There was a post on the warrior forum today about this guy with a video who has got over 40 million views on youtube already. The interesting thing is the URL in the description box is actually an affiliate link to a clickbank product on how to play the guitar. (I wonder how much he is making from those 40 million views? )
Apparently the uploader isn’t actually the guy playing in the video, but regardless, this is still an awesome guitar riff. Not that I normally have any interest in guitar music.
If you make any kind of software or infoproduct (even if it is just simple promotional stuff that takes 20 minutes to make) then the place you really want to get accepted at is upload.com. It varies a lot, but oftentimes, download.com will bring in more downloads for your program than every other software directory on the internet combined. Other times, the promosoft submission will get you more downloads. But you ALWAYS want to get listed in download.com because of its huge traffic numbers.
… So how do you maximize your chances of getting listed? I can tell you after doing 200+ submissions to them a lot of it is luck. You can still get junk accepted, depending on the mood of the person who reviews your stuff at the time. I’ve seen people submit stuff full of spyware (zango/waverevenue) that gets listed. Other times if the editor is being tight you can have even really good programs declined.
Anyways here’s a few things that in my experience have got a much higher acceptance rate:
1) Put several programs under the one profile - don’t make new accounts for each new submission! Unless you are submitting stuff full of crap then there is no need to anyway. If you already have a couple of programs you have submitted and are listed under one account, the editor is much more likely to accept another program under that account. I have one account with 10 successful programs under it; and I doubt each would have been accepted if they were under different profiles.
2) Make a special upload.com version. When I use HTML executable, I make the title something like [program name] - download.com verison, or something similar. You can also mention upload.com/download.com in the start page. It only takes like 1 minute more to customize it like this. For some reason, the editors always seem more reluctant to decline your program if it looks like you made a customized version for them.
3) Leave notes for the editor. Just say something, anything, it doesn’t matter. Usually I just tell them how I made a special version for upload.com and how this version has less ads/promotional stuff than the normal version.
4) Make an install process. There are many programs that let you make install files, some are free, but the better ones are paid. I generally just make it put an icon for the program on the desktop and an entry in the start menu. This will make your program look still more legitimate and only takes a couple of minutes. I generally use Install Station for this.
5) Make a company website with information about your program. This one is important. If the upload.com editor is unsure about something, a lot of the time they will take a quick look at your site. If you have a blank page as your company site, they are almost always going to decline you. Upload.com wants to accept people who they think are serious software companies; so don’t skip this step.
For anyone bitching about how upload.com is too strict, or how it’s too hard to get accepted etc. just go through some of the things above. Software submission stuff still works but only if you do it properly.
Because I do so many software submissions that promote affiliate products I have looked at a lot of ebook/HTML compilers that can take html code and turn it into a .exe file. After trying basically all of them I can say the best one hands down is HTML Executable (<– non affiliate link).
This thing is so much better than other html compilers I’ve tried it’s not even funny. It lets you customize basically everything, including the icon, details, company, splash page, and even let’s you use your own scripting. The best part is support for your own skins, so you can make each of your programs look totally different.
If you often need to make .exe programs to submit via promosoft then this is the program you need to get.
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