My Huge Software Download Site

Brian Gillingham

May 9 2006, 11:02 PM

It's alive! (some reason, the Frankenstein quote is so relevant... more on that later).

I have a pretty generic software download site up now. It can be found at http://betterwindowssoftware.com.

If you are looking for ANY software, I am pretty confident that you can find a good shareware or freeware application. The site hosts a database of over 18,800 programs! I actually wrote some code to do the importing . The software is all imported from the ASP PAD file repository (ASP="Association of Software Professionals" .. PAD=Portable Application Description XML files). I should have a bigger number when I am finished importing the PADs. PAD sites allow developers to quickly list their software at multiple sites.

I am currently developing the site to filter searches based on platform and/or software type (Freeware / Shareware / Trialware, etc.) Also, the look and feel of the listings is going to be improved. I am adding database tables / fields to allow for download tracking and developer advertising ("featured" programs). I am also putting together some code that reads / creates RSS feeds.... so, this "creation" is a real Frankenstein of different bits of code.

I'd love to hear what you think about my new site.

michaelper22

May 9 2006, 11:50 PM

It looks pretty nice. I see you have a decent size collection of software, but I can't tell how much of it is free. A feature recommendation: At the bottom or top of each category page, add filtering options similar to Download.com (OS, license, Size, etc.) That will help bring you more traffic as far as I can tell. I will defenitely visit your site again.

Brian Gillingham

May 10 2006, 12:01 AM

QUOTE(michaelper22 @ May 9 2006, 07:50 PM)

... A feature recommendation: At the bottom or top of each category page, add filtering options similar to Download.com (OS, license, Size, etc.) That will help bring you more traffic as far as I can tell...

I am working on the filtering for categories... I want to include features like those from download.com, but I think that www.softpedia.com has a pretty nice way to filter. I will have to look at download.com again... Thanks for the tip.

I NEED to filter the list of software - it is getting to be HUGE. I initially thought that there would be only around 15,000 listings, but it looks like it will be more than 20,000 when I am done importing. I am working on extending the database a bit to handle download count and possibly add user ratings.

I also want to add another form for submitting a listing - that doesn't depend on the PAD XML file format. The site shouldn't exclude those authors who don't create PAD files.

Moolkye

May 10 2006, 01:00 AM

Nice collection of stuff. I hope you keep on top of it. You can rank up there with some of the other biggies. To tell you the truth, I really hate downlaod.com now. Horrible layout. Yours is neat and very well organized.
Good luck!
You get my Approval, not that it matters!

garbage

May 10 2006, 06:00 PM

very goof site you have there. definately alot of stuff to go thru .. i will be spending some time at your site...

kylelnsn

May 10 2006, 09:34 PM

wow thats a lot of stuff, mite trawl through a few later, nic epost thanks

BOAW

May 11 2006, 04:57 PM

thats pretty kool, keep up the good work, hope you get to finall reach your goal. It sort of reminds me of download.com becuase of how its supposed to provide us. Unfortunately i cant tell which sites are better nor will i probably not ever be able to tell. But id still visit both sites becuase some sites just have things other sites dont. Your probably getting money off this which is really kool becuase you affiliating with the other company's and sites correct? i think thats one of the easiest ways to get money online. Besides i thats probably why you made this, for the money =D

JC05

May 11 2006, 07:10 PM

Thats an awesome site you have there. I like it. I know now where to come when i want a download. Very cool. Lots of stuff, different catagories so you don't have to wade through everything else. lol very cool

Sprnknwn

May 11 2006, 08:28 PM

It´s great but a website of this kind is going to be very big... I mean, difficult to handle. You really need filtering, otherwise visitors are going to be lost. Great job there.

steve17

May 11 2006, 08:31 PM

To be honest I suggest makingor purchasing a better template but the site is still nice.

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savge17

Jun 4 2006, 09:49 PM

wow, I was suprised with the ammount of resources you have put there.... very nice man! like A+++ job . But the Template needs improvements. Got alot of resources though, makes up for it alot!

michaelper22

Jun 4 2006, 09:44 PM

Now I noticed that the filtering tools work properly, correctly seperating freeware apps from the, well, non-free apps. good job on your site, and I hope it becomes a big success.

zach101

Jun 4 2006, 12:16 AM

Very nice site man, I like the layout the colors and the content

I shall deffinetly be giving it some visits.

Brian Gillingham

Jun 1 2006, 06:40 PM

I worked on the layout a bit more, but if something specific is bugging you guys - let me know what it is, because I can't read minds. The main <div> should now be centered better, but I don't know if it's right.

I also just completed code that displays similar programs (on any "products-####.html" page, like http://betterwindowssoftware.com/products-1.html).

The code looks at the keywords for the source program and queries to find other programs that have the same keyword in the same category. It compiles a list, ordered by score (most-matches display first).

This is a pretty nice feature, I have to boast. Consider searching for any type of software... seeing a list of a few similar software titles would possibly help you to find EXACTLY what you want (especially from a large list of possible matches like we have at BetterWindowsSoftware - 29456 titles and growing...).

Also, for anybody interested in creating their own nearly-FREE hosted software download site, I wrote a utility that allows 5000 free submission attempts, but you can register for $25. It will import the list of PAD files into your PADkit website - all of the info is on my Auto PAD Submit utility page. You could alternatively purchase a pre-populated database for a bit more $$$$.

Brian Gillingham

May 16 2006, 12:16 AM

QUOTE(tdm @ May 15 2006, 02:17 PM)

I took a qiuck look and it looks really well laid out. Nice Work. I would love to know how much software you actually have on there?

I have 21,359 software titles listed as of today.

The filtering really is nice. You can start out by specifying the program type (freeware, shareware, etc), and filter results with the click of a button. (you could also specify the program type with the initial query)

I recently was e-mailed an offer from another download site to create my own site based on their site's template and initial database of only 17,000+ titles - for over $1,000 sale. I created my database, and perhaps I could sell it for $1,001 or more. Ha! I really wouldn't sell my database - unless somebody offered more than that. What I got cost $0 - and has well over 3,000 more titles.

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