I am always looking for new software that might improve the efficiency of my business or business work flows. Many times I will first hear about something new in a newsletter I subscribe to or on a blog I happen to look at. For example, Skip McGrath’s newsletter mentioned an Ebay management system called AuctionSounds that looked interesting.
I went to their site, and while it is informative, it’s hard to tell much about a complex software system by reading a feature list and the vendors sales literature. At that point I usually do a search for “software name review” in hopes of reading about the software from people who are actually using it. Lately that has been really disappointing.
Almost all the results of a search for reviews bring up sites that are really thin affiliate sites whose only purpose is to get you to buy the software using their link. Few, if any of them, have actually used the software. The “content” is carefully designed to make it look like they actually know something and that their review has substance, but that’s not the case. It’s very frustrating.
An in depth review of a complex software system is a lot of work! You can read all the sales materials, run a few text cases, and get some sense for what the system might do. However, the only way to find out how it really works is to actually use it in a real work environment for a while. Only then will you find the subtle constraints imposed by the underlying design concepts. You will also find places where features you originally thought were essential are not needed.
In other words it take lots of time and use to really be able to write a good review.
AuctionSounds looks like it might be a Ebay selling system that would help fit Ebay sales into our activities with our network of websites. We plan to document our findings in a series of posts on our Selling Stuff website. As we learn how the software works, run auctions, manage sales, build lists, etc. we will be posting about what we find. Hopefully, that will help others determine if the software would help them.