Lotus Notes Spam

Tags: : SpamSentinel

We are pleased to announce the upcoming release of SpamSentinel version 7.7!  

The roll-out of SpamSentinel version 7.7 will begin in mid-September.  Customers will receive an email regarding upgrade details which will allow you to control the timing of the upgrade based on their preference.  As always it is our mission to offer the very best anti-spam and anti-virus solution for Domino!

Here are the SpamSentinel version highlights that we would like to call your attention to:

1)  All new code from our major providers:  Cloudmark, Commtouch and Norman is included in this release.  Blocking rate continues to average 99.6%+ with near-zero false positives!

2)  This is now our second major release supporting Domino 8.5.1 x 64 and higher.  We have dropped support for Windows NT 4.0.  

3)  FREE ADD-ON! Manage-By-Example ( MBE) Version 2.04a  - We recommend customers use the Junk Mail folder for delivery of Undecided Mail ( Spam B), about 4 messages per user per day.  For most customers, this completely replaces the daily report.  To learn more, download the installer and view a one-minute video clip:   http://www.maysoft.com/mbehelp.nsf

4)  Regular Expressions are allowed by enclosing the whole expression in double square brackets in t he Word Block Field.  For example:  regular expression.  Regular Expressions provide advanced searching and matching capabilities far superior to plain word lists to further improve blocking performance.  This functionality has also been included in our updated Policy Management function for added power.

5)  SpamSentinel Reporting for 64-bit installations is now supported and included in the full installer.

6)  Policy Management features have been updated and enhanced.


SpamSentinel Version 7.7 is faster, more accurate and more robust than ever before!




Read reviews of SpamSentinel at the NotesAppStore:

Domino Server Version:		Hosted Cloud Service:

Posted by Allison Cote At 2:01 PM Location Boston | Permalink | Comments (0) |      

Tags: : NotesAppStore

One of our customers, Ennio Prase, CEO of Prase Engineering of Italy, posted a nice review of SpamSentinel. Prase is an Italian distributor of audio products. They have been using SpamSentinel for 5 years and I want to thank the CEO for writing a NotesAppStore review of the product.

Posted by Frank Paolino At 9:40 AM Location Boston | Permalink | Comments (0) |      

Tags: : NotesAppStore

One of the goals of the NotesAppStore is to assist with Google search. Google WANTS to be able to know more about each site. One of the ways is to read "microformats" from the site. This is formatted XML data to tell Google which sites have reviews, which are very important to buyers of products. And because Google lives off advertising, product reviews are critical to its business model. This is why I added the microformats to the NotesAppStore, because Google likes good data.

So, to make it easy for Google to find Lotus Notes and Domino products, I have added microformats to the NotesAppStore. They come in two flavors:

Google says it best:

About review data When review information is marked up in the body of a web page, Google can identify it and use it to understand and present the information on your pages. For example, it can be used to create rich snippets to be displayed on a search results page. Review information such as ratings and descriptions can help users to better identify pages with good content. You can mark up either individual reviews (for example, an editor's review of a product), or aggregate review information—for example, the average rating for a local business or the total number of user reviews submitted.

Here is a sample of a Google search result showing an "aggregate rating" for SpamSentinel, showing 24 reviews and the aggregate 5 star rating:





Here is an example of an "individual review", showing the reviewer name and the 5 star rating:




As more and more reviews are written to the NotesAppStore, Google will show the ratings right in the search results. Users will click on these preferentially to non-rated products, leading to more website visits and (hopefully) more product sales for all NotesAppStore vendors.

Posted by Frank Paolino At 2:14 PM Location Boston | Permalink | Comments (3) |      

Tags: : Lotus Love

Jake, do you take Yancy to be your permanent blog feed?



Yancy, do you promise to love Jake's blog and honor his off-topic postings?

If so, let's agree to be friends and shake hands?

We need all the Lotus love that we can get IMHO....

Posted by Frank Paolino At 8:00 PM Location Boston | Permalink | Comments (1) |      

Tags: : NotesAppStore

Today there are 257 Lotus Notes Apps on the NotesAppStore!

Email	Administration	Productivity	Development	Services & Training
36 Apps	49 Apps	104 Apps	33 Apps	35 Apps

There are also 40 ISV product resellers

There are currently 131 Product and Reseller Reviews

There were 18 quote requests


In the past 30 days, these are the Page stats according to StatCounter:

		Page Loads	Unique Visitors	First Time Visitors	Returning Visitors
Total		19,256	7,557	6,219	1,338

Posted by Frank Paolino At 10:01 AM Location Boston | Permalink | Comments (0) |      

Tags: : NotesAppStore

Vigilus and Act for Notes is the first official Gold Site Supporter for the NotesAppStore! Thanks for all of your help to Thom Stallings!

A site supporter is someone who helps promote the site by doing all of the following:

• Linking to this site from their main website or product page with our badge  
• Writing a blog entry about the site.
• Follow NotesAppStore on Twitter and "tweet" about the site and your products  
• Join the LinkedIn Group NotesAppStore
• Join the Facebook Group NotesAppStore
• Email to your customers a notice about the site  
• Help to Enroll other Site Supporters

Why are Gold Site Supporters so important? Because the NotesAppStore will only work if it is makes Notes Apps easy to find from lots of places. That means from vendor sites, reseller sites, other blogs, customer emails and word of mouth. In that way, it is a true community effort.


I hope to have many Gold Site Supporters, supporting the ISVs and resellers that support the IBM Lotus and Domino brand!



Here is their product listed on the NotesAppStore:
http://www.notesappstore.com/appstore.nsf/ProdApps

Posted by Frank Paolino At 4:31 PM Location Boston | Permalink | Comments (0) |      

Tags: : NotesAppStore

Reseller of ISV Apps (also known as 3rd party products) are very important to the ISV community.

There are 2 degrees of separation between resellers and IBM (IBM -> ISVs -> Resellers).  True, some resellers sell Lotus Notes, so there is a direct relationship with IBM. But mostly, they are not on IBM's radar. But they need a home, just like ISVs need a home on the web.

Most ISVs have a small group of 10-20 resellers that sell their products in their home country. These companies know the local buyers and decision makers and speak the local language, which is very important to the buyer. Then, they introduce an ISV product, like SpamSentinel  to the customer.


What happens when a company does not have a relationship with a reseller of Lotus Notes and Domino products? Well, then Google hell happens!  Which means they struggle to find a qualified local resource. If they want Domino server admin, they will find, via google, a very capable firm on the other side of the world!  That is a useless result for a firm searching for a local resource that knows the local language.

If it takes more than 30 minutes, they may abandon the search altogether!  Which is why we have a Reseller section in the NotesAppStore. To best demonstrate how this works, I will use my own SpamSentinel as an example of how the products and resellers should be listed on the NotesAppStore:

It works like this: There is a list of Resellers by Country (and we insist that the reseller only lists one country, their main base of operations or headquarters) which shows the products that they carry. Resellers and Products they carry by Country A second list shows all resellers of a certain product.  So a buyer, when looking at SpamSentinel, can see SpamSentinel and Resellers This will show resellers of this one product by country (with Ratings and Reviews, too).

Reseller Reviews and Ratings
How do you decide which resellers are best for you? Look at their ratings!  Just like the products on the NotesAppStore have ratings, so do resellers.  These are ratings of their services, not the products they represent. You can pick resellers that have ratings and reviews that you find match your needs.
These reviews should also follow the review guidelines of the site

Once a review is posted on the NotesAppStore, a reseller can post a link to it on their own website.  For example, here is one for a SpamSentinel reseller, Donova in Sweden (from a hockey company, of course !)



Note: This is not the best review, as it should focus more on the reseller and less on the product, but part of my work is education of how best to use the NotesAppStore, and it is an ongoing process.

How does the reseller get the code for their website? When a review is posted to the NotesAppStore, an email notification is sent to the Reseller (or Product vendor) containing the review, along with the HTML code for their website (if they choose to show the review).


Easy Quotes work for Resellers, too.
Quotes can be requested from an ISV or from their reseller. It is a decision made by the prospective buyer. When a prospective customer decides on a reseller of a product, they can contact the reseller directly, or request an Easy Quote for a product that the reseller carries. That reseller can then respond with pricing before a prospective buyer decides to engage them, if they choose.



How do Resellers Get Listed?
Resellers list themselves and the products they represent. They should only list products that they are authorized to represent. Just like they wouldn't put products they don't resell on their own websites, they shouldn't put them on the NotesAppStore, either. They self-manage their listings, so this page is effectively an extension of their own website.

The process is simple: Click on the Partner Login button and use your LinkedIn ID to login. NotesAppStore does not have access to your LinkedIn password nor does it store your LinkedIn password, it only has proof of your identity. Combined with a confirmation email to your work email address, we are confident in your identity so you can then manage your listings.

Click here to list yourself as a reseller: Partner Login

What about a company (reseller) that both makes a product and resells other ISV products? The NotesAppStore lets you have one listing per product that you manufacture and one listing for all the products that you resell:




So, the NotesAppStore is also a home for Lotus Notes and Domino Resellers.


Next: What is the NotesAppStore - Part 3: The Easy Quote Process and how it protects privacy.

Posted by Frank Paolino At 1:29 PM Location Boston | Permalink | Comments (0) |      

Tags: : NotesAppStore

Eric Mack reminded me of the "Lotus Notes Guide" (and sent me this scan).

MayFlower was listed in a number of these guides, and many people used them as a reference for "all things Lotus". The guide was handy, complete and helped you contact vendors of products and services.

Since the internet has replaced this "paper" guide, the vendors of products and services have not had a home, a place for them all to be seen by potential buyers.

But the need for a home is still very much a real need.

This was my first motivation driving me to build the NotesAppStore:
A single place for all vendors of Lotus Notes and Domino products and services.

The reason we need a single place is because of Google hell. What is google hell?  It is looking for Lotus Notes and Domino products and services via google.

If you want to see what I mean, click here:
http://www.google.com/search?q=Lotus+Notes+and+Domino+products+and+services

To put an end to google hell means putting all vendors in one place. So, the NotesAppStore is a site that:

1. Is Free to list your products and services
2. Is Easy to navigate and find products and product resellers
3. Contains User reviews of Lotus Notes and Domino products and services
4. Is a Comprehensive listing of Vendors

#4 brings me to one still unsolved problem: Not all vendors are listed on the Notes App Store.

If you know of vendors but see that they are not listed, they can self-list using the Partner Login link.

So, Part 1, What is the NotesAppStore, it is your "guide" to Lotus Notes products and services.





Next Posting:  What is the NotesAppStore - Part 2: The Reseller Community

Posted by Frank Paolino At 2:17 PM Location Boston | Permalink | Comments (2) |      

Tags: : Charity

A really great neighbor Beth Petr in Acton communicates with the troops in Afghanistan and finds out what they need to make morals a tiny bit better.

Late last year, around Christmas time, the request was for coffee. Not any coffee. Dunkin Donuts coffee.

So, I went to the local store and bought 200 pounds of coffee in 1 pound bags.  I figured each pound would make 30 or more cups and make a lot of soldiers have a small "taste" of home.

I had not heard much about it, as communications is limited, until just this morning, when I got this email for CPT Jeoff:

This is a long overdue note of thanks to you, Frank and his daughter for the Dunkin Donuts coffee sent in February.  Much as I could have consumed it all myself, I knew the intent was to ensure the widest dissemination possible.  I shared with each of eight subordinate company commanders in our battalion, meaning your gifts touched the lives of nearly 1,100 Soldiers.  That's the kind of reach your operation has. I have now returned to the US and Acton.  I am forever grateful for the kindness and generosity that you and your friends give in support of our Citizen Soldiers.  Your work is important to all of us.  Please keep it going. Best regards, CPT Jeoff

My daughter Isabelle at Dunkin Donuts:


Here I am holding one of the 4 boxes of coffee:

Posted by Frank Paolino At 10:10 AM Location Boston | Permalink | Comments (2) |      

Tags: : Community

Thanks to Peter Smith at IONET software, we have improved and launched new site search for the NotesAppStore.

Peter graciously agreed to donate his FT Search software to the site to make the search experience much better, in terms of speed and utility.

To search the site, all you need to do is click Search

Potential customers also get a great place to see a live application in use right on the NotesAppStore itself!


It is a great search tool, and thanks also to Peter for spending the time to configure it for the site!

Posted by Frank Paolino At 9:32 AM Location Boston | Permalink | Comments (1) |