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                                                  The SDNews!
                          SDN International - The SDN Project
                           The Shareware Distribution Network
                                          Ray Kaliss - Editor
                                           January 1997 Issue



Copyright
~~~~~~~~~
This document is copyright 1997 by Ray L.  Kaliss as the SDN
Project and is intended for the information of shareware
programmers and publishers.  It may be posted to
alt.comp.shareware.programmer.  It may be copied to other
shareware authors and posting places where shareware authors
frequent.  It may not be copied to hard print or used as a
part of any other article or posting - without written
permission.


SECTIONS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[1] New SDN Author Kit 13 - SDNMaker 1.03
[2] A&E Biography - Man Of The Year - Bill Gates
[3] Top Downloads
[4] Continued WinZip Success
[5] Subscribing Information
[6] Shareware Author Index
[7] The SAX Author Resource
[8] alt.comp.shareware.programmer
[9] Hungry For Applications
[10] The Continued Success of Games
[11] HTML Editors



New SDN Author Kit 13 - SDNMaker 1.03
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SDN Author Kit revision 13 is now published.  This kit contains
SDNMaker v1.03 which prepares an author's program .zip for
submission to SDN.  Besides SDNMaker, the kit itself has little
changed.  There is one small change to the SDN.ID format that
allows author's web page addresses to be placed after their
email address in the header.  Our Commercial Distribution fee
(the charge for distributing your shareware program to
commercial networks and other sites) remains the same as last
year - $45.00

                  ftp://ftp.sdn.com/sdnkit13.zip
                  http://www.pcnet.com/~kaliss

The new version SDNMaker is easier to use.  It allows
re-editing for most entries.  Although a DOS based program, it
takes into account multitasking systems such as Windows'95 by
allowing a 'refresh' command so that another task can be opened
and changes to your submission can be made on the fly.

A couple of sites that SDN can deliver to have, closed.
Windows-World, which was at CSUMS on the web, has closed, the
originator of the site had left for other things and apparently
people left at the site did not have Kevin's enthusiasm for
keeping up.  Quantum online service never posted hundreds of
the files I sent them - they are no longer on the list.

Now added to SDNMaker is the addition of JCSM.  Operating the
popular bestzips web site and publishing the Author to Vendor
CDROM disc series and 'The Best Of A2V' disc, JCSM is another
'gateway' to exponential coverage.  Their CDROM is send out to
disk vendors, BBS sysops and others.  It is also used by
Microsoft Network for selecting files to be posted online.
However, MSN will only post shareware programs which include
Ram's Island Software's Vendinfo.diz file.

                http://www.bestzips.com
                http://www.delta.com/star/ramsisle/ramsisle.htm




A&E Biography Man of The Year - Bill Gates
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Arts and Entertainment TV networks show Biography, choose
Bill Gates as 1996' most influential man of the year.  One of
the world's wealthiest men, Bill's vision and marketing powers
have propelled Microsoft to top of software fame.  MSDOS and
Windows are operating systems that are foundational to today's
desktop computing.

                http://www.microsoft.com/corpinfo/bill-g.htm



Microsoft Internet Strategy
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bill Gates compares the Internet to the original IBM PC and
says that just as the original IBM PC has become the center of
computing up to today - so he sees the Internet as becoming the
center of communications.  Look for Microsoft to apply all it
has learned about marketing to be applied to it's Internet
strategy, and be successful.  Windows and Windows products will
dominate Internet conductivity.  One of the areas Microsoft
sees as fertile, is small business software - doing business
while tied into the Internet.  This area could be a future
shareware jack pot using high tech - high return marketing.

                http://www.microsoft.com/smallbiz/



Top Download
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Quake, from ID Software and Winzip 6.2 appear to be the top
downloads across the services.  Rating high in the download
count is also Duke Nukem and both IExplorer and Netscape web
browser.

If you browse the top download pages..  you find the top
downloads consist of games, Windows'95 type utilities and
screen savers.

The top downloads for OS/2 appear to be OS/2 utilities.

Games seem to be the dominate download right now.  Apogee and
ID appear to top that genre.



Continued Winzip Success
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Most impressive is Nico Mak's continued ride of success with
Winzip.  Not to mention Nico's programming ability and fine
layout for Winzip, and his use of SDN for distribution and
special assistance, Nico has obviously founded on the shareware
author's dream.  He recognized the rise of Windows'95 and the
need for a desktop click compression utility.  Not just
stopping with zip compatibility, Nico added other compression
formats found around the Internet.  Using WinZip makes
downloading to the desktop only require a click on the newly
downloaded desktop icon to handle the archive in true
Windows'95 style.

Taking into account the international character of the
Internet, Winzip comes in English, German, French and Japanese.
Purchasing Winzip can be done right at his website if your
using a secured web browser like Netscape or IExplorer.

PKZip has noticed WinZip's success and has introduced a
Window'95 GUI version, however it is limited zip compression.

                http://www.winzip.com
                http://www.pkware.com




Shareware Author Index
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The SAX search engine now has a listing of 1309 shareware
products searchable by keywords.  Perhaps new since the last
time you visited, there are now fields for ZDNet rating links,
c|net description and download links, Shareit! download and
registration links.  The SAX, essentially a virtual index of
shareware authors home pages on the web - has done quite well.
IBM Net features a link to it as well as other search engine
pages on the net.

If you have not yet entered your products and home page
information into The SAX - now is the time as some new features
are being worked on behind the scenes that authors will want to
be a part of.


alt.comp.shareware.programmer
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SDN is assisting in trying to stir up a revival of this usenet
newsgroup.

As a whole, it seems any newsgroup is awash in scam messages,
sales pitches, get-rich-quick memos.  This has also happened to
Fidonet echo conferences.  It seems the media constant emphasis
on how the Internet offers the chance for everyone with a
computer to bleed the public through the use of the Internet
has ever computer owner with a glint of cash in his eye to stay
up late at night and hatch his own get rich quick scheme to
spam onto the Internet public.  This has had the effect of an
incredible drop off of message readers who are just annoyed
no-end to that stuff being posted in every and any message
area.

Many of us, would like to see the alt.comp.shareware.programmer
area survive and even flourish again.  Please join us to
revitalize this newsgroup.  Shareware authors need an
international conference area to share information and
associate with other authors.



Hungry For Applications
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Internet.  The Internet.  The Internet.

Mark Anserson of The Stategic News Service says...

  "From PointCast to InBox to Active Desktop, it is clear
  that the Days of Surfin' have reached an end of sorts.
  Who has time to surf these days? No one I know.  We
  need our information on our desk, preferably before we
  arrive at work, with updates throughout the day."

This observation rings true.  When we speak Internet, we speak
web, and it is vast with perhaps 33 new websites going online
every minute.  Yahoo, The YellowPages, Excite..  all these are
fine and helpful to get around, but going out to gather all
this information is time consuming, in fact, most times it
takes more time than you have or it absorbs all your allocated
online time.  Awash in information overload - some of 1997's
winners will no doubt be the ones who figure out just what kind
of information people will be looking for, how to personally
present it, and how to get it to them.  You probably have seen
the big boys playing with it - but gathering news or any
information, from the net, and sending it to subscriber...  is
the future.

PointCast, email subscription news letters, Oil-Change,
Netscape's Inbox, The Wall Stret Journal's Personal Journal,
net agents..  news you configure to be brought to your browser
or your email inbox - all with monthly subscriptions.

Popular kinds of programs will be web tickers that constantly
obtain and display stock quotes or sports scores, etc..  in a
box on your desktop.  Desktop search engines that search other
search engines and configure for you the results, offline web
browsers that gather news/changes at web sites while you sleep.

                http://home.microsoft.com/reading/reading.asp
                http://www.tapsns.com




The Continued Success of Games
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Don't hold me to this, but if you were to ask me which gene of
shareware was the over-all, over time, most successful, I think
I would have to say games.  Ever since Apogee appeared and ID,
games have done rather well.

Why?

Well...  gamers are an addicted bunch.  Some people play games
all the time, the computer might as well be a Nintendo.  They
relax by it, by being challenged (is work really _that_
challenging?!).  A dull day at work can be set aside by one or
two fast paced games.

Also, the game that uses an engine and runs on a WAD and has a
public WAD maker available, allows one to create a new
environment and share it with other.  This is a way to pit one
player against the other without real-time connection.

With magazines and web sites dedicated to the true addicted
gamer..  a good action/thinking game will always be wanted.



HTML Editors
~~~~~~~~~~~~
With the explosion of small personal websites, has come an
explosion of HTML editors.  Is there a market for them?

Yes.

You can purchase a retail shrink wrapped website building HTML
editor for about $100.00 - but more like $200 to $500.  These
are what corporate buyers are going for..  MS Frontpage type
editors.  Corporate buyers are forced, because of politics, to
stay with the big recognized names.

Most of the web sites going online, however, are small business
and personal page sites.  Everyone wants to be published on the
information highway.  These people, tend to shy away from $100
packages.  They want an inexpensive editor in order to throw
together and interesting page.

As the Internet expands, more and more of these people will be
putting up home pages.

The HMTL editor is a good shareware activity right now and will
be for the year to come.



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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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