Edit: Just after I posted this, I found Sidnei's work, so it is basically what I was thinking of. Good job :)

How to promote Plone packages today ?

Since eggs became a standard in Zope, distribution of Plone packages can be done directly to the Cheeseshop. This is quite nice since anyone can invoke an upload command like this:
$ python setup.py bdist_egg upload

This makes the package uploaded and available to anyone. This also made anyone able to promote his work without having to set up a web site or to study how the community works on that point.

I am pretty new to the Plone community, and I am trying to find the best way to promote Plone packages we do here.

My guess is that the Cheeseshop is perfect for Python package but not enough for Plone packages: in order to promote them, the best place is the plone.org software center. It brings a tracker, a front page and a release folder. In other words, anyone who wants to publish a Plone product that is seen by the whole community has to take care of uploading its packages into plone.org, or setting a link there, and to the cheeseshop.

If you have a better way to promote your Plone products, let me know !

I think this process could be enhanced a little bit through automation.

Making plone.org pypi-compatible

The Pypi index has two main features PloneSoftwareCenter does not afaik:
- it implements a [file_upload method][], that is called by setuptools when the upload command is invoked - it provides package index pages that allow [easy_install][] to look for a package

These two features are very simple, and could be added in Plone Software Center by:
- adding a file_upload view on the products page - providing an index-compatible view (PSC has a DOAP support though)

In other words, that would allow calling the upload command on plone.org like this:
$ python setup.py bdist_egg upload --repository=http://plone.org/products/

Another command could be added in setuptools to distribute a plone package automatically:
$ python setup.py plone_promote

plone_promote would invoke bdist_egg then make an upload on cheeseshop and/or plone.org. In other words, that would allow package developers to promote their work without pain.

Having such feature would also allow people to create their own Pypi-compatible private software center when they deal with private package they want to make available for instance to private project buildouts.

If people think it's a good idea, I am willing to code it in PSC (I made a proposal on the bug tracker).