance to win again.
I wrote Clear Blogging in 2006 as a guide to blogging for people who don‟t blog, yet, and forpeople who had just started blogging. It‟s about the what‟s and how‟s and most importantly,the why‟s of blogging. It‟s not programming b
ook at all, but the good people at Apresswere willing to go for it.
 
Adriana Iordan:
 
Your new book outlines the benefits of blogging. Can the micro-ISVs affordto invest time and effort in blogging? Should the software companies consider blogging as partof their marketing strategy? For example, how did blogging change your business?
 
Bob Walsh:
Absolutely! For a small software company, a good blog is easily the single bestmarketing activity they can invest their time in because by conversing on the net about theproblems people have that their software addresses they demonstrate their expertise, buildtheir online reputation, connect with other people interested in solving that problem (aka,customers) and play to their strengths. Blogs are the opposite of tiny companies dressing upcorporate enterprise clothes. In a world where a couple of developers can build something thathundreds of millions of people care about in just a few months (Skype , YouTube), Small is Beautiful.For me, blogging is my marketing and the more I blog, the more I sell. It's just that simple.And whether you're selling to individuals or large enterprises, good blogging connects you tothe actual people who are going to decide whether to buy your product or service.
Adriana Iordan:
Also, please talk about the differences between corporate and personal blogs.Briefly, what are the most common mistakes the ISV bloggers do?
 
 
 
Interviews
Published date: April 02, 2007© 2007 Avangate page 3
www.avangate.com
 
Bob Walsh:
The biggest mistake a company can make blogging is to wring the individuality,passion and humanity out of their "official" blog and embalm the remains in marketing speak.Instead
–whether it‟s a company of one or 50 –
 
let employees talk about what get‟s them
excited about what they do, about the way they see the world, about the things that excitethem about where they work. Trust them to know what not to talk about. Trust yourself thatyour passion for you company is something others will find attractive.The difference between personal and corporate blogs is the difference between what you say asyou and what you say as the owner, executive, employee of a business. Joe can talk aboutfootball, the movie they saw last night and what music they listen to on their personal blog andconnect with other people with the same interests. But when Joe is at work as the CEO of AcmeSoftware he should be talking about the things he see's from that role, that point of 
view. Don‟t
mix beer and wine!
Adriana Iordan:
 
Are blogging and podcasting taking over web marketing or do they work intandem with other marketing tools? Was there anything that surprised you while doing theinterviews with successful bloggers?
 Bob Walsh:
If you mean push in your face web banners, flashing ads and the like
–
oftenfound on newspaper web sites in the US, by the way
–
 
I think that‟s doomed. We are perforce
becoming very good at filtering out non-
trusted marketing messages. They won‟t disappear –
 they're just background white noise.One interview that surprised me very much was with Richard Edelman, CEO of  Edelman
–
thelargest PR agency here in the states. He is totally into blogging and is working with some of thelargest enterprises on the planet to get real blogs going. He gets it. Edelman got into someblogging trouble last year when a couple of employees started fake blogs
–
he owned up to itand sent the message loud and clear: do that in this company and you are history. Now, in a
world were companies have endless meetings on “managing their message”, how Richard
handled this at his blog gave Edelman a boost in credibility in the blogosphere and elsewhere.
Adriana Iordan:
Which are the best performing online advertising tactics (with regard to theROI) for a microISV company that does not have a big marketing budget? What methods doyou find to be the most effective for the software vendors and why?
of 00

Leave a Comment

You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...
You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...