First of all, if you haven’t already, you need to read this post, which was the inspiration and the foundation for this method I still currently use to build links. And I’m not the only one doing it.

Trouble was, after I read that article, I was left feeling sort of confused still. How do I take a womens shoes site (or something like that!) and turn it into a piece of useful software? Well, one answer is in the title of this post, now isn’t it!?

Screensavers are usually in either one of two formats: .exe or .src. If you don’t already have the software to compile screensavers, you might want to “buy” some. I’m currently using a program called “Screensaver Factory 5 Enterprise”. If you already have some images, you can literally build and compile a simple slideshow screensaver in about 30 seconds. In the womens shoe site scenario, I would probably put together a nice little slideshow featuring the most sought after womens shoes. By default, the program adds little fancy transitions and what not. Not that they really matter too much. If you really want to get maximum benefit, you might want to watermark your images with your URL (yes, people actually download these things).

Distribution
Now, you’ve got your screensaver. It is time to distribute it. Just about every software download site has a submission area. At this point, if you’ve never authored/distributed software before, you might be thinking about outsourcing this part. Well, that’s not entirely necessary, thanks to a little something called a PAD file.

What the Shit is a PAD File?
I’m glad you asked! PAD stands for “portable application description”. Basically, a PAD file is an xml file that exists on your server (or wherever) that contains all the necessary information about your software such as size, version, links to download and more. The idea is that instead of having to manually make updates all the time when things change with software (like updates), you simply update one PAD file and the sites offering the software usually poll their PAD files regularly for changes. Now, the beauty of using the PAD file is that most of these software sites that accept submissions will ONLY ask for a link to your PAD file because it already contains all the information they need. This means your time spent on each site is quite minimal.

I Can Haz PAD File?
Yes, you can. I use a simple utility called PadGen that you can download here to create my PAD files. Keep in mind that not all fields are necessary so don’t spend all afternoon on it. Just get the important ones covered. Some sites do have requirements about what information needs to be contained in a PAD file before it is accepted for inclusion or review.

Hopefully I don’t need to tell you that you need to include your URL to the site/page you’re promoting in your PAD file.

How ‘Bout Some Sites?
Of course. I live to please you. I’m going to give you some master list of software sites that will accept your useless ladies shoe screensavers, but I will give you a few. They really aren’t hard to find, and there are tons of them. And of course many of them just scrape data from the other ones so there are plenty of links to be had, here. There are also distribution services in the business of charging you for distributing your software, but I don’t think they’re necessary for this sort of task. Now, about them sites…

1. Softpedia.com
2. Windows7Download.com
3. FreeDownloadManager.org
4. DailySofts.com
5. PCWin.com
6. FileBoost.net
7. FreeWareTown.com
8. Files54.com
9. A ton more…get your Google on

Alrighty. Have fun. Please don’t take my method (which is obviously just an interpretation of Eli’s Method) and run it into the ground. Thank you.

Warning: Inspirational rant for newbies to follow.

Since the new year is upon us, and many of you have goals related to growing and expanding your business, I would like to take the time to go ahead and offer a few words of encouragement for those of you just getting into the game of building and profiting from your own websites.

Having been doing this for a couple of years full-time now, in my opinion I have discovered that the single most important element in a successful SEO strategy is simply time.

I started out more or less broke. In order to fund my new efforts, I turned to content writing. I don’t necessarily particularly enjoy writing, especially for other people, but it was a way to generate an income from home while learning and attempting to build my own business. It was also an invaluable way to gain insight on what successful webmasters were doing. Of course there are other ways to make a quick buck doing client work and learn the ropes, such as coding or designing, but writing just so happened to be the thing I was good enough at to make enough to get started.

Since then, many of my friends have become interested in what exactly it is I do on the computer that allows me to spend most of my time screwing around and blowing money on crap I don’t really need. Often times that interest has turned into questions that turned into them wanting to build their own online business. Out of all the friends and acquaintances I have that asked for my help to get into this affiliate marketing business, all of them gave up or lost interest relatively quickly.

It doesn’t happen overnight. I’m now in a comfortable position where I have several diverse sites generating passive income. If I were to take the month of January off, I would still have an income. However, that nice cushion wasn’t just handed to me. It took months of building and optimizing to get those sites to rank and start earning me $.

The short version of what I’m saying is simply don’t give up. You may not see results in the first month or even the first six months. Any webmaster worth his or her salt will tell you it generally takes 6 months to a year for a site to realize its true potential. I know it can be discouraging to work your ass off on something and still not feel like you’re making any progress a month or two later, but if you’re serious about it, you need to stick with it. The people that give up and fail and then post threads about how SEO is dead and all that nonsense are the people that don’t have the attention span or the drive to really make their business thrive.

In the real world of making money online, there is no magical Google Success Kit that will hold your hand and walk you through the steps necessary to build a successful internet based business. There is no get rich quick formula. Like everything else in life, you’re going to get out of it what you put into it. That said, there is still phenomenal potential on the internet and new opportunities pop up every single day.

We’re still living in the wild west of the internet era. With a little creativity and a generous dose of patience, you may very well find gold in them internetz after all.

I wish you all a prosperous new year. Take care of your families, work your ass off on your business, and please, keep an eye on your girlfriends.

<3

That’s right, I’m about to post something useful. Hold on to your off-white hat.

In our never ending quest to build links, posting comments on relevant (or even irrelevant) blogs with a link to your site is still a powerful tool. However, how many times have you stumbled upon a great post that is just BEGGING for your comment, only to discover that comments are strictly moderated? Or worse, they’re moderated AND the blog hasn’t been updated in forever, indicating that it may have been abandoned by the owner altogether?

Don’t give up. There is still hope.

When someone goes to leave a comment on a Wordpress blog, they are presented with four fields:

• -Name (Required)
• -E-mail (Required, not visible to anyone other than site admin)
• -URL (Optional)
• -(Comment)

If the site owner has elected to hold comments in moderation (many do), your comment will not appear immediately after submitting it. It will be held in the moderation queue. Unless, of course, you have had a previously approved comment and you use the same email that you used the first time. Raise your hand if you see where I’m going with this.

The Strategy

…Is simple. Check out the existing comments on the article. Find one with a hyperlinked name. Follow that link to that person’s site, and look for a contact email. Once you’ve found it, return to the article and use the same info to leave another comment. You are now impersonating someone with a previously approved comment. The comment field should allow you to use html. Go ahead and leave your link with whatever dang anchor text you want in there.

As you might have guessed, this will not work 100% of the time. The main reason being you have no way of knowing what email was actually used to leave the comment. However, in all likelihood, the person that left that previously approved comment used the same email that they display on their website. This method also of course depends on the fact that the site owner has a publicly displayed email address.

And now the FAQ…

What if I Can’t Find Their Email?

Move on. Find another comment leaver. Depending on how much you want that link, you may or may not want to spend 20 minutes trying to find one that works.

Is This Unethical?

Sort of, but  it’s not that bad. Actually I think it perfectly reflects the theme and intent of this site.

Will it Work with Other CMS’s besides Wordpress?

Do I look like an internet scientist to you?

Will this Post Upset the Natural Balance of the Wordpress Universe and Destroy the Internet?

Yes.

Will this Shady Shit Work Even on This Site?

Probably, dick!