How To Promote Your FlashDen Files on Adobe Exchange
A great stock file will always sell well, but it’s naive and a missed opportunity to think that all your stock files will sell well without any extra promotion. A great way to promote your FlashDen files is to upload them to Adobe Exchange.
Adobe Exchange is a marketplace maintained by Adobe that lets authors and customers buy, sell, and promote files created in Flash. Files may be free, or they can be purchased via external sites. That’s where FlashDen comes in, because the items you list on Adobe Exchange actually link back to your files on sale on FlashDen. If it sounds simple, it is! 
Listing your FlashDen items on Adobe Exchange will give your file more exposure and drive traffic back to your file on FlashDen in the hope of increased sales.
This article will show you how to submit and promote your files to Adobe Flash Exchange.
Register and/or Log On
Go to Adobe Flash Exchange. If you have not already done so, register an account here (the register link is in the top left corner of the page) and then log on.
Upload to Adobe Exchange
Click on “UPLOAD TO THE EXCHANGE” which is in the right navigation menu. You will need to scroll down the page a little bit to see it. You will then be taken to the Sign In page.
- Once you’re logged in, you will be redirected to the upload form which looks like this:
If you’re uploading for the very first time, it always helps to read and familiarize yourself with the Adobe upload instructions. Once you’ve read the instructions, click the “Begin Upload Process” button to begin.
Upload Type and License Agreement
The first thing to do on this screen is select “Other – Incl. Flash, Fireworks, Dreamweaver Content and CSXS Extensions” from the Upload Type dropdown menu.
Read the license agreement as you scroll down the page and then check the “Agree” checkbox at the bottom of the page. Then click the “Next” button.
Upload Details
As we are submitting an existing FlashDen file, simply copy and paste your item page URL from FlashDen into the File is located at the following URL field. You DO NOT have to upload any Flash files.
- Create a preview image sized 300 x 200 pixels. Then, upload this image where it says “Upload Preview”.
- You are then asked to enter a Submission Name. Provide the name of your file here, probably best to make it match your FlashDen file name for consistency. Enter the Version Number and then check “Yes” for Encrypted as FlashDen always encrypts your files before publishing them.
- Add a full description of your file to the Description field. Then, add a shorter description to Short Description. This must not be greater than 128 characters.
- The next few options are optional, so you do not need to complete them. The optional fields are Usage Syntax, Support Info, and Notes.
- Copy your FlashDen item page URL again into the Sample URL field.
Pricing & Licensing
Choose Commercial from the License Type dropdown. Enter your FlashDen item page URL again in the Purchase URL field, and then make sure you enter the exact price of your FlashDen file in the Price field.
Technical Requirements
Be sure to complete Product Compatibility, Platform Compatibility, and Browser Compatibility as thoroughly as possible. Hold CTRL+Click (COMMAND+Click on a Mac) if you need to select multiple items from the list of options in this section. For Platform Compatibility you should choose Windows and Mac OS only.
Categorize Your Upload
Choose Flash as your Primary Exchange and then choose all the relevant Flash categories from the list available that best fit your file. Again, you can select multiple items for this section. Finally, click Next to submit your item.
And that’s it! You’ve just submitted your Flash file to Adobe Exchange! Your file will be reviewed at Adobe Exchange (it can take a while to get published, be prepared to wait depending on how much of a backlog there currently is). If accepted, your file will eventually appear in Adobe Exchange! You can check on the status of all your submissions from the Access Your Exchange page.
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Scott
Scott is the Down the FoxHole blog editor. He is also a reviewer for ActiveDen. Scott is a freelance Web and Interactive Media Designer having previously worked as the Lead Web Designer for a well-known children's hospital in the US for 8 years. Follow him on Twitter @scottwills
Thanks Scott. Their system isn’t the most intuitive so it took me a while to figure it out. This will be incredibly helpful. By the way, I’ve made a ton of referral money from the exchange. My best month I earned $260 from referrals alone. Before I put my files on the exchange I made around $30 per month. Thanks Scott and thanks Adobe for the free service!
It takes forever but i thinks its the best way to promote your files.
Thanks for the article.
=)
I’ve been waiting for the past 4 months for some files to be accepted. No answer yet.
This is great! I was curious about how this worked.
I had my first file accepted, but it took about a month to get through. So fingers crossed, you’ll get yours accepted as well, 50!
please remember to add ref=MSFX on the end of your link
:)
Is it allowed to do this at others items? Like adding the ref ID at the end of your link, and then hope somebody follows the link to somebody elses items?
I’m thinking about this line:
Excluding any Adobe-authored software, you are the original developer, or have all of the necessary legal rights to grant to Adobe the license below in Section 2 or 3, as applicable, to the Submission.
There’s a bug with the Adobe Exchange submission form I noticed that everyone should totally be aware about. If you enter “20.00″ as the price of your file instead of just “20″, it appears as though your file is accepted but it’s not. Although their example suggests you use decimal numbers like this, “20.00″, don’t!. Just use “20″. After each submission you make, I recommend always going to the “Access Your Exchange” page where you can see all items you have submitted that are not yet approved. That’s the only way of knowing if your item has been successfully submitted.
Lance makes an awesome point everyone, be sure to append your FlashDen file/link with your own referral code. So add ” ?ref=yourusernamehere ” (without the quotation marks) at the end of your FlashDen links and you’ll be all set to collect referral fees should anyone coming from your Adobe Flash Exchange link go to FlashDen and make a purchase.
SparkyFlash Yeah, the only downside to the whole Adobe Exchange process is how slow they are to approve a file. It looks like the current waiting period is at least a month. And some people think they have it bad at FlashDen with a 2 day turn around in the approval queue, ha, ha.
Good Post. The Exchange definitely helps. Its just slow as all hell though.