Actual Software Trial Period Lengths

On my last software release on 11th November, I changed the product code/ unlock code format to make things easier for my customers. The change also means I don't have to issue new unlock codes when someones buys a new PC. My old system was getting to be a bit of a burden and I was getting 3 or 4 new unlock code requests a day. I took a tip from Dipsys and encoded the customer's postal address and email address into the code. If the code gets handed out to other users, I'll know exactly where it originated.

Anyway, the interesting thing about changing the format is that when I get a purchase I can now tell whether someone started the trial before or after the change. I'd read advice on the web saying that if someone was going to purchase shareware they more or less did so immediately. In my case though, this isn't true. Three weeks after the code change, I'd say 90% of purchasers still use the old format code.

I don't know whether to be worried by this or not. With the credit crunch and all that I could be paranoid that I'm not getting any new customers and I'm just exhausting the supply of people who downloaded a trial a month ago. However Google Analytics shows an increase in traffic lately not a drop-off so I must still be getting a fair number of new trial users. This is a bit complicated to work out though since I sometimes get bursts of visitors spread over a day or two when my free SliQ Submitter program gets posted on a forum or on someone's SEO blog. Someone wrote up a complimentary report on SliQ Submitter a week or two ago and called it the GrandDaddy of all free directory submitters. I got about 60 visitors referred from that blog post over the next couple of days.

If my recent experience shows that most people take advantage of the trial period then I'm glad. I want people to use the full trial period to make sure they are happy to purchase. Hopefully it reduces the support overhead in the long-term.

by ML

Types of PadFile marketing Programs?

I'd like to discuss, in more detail, the different types of programs which could be used with pad file marketing. Also gather together enough information / ideas to simple be able to write the program, all from this posting / comments.

Of course it would be easy just to develop lots of screen savers, but I think I could get tagged as a spammer and be rejected by shareware sites.

A) Screen Savers
The easiest / quickest type of program to develop, especailly as I have some software to do 90% of the task. We can also say in our pad files that the screen saver is a demo of our main program, in my case I had a CD, which i couldn't normally use with a pad file. However, I have used a screen saver for my sheep jewellery item.

B) Catalogues
I've seen people submitting this type of program to softtester. They have produced a sort of mini site as a program. However, in my case I'm doing several program / pad file for my site, for my sub pages. So a catalogue is a little difficult. Especially as I don't have a lot of information on each item. And I can only scrape together a couple of unique photos per item. In my screen savers I've had a couple of pages with my site logo and a couple of sentences. So I'm not really sure how I can do a catalogue for one item?

C) Toolbars
Mike has seen these ans said he gets loads submitted to SoftwareLode.com and most have little functionality and just sit in IE or FF and direct the browser to the target website and therefore they aren't useful software. I guess these are going to be more time consuming to develop. Also naming the program, erm, what jewellery toolbar? I guess thats not so bad.

D) Pricing calculators
I've just downloaded one and had a look, it was fr your personal budget with some of the costs put towards jewellery. I was 4 screens and seemed quite complicated for a program on this type. I think if I was writing the program it would take me a day or two as I like to test things. Something like this seems a bit over the top to me. But I guess basic totalling would do. Although I can't think how I'd do that. The good this about this type is that it couldn't be called spam, it did seem like a genuine program.

E) Online Product Selection Tool or Online Jewellery Selection Tool
This is something mike suggested in another posting. I'm can only think that he meant that it would be some sort of catalogue with a fancy name? If so I guess the same comments that were made about catalogues stand here. Apart from the name, I doubt I'd reject it based on the name.

Any other type ideas? I'm hoping so, can't say I like anything other than the screen saver unless I can come up with something quick.

Other comments?

by
JM

Getting started with the eBay API?

Blues mentioned the eBay API a few times, when he showed me the developers page a year or so ago and I took a look at the code it really put me off. Especially as I'm not that familiar with XMP and my definition of soap is slightly different to his :)

I thought I'd try and write something for my ordering system which would get the fee information. So ultimately I can work out my business level of profit.

So what do I know so far, had a conversation with Blue earlier and he said "its free now and allows 5,000 calls a day and my developer id is currently talking to my live account".

Heres some sample XML.

<?xml version="1.0"
encoding="utf-8"?>

<GetMyMessagesRequest
xmlns="urn:ebay:apis:eBLBaseComponents">

<!-- Standard Input Fields -->

<RequesterCredentials>

<eBayAuthToken>xyz</eBayAuthToken>

</RequesterCredentials>

<DetailLevel>ReturnMessages</DetailLevel>

<!-- ... more DetailLevel nodes here ... -->

<ErrorLanguage>en_GB</ErrorLanguage>



<!-- ... more OutputSelector nodes here ..

And "in my app ive created copies of xml files on the docs, then insert my values in vb and make the call".

So I think my first task is to try to get hold of some example code which nearly does what I need. Hopefully I won't have to read through tonnes of documentation to get me going.

by
JM

How to caluculate whether your in profit with your ebay sellings?

Ideally I'm trying to come up with a quick and easy way to calculate whether my ebay sellings are earning me any profit. However, to do this accurately I'm going to have to include the amount I spend on packaging and stock.

From that I'll have to take in to count stock / packaging I haven't sold.

So that starts sounding complicated already.

Then theres ebay fees, where there is a monthly statement. The paypal where these fees as well as payments.

by
JM

Sitewide links from Unrelated Sites - pros and cons

Over the years, SoftTester has handed out site-wide links to lots of sites - some to Dipsy's sites, some to others. Sometimes the other sites weren't well related - although they often had a connection with software.

I was wondering how getting a sitewide link from a site as big as SoftTester affected the target site's rank and traffic? For example, for a link with text something like "earrings", did the linked page do a lot better in SERPs even though SoftTester has nothing to do with jewellery?

I've got someone who would like a link from softwarelode for an unrelated topic - web design. would it be a waste of a link or would it actually give them benefits?

by ML

The benefits of long term customer feedback

For one of my programs which isn't doing hugley well, I haven't got many long term customers. However theres one whose well out of his refund period and he regularly asks me for bug fixes.

I find this feedback extremely useful (I'm pleased to do his fixes as it improves the program) and beats all other methods I've got of finding out about bugs.

For a long time I've thought about providing a limited free version of my program as a way for getting this information. For this particular program I intend to produce a PRO version which uses MYSQL. And therefore give it a new name.

So I'm thinking of a new name / site for a free version and a new name / site for a pro version.
And keep my existing site as-is for the in between version.

Hmm although I guess to get a true test I will need a MYSQL free version...

I know mike has said in the past he doesn't think a free version is a good idea.
I know I don't get the traffic I should for the product.
I also know I have lots of bugs and lacking functionality in this program.

So I think these ideas have merit, just need to iron out the issues.

Comments?
PS. Maybe a free version of your prog, Mike, might be good from this angle?

More duplicates

Well, I had to setup my google webmaster tools account today as I had to change the email address it was using. So I had a bit of a look round at the stats and discovered more duplicate pages.

When I add a record program / pad record I already do a check on the pad url, the number of programs an author has in the category and the number of the same program home pages the author has in the same category.

Now I find I'm going to have to do a check on the program name, looks like auhors are using different pad files for different revisions of the same program :(

What other checks do I need to do?

by
JM

Windows Vista - program has stopped working problems

I've decided I hate Windows Vista as a development platform.

In the past year I've had 3 people who got strange crashes running one of my programs on Vista. I've had no weird problems reported on Windows XP at all. In the last week I've had someone move from XP to Vista and their program doesn't run. As soon as they click on the desktop icon, Vista shows a message saying "... program has stopped working" and the program ends.

I did a search on Google for the reported error message and came across hundreds if not thousands of similar error reports for umpteen different programs. There doesn't seem to be a similar cause or remedy for any of them. The suggestions range from turning off Data Execution Protection, to moving files around in the My Documents folder, to uninstalling Java when the customer is using a .Net program.

What I need is advice on how to debug programs remotely when the poor old user/ customer isn't always technically aware - at least in software - and in any case simply wants the damn program to run. The only thing I can think of doing is asking the customer to download SysInternal's Process Monitor, get a log file and send it to me. This isn't a simple thing to do though for the average user.

Any ideas on how to go about or improve remote debugging?

by ML

Shareware Site Refresh - Bartering for Graphics

Over at www.resourcefill.com, I've been trying to promote the site to the likes of RoboSoft for a few weeks in an attempt to get submissions. I've failed miserably.  The site is getting only a handful of visitors a day and no submissions at all.

The original idea behind ResourceFill was that it was a low-cost way of setting up a new shareware/ freeware site that would attract links and grow in rank and popularity over time. In a year or so I was hoping for some Adsense income. The only costs involved were the price of the domain name and then 2 or 3 hours to modify the free PHP script I'd found to suit my purposes. All I was then planning to do was let the site take care of itself and see how it grew over time. After a few weeks, I've decided that this just isn't going to work.

On reflection, the site looks old and cheap compared to newer shareware sites that have more time spent on them - like SoftTester and SoftwareLode. I've decided that I'm going to set up another site using the SoftwareLode script. This means I'm going to have to spend money. The first cost is purchasing the license for another site to use the script. The second thing I'll need to do is get some good-looking award graphics. I've decided to exchange a few hundred submissions using SliQ Submitter for some graphics from a friendly graphic designer I know. I'll use my new, faster SliQ Submitter to do a ton of submissions so I'll end up putting in a few hours work in exchange for the graphics. It'll also be an opportunity to give the new SliQ Submitter another test run.

I've modded the original softwarelode script quite a bit since I purchased it in order to make management, and especially rejection of spammy PADs, much easier than with the original. I can work through about 200 submissions in 5 minutes or less - mainly since I automatically mark updated PADs as OK to be accepted. SoftwareLode is now doing quite well - about 4 to 500 visitors a day and I'm hoping resourcefill can get to the same level in about 6 months.

by ML

Giving Authors more from your download site

I've been using a submitting program (which I bought the other day) and got an email back from one site, with SEO information about my site. Most of which was only available if I paid for it.

This gave me an idea.

Those emails authors get are in most cases a real wasted opportunity.
I'm not going to rabbit on about engaging the customer, like Blue :)

However, I think if we could perform an analysis of the their pad file, which would encourage them to visit the site, this could lead to further revenue / traffic.

The obvious analysis, I'm thinking, is to check keywords appear in the description.

I was going to start a posting on optimizing pad files anyway, but I don't think I'm equipped to to say I'm and expert on this. Far from it I believe I need to learn and make a lot of changes.

Thoughts?

by
JM

Link Marketing with pad files

I think the title of this post quite well describes the process of using a pad file to get links.

However, I have a few questions to answer.

I'm putting together my pad file.
I have my screen saver type program developed.
So this program is going to be attached to my pad file.

However the page I'm trying to get links for and actually sell via my pad file isn't the program attached to my pad file. I'm trying to sell a CD and get links to that page.

I know this is a little more complicated than the idea of just using the pad file to get links to my web page.

So I have some puzzles, I mean my program type has to be commercial, even though the screen saver is a demo, right?

And my screen shot that has to be of my cd program?

Confusing :)

by
JM

Pad file guidance

While writing the last post I thought I might share my experiences and what I've learnt about pad files.

Never use an email address you want to hang on to unless you have very good spam protection. I always use a gmail type account.

Never use your own name, split your company name into first name and surname.
You'll end up with your name plastered all over the web if you don't.

Your company website url, my home page has always been the product page, however I guess this doesn't matter so much what you put here.

Make sure you always put a cost in dollars, even if you don't provide the option to buy in dollars, then include your main currency.

Theres been much discussion about program type, I've always used shareware, but I guess commercial would be better.

Forget the filename versioned, previous, generic and long, use the same file name for all of them. Don't include a version number in your file name. Its better to have a generic name e.g. MyProg.exe.

Some sites don't poll pad files and rely on your submitting updates, therefore you will have broken links if you change your file name. Think about sites which could be years out of date. I have this :(

I think your category is quite important, you should spend some time picking it.
Afterall, when your program listing appears in a category pages, it stands a better chance of being found if its got a lot of similar content on the same page.

I think the keywords and different length of description are the most important part. Unfortunately the most difficult. I don't think I've ever got this right. I need to work on mine.

If you provide your program in more than one language add the extra language text.

However, I would setup another pad file and url, for specific languages. Also, in countries like Germany the pad spec is a little different as everyone uses a different program to create their pad files. Theres also an association which is best to subscribe to, which gives you an number to add to your pad file.

Make your application URLs short, some sites don't like long file names.

Make your screen shot a GIF file and when you update your GIF file keep your image the same size, even if you have to resize it.

Your XML file url must be the same as your current URL. Some sites download your pad files and process them. However this is also good if you move your website.

In my opionin and that of my web stats ZIP files are by far more popular that EXE files. Also, in windows XP if you download a ZIP file you don't get a nasty security warning.

There are various pad file extensions, I've always like the idea of the pad ring, as it save you submitting all your pad files, however, this is when I used to spend all day saturday submitting by hand.

The affiliates extension is also a good idea, as it give sites the option to sell your software and gain commission.

Comments?

by
JM

Pad file email addresses

I know this topic will be useful to us all, some of us are well versed and others are about to setup their first file.

My question here is which email address to use.
I've got that many email addresses I hate the thought of having another. But from a download site owners, point of view, I think it might be best. I mean, I'm about to create maybe 20 pad files.

The programs will all be screen savers.

This is going to look like I'm spamming.

I guess the whole idea is a bit spammy.

I've learnt my lesson from the past and I know to always use a account like gmail. To handle the spam etc.

My options are to use the address I generally use.

Or I could use a different address for different shop sites.

Thoughts?

by
JM

How to make free screensavers into valuable marketing tools?

Mike mentioned the idea of developing a screen saver as a way simply producing a program for use with a pad file to create links / PR to your website.

Tonight, i've had a look around softtester and found this is quite a popular idea.

However I want to take this one stage further.

I thought for my maths progs, I could do some maths stuff on screen, then I'd like to make it possible for the user to act on some event and be brought to my product page.

Since screen savers seem to cancel when you move your mouse, I'm puzzled what to do.

I just wondered if anyone had any ideas about how I could trigger this event?

by
JM

New Directory Submission Tool Release

Over at SliQTools, I've made a new release of my free directory submission software, SliQ Submitter.

Functionally, it's not a major release but a lot of effort, over many days, has gone in to checking and tidying up the supported list of web directories. In version 1.0.X, SliQ supported over 2100 web directories. However, in the 3 or 4 months since it was last release a lot of the directories had switched to requiring payment for a listing. A fair number had gone to the wall too or their domains had expired.

In version 1.1, there are now 1250 free web directories supported. This is still a pretty big list and if a good percentage of the directories accept your site, you should get a good kick in SERPs performance and visitors.

by ML

Google products base file updates

When I first discovered how great google base files were I spent about two weeks trying to find advice on how to make the most out of them. I found that almost anyone who sells things on the web can use them and you can create them and forget about them.

During these time I made refinements and was happy in the end that I'd done a good job.

I sat back and waited to see what would happen, on one of my sites I got sales and still get a trickle of sales. But I never got my google checkout buttons, that still a mystery.

Anyways, I now need to update my files as I've change almost everything about the products they include.

Last time I did an output from the database using the rather basic froogle export, from then on I played with my spreadsheet and produced a good file.

I did wonder at the time how I could improve this process so I wouldn't have to do that each time, but I thought, until I get it right these no point in doing anything fancy.

However at the time it did seem to make sense to have everything in the cubecart database then I could maybe produce a feature which I could sell at a later date.

This time round I'm thinking, I want to do something quick that I can re-use and will give me a good file, I doubt if anyone would buy a cube cart mod anyways (even if they did I wouldn't make much money out of it).

So I've decided to write a program in VB.Net, I'll have it access my cube_cart database or I'll figure out a way to dump data for my program to access. Then I'll have some data in a small database or text files which I can use to add data to my base files.

Then I can still access updates in my products and have a great file.

Thoughts?

by
JM

How to build links for your websites - Link Building

When this thread is finished the meat of this thread will be compiled into this page Link Building Guide.

I guess the obvious method I've been using is submitting to link directories using mikes submitter program. However you can't submit sub pages and you can't be certain which pages you'll end up on or what PR that page will have.

The next method, where I've been able to cheat a little, is posting on forums and blogs. I've been able to cheat by modifying my global signature for my posts on the Real Basic Forum. Also theres blog posting here. But I think I need to work harder on this, by submitting to a lot more different themed blogs and forums.

I always think that those link directories seem very small time, I guess more established directories and listings sites would be a good place to submit too, although none come to mind at the moment.

I guess becoming a blogger would help to.

Another method is press releases, not something I've heard mentioned for a long time. And not for the purposes on link building even then. But I guess lots of sites use these on their sites too. But its a one off sort of thing, also I've not sure what I do for my jewellery site.

As part of this mike has offered to let me make some postings for his own blog.

The biggest problem with these method is that time that it takes to post and you only benefit from one link, but as I can hear mike saying, you can get people visiting your site from these posts. I guess another problem is finding blogs / forums on the topic relevant to your site.

Another popular and new method (I believe) is to create a pad file for your site and a program which can be a catalogue of your site. I intend to produce a demo, maybe a video for my maths programs on my shop site. However, on softtester I've seen listings for a hand bag site, where the program is a mini catalogue of your site. I haven't deleted it yet, I guess I should.

Reciprocal links, when I started submitting to links directories I asked mike if I should provide RLs and he said no and your giving away PR to these sites. But I guess there must be some value in RLs as we've got links to each others sites on your sites?

Hmmm can't think of any more and I don't really have a plan to move forward on this :(

by
JM

How to sell some PHP code?

I've been developing a modification for my shop site.

Mod's are quite common for cube cart shopping carts.
However due to the fact that code relies on an existing script the user has to insert bits of code etc, again this is common.

I'd like to provide a working version for people to try.

But I'm going to have difficulty adding any sort of protection to the code as its bits here and there.

I can't provide full files as I'm re-using (copying) a script provided in cube cart and its not open source.

Any suggestions?

Also, if I overcome this obsticle I've got to figure out how to provide licenses etc, if needed. And how to accept payment, alothough a paypal button might do.

I've developed add-ons for software etc in the past and I've never made much money from it so I'm not really able to put much effort into the process, so things will have to be simple.

by JM

Picking good keywords for your home page

I'm currently trying to get to a certain level of completion with my shop site(s) before I start to do some serious link building (although I haven't figured that bit out yet).

I've optimized my sub pages with carefully chosen keywords that I think should produce visitors which will buy that item. Although the keywords haven't been my first choice keywords, they have a good projected traffic level, look to be achievable from the results shown on google and the competition level looks good too.

Now I need to choose the keywords for my home page, I have spent time looking for keywords and time thinking what to do for the best, over several days. I haven't been able to find achievable, relevant keywords. Unlike my sub pages I feel the home page needs to use keywords which are really quite relevant and that users will use.

After much thought I've come to the conclusion that I have to use keywords that people will use, even if these keywords look unachievable.

I'm hoping PR will seep through from my sub pages and raise the PR of my main page.

I looked, with surprise, the other day and found that I hadn't used mike submitter tool on my jewellery site (the site I'm talking about in this post). However, as the url of my site is http://www.mcls4u.com/shop I'm worried that as this is a sub page I might not be able to use mike program and maybe a couple of months ago, this is the reason why I didn't use mikes prog in the first place. For those of you that don't know, must directory sites don't accept sub pages.

I just wanted to get that off my chest as I've had this issue bouncing round my head for several days and I keep changing my mind. My main worry was that I'd be using keywords which would never get visitors, like the keywords I've used on my older sites in the past.

But as I say I don't think I have any choice. This decision does worry me though. :(

by
JM

Differences between AWStats and Google Analytics

For a while now I've been scratching my head as to why Google Analytics always shows less visitors to my sites than AWStats. On a couple of sites, I've also got Adsense running and this reports less page views too.

I posted a thread about this on DP a few months ago but didn't get any definitive answers. The most sensible answer I got was that since the Analytics code was at the bottom of the page, if people don't wait for an entire page to load, the Analytics code doesn't run though AWStats still counts the page as loaded. I'm prepared to accept this as a reason why some pages don't count but on one of my shareware sites, AWStats is showing around 2500 page views a day while Adsense shows a measly 450 or so. I don't show ads on the submit page but since I'm only getting 80 submissions a day or so, these should only account for about 200 on top of the 450 Adsense tells me I'm getting.

Am I reading the AWStats figures incorrectly? The way I read the figures, robot visits (like Googlebot or Slurp) aren't included in the headline visitor/ page views. Is this correct?

by ML

More shareware site spam filters

I've now got in place a limit of submissions per author by category.

I've also noticed that some authors are using the same home page for a lot of programs.

To me this says, that there trying to sub-promote other people programs.

So I've also put into a place a limit on authors, program home page by category.

Also, I discovered that I was producing broken links and therefore getting a lot of extra search engine bot visits. Previously I was showing the correct page but with a different URL and therefore producing duplicates for google. So instead, I'm now doing a search on the page name instead. Which is producing a list which will include the correct url and any other matching records.

Gutted that I was producing bad links :(

by JM
by JM