Useful Free Services and Software
TinyURL , http://tinyurl.com, provides a practical and very useful (but simple) service: it allows you to convert long, unwieldy URLsfor
example, like those you often see from Amazon.com when you select an inventory itemto short, convenient URLs that are easy to use in
HTML code (and easy to enter in a browser). Astoundingly, this service is free. Last time I looked, TinyURL had more than 185 million
hits a month. Talk about traffic!
In part, a service like TinyURL works to generate ad revenue because it is so targeted. If you go to the site, you'll find Google AdSense
content ads for things like DNS (Domain Name Server) services and software that fixes technology problems with browsers. In other
words, technology that addresses the problems of reasonably savvy web users is likely to be contextually relevant to the concerns of
visitors to TinyURL. Enough users click these ads to more than justify the startup cost and ongoing costs of maintaining the URL
conversion service.
It's splitting hairs to try to decide whether sites that provide access to free downloadable software are providing a service or information.
Whatever the case, a site that provides information, links, resources, and downloadable software covering a particular technology can
draw a great deal of traffic.
For example, if you want to learn about RSS and Atom syndication softwaretools for reading and writing feedsand to download this
software (and find easy one-stop links for the location of the download sites), a good site to visit is the RSS Compendium ,
http://allrss.com. Because of their usefulness, one-stop technology sites such as RSS Compendium (whether or not they provide access
to downloads) can draw considerable traffic and content-based ad revenue.
If you are going to publish a site whose main draw is access to software, and then make money off the site with content advertising, it is
worth bearing in mind that software that runs on the Web typically generates multiple page views for a single user running the software.
(In other words, the user spends time on the web site.) This makes it better for the purpose of generating content revenue than a site
that merely publishes information about software with download links.In my opinion, downloaded software that hosts advertising using an Internet connection is a
heinous way for vendors of software running on local operating systems to monetize their
softwareat least it's a step above installing spyware for a living.
Useful Free Services and Software
