Along with final testing and debugging, our staff is rebuilding the TurtleSoft website for the new accounting software. For a sneak peek, click here. It’s still rough, but improving daily.
The current TurtleSoft site has over 2,000 pages. Their HTML code is a mess. Our staff can update about 200 per week, so the prep stage won’t finish until January. At least it goes in parallel with other work.
We tried combining new and old support in the existing pages, but it was cluttered and confusing. So, the main TurtleSoft site will only cover the new 64-bit estimating/accounting app. Current instructions for 32-bit Goldenseal will be off in a sub-folder. Right now it’s the other way around.
While setting up the future site, we ran into a big problem: what to call the newly revised small business software?
Sticking with Goldenseal won’t work. Even with separate Answers, some users will end up in the wrong place and be confused. Some parts of the interface are different between 4.96 and 5.0, and nobody remembers exact version numbers.
Back in 2000, a marketing consultant told us we should have just one name for website, company and product. Finally heeding that advice, we’ve used TurtleSoft Pro for the past year. Pro would be the high-end version, along with TurtleSoft Estimating, TurtleSoft Checkbook, TurtleSoft Retail, etc. They’re good product names, but they fail on the website. It’s all because of English grammar.
The current site mentions Goldenseal more than 8,000 times. To swap names manually would take weeks. A simple find-and-replace takes a few minutes.
About half the time, the site says Goldenseal is, Goldenseal prints, etc. Name plus verb. The rest have other grammars. The new name needs to sound OK when swapped into all those phrases.
If we use plain TurtleSoft, instructions will become TurtleSoft is or TurtleSoft prints. It sounds like the company, not the app. Turns out there’s a good reason why most product names are not the business name. Sears never sold any Searses.
Using TurtleSoft apps fixes that problem, and makes it clear there are multiple sizes. But then the text becomes TurtleSoft apps is or TurtleSoft apps prints. Yep, English has different verbs for singular and plural. There’s no easy text-replace to make it right.
TurtleSoft software is singular, but it still sucks. The site already says “software” 3,000 times. Adding another 8,000 makes it too repetitive. The site would need lots of pruning to sound good.
With Plan A and Plan B both out, the app needs a new name. Something that sounds OK after a text swap.
Plain old Turtle almost works. Turtle Pro, Turtle Estimating, and Turtle Payroll are decent product names. They keep the cuter half of our construction company roots. Problem is, instructions will say Turtle is and Turtle prints. It sounds like a pet, not an accounting app. Turtle apps and Turtle software have the same problems as previously mentioned.
The search is on for a singular noun that’s short, snappy and appropriate. Trade names are not easy. There are only so many letters and words. Most are already used.
Dennis Kolva
Programming Director
TurtleSoft.com
Dennis-
How about-
“Ithaca Small Business Accounting & Estimating”
“Cornell Small Business Accounting & Estimating”
“Kolva Small Business Accounting & Estimating.
Ithaca, Cornell & Kolva are all short words and easy to remember.
– Jud
Also, is the Estimating part of your current re-write?
I ask because it seems to me most of your blog posts mention the Accounting.
Also, I would like to mention that I started using Goldenseal Estimating back in 2007 or 2008?
I’m still using it every week and as the years have gone by I have fine tuned most of the 2000+ assemblies and the 2000+ cost items to how we work and to the level of detail that many of the assemblies even count the nails & screws.
Its still a great piece of software and has allowed me to make incredibly accurate estimates.
I hope the new software is a big success! Thanks
– Jud Aley.
R.J Aley Building Contractor
Westport CT
rjaley.com
The update will have everything that’s in the current Goldenseal.
Every blog posting mentions “accounting software” once or twice. It’s mainly for Google’s benefit. Keep the keywords alive. Honestly, the weekly posts are mostly to keep Google thinking the site is active, whether or not anyone reads it!
Sometimes I use “estimating software” but it’s a smaller market. D
And as far as Tech support goes, personally I prefer things to be written out as opposed to videos.
When I dont understand something its much easier to go back and re-read the paragraph above as opposed to “re-winding” the U-tube video over and over again until I “get it”.
But I do understand the world id moving toward video instructions for everything
We’ll have both. Both formats have their good points. We’ll link to the video in the website text, and the video will link to the text page. D