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
I’ve implemented an Editor’s Picks section listing recommended software downloads on the homepage of SoftwareLode. The list is populated with programs I personally recommend after review. I’ve coloured the background of the Editor’s Pick section to make them stand out a bit.
I’ll probably choose the programs to list based on whether authors ask to be listed and/ or they give SoftwareLode a backlink. I won’t automatically list a program just because someone asked - I’ll review the programs first. I’ll also list programs I come across that I think are neat. I’m reviewing titles as they get submitted by authors so I can decide whether to linger on a review after getting a first impression of a submitted title.
To manage the Editor’s Pick section, I’ve written an extra page in the admin section of the site. This lets me nominate a software title based on its program number and either set or clear its featured status. I can also choose to add my own comments about the program or just use the PAD file description. I’ve allowed the comments to include HTML tags so I can make my own comments on the program stand out a bit.
I’m still thinking of other improvements, e.g. a Recommended List on the home page. The Editor’s Pick section will never contain more than a handful of titles but I may want to add a list - say up to 10 - of other titles I recommend.
On the program listing page itself, I can distinguish programs by giving them a 3, 4 or 5 star rating.
by ML
On SoftwareLode at the moment, the home page has a Featured program at the top. The script for this is a bit wonky though. It selects a program at random but the random number range is very small (1 to 10) and doesn’t cover the full range of programs on the site.
In any case, I was considering changing the Featured feature to be a series of 2 or 3 panels that give:
A pick of the day
I would pick a set of good programs on the site and display these randomly for one day at a time. The programs might be those where the authors supplied backlinks for example.
A personal recommendation
This would be a program that I personally recommend after review. The wording for the description would be my own - not the author’s. These programs might be those with which I have affiliation.
I’m still thinking these things through. One thing I might do is drop Google Ads from the right column on the homepage and use that for a list of table cells containing further recommended software.
by ML
