Software Deal of the Day offers one software application for sale every day at a significantly discounted price.

Boston, MA January 23, 2008 — Software Deal of the Day offers one software application for sale every day at a significantly discounted price.

Software Deal of the Day is a new site that offers software applications at a significantly reduced price for only twenty-four hours. Each day a new software deal is available. If you cannot resist a great deal then Software-DOD.com is for you!

Software-DOD.com features popular software titles. The software discounts range from 10-90% off of list prices, and the software is only available at that price for twenty-four hours! Software-DOD.com also contains second chance offers. The second chance offers are still discounted and designed for those that miss the deal of the day offer, but the second chance offer is not as deeply discounted as the deal of the day offer.

Many of the software applications on the Software-DOD.com website even have trial versions available, which allows website visitors to try the software prior to making a purchase decision.

Interested visitors can preview the applications that will be available on the Software-DOD website for the coming week. Additionally, deals are easy to monitor because RSS feeds are available that contain the daily specials, the second chance offers, and a preview of applications that will be featured on the Software-DOD.com website.

Other webmasters and publishers can also syndicate the Software Deal of the Day offers, and integrate the discount offers into their own websites. Software-DOD.com provides the tools to make the integration process painless for webmasters. The offers will dynamically update each night as the new offers become available. Providing such great software deals are sure to endear webmasters to their website visitors.

Software developers interested in this new distribution channel are encouraged to submit their software applications for consideration. With economic concerns looming individuals and businesses alike are tightening their spending. Software Deal of the Day is a win for every everyone. Additional details available at www.software-dod.com

read more …

The Spencer Hotel & Spa has introduced a series of writers’ workshops that provide an environment for inspiring writers and artists to develop their skills and vision by bringing them together with today’s top professionals in a unique environment.

Chautauqua, New York January 20, 2008 — The Spencer Hotel & Spa has introduced a series of writers’ workshops that provide an environment for inspiring writers and artists to develop their skills and vision by bringing them together with today’s top professionals in a unique environment.

Each five day workshop (limited to 20 students) is taught by award-winning authors and artists eager to share their professional wisdom. In addition to the professional instruction, students may choose from yoga, meditation, dance classes, watercolor instruction, spa treatments, massage therapy, hiking, and bicycling. Meals are enjoyed together, class size is limited, and the schedule of instructors changes annually to provide a diverse, entertaining choice.

The Hotel’s location within the Chautauqua Institution (a gated resort community located on Chautauqua Lake in western New York), offers a quiet setting for reading and writing. Workshop classes are held at the Chautauqua Institution’s Hulquist Conference Center, while the surrounding landscape of Bestor Park and plentiful gardens provides an enchanting setting for all to enjoy.

The Spencer is newly renovated, boutique hotel with 26 luxurious rooms and suites. It houses the oldest literary society in America, and opens its gates to all who enjoy a tale. New York Times once titled Chautauqua Institution as “Camelot, a place where time is forgotten and the arts flourish.”

“The Hotel offers a distinctive literary theme which celebrates the life and works of history’s most revered authors. Each room pays homage to a renowned author, depicting scenes from their most famous works,” Innkeeper Helen Briggs states. “I love literature and like to read, and so I decided what better place to create a literary theme than in Chautauqua,” Helen continues.

read more …

MACWORLD SAN FRANCISCO—January 15, 2008—Apple® today unveiled MacBook® Air, the world’s thinnest notebook. MacBook Air measures an unprecedented 0.16-inches at its thinnest point, while its maximum height of 0.76-inches is less than the thinnest point on competing notebooks. MacBook Air has a stunning 13.3-inch LED-backlit widescreen display, a full-size and backlit keyboard, a built-in iSight® video camera for video conferencing, and a spacious trackpad with multi-touch gesture support so users can pinch, rotate and swipe. MacBook Air is powered by a 1.6 GHz or 1.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 4MB L2 cache, and includes as standard features 2GB of memory, an 80GB 1.8-inch hard drive, and the latest 802.11n Wi-Fi technology and Bluetooth 2.1.

“We’ve built the world’s thinnest notebook—without sacrificing a full-size keyboard or a full-size 13-inch display,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “When you first see MacBook Air, it’s hard to believe it’s a high-performance notebook with a full-size keyboard and display. But it is.”

MacBook Air has a vibrant 13.3-inch LED-backlit glossy widescreen display that is energy efficient, and its spacious trackpad offers multi-touch gesture support for pinch, rotate and swipe, making it more intuitive than ever to browse and rotate photos or zoom into web pages in Safari™. MacBook Air features a full-size keyboard design in a sleek and durable aluminum enclosure. The backlit keyboard makes it ideal for dimly lit environments such as airplanes, studios or conference halls, and a built-in ambient light sensor automatically adjusts the brightness of the keys as well as the display brightness for optimal visibility.

MacBook Air delivers up to five hours of battery life for wireless productivity and includes AirPort Extreme® 802.11n Wi-Fi networking, which delivers up to five times the performance and twice the range of 802.11g*. Apple’s Migration Assistant software now enables users to quickly transfer files, applications and preferences from your old Mac® to MacBook Air right over your wireless network.

MacBook Air users can buy the companion MacBook Air SuperDrive, a compact external drive designed for MacBook Air, for just $99. The MacBook Air SuperDrive® is powered by MacBook Air’s USB port, eliminating the need to carry a separate power adapter. Many MacBook Air users will not find a need for an optical drive now that they can wirelessly rent movies from the iTunes® Store, wirelessly backup files with Time Capsule and access the optical drives on remote PCs or Macs to wirelessly install software applications on MacBook Air.

MacBook Air is powered by Intel Core 2 Duo processors running at 1.6 GHz or 1.8 GHz, and includes as standard 2GB of memory and an 80GB 1.8-inch hard drive. An optional 64GB solid state drive contains no moving parts for added durability. Every MacBook Air includes a micro-DVI port so users can connect to Apple’s gorgeous 20-inch or 23-inch Cinema Displays to extend their desktop or connect to projectors and other displays via DVI, VGA, Composite and S-video adapters. MacBook Air includes USB 2.0 for plugging in peripherals or charging an iPod® or iPhone™, a headphone jack and Apple’s acclaimed MagSafe® Power Adapter designed especially for mobile users.

Every MacBook Air comes with iLife® ‘08, the most significant update ever to Apple’s award-winning suite of digital lifestyle applications, featuring a major new version of iPhoto® and a completely reinvented iMovie®, both seamlessly integrated with the new .Mac Web Gallery for online photo and video sharing. The new MacBook Air also comes with Leopard™, the sixth major release of the world’s most advanced operating system. Leopard introduces Time Machine™, an effortless way to automatically back up everything on a Mac; a redesigned Finder that lets users quickly browse and share files between multiple Macs; Quick Look, a new way to instantly see files without opening an application; Spaces, an intuitive new feature used to create groups of applications and instantly switch between them; a brand new desktop with Stacks, a new way to easily access files from the Dock; and major enhancements to Mail and iChat®. .Mac members can use the new Back to My Mac feature to browse and access files on their home computer from a MacBook Air over the Internet while out on the road.

read more …

Axios faculty affiliate, Professor James Anderson of the Kellogg School of Management, launches his new book, Value Merchants: Demonstrating and Documenting Superior Value in Business Markets. Based on the results of his latest research on crafting winning value propositions and managing customer value, Dr. Anderson defines the best practices in business to business (B2B) marketing.

Chicago, IL January 14, 2008 — Axios Partners, Inc. today announced its faculty affiliate, Professor James Anderson of the Kellogg School of Management, has launched his new book, Value Merchants: Demonstrating and Documenting Superior Value in Business Markets. Dr. Anderson is considered the world’s leading authority on Business-to-Business (B2B) marketing having already written the best selling B2B marketing textbook and numerous Harvard Business Review articles. On Tuesday, January 15, Dr. Anderson will be hosting a book launch in conjunction with the Kellogg Alumni Association on the Kellogg campus in downtown Chicago.

Based on the results of Dr. Anderson’s latest research on crafting winning value propositions and managing customer value, Value Merchants defines B2B marketing best practices and provides expert guidance to managers who are facing disappointing sales growth and increasing price pressures. “To gain a fair return on the value their offerings deliver, firms must be able to persuasively demonstrate and document the value they provide customers relative to the next best alternative for those customers,” says Dr. Anderson. In Value Merchants, he describes his groundbreaking customer value assessment methodology to provide an understanding of customer requirements and preferences, and what it is worth in monetary terms to fulfill them.

“Dr. Anderson’s approach to customer value management has created dramatic results for our clients. For example, we’ve seen clients increase margins by 25% or achieve 85% penetration in new markets by demonstrating and documenting their superior value,” says Eric Berggren, Managing Director. To reflect the success that its clients have had with Dr. Anderson’s and other cutting edge methods, Axios has redesigned its website: www.AxiosPartnersInc.com. Copies of Dr. Anderson’s book, as well as other publications highlighting best practices in marketing, can be obtained through the Axios website: www.AxiosPartnersInc.com/ideastools.html .

About Axios Partners, Inc.

Axios leads clients to innovate and manage their customer value for revenue and profit growth. Drawing on a network of expert resources, Axios combines highly skilled and experienced consultants with the cutting edge methods to address each client’s unique challenges. Axios has developed and implemented highly effective differentiation strategies for clients across a variety of industries, such as financial services, high-tech, energy, health care, telecommunications and industrial products. Axios client results have been highlighted in Fortune, Harvard Business Review and numerous other publications.

For more information, please visit: www.AxiosPartnersInc.com.

Invesp, a marketing consulting boutique that offers conversion optimization services, announced that its clients had an average conversion rate of 11.12 percent in 2007, which translates into an increase of up to 321 percent in online revenue.

Detroit, MI January 14, 2008 — Most large online companies have reported a soar in their sales. Companies with significant web presences such as Amazon, Bestbuy and Motorola were able to drive hundreds of thousands of visitors to their sites and as a result reported double digit growth in sales. Other e-commerce sites do not have such brand awareness and are not enjoying the same revenue growth. Most of these sites are turning to conversion optimization companies to help them boost sales. Invesp, a marketing consulting boutique, announced that its clients had an average conversion rate of 11.12 percent in 2007 reporting an increase of up to 321 percent in online revenue.

The fact is that at the heart of every ecommerce website is someone whose job is to increase revenue. As there is an increased pressure on online retailers to generate more sales, these sites are trying to figure out ways to convert more of their traffic into actual consumers, which is why it is crucial to focus on conversion rates. Data tracked by Invesp Consulting, a marketing optimization company, indicates that online conversion rates have been on a steady decline for the last 6 years. Fireclick index, which provides an objective comparison of key metrics across a variety of segments, reported that ecommerce website reported an average conversion rate of 6 percent in the year 2000, but by 2007, most ecommerce sites are reporting an average less than 2 percent.

Surprisingly, these rates have not always been this low. Ecommerce sites used to experience more sales because of limited competition. They were not required to be optimized nor designed with users in mind. But with the boom in e-retailing sites, competition is fierce. Sites are turning to conversion optimization methods with one goal in mind: trying to figure out the best way to increase online conversions.

And companies should be concerned with conversions since there are more users than ever online. Users are picky, if the site does not capture their attention because of the lack of optimization and focus, they will click out within seconds. That translates into hundreds of dollars in lost sales.

For an ecommerce site driving 50,000 visitors a day, a 2 percent conversion rate may suffice. But, conversion rate doesn’t have to stop at that low number. Ayat Shukairy, a managing partner at Invesp Consulting (www.invesp.com), says, “if you’ve already invested hundreds of thousands into your online platform, you are getting tens of thousands of visitors to your site every day. Increasing your website conversion rate can mean getting 1,000 orders instead of 500 orders. Our clients are reporting an average of 11 percent conversion rate. That translates into 321 percent increase in revenue. If companies do not fix the problem with their website, then they are simply leaving money on the table for competitors to take.”

read more …