The two most common ways of selling software are either through a store or over the internet. There are advantages to both ways, not only for the consumer but also for the merchant. It is in his or her interest that consumers know about the product, which involves advertisement.

One disadvantage to advertising software in a store is that the customer will be comparing it with other products on sale. However, one advantage is that a salesperson will be available to answer questions or provide more information. Some customers would rather buy software on CD or DVD, since those media are portable. Also, how a medium is laid out can attract the attention of a customer.

Advertising a product online, as well as distributing it, is not the same thing as doing so in a store and requires different techniques. On the Internet specific consumers can be directly targeted. An example of this would be employing marketing software to automatically generate an e-mail to a customer who has bought the same kind of product you are selling; this is a cost-effective method for product promotion through ecommerce software.

Using pop-up windows is another way of advertising software online. This is a quite less customized approach. However the mass of people which you can reach through the use of this method compensates for a minor customization. It's also quite less expensive than to use costly e-commerce software: the advertiser only pays for the actual number of views that the ad is getting.

%NL% The disadvantage for online advertising is that there has been desensitization among frequent online users toward online ads. This is due to the extensive and sometimes intrusive use of advertisements on a number of websites. As a result, users tend to just block out the ads.

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.