Thursday, February 21, 2008

KnowboForm Site Submitter v1.6.5 beta Released!

KnowboForm v1.6.5 beta has been released on 21 February '08. This version focuses on export and import of user's profile, site and submission data and passwords. This version has introduced the concept of project which is a group of submission profiles for a specific submission scope. Project is a time saver option for the submitter if many web sites are required to be submitted one after another to the same directory or site. Also using this version you will be able to quickly and easily add a new site to the KnowboForm database.

This version has the ability to capture the technical info about a particular form, which can't be fully populated by the default auto-fill logic. This will enable to auto-fill such unique form after saving these technical info.

Look and feel of the application has been enhanced. Password manager is made accessible from the tool bar. Some bugs of the earlier versions have been fixed up. Release notes of the earlier versions has been incorporated to the Readme.txt file so that interested users can at a glance see the changes from version to version.

You can find more information on this and further development news in the blog. Version 1.6.5 beta is a must download for the KnowboForm beta users who are still using the earlier versions.

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

KnowboForm Hits the Five Hundred Mark - Over 500 Testers Signed on to Test the Beta

Knowbotron announces the registrations of over 500 beta users who have downloaded and tested the website submission and promotion tool "KnowboForm Site Submitter". The Knowbotron Forums continues to grow with the active participation of the beta users who are contributing to significantly enhance and improve the tool. Knowbotron is grateful for their contributions towards meeting its goal of delivering a friendly companion to webmasters and website owners in their web business endeavor.

KnowboForm is a tool developed for the webmasters by the webmasters and tested by the webmasters around the globe. Being a small independent software vendor it was almost impossible for Knowbotron to deliver such a product with its intended objectives without the help from these webmasters and beta testers.

The development launched in the late 2006, KnowboForm has released a number of beta versions among these testers. The release dates of the KnowboForm beta are: v0.8 (alpha) on 02 Nov'06, v0.8 on 11 Dec'06, v1.0 on 31 Jan'07, v1.2 on 31 Mar'07, v1.4 on 31 May'07, v1.6 on 1 Jan'08, v1.6.2 on 5 Jan'08, v1.6.3 on 16 Jan'08, and v1.6.4 on 27 January'08. The next version v1.6.5 beta is expected to be released by February 08.

In order to put seventeen months of development efforts so far in retrospect, the team has compiled below some excerpts from the suggestions, criticisms, and praises made by our valuable beta testers which we usually follow up with utmost importance during the revisions of the product. The comments are made on the available version at the time of comment and listed here in descending chronological order:

"Although I find the software does what it says it does and I will be using it a lot I don't think that the average person will find it easy to use. [However,] Once it is set up I can see it saving me lots of time which is the main objective of purchasing software of this type. Keep up the good work and I look forward to each update released and until then will be on the lookout for bugs, which up until my short time using it, I have not come across any." (-- adwebb in Feb'08)"The program has a lot of great features but how do we share our customization with other users? For example, if I am looking for confirmed, free directories that don't require a reciprocal link only a few show up. I can edit the ones that don't - that is a great feature - but why should every user have to do that? [Is there] any way to send that data back to the software developer?"
-- bob in Jan'08
"First of all it is a very nice piece of application. I was trying to use the filter and there seems to be something wrong. May be a bug (I am using 1.6.2 beta). To reproduce the error do the following..."
-- GiorgosK in Jan'08
"This is the Best product I have ever used I just love it, thanks kathy"
-- kathy in Jan'08
"Would you please consider me for a lifetime licence. I would like to resolve the issue I am getting with the beta release for the benefit of all."
-- sutton in Sep'07
"I just downloaded a copy of KnowboForm v1.4 beta. Is there a feature in this application that allows website promoters to create and submit paid inclusion ads for display at very low cost with promotional networks like the Independent Search Engine & Directory Network (http://www.isedn.org)? On networks such as this, I have found that: Ads are Rotated across hundreds of Search Engines Over 150 Million Searches Per Month are performed It is considered Cheaper and just as effective as Pay-Per-Click advertising Ads Stay Active for 3 or 12 months (NO PayPerClick) Listings go live in 24 hours. I think including a feature such as the one suggested above can add to the power of KnowboForm as a promotional tool."
-- Richard Thomas in Aug'07
"Software looks great. I have been using it for directory submissions. The program is easy to install but I need more time to check all options and learn how to use it all. Now i am waiting for next version."
-- Robin Wills in Aug'07
"I have been using the software periodically now for a while and here is some feedback ... it's true that any particular website could be down at a given time. That is a reasonable argument for keeping the 1/3 of the directories that return server not found errors, at least until someone verifies over a period of time that those sites are always down. The other 1/3 of the directories should be eliminated because they go to parked domain pages which no longer have the directories. It's one thing for free beta users, but if the Knowbotron software is being sold and people are buying it expecting a certain number of directories and they instead get parked pages/domain for sale sites, they will want a refund...Thanks for everything. The system is definitely a great way to enter directory forms."
-- Matthew in Jul'07
"Thx, nice program, but sometimes buggy... I think the interface can be approved, it should be handy if you introduce a wizard to fill in information about a site. Maybe it is also a good option to already save the submit urls so you can submit links even faster. Overall: Great software, but can be approved on some points..."
-- Marcel in Jun'07
"Software is not working at my end and I'm sure you guys will resolve the issue.."
-- Mukesh Kumar in May'07
"Just downloaded and installed, looks great... Will be going through the documentation, etc. to get a better grasp of its capabilities over the next few days. Included a back link as suggested"
-- Verlin May'07
"I just installed the software and successfully submitted my first site. Everything went smoothly. I checked my e-mail and I had immediately received the confirmation from the directory. I followed along step by step with the tutorial so I think that helped. I will post more if I have questions as I try to perform different tasks with the software."
-- Matthew in May'07
"I am very impressed at how well organised the interface is and how quickly you are able to navigate through submissions. No bugs found so far!"
-- Boeafitness in Apr'07
"Great software! Haven't found any bugs yet."
-- by david in Apr'07
"I just downloaded and installed. Looks nice. I used Robosoft for shareware submission and searched something for directory submission. Is it possible to add additional sites to existing list?"
-- Johny in Apr'07
"I just downloaded and installed the beta 1.2. It seems that it is going to be quite useful."
-- Moshe Lapidot in Apr'07
"I am testing and [KnowboForm] looks and works fine. Will let you know if I come across any issues. Cheers"
-- M Aldo in Apr'07
"Well I have been using this software for directory submissions and so far it looks great, I was happy with the program being a small one and easy to install. the software looks easy to use and seems like a low memory usage software. So I will just take it through the big tests now and see how much faster it is to do lots of directory submissions."
-- karl in Apr'07
"Program works great I would love a free life time license please tell me how I can get it? Setup was fast."
-- William lorch in Apr'07
"This is an amazing product and has been the best site submitter I’ve been through till now. I just wanted to say that you guys should keep up the good work and roll out updates so that your loyal customer base can keep growing. The product CAN be modified a bit and i have a few suggestions to do that which i will be following up with pretty soon."
-- Ashwin in Apr'07
"Excellent software! One suggestion would be to have PR listed next to the site name on the left. I noticed after playing around with the program that you can sort by page rank which is great! "
-- Cesar in Mar'07
"Just a bit of feedback from me. I just downloaded and have some ideas to help make this a better product. ...The software needs to be more user friendly. Most will be using this to promote their website, search engines do not like a lot of listings with the same title and description, you need to include a way for the user to enter up to 3 title and descriptions that will be randomly chosen to fill directories submission form. Also is there a way to check and see if you are listed on a directory? If not maybe this is a feature you can add. These are just a few features others already have and to compete, I feel your product with the features of it and those I talk about here will make yours stand out from the rest."
-- Jeff Thornton in Mar'07; All of the features requested by Jeff have been implemented
"This is a very promising product...I found the tutorial a little confusing because the first thing that popped up when i started the program was a log in screen (this wasnt mentioned in the tutorial), Also, though i know you are in beta, you could definitely use a little bit more "fancyness" on the layout of the tutorial to make it look a little more professional and easy to read... its writen more for a computer savy person. Ill use this a bit more tomorrow, cause i think this program can be very handy."
-- Jason Dubuc in Mar'07
"I installed it to try...and I find it difficult to understand how to set it up. However, a tool like this would be very handy once set up. I would use it every week - maybe every day once up."
-- nina in Mar'07
"I was hunting for a submitter for long and was going to write on my own in php because what I have found (so far) was not after my taste. Now I have found a better product, needless to say, hundred times better - I am at the right place. Very nice."
-- Carsten Schermuly in Mar'07

"This tool has potential for sure.."
-- seowiz in Feb'07
"Hi, thanks for the great softie, been looking for something like this for some time now."
-- jtito in Jan'07
"...the online help manual is NOT much help. But like I said I have just begun to use and test the software, will reply again in a few days after playing around inside the software."
-- Russell in Jan'07
"Excellent product, from what I can see. Look forward to more upgrades."
-- Gary Moore in Jan'07

Kudo to our beta users once more to help evolve KnowboForm. We look forward to their continuous support in future.

About KnowboForm, the Product: KnowboForm (http://forums.knowbotron.net) is a general purpose semi automatic website submission and promotion tool. It's built in database contains hundreds and thousands of directories, search engines, press release distribution networks, software distribution and download sites. Most of the sites allow free submission. KnowboForm allows you to submit, manage, and monitor your submissions from a single interface. Unlike any other submission tool, which usually allow you to submit for a specific purpose, you can use KnowboForm for directory submission, search engine submission, article submission, software submission, pad submission, press release submission, classified submission, blog auto-pinging, and automatic registration and sign-in. You can in fact configure it for any kind of submission purpose.

About Knowbotron, the Company: Knowbotron (http://www.knowbotron.com) is a leading provider of Freeware and Shareware Products. Knowbotron develops intelligent tools for Engineers, Developers and Webmasters. One of its freeware products "Dicom" is very popular for its unit aware calculation in mathematical expressions.

Saturday, February 09, 2008

Quickly Add New Sites to KnowboForm Site Database

There are thousands of sites already in the database and the site list is still growing. User could also add new sites by appending a new record to the "Site Info" grid. Beginning from v1.6.5 beta, users will also be able to quickly add a new site by entering a few key information i.e. Domain, Category, and Submission scope.

A separate "Add Site Quick" dialog will pop up when user click on the "Add" button on the "Site Info" grid. This dialog will also have functionality to check whether the site already exists or not, if it exists, then whether it is a regular one or a blocked one.

KnowboForm keep a site in a "blocked" list when any of the following three flags is set to "Y" - IsInactive, IsProblem, and IsExcluded. It is recommended not to delete the sites in the blocked list to avoid future inclusion of such sites. If a site on the blocked list is deemed okay, it can be switched back to the regular list by setting all the three flags to "N" or "(null)".

Friday, February 08, 2008

KnowboForm Project to aid Website Submission Services

Project concept has been introduced in upcoming KnowboForm v1.6.5 beta that will greatly facilitate the task of website submission services. Site submission services are offered by some vendors doing the manual site submission on behalf of their client webmasters and website owners. One of the benefits of employing a manual site submission vendor is the retained quality of submission.

No doubt that the quality of submission gets degraded when sites are submitted automatically. KnowboForm is a semi automatic site submission tool yet it has many time saving features to simplify the submission process. The KnowboForm "Project" is one such feature that will enable a site submitter to manage multiple submission tasks for multiple customers websites together in a single project.

To submit a site one has to create a submission profile in KnowboForm. Since KnowboForm is used as a multi purpose submission tool you attach a submission scope (such as directory submission, search engine submission, blog pinging, etc.) to your profile. A "Project" in KnowboForm is collection of many submission profiles for a single submission scope. Thus when you submit to a site you will be able to submit all the profiles one by one to the same directory or search engine (or whatever scope attached to the Project). The shoctcut key [F9] select the next submission profile in the project.

A project is not necessarily to be created for one customer or company. It can be created for multiple customers if the scope of submission is same.

Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Export/Import configurations and submissions

Upcoming v1.6.5 beta will allow you to export and import selected submission profile. You will also be able to export and import complete configurations of profiles, customers, and projects in one go. Note that the entities "customer" and "project" are new in v1.6.5 which will be discussed in detail in the next post.

The exported file is an xml file and therefore can be viewed in web browsers. Following are the file extensions that KnowboForm use for various export/import files:

1) KnowboForm profiles: ".prf.xml"
2) KnowboForm customers or companies: ".com.xml"
3) KnowboForm projects: ".prj.xml"
4) KnowboForm configurations (profiles+customers+projects): ".cfg.xml"
5) KnowboForm submissions: ".sub.xml"

The item 5) above indicates that you will also able to export and import all your submission data in xml format.

The export and import to/from xml files are in addition to the backup and restore facilities which are already available from earlier versions.

Sunday, February 03, 2008

How KnowboForm can Greatly Help you in Directory Submission?

The KnowboForm is the perfect tool for keeping track of submissions to directories (and many other systems of submission). It has many features to help make directory submissions easier and quicker for the webmaster. It's the most affordable way to ensure that you're submitting properly to the directories and to prevent your website from being banned and given a bad reputation. You're able to update the directory URL database in the program by adding as many directory URL's as you want as there's no limit. It can also help you to ensure that there'll be no duplicate URL's so that you don't submit to the same directory twice (if that directory doesn't accept multiple submissions of the same url, however many directories do accept). You're also able to keep track of which directories you've successfully submitted to, if you've already submitted your link and how many days ago that you did. You also have the ability to skip the directory URL's that you've already submitted to in order to save you time and prevent you from submitting again. You can even know what page rank ( and many other site performance matrices ) the link has before you submit so that you can be picky in which directories you would like to submit your website to. The KnowboForm is very easy to use and will save you time and money.

Saturday, February 02, 2008

What does Directory Submission do for my Website?

Directories used to serve as the main method in finding relevant sites before search engines like Google and Yahoo took over. Many people don't use directories anymore to find websites, which is why you won't get a lot of traffic from directories that you submit to. Directories however, have become an important part in SEO and are very useful in obtaining backlinks to your website, which in turn can help you improve your websites ranking in the search engine results. They can be a great way to get your websites indexed into the major search engines if your website is new or have the search engines favour your website if you target your keyword and phrases properly in the directories.