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April 2008April 23 2008Created a PAD file. At each site where you want to put up your software you have to enter a whole load of stuff like descriptions and web links to screen shots A PAD file is an XML file which contains all this information in a standard format.. You put the PAD file on your web site then give out links to the PAD file instead of entering all the data. Most download sites will accept the PAD file. Applied to TuCows - paid $50 for an overnight listing. (There I was thinking trial ware was a free marketing strategy. Well TANSTAFL I guess.) I didn't pay enough for the expedited 'cows' review because I scanned their review criteria and Datawasp would not score that highly. It turns out that the review is based on technical stuff like having multimedia help links in the program menu and removing every scrap at un-installation. Datawasp has got awesome help and is very well behaved but I am not sure it would get 5 cows so I will do another version which deals with all these issues and pay to get it reviewed then. Found that world pay need $9 a month (or wait months for a listing) I have decided to forego this for a while till I know a bit more about what's going on. Created very quick 1 page corporate site for www.significantDataSystems.com literally 15 minutes. I had put the url into the PAD and there wasn't any page there so I was worried the PAD would get bounced. I was on the way out so I created a one page site. I cribbed the title font and logo from a web site I did for my dad, put in a reference to data wasp and there you are - instant corporate minimalism. April 24 2008Spent the whole day submitting to 'download' sites and review sites. And I thought testing was boring. I actually learned a bit about the culture. There are services which will do all this for you. There is actually software you can buy which does it for you but I am suspicious. It smacks of spamming. At many sites you have to create an account which you then use to check on status and make updates. Maybe I am just suspicious. I may use these services when I know better what's going on. In the mean time I keep learning little bits and pieces as I go thru the process. Got it up on about 20 download sites and submitted to about 10 review sites Got the email saying Datawasp is accepted at Tu cows and a few other minor download sites. I can find Datawasp on Tucows but only be searching for it directly. I can't find it by searching for Database or spread sheet which is a bit worrying. I improved the my 'corporate' site www.significantDataSystems.com with a water mark of the logo - big red bird :) April 25th 2008
Starting to worry that most download sites might be a waste of time. I found a site with links to 1000 download sites! On my site access log noticed a few downloads from sites I have submitted to. a mere trickle but its a start. Acceptance emails dribbling in from download sites I have submitted to. Starting to think I will do a splurge of uploading then start development on note tree and settle down to regular drips of promotional activity. Note tree is my next project. It should be quick to develop and fill in the gap while I wait for feedback on Datawasp to work out what my next version to include. There are lots of ways I could go but I want to make sure the next steps reflect user wishes. No feedback no development. I have a message board on my site but so far it is empty. Starting to think I should be documenting the number of downloads from my site. Most download sites don't list how many they are downloading. Some make their own copies some point users at my copy. what I need is something in the software which registers (with the users permission) the fact of installation so I can get an idea how the trial is going) Starting to use shareware site review pages to be selective about which download sites to bother with. I really want tree notes to organize my stuff. That is going to be a killer ap! April 28th 2008Reviewed progress so far... I am concerned that I can not get Datawasp to come up as a search result on any download sites using 'database' 'manager' 'information' 'data' or spread sheet. I think this might be because these terms are not mentioned in the name or the 1st few descriptive passages I am considering changing the name to 'Datawasp Information Manager' or some such to increase the number of hits as this seems to be an important factor in the products which are returned from these searches. Not sure which I should use from... Information manager, Database manager or Spreadsheet I am also considering doing a very basic freebee version of tree pad with only basic functionality to advertise either Datawasp or Significant Data (my company) May be I should explain a bit more about tree pad. There is actually a free product called tree pad but it is not quite what I intend to develop. In order to organize my self I wrote a notepad application which is basically an editable tree control. You build the tree structure pretty much the same way you type a text document. The major difference is that indented paragraphs are treated as 'children' of the paragraphs above them and can be minimized and maximized using a plus/minus button next to the parent. Any paragraph can become a parent by simply indenting the paragraphs under it. This is deceptively powerful as it allows you group notes in something a lot lighter than files. I am scared to think how much I have in my prototype. Especially as I lost the source code for it when I tried to make some disastrous improvements to it. Eventually I want to make some major improvements to it and launch it next to Datawasp but in the mean time I could release a severely cut down - bread and butter basic and give it away free with an advert for Datawasp. Did some tax stuff - actually as I transcribe this I realize I didn't so much do it as review it. There is still an important form I have to send off. Did some maintenance work on web sites April 29th 2008Its my Birthday. Nuf said. Created a wiki page for Datawasp and peppered Wiki with links to it. This took all day. April 30th 2008I created accounts on my message board called 'Protag' (short for protagonist) and 'System' to populate the Datawasp forums forums without pretending to by multiple people. Seems more honest. Cheating would be bound to come out in the end. A guy fixed my message board bugs form me but had to give him ftp access - which I am a bit worried about now. I found a reference to Datawasp on someone elses blog : yea fame at last I did a search for Datawasp on Google and got 6 pages of results. Its a start. They are mostly download sits.
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