The software awards scam

[Renegade]

I don't take as critical a stance as many here towards download sites. They serve me well, so I have no problems with them. I make more money because of them. Not complaining. PAD -- love it. Great stuff. But, I know what they are and what their purpose is. I've no illusions about what they are or do.

-Renegade (January 18, 2011, 07:13 AM)

I am sure the applications you have PAD files for that are making you money as the result of being made available through the download sites is shareware and not freeware.

My software site is such low traffic, I can't even give away advertising slots for free, yet the download sites are getting a lot more traffic for my software than I do, when you count the total number of downloads they are getting from hotlinking my files. I am sure their ad slots don't have a "advertise here for $0" like mine do.

-app103 (January 18, 2011, 07:56 PM)

I've been meaning/threatening to write a book on this for a LLLLOOOOOONNNNNGGGG time now... But never finished it. Started... But that's all.

A LOT of software authors are pessimistic about PAD and download sites, but I really believe that's simply because they don't know how to use PAD and the download sites effectively.

Here's an example... A few years ago I did 1 (one) round of my cocaine-methamphetamine-speedy-hyper-ultra PAD promotion for ALShow (now ALPlayer). Within a month or so I had it in the top 10 Google results for some of the most competitive search terms out there. I forget exactly what they were, but something like "free video player" or "free movie player" or something like that.

Competition for the terms in the top 10 included Microsoft (Windows Media Player), Apple (Quicktime or iTunes), RealPlayer, VLC and a few others.

That was 1 round.

However, I put more effort in than the tiny amount most software authors do.

Most SEO "gurus" will blather on about how what I do doesn't work. They'll go on about this technique and that technique are all BS and will even harm you. I have zero respect for them.

My suspicion is that they know damn well that what I do works, and that it's almost a silver bullet when it comes to SEO, and they just don't want other people to know and they don't want anyone else doing it because it *IS* so effective.

I know at least 1 person who is at the top of the game and does things very similar to me. She won't admit anything to anyone about what she does though. She keeps it all very secret, as in total silence. If you want it, you've got to pay for it, and she's not cheap. She's one of those people that keeps a small number of clients and fires them when she feels like. (We've been friends for a few years.)

I know another fellow in the game, and I've got a feeling that he knows a lot more than what he says publicly. I've heard him publicly say that the stuff I do is total garbage and a total waste of time. (I've known him for a few years and I don't like him at all.)

I screamed at the top of my lungs for years about how to do it in some forums and news groups, and I suppose I just gave up.

I've done almost no SEO work at all at http://renegademinds.com/ because that's what I used to do all the time, and Renegade Minds was more for me to do other things, like programming, and not SEO. Really - like almost zero. I've not done anything at all in probably 2 or 3 years.

However, I still rank very well for a lot of things there, including keywords that are important to me. I mean as compared to some that aren't important to me:

http://www.google.co...p;q=realvnc+tutorial

I rank #2 there, and really couldn't care less.

Similarly:

http://www.google.co...mp;q=http_user_agent

I rank #2 there. There are a lot more.

The key is to use the download sites more than they use you.

Some important ones for me are like:

http://www.google.co...p;q=pitch+shift+song

Where I rank #1.

And I've used the download sites to help me get there.

I'm going to scream this once more... Just once...

ROBOSOFT!

[Renegade]

For anyone interested in listening to me scream at the top of my lungs how easy it can be to get higher in the search engines, follow this link:

http://www.google.co...3Ajoelonsoftware.com

I regularly went on at length on the topic at JoS back when it was a popular forum for developers.

[Bamse]

At some point you also have to fight the power. "Download Now" position trickery is probably also beneficial to someone = it is cool. If you are good at making malware that is good for bank account as well = it is cool. Softpedia is a shop in disguise and I don't believe anyone is forced to deal with them or others who care even less of content. Since I have nothing to sell I find it easy to say problem is lack of imagination and laziness on developers part.

The least they could do was to shut up about being so careful with selection of software, testing and evaluating with users expectations of "clean" downloads in mind. They will pimp and sell whatever, end of story. Softpedia made a big story out of black listing Comodo Software, today they are not black listed and article with their arguments is now deleted from site. How they roll. Even when they attempt to clean up the mess that is software market they cant help them self and must scream as loudly as possible. They don't lift a finger without estimating clicks so cool if SEO-software tricks them

Download now, Download here or just Download is an old trick, you see it on many sites with incompetent or do-not-care site admins. Here is an example or several on same page.

[PhilB66]

These are all Google Ads and not under the control of the developer. I got a different set of ads when visiting the download page of HWINFO32.

[Bamse]

Yes they rotate but the big one is not always a Google add. Is a toolbar based on Conduit and we can bet it has loads of funny affiliate links implemented. Why domain is blocked at some security services already. This could easily be on Softpedia or where ever, probably is.

Site Admin is responsible for content on site, including signing up for ad-sense or whatever. The most common but worst excuse ever is to ignore that.

Anyway, if big sites can do it why not the small http://www.readwrite...s_a_bing_affilia.php

Now I see it again you are correct, the big dl sign is also from Google. How was it with Google rules for painting a page with Google Ads? Well, makes link to RWW even better since Google are crying over Bing/FB for doing the same, turning blind eye to content of ads.