As a result of my leadership, the ALOT brand significantly outperforms the legacy Starware brand: RPMLU is 62% higher and retention is 14% improved. How I did it an maintained a clean rating will be detailed in future posts.

From the ABOUT ALOT PAGE:

Thank you,
Bill Belcamino
Former VP of Product Development (aka Mr. ALOT)

The Starware toolbar and adware product was the flagship brand for MIVA Direct and made a good amount of money, but required a large continuous investment in marketing. Starware unfortunately had a damaged reputation (true or not) as being a virus and was flagged by every reputable antivirus company, in fact the name itself sounds very similar to the industry language related to Malware, Adware and Spyware.

No matter how much money was spent on the product and distribution, there was very little retention and all of the leading Antivirus software flagged it as undesirable due to the fact that it showed AdWare. Now this really isn’t that big of a deal under MS Windows XP as many machines have questionable if any antivirus software in place. The Starware brand had contextual advertising (AdWare) and even if the user was provided with full disclosure, Adware products are labeled as undesirable in the MS Antivirus database (regardless of user consent or product disclosure!) Considering that MS VISTA ships with MS Defender standard, this is now becoming a major problem for any application trying to be successful monetizing or incorporating any form of AdWare.

To borrow another analogy, the train tracks were ending for Starware and any contextual advertising (Adware) product. Not everyone internal to MIVA agreed with my vision of the “Death of Adware”, but in hindsight all parties would agree that I was right. Companies who didn’t understand this are beginning to pay the price today as MS VISTA adoption rates continue to grow.

The elimination and consolidation of competitors that did not head these warnings is evidence that the decision to clean up our toolbar products and build a new brand (ALOT) was critical to the success of MIVA.

Whether or not Starware deserved its reputation, the perception and reputation are reality (just do a Google search for Starware to measure the reputation). Without a strong motivational leader, who was able to discuss these issues with the larger critics and define a plan to erase and ultimately change perceptions, the company would not have been prepared for future challenges. This is where I came in and saved the MIVA toolbar business.

I can say that because I have in depth experience, knowledge and contacts in the Anitvirus community and have a proven track record of pro-actively addressing the concerns of leading, reputable Antivirus companies in the web and down loadable client space. I am the leader in repairing existing brands, products and websites that are currently labeled as undesirable.

I personally found the ALOT.com domain, defined all aspects of the new brand, defined the Antivirus Compliance strategy and ultimately delivered the clean ALOT toolbar and homepage solution. I repaired the flagged SuperHoroscopes.com website and worked with McAfee SiteAdvisor to change the RED rating to GREEN to reflect my efforts. I defined and vetted with industry experts the strategy for the cleanup of Screensavers.com (in progress). I have an unblemished track record in this space and am highly confident that I can repeat this process for any challenges that may be in front of your company.

How will being clean impact the bottom line?

As a direct result of my leadership, steady product vision and Antivirus Compliance expertise, the ALOT brand significantly outperforms the legacy Starware brand. From the this press release: RPMLU is 62% higher and retention is 14% improved and revenue growth is phenomenal. Every product success metric is up, while the brand is able to provide a clean, virus free and malware-free user experience. Those results speak for themselves.

But if you need more assurance, ask my previous CEO:
“ALOT has been delivering consistently higher revenues and improved retention rates compared to our legacy brand,” commented Peter Corrao, Chief Executive Officer, MIVA, Inc. “Our objective now is to build on this success by further expanding the ALOT brand…”

In fact, this is what he said to me upon my promotion to VP of Product Development:
“Hi Bill, I am personally and professionally thrilled that it has worked out so well with you at Miva. Few (if any) in the company have made such a difference in such a short period of time. Kudos, Congrats and Bravo on your much deserved promotion.” ~ Peter Corrao, CEO

This was just a few short months before being let go without cause.  My friends and co-workers think it was because the rest of the business was failing and he wanted to grab onto the one success in the company.. the ALOT brand.  Oh well, I imagine they will find a way to mess that up also…  (Update 10/13/2008: looks like they just started distributing the ALOT toolbar on Screensavers.com, which was my strategy AFTER the site was GREEN on site advisor… doing it before hand just puts the ALOT brand at risk in my humble opinion).

Here is a thin slice of my industry knowledge and expertise in regards to leading Antivirus concerns: One of the larger challenges is battling existing perceptions. Many times reputation will proceed and sometimes trump the details of the product behavior. I am excellent at giving presentations, establishing relationships and engaging in open dialog with even the biggest critics. I have many confidential industry contacts who trust me and are comfortable to provide assistance for the larger problems that can only be solved with direct contact with the leaders at the various Antivirus companies. Also there are many nuances that predict how the leading Antivirus companies will perceive your product. For example, CA really values clear disclosure and the user must actively opt-in to the EULA, prominently see links to the Privacy Policy and provide up front disclosure to the user if the software will automatically update. With MS VISTA adoption rates increasing, the MS Antivirus database is becoming increasingly important (as it fuels the default MS Windows Defender application). Unlike many other Antivirus companies, product behavior (not disclosure) is the most important aspect in the rating system. Adware, Spyware and Malware are all flagged as undesirable and thus highly incompatible with MS VISTA. A further challenge in this space is McAfee Antivirus and SiteAdvisor. While this i very similar to other Antivirus products, now the virus database is shared across the behavior of the website that hosts the executable and the actual behaviors of the executable. This is critical as the behavior of either can negatively impact the other. For example, a website that exhibits prohibited behavior can be flagged and the corresponding application that is delivered from that website will now be flagged in the McAfee Antivirus database. The corollary is an application that exhibits undesirable behavior and is distributed by a clean website, will effectively poison that website. I have experience being a leader in the TRUSTe Trusted Download Program BETA, and effectively lead the effort to get the ALOT toolbar white-listed. From the TRUSTe website: The Trusted Download Program certifies consumer downloadable desktop software applications that provide clear and conspicuous notice about functionality of importance to the user and obtain informed consent prior to download. Certified applications provide an easy-to-use uninstall and allow users to maintain control over their computing environment.