The excitement over the arrival of the iPhone is justifiable. But along with that excitement comes an avalanche of download sites where you can get copyrighted Apps for free. It is worth reminding ourselves that using these kinds of sites is illegal at best and dangerous at worst. It is silly to use them because there are so many great membership sites that are just as good as iTunes and legal at the same time. In fact there are so many, it’s good to have some criteria to use to pick the very best one. Here are 10 secrets to use to evaluate what the best download site must look like to get your business.

1. Do you pay by the download on just once for the membership?

The downside of a membership site that lets you in free is then they hit you with a fee for each song you download. If you use the service a lot, that can run into quite a tab. A one-time fee membership site is a far better value.

2. How Much Music Do They Have?

Before you plunk down your credit card to sign up for a download site, go through their inventory to make sure they have lots of variety. Also, confirm that they get new music frequently. If they do well with their inventory, you can stay with that kind of site for a long time.

3. Look For a Big File Selection and Media Diversity Including Downloadable Movies And TV Shows.

To get what you pay for, the download site should give you access to thousands of files of every music genre imaginable. Along with all kinds of music, the site should offer cool movies, games, software utilities and TV shows all downloadable under your membership agreement.

4. Does the download site have a good internet interface?

It is a lot easier to find the songs you want to download using the website than browsing using your iPhone. So use the nonmember area of the website to get a feel for how well the website performs to make sure you can use it well to find all the music you love.

5. Does the Download Site Provide Software for File Conversion and Compatibility?

The whole idea of getting a download site membership is to easily convert music to play on your iPhone. So the download site should have all of the software utilities for downloading music as well as video. If files need to go through a conversion software package to play on the iPhone system, they should provide that software too at no charge.

6. Are the Download Speeds Fast?

Make sure that the download site doesn’t set a limit on download speeds. Small download operations will do that because their servers are limited. This can be a real frustration when you want your music fast.

7. The Files Your Download Must be 100% Safe.

The problem of using file sharing sites like Limewire of BitTorrent is that it is easy to download a nasty virus filled with spyware, adware or something worse. The idea of using a paid site is to be able to download music legally and safely. Make sure the download site has some tools to get rid of dangerous files from their system. But don’t stop there. Get some good security software to scan your computer for adware, spyware and viruses regularly. Those two levels of security can go a long way to keep bad files off of your computer and your phones.

8. Who Likes Them?

One great way to find a download site that you know will work great is to ask your friends. If they have a strong reputation with people you know, that means a lot. You can also look at how many customers they have and any testimonials are listed on their website to see if they are well regarded by their customers.

9. What Does Their Customer Service Look Like?

When you pay good money for a download site, you want service if anything goes wrong. You can tell if they have put some effort into customer support by looking at their FAQ section of the website. But ask some questions of people who use them or using their online inquiry resource to find out if customer support is 24/7 and fast. Anytime you put in a service request, you should get an answer within 24 hours or they are not living up to their part of the bargain.

10. Can You Pay Them With Confidence?

If you are going to pay with PayPal or using your credit card, that must be a secure transaction. Research to make sure how the download site accepts payment is safe and that they will not abuse the privilege of taking money from you.