Download Site Submission Service Gets Even Better

We've been working on the submission service, striving to make it even better value, and I think we've now done that. We no longer submit to over 400 download sites, now it's over 450. It takes quite a while to find new sites worth submitting to and streamlining the process so that we can do it without bankrupting ourselves andw without charging much for the service, but we've managed to add another 50 plus sites over the past couple of weeks, and we're now adding them all to the service.

All at no additional cost, of course, so it's better value than ever. The price is still just $29.95 and we still build the PAD file for you for free as part of the service, if you require it.

Thanks to everyone who has ordered the service since we started, and to anyone from this site who has used the service this week, congrats, you're the first people getting the extra sites submitted. You got 50 sites more than we promised, so you can expect more traffic and more sales for your $29.95.

Well timed, can I please order another 1.

I'll probably take a punt on this when I've got something to sell.

I recommend this service.

You bet. Just finishing one off today, and then I'm available to do more.

Cool. Are the games submitted blindly to the entire list? or can you spesify what type of sites they go to? Also would this be a benifitial way todo some PR on a freeware game, or is just more suited to ShareWare style games?

Also submition is one thing, but do you have any stats on how much this increased exposure and traffic/downloads?

I'll email you tomorrow when I've got the info together.

Btw, this is still way to cheap :)

Mmm, however, when you look at the long list of games - you can only download them - you can't get info prior to that. I reckon people would want to click a info link at that point too (like on the front page).

If you want to find sites to submit to, AdWords.com, googles ad service, might be of assistance. With AdWords, you can use certain tools which will tell you web sites that match certain keywords, and it provides quick links to them so you can check them out. So you could put "shareware" into that and it would give you a list of websites which google thinks would be approptiate sites to run ads with that keyword on, and you can actually see an approximate count of how many impressions those websites generate, and use that to whittle your search down to those at the top of the list and then try different game related keywords to find more. You'd probably have the most luck searching for actual game titles for popular games with this method.

This tool is avalable when you create a "site targetted" campaign. And it doesn't cost anything to use it.

No problem, I always work Saturdays and Sundays. You're probably right about the price, but at least this low price keeps us busy with plenty of customers.


They're submitted to every site which is suitable, unless you specify any other preference. For example, Linux games are not submitted to sites which don't accept Linux games, and that sort of thing.


Absolutely! Anything you can do to increase traffic to your site is a good thing. You get more direct visitors, your page rank increases so you get more visitors indirectly too. So if you're using the free games to advertise free games, draw attention to your portfolio, bring in extra income through advertising on your site, or just generally to increase your site's exposure, it works great.


It varies so much between sites and games that I wouldn't want to give misleading figures. When Bowling Babes was first released, I remember that one of the best download sites was sending me about 10,000 downloads a month. Ultimately, you have hundreds of sites linking to your site, bringing you new traffic, new visitors, new downloads and really boosting your search engine ranking. I can't imagine that wouldn't be worth $29.95.



No clue what you mean. All submissions include the product information page, as well as screenshots, descriptions and generally everything there is on the product so that people see what they're downloading when they visit the sites.

Here is the list:

http://www.animebowlingbabes.com/downloads.html

They only get an option to 'play now'.

Puki, you're very, very confused. Glimmer Games is not a download site, and I do not accept submissions to my site. I am offering a service where I submit your software to over 450 different sites, none of which are my own.

Actually Phil I need 2 :) Maybe 3
[edit] oops the missus has just seen this and she used to do it for free *duck*

Ah, I get it now - it isn't your site - you are just using it as an example.

I pointed that out, coz other people may get confused too - ie, they might have read my posts and thought '"puki" is right' and not understood your reply. I didn't at first then worked it out on my own.

Right, all resolved.

LOL! I'm obviously gonna have to add a note to the submission service page explaining that marriage guidance is not included in the price XD


Well it wouldn't be the first time I've confused people, so you're probably right. Good job.

"puki" self-pats his own head in a self-dogging style.

I dont know if I want to know about your dogging style

I cornered next door's dog once - I said 'I heard your style was good - but my style is better'. I then lessoned him with a few clinical barks (Woof, woofs) and that sorted it all out - not heard a peep out of him for ages.

Submitting to sites doesn't seem to generate sales I've found. Sorry to be so negative but thats my experience. I've found that getting into mags generates more sales.

There are MANY download sites and MANY MANY downloadable apps on them. Do you have any case studies that prove this is a worthwhile venture for a amateur developer?

It seems to me that the 'clever' developer doesn't develop a game with Blitz but develops a 'service' or 'tool' that they sell the to the game developer community. Of course there is NOTHING wrong with this! Maybe I'm stupid but unlike Frank Zappa I'm not "Only In It For The Money".

This was not supposed to be a rant or a bad post against a useful service just the thoughts of an individual - pls don't flame me.

Really? I've found entirely the opposite. I had two games featured in PC Zone, one was the second highest scoring game of the month and I didn't notice so much as a blip in downloads. Whereas I get thousands of downloads a month through download sites.


Well I have a bunch of professional ( IE: Making a living doing nothing else ) Indie developers who use my service, and have spoken very highly of it. I'm not going to cite them, because I don't like that kind of marketing. But at least two of them have spoken out about this service on this forum, and I've had customers tell me that they read positive comments on other forums ( IndieGamer was one ) so obviously others are saying good things about us too.

Beyond that, I'd just suggest you ask any successful indie developers what they think of download site submission in general. I suspect they'll tell you that it's a necessary evil, not a major marketing move ( and I would never claim it is ) but something that you have to do. I suspect they would tell you ( in fact, I know many of them would because I've read their comments on many occasions when I was starting out ) that it's something you do as quickly, cheaply and painlessly as possible, either with an automated submission tool like Shareware Tracker or via a service.

I don't pretend this is a magic cure to your marketing concerns. It won't make you rich overnight. Of course it won't. It's just something you have to do if you're trying to sell a shareware product, and you can do it two ways. You can spend a week manually submitting to every site you can find, and drive yourself up the wall or you can pay us $29.95 and we'll do it for you. If a week of your time is worth less than $29.95, you do it. If you're not serious about selling your shareware, upping your search engine rank and driving traffic to your site, etc, don't do it at all.


I have written and sold six games, and I'm working on number seven now, so I haven't just decided to take the easy money route. In fact, at $29.95, I'd have to say it's barely worth doing, but I do have a full time employee now and since I don't really have enough work for him - and since this is something we've had to do a lot for our own games - it seemed like a good way to help the community, and help me give my friend a full time job instead of a part time job. When things get busy, I end up working the submissions myself, taking me away from working on my game.

In all honesty, if I was in life for the money, I would be in a completely different business. There are far easier, less stressful ways of making money than anything in the indie game business.



No, you *should* question things. I don't want people to assume it's a good service because I'm offering it. Make me justify it!

I think if your game has a high conversion rate it's worth doing, otherwise maybe not. A lot of downloads get made by people with no intention of buying, but at least if your game is good you stand a better chance. Also it can generate traffic to your site which might be OK if you ahve google ads.