The end of the PAD file?

For years, independent software vendors (ISVs) have promoted their products by submitting details to hundreds of so-called "download sites" - searchable directories of software like our own Tech-Pro Downloads. To simplify this repetitive task, the Association of Shareware Professionals developed a file called the Portable Application Description, or PAD file, an XML file that many download sites know how to read. Product listings can be submitted to these sites just by entering the PAD file URL. Unfortunately, Google's efforts to eliminate Web spam, the "duplicate content filter", has made this approach ineffectual, as I accidentally proved to myself recently. Perhaps it's time to dump the PAD file?

Some time ago, I wrote a freeware Morse Code tutor program called Morse Machine. Because this did not fit with the types of software we promote at Tech-Pro.net, I listed the program on Tech-Pro Downloads instead, and made that the main distribution site for the program. I then created a PAD file for Morse Machine and submitted it to a number of top download sites so more people would find out about it.

A while later, while I was purging some junk listings from the download site database, I must have accidentally removed the listing for Morse Machine. Because I was busy, I quickly reinstated it by recreating the page using the description from the PAD file. I thought no more about it until the other day when I happened to do a Google search for Morse Machine and found that my own listing of it appeared nowhere in the search results, even though the page has a good page rank. The top listing for my program was the one from Sofotex, at position 3, followed at position 5 by the one from Top Shareware. Both listings had the same description, taken from the PAD file, that I had used on my own page.

The first lesson, obviously, is to never use the same description on your own web pages that you use in your PAD file. That won't be hard to do. I have now rewritten the description of Morse Machine, so hopefully my own page will eventually reappear.

The question this accidental experiment raises in my mind is, to what extent is it worth automatically submitting identical software listings to hundreds of download sites, if Google is going to filter most of them out because they contain the same text? The ones it keeps may not be the ones you'd choose. Perhaps it would be better to submit manually to just a few of the sites that feature high in search results, and tailor the description individually to each one.

On Tech-Pro Downloads, ironically, I normally do tailor the submitted descriptions so that they are not a word for word duplicate of descriptions submitted elsewhere. Unfortunately this takes time and costs money, which is why I have a backlog of submissions, and why I insist on having affiliate status so that I can get some recompense for my efforts by receiving a commission on any copy of the software my site sells.

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