AddWeb Website Promoter 7.0 from Cyberspace Headquarters, LLC and Lemony Snicket's: A Series of Unfortunate Events Game from AcTiVision
By Howard Berenbon
AddWeb Website Promoter Version 7.0 from Cyberspace Headquarters, LLC
Last June I reviewed AddWeb Website Promoter Version 6.0, an excellent Website promotion tool from Cyberspace Headquarters, LLC, first reviewed in November 1999. Now, with AddWeb 7.0 you’ll find 15 tools (5 more than AddWeb 6.0) for Website optimization, submission and ranking promotion to help get your Website near the top of the heap of the thousands or more competitive sites that appear when searching for your product or service on the Internet. You can upgrade from an older version, or buy new. Whatever you do, don't hesitate to get in on the latest version of AddWeb. You can submit to thousands of search engines, directories and link sites in a matter of minutes, analyze your site for maximum search engine positioning, get live statistics on your Web traffic, build doorway pages for more exposure and track your page ranking in the major search engines, plus many more features.
Before you submit, you will want to use AddWeb's PageAdviser to analyze your pages and check the content that can affect your Web site's position placement. You don't want to submit your site and then get penalized by a search engine for content not accepted by that engine, or not get the ranking you need when people search for key words or phrases specific to your Website. You want your site to appear on page 1 or 2 when someone searches for you, not page 50 or 60. AddWeb can help you get the best spot on the Net. You can even have it create a search engine optimized page to replace your home page so you can have the best chance at getting the highest ranking for your product or services.
After you've optimized your pages, it is now safe to submit. Enter your site information, select the search engines, pick your categories, enter your keywords, enter your SMTP server and e-mail address, and you're ready to go. It includes a very good Windows help file indexed with lots of topics, an AddWeb overview, an AddWeb primer, 11 tutorials covering all features, 6 articles (including one on search engine positioning and another on key word importance), an excellent submission reporting feature and more help direct from the Cyberspace HQ Web site. Also, each time you run the program you will be alerted to install their free program and search engine updates, if available.
Here's what you get with AddWeb 7.0:
Submitter
Submits your website to thousands of search engines in minutes.
LinkTrader
Exchange links with thousands of other webmasters with this utility.
Page Advisor
Automatically analyzes your web pages and shows you changes required to get the best search engine ranking for your content.
PageBuilder
Use Page Builder to optimize your web site for top ranking on search engines. It automatically inserts position-boosting code like META tags and Heading tags.
Rank Check
After submission, use this tool to check your ranking on the major search engines. It also compares your results with your competitors.
Pay Submissions
Some search engines are now charging a fee for fast submission. This tool allows access to those sites and services including pay per click sites.
Search Tool
This tool within AddWeb 7.0 allows you to search all the major engines at once to check your competitions' ranking.
SiteStats
Check who's visiting your site. Statistics include their origin and the keywords they used to find you.
Reporter
The reporter gives you detailed reports on submission, optimization and ranking and includes the list of search engines with success and failures. It offers several output options.
FTP Uploader
Includes a File Transfer Protocol utility so you can quickly upload your optimized pages to your Web space.
Keyword FinderGet suggestions on what keywords to use based on actual searches done on the Internet. Simply enter a keyword that matters to you and get a list of alternate keywords, as well as their popularity.
Knowledge BaseThis is afull tutorial on search engine positioning. You’ll learn what helps your site rise in the rankings and what makes it drop.
ROI Calculators Track the value of each visitor to your Website, and what advertising budgets you should set.
Domain ManagerQuickly find detailed information on most domains. Use this program to track domains names that you’re interested, but are already registered and coming up for renewal. Add them to your watch list so you can pick them up when they are available (this doesn’t always work, because domains can be locked and unavailable even after the registration has expired).
Keyword ManagerUse this interface to manage which keywords you want to target with varied domains.
AddWeb 7.0 has 5 new and improved tools over version 6.0.in several areas including submissions, ranking and reporting, scheduling, page building and advising, link trading and more. For example, they're offering 100 new search engines; and engines are separated by category. Ranking is also broken down by category. PageBuilder allows multiple pages edited with a single click.
Submission to the search engines is simple. After you fill out your profile, which includes your Website name, description, keyword list, a category that fits your site, company information and submission e-mail address (required by some engines) and select the search engines (I prefer to select them all—it can’t hurt, because the more the exposure the better) you’re ready to go. From the Submission menu you’ll load the Website profile and then press the Submit button. In about a minute, or maybe two, AddWeb will do its job and you’re ready to read the report. While it’s submitting, you’ll see the progress on the screen until it reaches 100 percent. That’s about it as simple as it can get. If you have more than one Website to submit, you can submit multiple profiles at one time. Also, the next time you go to submit your site AddWeb will have the previous submission statistics available. You don’t want to submit your site too often to the engines, and you’ll know the date of your last submission. Most Web professionals say it’s okay to submit your site every six weeks or so. Generally, it’s not necessary to submit your site unless you have major structural or content changes. Many of the engines send their little robot snoops to your site about once a week to index any changes you’ve made. In fact, I don’t submit my sites to the engines more than 2 or 3 times a year, and my positioning is just fine for most of the sites I manage. (Search for the term “KDF water filters” and you’ll find my water filter site, The Water Exchange http://thewaterexchange.net at the top of the heap on most engines.)
Three versions are available: The Deluxe edition is recommended for the small company with a single Web site, at $69.99. The Platinum edition is recommended for the medium size Web site with no more than 10 URLs, at $149.99. The Professional edition is recommended for the large company and can handle unlimited URLs, at $299.99. If you own AddWeb 3.0, 4.0, 5.0 or 6.0, you may upgrade to AddWeb 7.0 for a reduced price.
This is a great product at a great price (starting at $69.99). It's well designed and easy to use, with excellent reporting features and clear documentation (that's important to me). If you need to promote your Web site, then Addweb 7.0 is the right tool for the right job.
AddWeb Website Promoter Version 7.0 from Cyberspace Headquarters, LLC, works on any multimedia PC with a Pentium processor running Windows 9x/Me/2000/NT/XP. Click for more information or to order.
If you'd like to try before you buy, you can download an actual working demo.
Lemony Snicket's: A Series of Unfortunate Events Game from AcTiVision for the PC
Lemony Snicket's: A Series of Unfortunate Events is a 3D adventure game from AcTiVision based on the new upcoming movie starring Jim Carrey (and book series) of the same name, from DreamWorks Pictures and Nickelodeon, about the three Baudelaire orphans. After losing their family in a mysterious fire, the orphans, Violet, Klaus and Sunny are sent to live with their evil uncle, Count Olaf, who is just out to get the Baudelaire family fortune. The game offers excellent 3D graphics and animation, adventure-inspiring music to set the mood, with realistic sound effects and voice narration to help you along the way. Your goal is to help the orphans defeat Count Olaf and his henchman by exploring their world, collecting items, building inventions and solving puzzles.
After a quick installation from a single CD (PC version) you’ll enter into a new game. You are promptly warned by the narrator (with voice and text narration) that if you thought you were entering a game with “cute furry heroes” and “helpless princesses,” you won’t find that here. It continues to state that the game includes a sinister villain, a loud noise, an umbrella, a parked car, three clever orphans, hungry leeches and several confusing buttons.
Then the narrator asks if you’d rather play something else. Of course, their clever dialogue just entices you to continue the game. And, you’d continue anyway because why would you stop and play something else when you’re about to begin the adventure.
After entering the new game, you’ll find yourself on a beach near a dock on the seashore in control of Klaus (he’s an avid reader, and expert problem solver, just 12-years-old), using the mouse and arrow keys, at a dock, with Violet (she’s 14 and an inventor) and the baby Sunny nearby (she does a lot of crawling and has 4 sharp teeth—her weapon). Your first goal is to collect objects on the dock, but you’ll have to figure out how to get to the location without falling into the water (where dangerous creatures await below). Klaus also finds a crate that you’ll want to open. If you need to jump, you press Ctrl or the Spacebar and pick up objects by hitting the Alt key. Although you may start by controlling Klaus, the game can, and will, switch your control to any of the other children. I discovered this after saving the game, and when I returned to play again later, I was in control of Violet instead of Klaus.
If you like 3D action adventure games with lots of puzzles to solve, 16 levels for you to roam (and 15 missions), strange contraptions (Violet’s inventions) and several villains to defeat, this may be the game for you. It’s recommended for boys (ages 8 to 12), but many girls will like it as well. My 10-year-old daughter, Becky, said she enjoyed playing it, though she admitted it was a little difficult to solve the puzzles and move to the next level (sounds challenging to me). And if you’re a fan of Jim Carrey, you’ll be happy to hear that the voice of Count Olaf in the game is actually Jim Carrey’s (not a Jim Carrey impersonator).
Lemony Snicket's: A Series of Unfortunate Events is available for any multimedia PC running Windows 98/Me/2000/XP ($26.99), the Sony PlayStation 2 ($49.99), the Nintendo Game Cube ($49.88), Microsoft’s Xbox ($49.99) and The Game Boy Advance ($29.99).
Software Companies Mentioned
AcTiVision, Incorporated
3100 Ocean Park Boulevard
Santa Monica, CA 90405
Phone: 310-255-2000
Cyberspace Headquarters, LLC
22048 Sherman Way, Suite 106
Canoga Park, CA. 91303
Phone: 818-593-4900
