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Download.com – Curry

Curry
Member

Posts: 134
From: USA
Registered: 11-21-2002
What do you guys think about the new policy at Download.com (or more specifically, Upload.com)? They used to be one of my favorite sites to submit to and to use myself for finding shareware. Now, they have started charging simply outrageous fees for uploading--not even a one time fee for a lifetime of listings for one product, but continuing fees for continued listing and adding updates!

Obviously, it will really take its toll on freeware and true un-crippled "shareware", and that's too bad, because I have considered doing some small free or uncrippled software or e-books to inform people about some topics or spread good values, and in the past Download.com had a good collection of stuff like that--most of which will disappear soon, I guess, if the whole policy stays the same.

I'm still working on updates and new products, so I haven't had to worry about software promotions lately, but I hope that their new policy doesn't become a trend that spreads! Some people on the Kagi shareware list thought that the results would force DL to change the policy or fold because of less traffic because of less updated and more expensive software, but it's too early to tell, and things don't always work out practically as ideally, so I'm not so quick to assume that an "evil" policy like this will not be successful! :-) For many basic computer users, "download.com" is an easy name to remember and they may not know the difference between that and the real spectrum of shareware.

For those of you who do shareware, what do you think about it? Will you pay the fees or avoid DL, and do you think they will be successful or not, and will this model be contained to them or spread to other sites?

And if you liked DL before, what site do you prefer now? Best to submit to all of them of course, but which one do you especially like and consider valuable for submitting to?

Curry

Curry
Member

Posts: 134
From: USA
Registered: 11-21-2002
Sorry, both of my topics I started have been in the wrong discussion area, I just noticed now. I'll try to be more careful next time.

Curry

Christian
Member

Posts: 400
From: Australia
Registered: 09-15-2002
I suspect they are yet another site that have found that running ads does not pay the bills. They are just trying to make a quid, the same as everyone else, and shareware authors will find they have costs in getting their product to market, just like everyone else does.
Mack

Administrator

Posts: 2779
From:
Registered: 01-20-2001
Pretty much well the same thing christian said, bandwidth costs money and alot of bandwidth costs alot of money.

------------------
It's not seeing is believing, it's believing and then seeing.
http://www.twoguyssoftware.ca

Curry
Member

Posts: 134
From: USA
Registered: 11-21-2002
Right, I know the reason for charging, but just wondered if you are familiar with the situation--the most basic submission (one time without updates) will be 100 dollars (a bit cheaper during the intro period) and as for bandwidth, most of Download.com's bandwidth is for the ads they serve; "uploads" and the hosting of downloads is in name only--they simply link to another site which has the file.

So, I'm sure that the company decided they needed to change their model a bit to make more profit (or make a profit), but what shocked people was how extreme the price and the listing options are. A one-time listing without updates is kind of a small offering for a hundred bucks, and there is no consideration about different prices of products, either.

If every DL site did that, it would be the end of shareware, at least in its current variety.

Curry

[This message has been edited by Curry (edited December 09, 2002).]