download.com button program

[george]

what are your experiences? looks like it can do well, but is it worth it? it can be hassle linking to an external site (download.com) for your downloads because it may confuse the user, it may give your site an unprofessional look, etc. etc.

[JiriNovotny]

To be honest, I don't see reason to do so.

Imho user wants to click on Download button and get instant download, not another big site loading.

[george]

supposedly the extra downloads will increase your product's exposure on download.com

[Nexic]

Unless you have a site with lots of traffic it isn't going to give you a significant boost on download.com. What it will do is annoy your users, making each site visitor less likely to end up buying.

[george]

true, it can annoy users... but if you do it like the way winzip.com does, letting the user choose the location he wants to download from (download.com or winzip.com), it could work out well, plus it may add professionalism...

the reason i am asking is because i just can't help but notice how many successful authors (such as winzip) do this. i see it as part of a marketing plan, not just a download link.

i was just wondering if it benefitted any of you indies, but i guess it hasn't!

[JPGinLA]

George,

You are correct!

Please visit some of what you think are the successful sites and see how they do it. Nothing wrong with imitaion of what you consider the successful models!

We are very pleased with the way download.com complements our promotional efforts and it is very important to me to keep high (top 5) rankings for PC and Mac on download.com's game page.

-JPG