Information

There are two common ways of selling software: either online or in a store. Both have some kind of advantage, both for the costumers and for the merchants. It is in the merchant's interest that his/her clients know about the product, and the way to achieve this point is through advertisement.

advertising software in a store has the disadvantage of other products directly competing for the customer's attention. Advantages are the presence of a salesperson, which can answer questions about the product or give additional information. Some customers also prefer to buy software that is being distributed on a portable medium like a CD or DVD. A medium's layout can also draw the customer's attention.

A product which is being sold online requires differrent distribution and advertisement techniques than the products sold in stores. advertising software on the web can be quite user-specific: an inexpensive way is the use of marketing software, which for example sends e-mails out to customers which did buy similar products in the past. This is just one example of the use of ecommerce software in a product promotion.

Although the approach is much less personalized, the use of popup windows to advertise software is often cheaper than the use of costly ecommerce software because the advertiser only pays for the views received. The quantity of individuals reached via the popup window method often compensates for the reduced personal touch.

One down side to advertising online is that people who spend a fair amount of time on the Internet become inured to online ads, because they see so many of them. Because many sites use advertising extensively, even intrusively, viewers may simply block out the ads they are shown.

A fear which is commonly observed among surfers, which prevents them from clicking on online ads, is the possibility to catch a virus accidentally. This is particularly true as far as advertising software is concerned. Web surfers are more and more afraid of accidentally installing a virus that came boundled with the downloaded software.

As for me, I like to research software on the Internet before I go into the store to purchase it. For that reason, I can be influenced by online advertisements in addition to the ads inside the store.