I have seen several shareware sites that feature "virus free", and "spyware free" certified logos. I am planning on marketing my software for profit, but would it be worthwhile to get some sort of certification logo on the download page for my software?
A company called International Charter offers something called a "safe download" certification. Do you think something like this would actually increase download numbers?
The only way to know for sure is to measure it by tracking clicks, but I doubt it would make much of a difference. Despite all the warnings about viruses the average user has no qualms about downloading and running any software from anywhere on the web. As for the, shall we say, "above-average" user, they will see these certification logos for what they are - meaningless marketing BS.
If you really want to test it, I wouldn't be paying for any such logo. Just make your own graphic that says "virus free" or whatever and test with that (without saying anything that isn't true, of course). The user is unlikely to make any distinction between that and a certification provided by another company.
Make up your own logo. None of the commercial schemes are worth the pixels they're printed on.
The only scheme with any consumer recognition is TRUSTE's Trusted Download Program, and even that has a hopeless reputation, perhaps because the only people who want to pay to join it are those with dodgy-looking software they want to insist is fine.
Look at their whitelist, full of crappy marketing toolbars that have in the past been installed by browser exploits, companies with no disclosed address hiding being private whois, and “research” software that's basically spyware but with a logo saying it's not spyware on it — do you want to spend any time in the company of this kind of software?
It sounds like you are on Windows. I think you should look into certificate-based code signing if you are interested in providing any level of assurance to an end user. At least with that a user can be reasonably sure that your organization created the application. Users will see that the application is signed when they download with some browsers (IE and Chrome at least).
You could go a bit further and "logo" certify the application for Windows. To do this one of Microsoft's third parties will test the application for a fee, and if it meets a set of criteria then it'll pass. The set of criteria is published and depends on the Windows version you certify on. This allows you to use the logo in your product marketing and it will give you credit towards Microsoft partnership certification.
To market your software you've got to make it easy to use, to download, and then hit your target market. Perhaps you can start a blog and generate some interest with these target users. Find them on Twitter and listen, then reach out to them. A few quality users talking about your product will make a massive difference to your downloads.
The only true way to show the user that your software is virus-free and spyware-free with absolute trust is by open-sourcing your code.
Other then that, there are no trusted certifications for such things. You could just go ahead and create your own logo if you wish.
The best commerical/closed source "virus-free" "certification" is having it not marked as as virus by anti-virus software. Note that I put those words in quotes becuase anti-virus software is not a 100% guarantee that software is virus-free.
Dear,
We are a Brazilian Company and we work with the Regional Council of Engineering (CREA-SP). Annually, we issue a CD containing a database of associates and customers also participating in our project. We wonder what is the best product to make sure that our CD is free of viruses and what is the price. Sincerely,
Luiz improve - Publisher EBGE SP