I have created a lot of programs over the last few years, and last month I decided to work some of my code into programs other people might find useful. So far, without any marketing, attention isn't that bad, people find me via Google and other search engines without a problem. I haven’t made any sales yet, but since I only had about 8 people run by my site specifically for my Newsleecher Server Password Recovery (NSPR) tool, I am not worried yet.
A few years back, I remembered I checked out how shareware sites work and stumbled upon PAD files. I thought: Why not, let's make a PAD file for NSPR and see if I can submit it to a few sites.

After making my PAD file, I looked into a way to submit the file to sites. Since there are thousands and thousands of sites out there, I looked to see if there was a way to submit the file to a lot of sites at once, without having to go to each of the sites manually. One of the tools that stand out is GSA Auto SoftSubmit. I tried the trial, but wasn't really pleased with the results since you need a paid version to get some results.

The example about the submit software above is one of the things that rubs me the wrong way. There hardly is any tool or site out there that just lets you submit your file to get a listing. While I understand that everyone has to make money, I figured that the traffic those sites pull should be enough to make a fortune in ad sales.

Some go even further. Back when everyone was on dial-up, Tucows was the #1 in shareware sites, at least in The Netherlands. Remembering this brought me to looking up their submitting page. After registering for an account, I uploaded my PAD file, filled in some extra fields, and got their response: Unless you pay up, you are not getting listed within the next four years...