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28 August 2006
I have been in the shareware business for about 3 years. In fact, this is how I got into making money with websites, seo, marketing etc. During these years I have learned a thing or two about promoting shareware. This article is about getting traffic to your shareware site and converting it into sales. Here are my tips.Submit to Software Directories The first thing you need to do is getting your shareware into all software directories. Depending on the type/category of software, you may get little or loads of traffic from software directories. As a start, submit your shareware into www.download.com and www.tucows.com These two are the major software directories that can bring you the most traffic. Pay for the listing, it is well worth it. If you have a webmaster related software, submit it to www.snapfiles.com (provides good amount of traffic) The Association of Shareware Professionals has developed a nice little file format used to describe software called PAD. This file format is used by hundreds of software directories. In addition, the The Association of Shareware Professionals operates a data repository where you can submit the PAD files of your shareware and it would be automatically picked by hundreds of download sites. Download PADGen. It is a free utility to generate your PAD files with full info about your software. Upload the PAD file onto your website. Submit the PAD file URL into the PAD Repository. Next, go to Google and search for “submit pad” “add pad” and related keyphrases and submit the PAD file to all the software directories you can find. The above two steps will bring you enough traffic to kick-start the sales of your program. Whenever you update your software, update the PAD file and upload it onto your site. Download sites routinely crawl your PAD files and update your software information accordingly. Make your Site Sell Don’t listen to all the copywriting “gurus” out there and don’t put a one-page long sales letter mini site. And for God’s sake, don’t put “Dear Friend” on top of it. This sucks. Your site should look like a software company’s website. I have found that for a shareware website, honest, short, no-hype bulleted mix of features and benefits works best. Put a title with your software and some keywords. Next come the features and benefits bullets. Put a download link on the first visible screen of your web page. This is a must. There is a high percentage of visitors, who won’t read your web page any way. They are looking for the download link. Give it to them. The more people download your shareware, the more sales you’ll get. Put a download link between every few paragraphs. My general guideline for the layout of the sales page: (top to bottom): Logo + navigation (the height of this block should be kept to a minimum) Title (program name + some keywords) Bullets – start them with a verb and describe what your prospects can do with your software. Keep the bullets short – highlight some benefits etc. Don’t “dear friend” your users and don’t warm them up – just go straight to the software features/benefits. A Download Link. Next, tell them about your money back guarantee (anything less than 30 days is a joke, go for something like 90, 120 days or a full year). Write about your upgrade pricing policy. Next put testimonials. The format I favor is a testimonial, a download link, a testimonial, a download link, a testimonial… There it is. It is really important to start your web page with short easy to read bullets and offer a big visible Download Link on the first screen. Don’t put a huge picture/logo at the top of the first screen. It is important to not waste space at the top of the screen with too much graphics and navigation. Another useful tip is: don’t use too big fonts for your title. For some reason, smaller fonts get read more and annoy less. My copywriting advice may seem unorthodox, but it works much better. In fact, my shortest pages usually have the highest percentage of downloads per visitor. You may have better results with a classic mini-website long sales letter page, if your product is niche and relates to customers who aren’t too computer savvy. SEO Tips Use your most important keywords in the title (that’s obvious). Don’t overrepeat keywords through the text. On the contrary, use different / unique words and write naturally. Write for the visitor. Put as many testimonials as possible. Your customers use surprisingly different words than you, which can draw additional traffic. If applicable, write a few long articles that may be related to your software. These should follow the general rules of covert sales letters. The articles should describe a problem, its possible solutions and how your software can really be a solution to that problem. These additional articles can pull additional traffic for more sales. Advertise Try mastering Google AdWords. It is well worth the time and effort. Even if you manage top search engine positions, you can still drive a lot of additional traffic from other keywords and Google’s content network. You also get the chance to test the conversion rates of different keywords before emphasizing them on your SEO campaign. I have also found that bidding on keywords you already have the top SERP spots can bring additional high-converting traffic and sales. Many software download sites offer different advertising options. Here it is a hit or miss. If you have the budget try and see which ones will work for you. The best I have found working for me are download.com’s Pay-Per-Download program and a review at http://www.freedownloadscenter.com/ More Random Tips
Posted under tags: shareware marketing
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