Hey, There's probably some on this forum?? Software affiliate marketers? I'd like to ask a general question, I have a newly created software publishing company which I'm really starting to push on getting software developed but I take a look on the software directories and see the same names e.g. Imtoo etc. For you to actively promote software, what do you look for in the product? Where do you come to find out about it? I'm totally new to software publishing in general, but my SERPs are rocking. I suppose the more you see my product names around the place the more you believe that it'll sell well? I'd like to hear your thoughts.. Cheers
Why not try aspshareware.org Everthing is well established there for software sales, affiliate systems and download sites. It's almost the trade association for independent software writers. There is even a PAD system where you specifiy your product and it gets listed automatically in affiliate sites.
I am a PADkit software site webmaster and I also tried to write shareware before - and I could probably give you a couple helpful pointers. Make a PAD XML file. You can find a program to make this at the ASP (Association for Shareware Professionals) site. The program that I use is for windows - called "PadGen". There are also programs and other online services to create PAD XML for other operating systems. Once you have a PAD XML, upload it to the ASP PAD repository. If the web site that you host your software doesn't have a PR ranking, being listed on the ASP site should help pretty quickly. You can find hundreds of PADkit enabled sites - if you submit to the ones that get the most traffic, you're software is "everywhere" almost overnight. If you want to give away a percentage of every sale, but possibly sell many more copies -- look into joining with an program like RegNow or ShareIt. At least you get to pick the percentage -- if you're confident that you'll make money, you can offer outrageous commissions like 75% to get publishers to put your listing on their front page (or other promotional spots). These services allow you to make "offering" emailings to software site webmasters such as this one (names removed): For this example, the company that wrote this "SuperEnergy" program have additional marketing tools ("partner.php") created for the website publisher as well as having a trial download created.... I am not sure what this involves, but to be sure - it helps to have affiliate tools like this where a webmaster can just log in to your site - follow the "Affiliate partners" link - and make their ads that sell your software. Trial downloads may not apply to your software.
I don't look at the listing at all anymore - It is now impossible since I have over 200 PAD files submitted every day - some are affiliate PADs that represent RegNow listings, but most are not part of any affiliate programs. When I first started publishing affiliate listings, I would look for the ones that had the highest commissions - and I would feature these listings. I had low traffic at the time. There is HUGE competition in this niche, so don't expect overnight success. It may be wise to not quit your day job - and consider the earnings from your software sales as "vacation money" or "early pension". Many think that your site should be as tuned as possible to get you all the possible organic search traffic you can get. If you have low traffic, you may want to look into PPC advertising to buy some keywords - depending on what you might get as a ROI for these paid clicks... If you probably make a ROI of at least 1.4:1, it may be worth it to start out paying for traffic - and phase this out as everything else starts to work organically. Sadly, you have mastered programming - and web design, but now -- you must learn about marketing -- at least it is easier to learn, but I don't like the field as much since there are so many ambiguities (I am a programmer mostly).
Sorry, I might have given the wrong impression when writing the post. I'm not having troubles creating PADs, getting the software finished or marketing. I was just curious to what software affiliates look for when promoting someone elses software as I'm not much of an affiliate guru. Thanks for the posts, gave me an insight to somethings