I found this site where from you can submit your website url easily to 100+ search engines
http://www.evrsoft.com/fastsubmit/

Now... the idea: how about if moderators could create a sticky resource thread in "indie business" forum. that kind of thread where you could check good places to submit your game, helpful resources and put links like Fastsubmit here.

That's a really good idea.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Morphecy
[B]I found this site where from you can submit your website url easily to 100+ search engines
http://www.evrsoft.com/fastsubmit/

Hello!

Morphecy, have you used FastSubmit and found it helpful?

Because I tend to be very, very skeptical about multiple-submit services. I'm not saying it's bad, but I do have a few doubts.

First off, "100+ search engines" isn't necessarily very relevant in the US - I don't know the search stats for the rest of the world, but almost all of the search engine traffic is with a small number of the top spots to search - Google, Yahoo, Lycos, MSN, AOL. Anyone who says that they're providing a powerful service by offering you more than those...is, let's put it this way, someone who believes that other search engines are relevant despite minimal traffic. I won't call it "wrong" or "deceptive" of that company, but I'd disagree with it.

(I stress, Morphecy, that my skepticism is with FastSubmit... certainly not with you!)

Second, and much more importantly...

Search engines are all different. They all have different algorithms, different things they look for. Submitting the same thing, the same way, to several engines... is usually very ineffective. In fact, if you're not an expert with search engine submission (and I'll freely admit that I'm not, either) - you're likely to get better results by waiting around for them to spider your site. They view submissions with a certain suspicion - as well they should, since most people who are submitting to search engines are trying to subvert the idea of the engine. (A search engine lists results in the order <i>it</I> believes to be most relevant...whereas we all think that <i>our</I> opinion of the most relevant sites (namely, our own!) is the correct one. :)

To many search engines, autosubmission like this is sort of akin to spam.

Just my $.02!

-Jeff

Also...

I'm not trying to offend anyone, but visitors to your website from certain countries are far more likely to buy your product than from certain other countries.

For example, when I was running a dating site the majority of our sales were domestic and a few European here and there. Less than 1% were from other regions.

Now for the dating site it wasn't a big deal that people from other regions were signing up because bandwidth wasn't really a big issue. Also, you had to create a profile just to view the site, so anyone regardless of their country was adding to our database listing simply by checking out our site (unless it was a junk profile).

However downloadable games and demos are different. Bandwidth is a big issue and if you get a lot of people from a region, which never converts to sales then they're just wasting your bandwidth and ultimately your money. Word of mouth is not really that valuable either from a region, which never converts.

I said all of that to say this. As someone mentioned above, the majority of Internet users only use one of the 3-4 major search engines. It was different 5 years ago when there were numerous search engines trying to get a foothold. So submitting your site to 100+ search engines was kind of useful. But now many of them have either died or consolidated with one of the major players.

So now when you use those "100+ search engine submitters" you get listed on search engines used by obscure countries or countries known for not purchasing software legally. Visitors from these countries will use up your bandwidth and really mess up your conversion rates.

Keeping your bandwidth under control is so important these days (especially for shareware companies) that you can't afford to just let anyone walk through your front door (your website index.html page :) ). It's very important to target your traffic to the regions and audiences, which will most likely turn a sale (that is if you're trying to make money with your game).

Again, I'm not trying to offend anyone and I apologize if I did unintentionally. But I think it might be more valueable to post methods to bring in targetted traffic that apply to Indie games (banner Ads, affiliate networks, and etc.). Tips for doing Google Adword properly and other purchase keywords will be valuable as well. However, I don't think anyone is going to post the exact keywords they're using because 1.) Not all keywords will apply to every Indie game 2.) and more importantly once you find a good keyword combination that brings in consistent targetted traffic I'm sure most people will be reluctant to distribute their formula to the community at large. I know I would be hesitant. :)

But no-one has said anything about the good idea! To have a sticky thread with useful links and services in it.

Hehe my bad. I'm all for it!

Sticky! Sticky! I'm all for it.

-Jeff

Well... would a sticky thread listing various services would in some way be an endorsement. Sounds more like something that should be in the FAQ no? I donno.. I'm kind of on the fence on that one.

sticky wiki! you could use a wiki for that....wiki's are cool...and easy to setup... (if you don't know a wiki is a website anyone can edit...makes for an interesting community of information -- see the wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki for instance or another good wiki is http://www.handhelds.org/z/wiki/HelpPage which is the support info area for handheld linux ... very good -- might be a nice resource--dexterity could set it up easily (I'll help if they need)

or this product (GPL) http://www.phpmyfaq.de/ builds a faq/knowledge base that is very nice ... in fact I'm thinking of using it myself for a knoweldge base

Well certainly it would be that kind of idea. The endorsement would come from the person posting the link. Others could be free to post any caveats. Although you wouldn't want big ongoing discussions on there.

But there have been lots of interesting links to services etc that pop up here from time to time; it would be nice to have them all accessible in one place.

Sticky wiky could be wacky! :)

oh.. and now as you mention: ffMach, I haven't used it. just a link which I found and thought to share (hopefully I didn't mess up anybody's indie businesses :( ). Anyways, use it if you like - with caution ;)

OK. Well I posted a message to the private moderators forum. If nobody objects then we can add a sticky thread with busines links. Would be good for reference.