Hello bophe-ga,
Being that I manage a photography website in my spare time, I?ve
learned how to market content quite well. There are a number of ways
to get the word out there about your download, and I?ll give you a
number of suggestions, plus some tools that may help you out as well,
depending on how important getting this download out to the masses is
to you.
1. Advertise, Advertise, and Advertise.
First thing first, you need to get the product out there. Let?s say
for examples sake, that your download is something having to do with
money management. Sit down 5 of your friends, a demographically
diverse group for example, and ask them what they would use to search
online for a download that did what they wanted. You?ll get tons of
different search terms.
Money Management
Financial tools
Online checkbook
Accounting program
Free accounting program
Accounting software
Download money management program
Etc?
The list can go on and on.
For example, after I had brainstormed all the search terms with a
group of friends, ranging from 14 to 60, I then set up a Google
Ad-Words account, and used all of those search terms to bring up my
ad. So, now, when someone searches for (in your case) let?s say ?free
accounting program,? it would bring your download and website URL to
the top of the search results. Therefore, the likelihood of it getting
clicked on and downloaded increases exponentially by doing this, than
people just running across your site and finding a download they need.
In addition, with Ad-Words, you can set your own advertising budget by
saying how much you?ll pay for advertising. Its pay by click, so once
you?ve reached how much you?d like to spend, your ad stops appearing
until you?re ready to pay again, or another day begins. You also get
to manage your own ads, get 24-7 performance reports, and much more.
You can see all the advantages to this program here:
https://adwords.google.com/select/advantages.html
There are numerous other programs/companies that do this out there as
well; you can find more of there here:
http://www.bidvertiser.com/
http://www.1-sun-web-site-promotion.com/pay-per-click.html
http://www.metricsdirect.com/?ref=tmgoog&KWOPT-no_popup=true&kwd=pay+per+click+advertising
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF8&q=pay%20per%20click%20advertising&btnG=Google+Search
You can also market the program as shareware and list it on a site
that distributes shareware.
That way, you can use a well-known site to get your download out there
when people go and search for the category. I know I chose one of
these sites over someone?s personal website, because they filter their
content, and I feel just a bit safer downloading from them than J.
Random Website.
For example, Cnet.com (World?s largest software directory) has three
basic programs. You can choose free, basic, and premium, ranging from
free, to 99 a month or 949 a year for premium. Over 38 million users
per month see it. You can make free updates to your download, and it
checks all downloads for viruses and spyware, ensuring your customers
will feel safe knowing they?re getting a real product, and not just a
vehicle for malicious programs. I know many older people use sites
like this, because they?re scared to death their computer will get
?sick or break? if they download from a random site.
If you go with their Merchant services, you can do a try it before you
buy it option, saying giving users a 15 or 30-day trial, and then if
they want to keep using the download, they have to pay for a
registration key.
They also have a pay-per-download option, which is?
?Pay-Per-Download (PPD) program creates the ability for publishers to
increase their download counts by up to 150% by taking part in a
pay-for-performance promotional marketplace. Similar to search engine
marketing, PPD allows you to:
? Bid for a monthly top five category placement
? Manage your costs by selecting your own cost per download and spending cap
? View performance reports through the Upload Manager
However, in PPD you only pay for the completed downloads you receive.
Why pay for search engine clicks when you can pay for just the
resulting action you ultimately need??
You can also use their Download Now Button, which means you can talk
about the file on your site, and then refer them to download it from
Cnet.com by clicking on a web button that will take them to your
download page on Cnet.
You can read more about their services here:
http://www.upload.com/?tag=dl.ft.fs.up
In addition, other sites like Cnet are just as reputable.
http://author.tucows.com/ (pronounced two cows)
You can also use a company that will market your website, and help you
get into the top rankings on a number of search engines such as
Google, Yahoo, MSN, and more.
Vendorseek with forward your information to companies who do just
that, and get you back quotes from at least 4 providers within hours.
http://www.vendorseek.com/forms.asp?category_id=120&OVRAW=search%20engine%20placement&OVKEY=search%20engine%20placement&OVMTC=standard
MoreVisibility is another company that will analyze your current
rankings of your website, and then help you to get up higher in the
rankings if you?re not already.
http://www.morevisibility.com/overture/?search+engine+placement&ovchn=OVR&ovcpn=Overture&ovcrn=search+engine+placement&ovtac=PPC
In addition, this site promised to get you ranked on the first page of
major search engines in 24 hours GUARANTEED. They have monthly
submission to over 300 search engines, they send a metatag guide to
include in your website code so that the ?spiders? can crawl the web
and find your site easily and list it higher in the rankings. It runs
21.95 a month, and they state you will not be charged until your
website is ranked on page 1 of the major search engines.
http://www.berankednumber1.net/
You can also hire someone/a company to help you market your download.
Let?s look at a few testimonials.
"? Karin at SharewarePromotions looked at my site, gave me a price,
and within a week had delivered me a list of changes to make. Within
DAYS of implementing SOME of the changes Karin gave me, I was #1 on
Google for the two phrases I was looking for."
Jason T. Roff
"I can heartily commend SharewarePromotions to anyone introducing a
new program to the internet market, or even as in my case wanting to
give an established program new exposure. I commend the team on their
sheer professionalism, knowledge and dedication and I know I'll be
back with my next product. Well done and many many thanks!"
Bernard Hill
http://www.sharewarepromotions.com/testimonials.html
?While we hate to boast, we believe it is only fair to say that we are
the most prominent and well-known software marketing company on the
Internet! This is a position that we treasure - hard work got us here,
and we continue to work hard to ensure that our clients' software gets
the attention it deserves.?
You can see more about Shareware Promotions at:
http://www.sharewarepromotions.com/software-marketing.html
There is also SoftwareCasa, which accepts orders through a number of
mediums (if you?re charging for your download) and can act as a backup
if there is a problem with your site.
http://www.softwarecasa.com/pprod/softsell.htm
Google Searches Used:
How To Sell Your Software Online
://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&c2coff=1&safe=off&q=how+to+sell+your+software+online&spell=1
Shareware
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=shareware&btnG=Google+Search
I hope this helps you get your download out there to the masses.
If this answer requires further explanation, please request
clarification before rating it, and I'll be happy to look into this
further.
Nenna-GA
Google Answers Researcher |
