RoboSoft v3.1 Review

My trial of RoboSoft v3.1 build 555 (software submission application) ended yesterday. In that time, I had the chance to submit 2 versions of MIS Info Video(v2.4 and v2.5). Because it's the only software of this type I used so far, I will give the pro's and con's. I will test Promosoft next time.

Pro's:

• Easy(for me) and does the job
• Import your exiting PAD files (do that first)
• The sites database is updated daily
• Double-clicking on a site will try to find the application
• Reports are flexible and you can select fields. I used mostly HTML.
• Can reorder most fields in the grid via the grid header
• Can filter out many sites(category, language, flags)
• Auto fill many fields(good for site that failed automatic submission or must login)
• Keep track of login and password for sites with author control panel
• Work after the 30 day trial but, of course, you can't update the sites database or do a automatic submission
• Some sites ask you to enter an alphanumeric number and Robosoft did a good job to enter them. You will have to enter those that it was not able to do (CAPTCHA).

Con's:

• Slow startup (loading product and building the grid)
• Documentation is very lacking(3.0). I can understand that :p
• When making a second round for auto submission, it won't filter out sites already updated. For example, I had 50 sites that was already updated(manual or daily poll). It did not need to search them again. A check box to not process them would be great here.
• The Page Rank field should use Alexa Ranking instead(if possible and updated once a month).
• A lot must be done after the automatic submission for sites that could not be done. But it's easier the second time around.
• The overall process of submitting to 550 sites for the first time can take a few days even with automatic submission. It did not take that long on the second time because I just wanted to see how the "Daily polling" of the PAD files poll did. I was also near my end of trial and anticipated a v2.6 in the coming weeks and did not want to waist more time on semi-manual submission.
• Not priced well against the competition. For $99, I would want a 1 year of database updates not 6 months

Bugs:

• If you are on your product page, it will ask you to add the URL(Product listing) for you. It does not work and must be added by pushing another button.
• When in the process of making my second submission but before starting it, I wanted a list of the first pass search log result and it crashed on me. I had to do a "Generate report" to reinitialize the list or it would show 0 sites to do.

Suggestions:

• Alternate Search on the site using Google for sites that their search function is not good/broken
• Opening a site could go to the "Product listing" URL first
• No "link back" URL field for a product (Some sites need a link back to them)
• Flag/Category2 for shareware only(no freeware allowed) or for very specific type of shareware/freeware software like network only, book writing, travel tools....
• No field to indicate if the site really poll daily the PAD file. It can take 1 week or more on some sites even if they say daily polling.
• No field to indicate if the site display the software right away.

Conclusion(almost):

In the beginning, it can be addictive to see what's been updated from the night before. Me, I will wait before making my decision until I can test Promosoft. I did not test every features. So for now, I suggest that you use the 30 free days and decide for yourself. Plus, because it's not limited and have access the 1000+ sites, you can really test it out.