AussieCoder

I've built a SAAS application and am now working on marketing it. There are a growing number of directory listing sites that claim that that listing on them will boost your "domain ranking" and in turn boost your search result positioning.

Do they work?

They seem a bit like the old webrings, all publishing the same content and referring to each other, with monetization added. I would have thought that the search engines were wise to this, but interested in other people's thoughts?

I have uptime monitoring in place, but I’m worried that there are other things I should be checking regularly to make sure my site is working as expected.

What would anyone recommend I monitor?

Am I the only one still using it? Seems like a sudden decision with no explanation.

Shame - I still like RSS as a way of getting updates from people and sites I follow.

I'm great at starting projects but terrible at getting as far as launching them. I've developed a couple of SAAS applications as far as getting beta testers but then not launched. Something always seems to come up but I think it's really fear: What if it's not good enough? What if it has (or causes users) problems?

Has anyone else had this problem? How do you get past it? I'm a solo developer - is working with a partner the way to go?

Scott Hanselman has talked about "dark matter" developers (http://www.hanselman.com/blog/DarkMatterDevelopersTheUnseen99.aspx) - the ones working in companies everywhere writing the software that keeps businesses running. They're writing applications in VB6, MS Access, ASP.NET and often using outdated software and outdated practices. They work 9-5 and when they go home at the end of the day the only technology they use is their TV remote.

I'm not disparaging them. I work with them. For them, writing code is just a job and that job helps keep the businesses we depend on working.

But they could be so much more productive if they updated their skills and had opportunity to gain new experience.

There is no shortage of educational information and opportunities on the web, but these aren't the type of people to go looking for it. It needs to come to them, in their workplaces, ideally during their working day.

So, my question is this - if we want to help them enhance their skills and experience, how do we reach them?