is it worth it?

[Sparkie]

I've been thinking about offering a free desktop theme and/or screensaver to my visitors to help promote my website. Has anyone here done this, and is it worth all the trouble?

------------------
Leave Your Mark!
www.pawsitronic.com

Your one-stop web design solution!

[Aidan Bahta]

Although I have never done this myself, giving your visitors free themes/screensavers is a great way to get more hits.

If you can write programs, make a small one and submit it to download.com. If you can subit ANYTHING to download.com, you will get a lot of hits.

------------------
<A HREF="http://www.redrival.com/trcfreebies/
" TARGET=_blank>http://www.redrival.com/trcfreebies/
</A> Get more hits, for Free!

[jonese]

Sparkie,
People can go nuts about desktop themes etc. a prime example is http://www.lockergnome.com every day he submits a neew font, themes, program etc to people who read his newsletter. and i've downloaded a couple of them myself. so if you build a good one and people like they will download. to quote a greeat movie:

"If you build it they will come. . . "

------------------
Eric Jones
http://www.quixtar.com
IBO# 1121278
E-mail me for a 1-1 talk about setting up your dream business.
mailto:jonese@gci-net.com

[prequel]

What does one need in order to create screensavers from images ? What freeware programs are out there that can help ?

[Nicky]

I'm not sure but I think you might be able to do it in Director 7.

------------------
Webmaster of Gib-Online Dot COM (or webmistress for that matter!)
www.gib-online.com
The Rock of Gibraltar on the WEB

[Sparkie]

I can tell you that to make a pretty good screensaver (not just one of those slideshow ones) it takes a good degree of animation skills. I just wondered if my visitors would actually download the stuff, after it took me a long time to make it

------------------
Leave Your Mark!
www.pawsitronic.com

Your one-stop web design solution!

[Owen]

I made a screensaver - it was free, easy, and took only about an hour to do the scans.
http://www.pbbt.com/rubbercement/screensaver.shtml

I can't remember what program I made it with, but if you download and install it, it'll tell you. (The screensaver is "sponsered" meaning they put ads on it - but I'm too cheap to pay to get rid of the ads. )

Owen

------------------
uDiscuss.com - the most advanced forums on the Internet!

[prequel]

Well I submitted my first wall paper to download.com for my site www.eva2000.com and it got registered okay.

I also made 7 screensavers of around 1.3 MB each (4 for anime and 3 for starwars) with the install.exe file as well for them.

Now my issue is with bandwidth charges. If I offered them to my visitors from my site's server i have 20 GB/month allowance and I already use around 6 - 7 GB/month so is there any place that allows submission of screensavers to places like download.com but where the web site hosts the files rather than me ?

Thanks

------------------


[This message has been edited by prequel (edited January 21, 2000).]