A bit of a warning today.
One of my websites sells ebooks and software as digital downloads, making it all totally self-running. This is an excellent way of having an online business.
However, I bought a large bundle of ebooks and software as stock, and this is where you be careful. I decided to review all the products that I sell and improve the descriptions of them on the website.
I decided to start with the software, and chose one product that I actually need to use myself. I installed a copy of it and ran it. I really couldn't believe how many bugs it contains. The software in question is Sitemap Maker. It is supposed to scan your website, finding all the URLs of all the pages, and then generate a Google Sitemap file. You then load this file onto your webspace, tell Google about it and your site will be indexed some time later.
I entered the root URL of one of my sites exactly as specified in the help. The program then appeared to lock up. It finally came back having failed to find any URLs. I then modified the root URL and it went away and listed my site's pages, but included two which didn't even exist!
Then I got the software to generate the sitemap file and there were errors in that, too.
A while back I actually wrote a program that does the same thing. Mine isn't perfect which is why I haven't put it on sale yet, but it does a much better job than Sitemap Maker.
As a programmer, I was able to spot the faults in the generated file immediately, but the average customer buying the software would not.
In fact, Sitemap Maker has an option to upload the file to your web space, so most people wouldn't even bother looking at the content of the generated file.
Needless to say, I have removed the product from my online store. I'll be replacing it with my own version once it's complete.
That was the first product that I decided to review. How many others are of a similar poor standard, I wonder?
I think I'll remove them all from sale and then reintroduce them once I have reviewed them.
My online store is all about making money, but I don't want to be seen as a vendor of inferior goods.
