How to construct the ideal software archiving website View from developer.
Advantages for developers
Why do developers visit your archive? What are they trying to discover?
They want their software to be well-known.
- The best way to draw developers is to be open and to make submissions quickly and easily.
- Do not demand payment from the developers in exchange for submission. Your sources of income are software sales, advertising sales, and deep review sales. And never ask for the back link!
- Make use of the PAD (Portable Application Description)! The most recent information on software titles is available indefinitely on PAD. The developer’s PAD was used to read and display as much information as possible to visitors, including the version history (recent changes), a succinct and detailed description in multiple languages, keywords, the application logo, etc.
- Utilize PAD’s category structure. The program branch should be automatically readable from PAD; do not construct your own tree of categories at the first levels.
- The PAD categories should be deepened, though. Thousands of different titles fall under the extremely broad category known as “file management.” Refine it and present the submitter with this choice.
- Sell the advertising as an option – and remove the “Google adsense” and “Sponsored link” from paid pages. The competitor’s URLs should not appear on my page if I am paying for advertising!
Advantages for visitors
Why do people visit your archive? What do they hope to discover?
They want to look for, understand, and talk about the software that meets their needs.
- Your first page should be simple to open, read, and comprehend. More empty space is what I want. I require scalable fonts. I need a sizable search area, an obvious categories tree, recent updates, news, and postings.
- Allow searchable access to your archive. Find what you’re looking for by conducting a search. Because each branch of the categories tree has dozens of pages, browsing by category is difficult and time-consuming. Only first rows are accessible, others are “dead weight”. Only a select few well-known titles have a remarkable download count; others have none. Software that has been submitted is bad because it is just capital. Turn it ON and let this wealth go to work; it shouldn’t be wasted! Use the conventional categories with in-depth sub-branches. Create complex search functions with visual representations of the results using search queries. Visitors are shocked when they type the “dvd player” in the search field and get 183 titles. I want to see the advanced search with checkable categories, including and excluding keywords, and filters by file size, price, and date because that’s the right way to do it. Instead of a complete results list, I prefer to see the visible result statistics for large results. Use data visualization techniques, just like business statisticians or game designers who create strategy games!
- Visitors want to see evaluations, viewpoints, rankings, and discussions. They also want to write it. Every piece of software ought to function somewhat like a forum topic: as a forum for conversation. Take advantage of the forum moderator’s knowledge; users adore avatars, posting statistics, cross-postings, and quoting. We don’t want to just watch a show; we want to be a part of it!
- Visitors desire to be current! Set up RSS or email alerts for every piece of software, category, or discussion.
This is a developer’s response to the owners of software archives who visit 5–10 software sites each day and actually have something to say. Use these suggestions to make your website the strongest shooter on the Internet. Good luck!