How to Correctly Tag your ActiveDen Files

Tagging your FlashDen files has never been more important. Why? Because about a month ago, we indexed all the tags you’ve been adding to your FlashDen items and users can now search on keywords contained in your tags. This is crucial to getting your files noticed in search results. With over 8,000 files on FlashDen now, it’s important that your files are not missing from customer searches due to a lack of tags.

Common Mistakes

There are three common mistakes authors are making when they upload new files: Firstly, there are a lot of authors leaving the tag fields blank. Secondly, a lot of authors are using poor or pointless keywords. Finally, some authors are incorrectly tagging their files. Let’s take a closer look at how authors can improve their tagging.

1. Use the new beta upload form!

Part of the reason some authors aren’t tagging their own files is because they’re still using the old upload form when submitting files. The old upload form does not allow you to add tags! The old upload form will soon be disappearing forever to make way for the new (currently in beta) upload form, so the sooner you switch to the new upload form, the better!

If you use the old upload form and do not add your own tags, a reviewer will have to add tags for you. While reviewers add accurate and relevant tags, it is not their responsibility to add all 15 tags, so why lose the control and accuracy of allowing someone else to tag your own files? Be responsible for your own tags and add them when you upload your file!

2. Add your tags to the correct fields

This is what the empty tagging fields look like when you begin the upload file process:

One of the biggest mistakes we’re seeing is that, authors are putting incorrect information into the Subject and Features fields. Here’s an example: If the file you are uploading is an XML Image Gallery, you should put “image” and “gallery” into the Subject field and “xml” into the Features field. Because a feature of your file is XML. Here’s what all your tags should like using our image gallery example:

3. Color

If the color in your file can be totally changed and customized, don’t waste time listing “green”, “red”, “yellow”, “blue” etc… in the colors field, simple use “customizable” as show in the previous screenshot.

4. Little tips and hints

• You can only use 15 tags, use them carefully and wisely! Don’t waste 10 of those tags listing colors. Most customers search on features and subjects rather than colors.
• Use lower case letters for all your keywords! And separate all your tags with commas like this: “image, gallery, photo, slideshow”.
• Use US-English spelling, so don’t type “grey”, type “gray”.
• Also, don’t repeat words, it won’t add any benefit to your file. For example, adding “color”, “colors”, and “colored” will not give you any advantage in the search results. Generally speaking, if a word like “colored” already contains the word “color”, then you do not need to add “color” a second time because it’s already part of the word “colored”.
• There’s no need to repeat what’s already in the title. If your file is called “3d cow”, there’s no reason to add “3d” or “cow” to your keywords. They’ve both already been counted.
• Click here for information on when it is and isn’t acceptable to use trademarked names as tags.

5. Think about what customers would search for

When customers come to a site what keywords do they search on? Thinking about what customers search for will help you accurately tag your own files. If you are uploading a Flash mp3 player for example, don’t add words like “cool” or “awesome” or “really nice”, add “mp3″, “audio”, “music”, “player” and so forth instead. These are the words customers will typically type into the search field to find the files they are looking for.

6. Never attempt to game the system!

If you are uploading a preloader, do not add “video” or “gallery” or “template” to try to game the system. This is not allowed and you will be wasting your own time and the reviewer’s time by trying to game the system. And any excessive gaming will of course be reported to support. Naughty, naughty! It’s important to point out here that, although you can add your own tags, they will always be reviewed by the reviewer before publishing your file. This ensures fair competition amongst all members and keeps all tags focused and on-topic.

7. You can always update your tags at a later time

You are welcome to add tags, remove tags or change tags at any time. Perhaps you make an update to your file for example with a new feature and you need to add a new keyword to one of the tag fields. Once an item has been accepted and published, simply go to your item page and click the Edit tab as shown below. From there, you can tweak your tags and resubmit them for a reviewer to check them before publishing your changes.

Get Tagging!

It’s never too late to go back and add tags to you existing portfolio of files. In fact, we totally recommend you do that if you want to do everything you can to maximize potential sales. If anyone has any questions about tagging or has some tips to share not covered in this post, please share them in the comments, we’d be glad to answer any queries you may have!