5 ms·

Founder here--appreciate the feedback! The name is both tongue-and-cheek as well as an attempt to redeem the word. Years from now, you might search ”keygen for

by ezekg 9y ago

Founder here--appreciate the feedback! The name is both tongue-and-cheek as well as an attempt to redeem the word. Years from now, you might search ”keygen for X” and be shown pages of results related to this product instead of pirated software. And since the product is primarily geared towards developers, I think it works (and also invokes a little curiosity). Also, I haven't seen any SEO issues thus far, especially since I'm not really trying to rank for searches that contain ‘keygen’ right now.

_e 9y ago
I like the name and the TLD. It definitely got my attention. For UI, try IBM code page 437 and include a cracktro.
TylerE 9y ago
> Years from now, you might search ”keygen for X” and be shown pages of results related to this product instead of pirated software. Care to bet money on that? That's rather shocking hubris.
- ezekg 9y ago
  Not really... but what's the point of starting a business if you don't believe in it? I wasn't stating it as fact; it was more of a 'wouldn't this be cool' statement--sorry if I came off wrong.
- _e 9y ago
  Actually, this gave me an idea. The founder of keygen.sh can generate landing pages advertising cracks/serials/keygens for download on tons and tons of different software. When the search engines index these landing pages, whoever has an alert setup to monitor their products will get a notification about your website. Let google automate your marketing. The other benefit is that you can use your logs as a sales tool when pitching your product to developers. "Hey Developer, 38 people came to <<url>> today looking for a crack/serial to your <<software name>>." Hopefully those developers will then visit your page for more information which turns into a sale.
  - rl3 9y ago
    This is brilliant in principle. However, does it run afoul of acceptable SEO practices? Namely those covering autogenerated content.
    - _e 9y ago
      Thank you. It would come down to execution. One way to solve that is to track "scene releases" [0] and download the releases for software you think could become keygen.sh customers. Then reverse engineer the cracks or patches and document the process. Next, show how keygen.sh would have prevented this cracking technique. Now you have original content that will help you sell keygen.sh. A byproduct of this will continuously give you ideas on how to improve keygen.sh. It is very important to note that keygen.sh or any licensing platform will ever be uncrackable but if you can delay the time software gets cracked by a week or two then it could possibly translate into more sales for the keygen.sh customer. At the end of the day, it is on the keygen.sh customer to sell their product and keygen.sh to delay the release of a crack for it. [0] https://torrentfreak.com/27-years-of-warez-scene-release-info-leaked-in-giant-database/ https://torrentfreak.com/27-years-of-warez-scene-release-inf...
      - rl3 9y ago
        >Then reverse engineer the cracks or patches and document the process. Sounds prohibitively work intensive in the extreme.
        _e 9y ago
        There could be ways to automate the process [0] with machine learning [1]. [0] https://www.cuckoosandbox.org/ https://www.cuckoosandbox.org/ [1] http://www.covert.io/research-papers/security/Automatic%20Analysis%20of%20Malware%20Behavior%20using%20Machine%20Learning.pdf http://www.covert.io/research-papers/security/Automatic%20An...
brobinson 9y ago
I'm worried about SMB and corporate firewalls blocking access to your site just because of the presence of the word "keygen". Very, very nice-looking site, though!
- ezekg 9y ago
  Good thing I'm focusing on small- and medium-sized businesses right now, not enterprise. :)
  - brobinson 9y ago
    SMBs do run firewalls and appliances which would likely block your site...
    - ezekg 9y ago
      If that's the case, integrating Keygen server-side using a custom domain e.g. licensing.example.com would get around that, but so far this hasn't been an issue at all.

by ezekg 9y ago

_e 9y ago

I like the name and the TLD. It definitely got my attention. For UI, try IBM code page 437 and include a cracktro.

TylerE 9y ago

> Years from now, you might search ”keygen for X” and be shown pages of results related to this product instead of pirated software. Care to bet money on that? That's rather shocking hubris.

ezekg 9y ago
Not really... but what's the point of starting a business if you don't believe in it? I wasn't stating it as fact; it was more of a 'wouldn't this be cool' statement--sorry if I came off wrong.
_e 9y ago
Actually, this gave me an idea. The founder of keygen.sh can generate landing pages advertising cracks/serials/keygens for download on tons and tons of different software. When the search engines index these landing pages, whoever has an alert setup to monitor their products will get a notification about your website. Let google automate your marketing. The other benefit is that you can use your logs as a sales tool when pitching your product to developers. "Hey Developer, 38 people came to <<url>> today looking for a crack/serial to your <<software name>>." Hopefully those developers will then visit your page for more information which turns into a sale.
- rl3 9y ago
  This is brilliant in principle. However, does it run afoul of acceptable SEO practices? Namely those covering autogenerated content.
  - _e 9y ago
    Thank you. It would come down to execution. One way to solve that is to track "scene releases" [0] and download the releases for software you think could become keygen.sh customers. Then reverse engineer the cracks or patches and document the process. Next, show how keygen.sh would have prevented this cracking technique. Now you have original content that will help you sell keygen.sh. A byproduct of this will continuously give you ideas on how to improve keygen.sh. It is very important to note that keygen.sh or any licensing platform will ever be uncrackable but if you can delay the time software gets cracked by a week or two then it could possibly translate into more sales for the keygen.sh customer. At the end of the day, it is on the keygen.sh customer to sell their product and keygen.sh to delay the release of a crack for it. [0] https://torrentfreak.com/27-years-of-warez-scene-release-info-leaked-in-giant-database/ https://torrentfreak.com/27-years-of-warez-scene-release-inf...
    - rl3 9y ago
      >Then reverse engineer the cracks or patches and document the process. Sounds prohibitively work intensive in the extreme.
      - _e 9y ago
        There could be ways to automate the process [0] with machine learning [1]. [0] https://www.cuckoosandbox.org/ https://www.cuckoosandbox.org/ [1] http://www.covert.io/research-papers/security/Automatic%20Analysis%20of%20Malware%20Behavior%20using%20Machine%20Learning.pdf http://www.covert.io/research-papers/security/Automatic%20An...

brobinson 9y ago

I'm worried about SMB and corporate firewalls blocking access to your site just because of the presence of the word "keygen". Very, very nice-looking site, though!

ezekg 9y ago
Good thing I'm focusing on small- and medium-sized businesses right now, not enterprise. :)
- brobinson 9y ago
  SMBs do run firewalls and appliances which would likely block your site...
  - ezekg 9y ago
    If that's the case, integrating Keygen server-side using a custom domain e.g. licensing.example.com would get around that, but so far this hasn't been an issue at all.