I want to let the 2 readers out there know I will be offline for the next 48 hours. I’ll catch up on emails and such Wednesday afternoon/evening. Cheers.
I read a blog post that has me thinking about the trial version of SMTP Diagnostics. As the story goes, a person was unhappy with the nag screen popping up as he was trying the trial version of a software program. Annoyed at the popups, he decided to uninstall the application even though the gentleman liked the program.
The ISV that published the program in question found the blog posting and explained the company’s reasoning for displaying the popup screens in the trial version. This is the part that really got me thinking about the trail version for SMTP Diagnostics.
I didn’t like the trial mode model used in SMTP Diagnostics when I first released it and I still don’t like it. For starters, it is too confusing. In trial mode, the software will disable itself after 10 runs or 30 days which ever occurs first. While I’m not a fan of nag screens, which I prefer to call marketing screens, I believe just such a screen makes more sense for SMTP Diagnostics over disabling the software.
I would love to hear your thoughts. What would be YOUR preferred approach to encourage users to buy the product without interfering too much with the user experience?
Here’s one idea I am playing with in my head: Eliminate the current model all together and instead use marketing screens. The user will see the marketing screen every 5 times that the program is run. Also, the user will see the marketing screen every 5 times a test mail is sent within a single run. Lastly, the test mail will include a tag line at the end of each message saying something like “Sent using the trial version of SMTP Diagnostics.”
The benefit of this approach is that the program will continue to work even if it has been installed for months. The current approach does not allow for that. Under the new model, users who rarely use SMTP Diagnostics can get away with running the trial and clicking OK to close the marketing screens. Users who use SMTP Diagnostics on a regular basis will hopefully agree to buy a license to eliminate the popup screen and remove the trial version tag line in the email message.
What do you think of this approach? Or is there an approach I should consider?
Thanks for a patch from InstantASP the WPS Forums are back online.
The latest version of SMTP Diagnostics, version 1.3, is now available. This release includes a number of enhancements including the ability to save and open the SMTP settings as a Profile. For a complete list of changes, please read the Revision History found in the SMTP Diagnostics Help file.
The latest version can be downloaded from our web site at:
http://www.whitepeaksoftware.com/smtpdiagnostics.aspx
Note: This is a FREE upgrade to all licensed users.
Apparent the White Peak install of InstantForum.NET 4.0 is tied directly to the availability an InstantASP server. Unfortunately it seems the InstantASP server is down and as a result the White Peak Software Support Forums is down as well. I am working with the vendor to resolve the problem as quickly as possible and to hopefully ensure this never happens again.
There are camp grounds in Long Island? You bet ya. Melanie and I spent the weekend camping at one of many Long Island campgrounds. We stayed at Wildwood State Park Saturday and Sunday night and had a very enjoyable time. Wildwood is about an hour and a half to two hours from Manhattan and is on the Sound side of the island.
We were a bit disappointed with the camp grounds on Saturday, rather I should say disappointed with the other campers on Saturday. There were lots of campers on that night, the grounds were near capacity. And many of the campers seemed to enjoy their cars more than the great outdoors. Music poured from car radios until 10:00/10:30 pm, people drove cars around until midnight, and car alarms could be heard throughout the night and early morning. Needless to say, Saturday wasn’t what we expected.
Luckily Sunday was the saving grace for Wildwood campgrounds. The rowdy campers left (check-out time is 11 am) and grounds were probably less than 25% full. Sunday night was quite and enjoyable, a welcome change from the previous night. We chilled by the campfire listening to the strange noises made by the creatures of the night. We cooked steaks and roasted corn on the grill, and we were constantly thankful the Saturday night crowd was gone.
Overall we really liked the campgrounds at Wildwood State Park and highly recommend it to those wanting to camp in Long Island. The campgrounds are nice and the beach is only a short walk away. Be sure to bring your bike and avoid Friday and Saturday nights.
I’m happy to announce that the White Peak Software Forums are open. Please start using the forums for your questions and feedback about SMTP Diagnostics.
SMTP Diagnostics version 1.2 is available for download from the White Peak Software web site. For those of you who don’t know, this is a SMTP diagnostic tool that helps troubleshoot problems with outgoing email and aids in configuring SMTP servers.
The White Peak SMTP Diagnostics program will be released to the general public next week, but before I release it I have been thinking about a name change. While SMTP Diagnostics definitely tells what the program does, the name is a bit geeky. This makes me wonder if I should use a different name.
How about it folks? Should I rename the program with a less geeky name? And if so, what name might you suggest? Or should I leave the name as is?