SEo'ing for German

Well I've been looking for a German keyword suggestion tool.

I translated keyword suggestion tool which translates as Keyword Vorschlags Tool.

I searched for this on google.de and found this.

http://www.ranking-check.de/keyword-datenbank.php

I did a quick search on Informationsverwaltung (which means
Information management) and found it had 259..

Geschätzte mtl. Abfragen bei Google
Which means..
Estimated monthly. Queries on Google.

So I guess this is a good keyword to have, but I'm not sure if people would use it to buy my software.
I'm currently position 19 on google.de.

Maybe I just need to figure out what keywords sell in english and translate to german...
Hmmm

Thoughts?

by JM

Brainstorming: Right Keywords for time keeping software?

What are the right keywords to get people to buy time keeping software, e.g. clocking in out etc?
I thought it would be a good idea if we all make a comment about all of our products, where we trying to improve the website.

To make it fair I'm putting a posting for each of our main products.
The aim is to just add comments to the first thing and the last thing which pops into your head.

This is for Gerhard.

by JM
EDIT: Feel free to add other posts like this, I'd like too.

Brainstorming: Right Keywords for kids maths software etc?

What are the right keywords to get people to buy kids maths software, exercise books etc?
I thought it would be a good idea if we all make a comment about all of our products, where we trying to improve the website.

To make it fair I'm putting a posting for each of our main products.
The aim is to just add comments to the first thing and the last thing which pops into your head.

This is for me.

by JM
EDIT: Feel free to add other posts like this, I'd like too.

Brainstorming: Right Keywords for invoice / billing software?

What are the right keywords to get people to buy invoice / billing software?
I thought it would be a good idea if we all make a comment about all of our products, where we trying to improve the website.

To make it fair I'm putting a posting for each of our main products.
The aim is to just add comments to the first thing and the last thing which pops into your head.

This is for Mike.

by JM
EDIT: Feel free to add other posts like this, I'd like too.

Brainstorming: Right Keywords for transfer vinyl to mp3 / cd bundle?

What are the right keywords to get people to buy a bundle of cables and software to transfer vinyl to mp3 or CD?
I thought it would be a good idea if we all make a comment about all of our products, where we trying to improve the website.

To make it fair I'm putting a posting for each of our main products.
The aim is to just add comments to the first thing and the last thing which pops into your head.

This is for Aaron.

by JM
EDIT: Feel free to add other posts like this, I'd like too.

The end of the pad file?

I found this article and it got me thinking.

http://blog.tech-pro.net/entry/61/The_end_of_the_PAD_file

Having read this I don't think its as bad as it sounds.
I mean sure, we will get less in bound links, but I think theres something to be said for people looking at shareware sites and perhaps buying your software.

by JM

Welcome Blueskimonkey

I'd just like to welcome Aaron aka user id Blueskimonkey

I know Mike knows of aaron, from all the back stabbing I do, ;) joke.

Aaron, has some web sites in a similar position as us. He's also an ISP and a vb.net programmer.
Also does tech support as a day job.

by JM

Wordpress SEO Plugins

Last days I found a wonderful posting about some SEO Plugins for Wordpress.

Here's a link to it: http://www.vinnylingham.com/wordpress-seo-plugins.html

by GS

An interesting post on how to double your traffic

http://marketingmachinetactics.com/internetmarketing/how-to-use-google-base-to-double-traffic-the-video/

Discuss ?

And heres something else...
http://www.3d-box-shot.com/3d-box-shot-adshots/3d-box-shot-adshots.htm
by JM

Unexpected PageRank update

Google has done something unexpected and exported new PageRank values only 4 weeks after a major export of values to the Google toolbar. Over on DigitalPoint there's threads talking about how people have noticed new PR values for inner pages on their sites and the odd homepage rank change too.

I don't get the impression this has happened before, or at least not very often. Usually there 3 months between exports.

This export has cleared up one thing that had been confusing me. My Software Product Development blog was saying PR N/A but now it's PR 3. I was expecting it to have a non 0 PR as it turns up in Google searches quite a bit. PR 3 is more than I thought though. I'd kind of given up on this blog after the last PR toolbar export and started removing links from SliQTools. I removed the links 4 weeks ago. I'm not sure whether this means the PR will fall back over the next few weeks.

Unfortunately there are losers too. J's new site has dropped back to PR0 - why this has happened is anyone's guess. I was very surprised that it achieved PR1 at the end of July as it was a new domain. I expected it to take up to 5 months to get a non-0 PR.

by ML

Number 1 on Google - for a while at least

For the first time, one of my sites is number 1 on google.co.uk for a generic search term - billing software. This is a moderately competitive term - 1 in 5.3M. It's been number 1 for a couple of days. I know I won't stay in this position for long as another site will cycle into the position over the next few days but I though I'd make a record here.

The only thing I can put this down to is that I've been using my directory submission software to submit the site to a few more directories. I've used billing software in the site title/ anchor text and I'm guessing this has helped.

Category matchings with pad file categories

Since I did the improvements to softtester earlier this year, I deciced to create a categories table with an ID.

Afterall I only have a set number of categories so it makes sense to have an ID instead of values in my pads table.

I have a pattern matchings function which takes my catgories and trys to match them with the pad file categories for each submission. I try removing spaces, odd symbols etc. However, its not till this week that I'm noticed how different sites use completely different categories from those shown in the pad spec.

I guess I should strictly just reject these pad files.
However up till now, I've thought my function wasn't working and that somehow the submissions were correct and my function was flawed. I'm still not 100% convinced.

However, I'd like to create a complete list of categories which I can match with my categories.

Thoughts?

by JM

EDIT: I did some work yesterday on my function and I think my function is now much improved. Had 28 fails over night from friday to saturday and 3 last night / morning.

How to make good money via google base?

I wish I knew the answer to that question. But I hope to add comments to the post to help me do so.

I first tried google base when it was froogle.
If you don't know what either is, let me explain.
Its basically a service provided by google to allow you to submit your products to googles products directory, you know when you click products on the google home page.

I think there must be some strategies to selling well.

Since I set up my shops sites I've had a handful of sales on one site. So this has given me confidence that I can sell well on both.

Using google analytics I've seen that people are using keywords to access product pages on my site.

I've tonight improved my datafeed used by google base to include some extra keywords.
Also I didn't realise I was doing this already, but I've lifted my product description and put that in the feed a month ago I guess.

by JM

Joy another softtester bug and cleanup for me :(

While soubmitted my new pad file I've obviouly been examining it on softtester.

Although I do look at pad file addition submissions and convert them to update submissions if they are re-submitted. Somehow I've now got 3 copies of mdbsecure on softtester. One from my old site and 2 from the new.

Although the 2 new ones are using the same author record.

Joy, just wonder how many duplicates other authors have :(

by JM

Can't see wood for trees, a bug fix

G, thats an expression we use in the UK "Can't see wood for trees" meaning erm, well that were too close to something to see it. Hidden in plain sight.

Well I got denise (my wife) to test MDBSecure for me at the weekend.

I was looking through her notes at the start of the week and making some small fixes.
When I noticed what seemed to be a file permissions problem on a shared folder.

When I looked into the problem further I discovered the permissions were fine.

However, I wasn't deleting the file, this occured after the file save dialog was shown.

I guess when i firt wrote the code I figured that the OS dialog would delete the file for me.

So the moral of the story is don't assume bug reports are due to the user machines or conifguration.

I just wonder how many sales I've lost through this :(

by JM

Wordpress PAD File Plugin

I thought that you maybe interessted in a new wordpress plugin that can be used for showing Pad File content in your blog. I implemented that plugin the last days, because I make a complete re-design of my website using wordpress.

You can download and test it at my technical blog: http://jachman.wordpress.com/2008/08/21/wordpress-padfile-plugin/

by GS
EDIT: Heres your pad file [padfile:http://www.timepunch.de/download/TimePunch.xml]

My comments about that software submission program

I'm not going to name the submissions software here, but its the one we've been talking about.
I bought it today as I finished my latest changes to my program.

I guess I should have installed the trial version and used it for a bit first, however I don't regret to decision to buy it.

However I think the program is far from perfect.
I've seen several error messages and I've had to close the program.
Also theres one thing which is an obvious bug which should have been spotted in testing.

I've found that I still have to use padgen, the online validator and trial and error to get my pad file perfect. I had hoped the program would be a comprehensive solution, as it does create the pad file for you. But theres some simple things which is causing my pad file to be rejected. Now that I have tried submitting I find that several sites say that you have to wait 25 days before you can re-submit.

I still haven't got my pad file perfect, but theres a couple of sites at the top of the list which allow me to re-submit and modify.

So overall I guess the program is OK.
If the pad file creation stuff was taken out it would be better.
That functionality seems quite lacking, if it creates a pad file it should be valid.

However, I'll post more comments as I progress.

I guess the pad files for my old program, I was just lucky or the spec has changed and sites are less tolerant.

by JM

Tracking positions in SERPs automatically

A few days ago Dipsy made a post asking if there was any software available to track/ graph the position of domains and URLs in Google SERPs for specific keywords.

I wasn't aware of any at the time so I did a bit of Googling and found a tool called WebPosition Gold (WPG). Problem is that Google's terms of service specifically say that that using WPG or any similar program is deeply frowned upon. In the past I think 10s of 1000s of webmasters have used tools like WPG to track URLs and have placed a significant overload on Google. There are stories that running such tools causing the searcher's IP address to be banned by Google.

At one time Google used to provide a SOAP search API that could be used to run Google searches programmatically via a web service. You had to register for an API key with Google. About 2 or so years ago Google stopped issuing new API keys although they preserved the service for existing keys. WPG requires an API key to work. Apparently people who had purchased WPG (for about $150) are now finding that Google is blocking searches made by WPG using the old API keys so it sounds like the tool is dead in the water.

It's a  strange situation in some ways - the WPG site is PR 6 and Google shows sitelinks in the SERPS as though the site is an authority site but still specifically says in their terms of service that people shouldn't use the tool.

by ML

Programs which use web browser controls

Yesterday my pc died, the software I mean. In the end all the devices had become corrupted.
Luckily I had an image from a year ago and have now got everything I want on and have done another image.

I do have norton 360 installed.

I problem I got was the Antivirus XP 2008 malware program.
Which pretends to be a virus scanner, but says you have lots of viruses and encourages you to buy the program to remove them. The program changes your windows pack drop and your background colour. In can also display a picture of a program screen with virus warnings. The dialogs the program uses only have one choice, e.g. buy etc.

The worse thing is it adds itself to your start menu as if you installed it yourself.

It does all this slighlty, Norton 360 did detect a vb script operation, but didn't handle to problem. I did find some help on the web and did remove the program, but I must have missed something.

At this point, when I thought i'd removed it, I installed the free upgrade of norton 360 v2. Then I tried to install the add-on pack, but this required XP service pack 3.

Unfortunertly I started the SP3 late at night and had to leave it going over night. It remained at the same screen the next morning. So I had to cancel it. The program then popped up at this point. Had blue screens and tried uninstalling SP3.

Here I had the device drivers missing etc.

So I went back the image.
I've installed adaware and think I might buy a copy.

However, I was wondering when I got the problem. I think it was mikes directory submitter program, well I don't mean his program has a virus in it, but that I must have visited a directory and that my security settings were not set to monitor the submitter in the same was an internet browser, I think. In fact I don't think I can set any other settings.

So is there anything else i can do to protect myself from browser based programs?

by JM

First thoughts about hiring a coder to do website work

A few days ago I said I wanted to code a backend/ customer management interface for my site. I've decided I need to do this fairly quickly as I'm getting more and more customer requests for lock codes, custom templates etc. I also need to quickly find out who's purchased when I get a query. I get lots of similar questions that could potentially be answered by a semi-automated reply. Also, some questions would be better answered by a website than a more personal email.

The key to this is keeping a database of purchasers on the site. I did do this in the early days but it mysteriously broke after a few weeks and I simply by-passed it since someone wanted to purchase ASAP. I need to resurrect the database and redo the sales page and Paypal IPN to register attempts at purchasing as well as successful purchases. I'll also want a protected admin area and also a user area where they can log in and ask for new codes etc.

I've decided I simply don't have the time to code this myself so I'm going to put together a spec. and place a project on RAC as you've suggested in the past.

by ML

Neat free SEO tools of the trade?

When I was looking at the screen dumps for IBusinessPromoter there was a screen which showed you your position for keywords on search engine. Also percentage improvement.

I think a tool which could show this, maybe a graph showing the position as it improves over a time.

Although simple the current position and the last position would do.

I've been searching for a free tool to do this, but haven't found one.
I guess I could write one easily enough, but I don't want to have yet another project :(

Have you got any neat tools?

by JM

If you ran a web directory, what would you do?

In a earlier post, the idea was floated about running a web directory. If you did start a web directory, what differences would you make to the directories you've recently been submitting sites too?

For example, what categories would you choose? My natural instinct would be to choose software related categories. Most directories bundle all software into one category, e.g.

[top] -> Computers -> Software

Do you think a finer categorisation would work? For example:

[top] -> Software -> Development Companies

[top] -> Software -> Development Blogs

[top] -> Software -> PHP Scripts

Of course, even if the categories were different to a lot of other directories, would submitters use them and do you think you'd have time to review submissions to check they are appropriate to the categories?

by ML

Directory Sites

I've been using Mikes wonderful submitter program http://www.sliqtools.co.uk/directory-submission-tool.aspx. Although I've been using his beta.

While I've been submitting I've been wondering about the benefits of having such a site?

I mean I guess you can put links / adverts to your own sites / products.
But what are the other potential benefits?

I was thinking if I did setup a site, other sites, well some of them, only accept sites of a certain type. I was thinking I could setup a site which is in the same area as some of my own products. I could then have content which is similar to my own and therefore my links (at the top of the pages) could get better get impressions because theres a better range of keywords and content shown on google.

However, I would also be promoting my competitors products at the same time.

So I'm not sure whether its worth the effort.

I'm guessing you must be able to download the software which you will pretty much just have to upload to a domain and your up and running?

Thoughts?

by JM

Customer analysis and goodies

I need to do something for sure. After the last PR update I seem to have moved up the ranking in other countries, South Africa, Australia etc. - probably just because my site is that bit older. I'm getting more downloads as a result.

I also need to program a part of the website where people who have purchased can login, get special offers, subscribe to newsletters, ask for keycodes etc.

by ML

Strategy for reducing download quota

My monthly download has exceeded 20Gb for the first time. I'm having to pay £2 for every extra Gb above 18Gb so it's starting to get costly. I need some ideas for reducing the download amounts without making things more complicated and confusing for my visitors.

With my main programs I bundle the .Net runtime. This makes them twice as big as they need to be. I could offer smaller downloads which download the .Net runtime separately if it is needed when installing on a PC. I'd still carry on providing the big downloads though as testing has shown they are less confusing for people.

An alternative might be to host the downloadables on a different server, e.g. I have a second hosting account with HostGator  and they have essentially unlimited download quotas. Would this be confusing or lead to mistrust though if people see they are downloading from a different site? One thing I could do I suppose is host sliqtools.com on HostGator so people see the download from sliqtools.com (not .co.uk) which might be more understandable from their point of view.

by ML

Firewall and Anti-Virus Software

Why?

Why should you bother with Firewall and Anti-Virus software?
Whose going to be interested in what I have on my PC?

Well theres lots of valueable information on a PC even one you just bought and switched on. Whether its license keys for your software, credit card, bank statements, your postal address, your email address or passwords.

This information has value to someone else.

Treat your computer like your home or your money.

What is a firewall?
There are two types hardware and software. Firewall hardware, is a box of tricks which sits in between your PC and your internet connection. Both try to put a wall in between your pc and potential harm.

Whats Anti-Virus Software?
If you haven't heard of a computer virus, its much the same as a human virus it attacks your PC and causes harm, viruses range in severity.

You can get FREE software.

Zone Alaram
AVG


Great Shareware and Freeware Software Downloads

Google Adwords

Today I started a Google Adwords campaign for TimePunch. I'm really interessted to see on how much this changes the amount of visitors and hopefully my sellings ;)

For the first time I spend 100EUR with a limit of 5EUR a day and three keywords "Zeiterfassung", "Arbeitszeit" and "Projektzeit".

I'll keep you up to date ...

by GS

Did you ever run Windows with 120 dpi?

Last days an user mailed me an application failure where some text boxes haven't been displayed and some content had been cut and other strange things.

It came out, that he ran Windows in 120dpi mode.

It was kind of strange to me, that my application looks that ugly with this setting. But it was true. I had to adjust some dialogs and controls to fit that mode. What I discovered is, that you have to change your application only in 96dpi mode - otherwise all controls will look ugly when you change windows back to 96dpi mode.

The problem was that I used fixed pixel settings (e.g. 455px left side) for my application. Now I changed everything to use floating grids or table layouts, so that it will adjust automatically.

Only for fun - switch windows to 120 dpi mode, and I'm sure you'll see "unexpected" results.

by GS

Roundup of current SERPs for MDBSecure Old Site

Out of interest I thought I'd take a look on Google to see how the old Mindwarp mdbsecure-free-trial-download page was doing in the search results. We tweaked it a couple of months ago and I was interested to see how it might be doing more recently. It's not doing badly at all. Here are some results for different searches:

"access database security"   12
"ms access database security"   10
"ms access security"    8
"ms database security"    12
"secure ms access databases"   3
"secure access databases"   6
"how to make an access database secure"  6

The new site is doing well for this phrase:

"ms database security"    3

but I didn't find it in the results for the other phrases.

This sort of indicates the old, tweaked page is pretty good in terms of SERPs, i.e. it's on page 1 for lots of search terms and with a few more tweaks within the mindwarp site could do even better.

by ML

Which software submission software?

After many years of submitting my software by hand to shareware sites, well I haven't done it for well over a year now. I just update my pad file.

Whats the best software in your opinion, whats your experiences?

Heres what I've found to be contenders :-

Submit It 2000 - http://www.gregorybraun.com/SubmitIt.html
SoftSubmit - http://www.analogx.com/contents/download/program/ssubmit.htm
SharewareTracker - http://www.accusolve.biz/strack.html
Software-Promoter - http://www.softilium.com/sp/index.htm
RoboSoft - http://robosoft.rudenko.com/

Or are there any I've missed which you rate?