PAD files to publish your apps

For Mac OS X we have AppStore and Macupdate to ‘publish’ your new releases.
For windows most ‘listing’ sites like download.net, softpedia, … are awful, messy and do not come even close to a clean and readable site like Macupdate.
So your best bet is to put your Windows apps on as many ‘listing’ site as possible.

Now, many sites seems to use PAD files. This is a xml file with all information about your app. You send the PAD file or provide a url link for the PAD file and your app is automatically added to those sites.

But how to create a good PAD file? PAD editors/creators?

Any help is welcome.

[quote=169512:@Christoph De Vocht]For Mac OS X we have AppStore and Macupdate to ‘publish’ your new releases.
For windows most ‘listing’ sites like download.net, softpedia, … are awful, messy and do not come even close to a clean and readable site like Macupdate.
So your best bet is to put your Windows apps on as many ‘listing’ site as possible.

Now, many sites seems to use PAD files. This is a xml file with all information about your app. You send the PAD file or provide a url link for the PAD file and your app is automatically added to those sites.

But how to create a good PAD file? PAD editors/creators?
[/quote]

Jean Paul posted the best link possible. ASP is the best authority for try before you buy Windows software as well. I have been a member since the 80’s. Without a Pad file, a zip archive will probably not be displayed on most archives.

http://asp-software.org

More about repositories : http://downloads.asp-software.org/

Hold on a minute, the 90’s called and wants it PAD files back! They still exist and are used?

Yes they are still widely used by shareware – well, “try before you buy”, “free download” sites. As a matter of fact, most of these people do absolutely no editing or writing about programs. Their sites simply extract the Pad file and use the links and descriptions from the author to publish.

Incidentally, the fact that they publish the links inside the Pad is of real interest to improve the pagerank of your site, if you link to it.

So Google use PAD in part of their search ranking tool?

I gave up with trying to adjust my site to appease the almighty Google. One year, I spent a lot of time in modifying it specifically for Google and it made a huge difference, then one morning it disappeared from Google results as apparently, I’d also done something they didn’t like, so they removed it. Took weeks to get it back onto page 3 of the search results.

[quote=169570:@Sam Rowlands]So Google use PAD in part of their search ranking tool?

I gave up with trying to adjust my site to appease the almighty Google. One year, I spent a lot of time in modifying it specifically for Google and it made a huge difference, then one morning it disappeared from Google results as apparently, I’d also done something they didn’t like, so they removed it. Took weeks to get it back onto page 3 of the search results.[/quote]

Google’s pagerank is based on the number of links to your site. Since the shareware sites use the Pad file as is, if your marketing links point to your site, or the download one, that is just another little step higher.

I have noticed since I use fontmenu.com to post projects and images here it is boosting the pagerank.

OK, do I understand it correctly you have to pay at least 100$/year to use PAD files?

Not at all. You register for free at http://appvisor.com/ and you will be able to manage your pad files online.

Or you download the Padgen program.

No need to take an ASP membership.

Also, make sure to upload your software to the Pad repository http://repository.appvisor.com/ that is kind of a one stop shopping place for shareware distributors, so one upload insures a presence on many sites.

I see, this is still current. :slight_smile:

Yes very much so

Added a few entries now, but that site is often “not to be found” by the browser, so we couldn’t work very solid with it. This unreliability is not paid to the current crisis. This happens since I used to add entries to it.

You can also place your downloads on your own site, and point to it in your pad files.

That is what I do. And then I use the repository only as a second choice.

In my opinion, the most valuable about appvisor is their submission service.

If this happens, AppVisor seems to be down for very short times only. Try again immediately, and it may works again
(then I use a second tab in browser to check for).