It's Simple to Promote Your Software:
Why would a tech company neglect one of the simplest and most effective methods of online product promotion? Except that I run a shareware site and am always looking for new applications to add to my site, this appears to be a rhetorical query. The problem is that PAD files aren't available for half of the programs I want to add to my folder.
A PAD file is a simple XML file that contains all of the details that a developer will usually enter into a software site's web form. To build a PAD file, no prior knowledge of XML is needed. At http://www.padgen.org/, you can get one for free.
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The curriculum is fairly self-explanatory. Simply complete the forms. Creating a pad file and uploading it to your site takes about half an hour. If you already have a website to advertise your product, it will take even less time. You can then just copy and paste the details you already have. After that, submitting your pad file to shareware sites is as simple as copying and pasting the address of your PAD file.
So why isn't PAD technology more widely used? Of course, it's possible that it's due to ignorance. Now, ignorance is not a derogatory word. It literally means you haven't heard of this technology that can triple the number of downloads for your goods, a technology that allows you to upload to anywhere from 300 to 700 software sites on the internet in under an hour, depending on which figures you use.
The majority of sites that use pad files don't even require registration. My own doesn't. This means that in the time it takes to copy and paste the address of your pad file into one form, click submit, and then select a category, you could submit your software to multiple sites. Then it's on to the next place. Submit and then forget about it.
If this still sounds like too much effort, you can download software that will manage all of your submissions for you. Consider this: in the time it takes you to eat lunch, it might finish your software submissions to hundreds of pages.
Or it's possible that software marketers are unaware of the true benefit of uploading software to software review sites. People go to tech portals to search for software. That might seem to be a silly joke, but it isn't when you consider that most general directories, with the exception of DMOZ and Yahoo, are rarely used as search engines. They've primarily evolved into an SEO method. Google, Yahoo, and MSN are used by people searching for general information. When they are searching for apps, however, they normally end up on a shareware website and remain there for a while.
Perhaps you don't make shareware. Before you can use the software you create, you must first buy it. Because of the possibility of it being broken, there is no testing duration. That's all right. This is a valid explanation, in my opinion. Before I gave up on the whole shareware thing, I was a developer who had my software cracked three times. But that doesn't rule out the possibility of creating a prototype, standalone software that serves as a teaser. It is only a matter of time before the app user wishes to upgrade to the full version. Simply ensure that your demo teases just enough, but not too much.
As a result, uploading PAD files to software sites kills two birds with one stone. Yes, you get a slew of backlinks to your blog, but those links are worth more than just improving your PageRank. People will use them to find their way to your website. We have a tool as software developers that makes the process much simpler and faster than most marketers. It's laziness to not use it now that you know.
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