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Show HN: I made $8000 in one day on the Mac App Store

aptonic.com

21–30 of 84 posts

Re: Show HN: I made $8000 in one day on the Mac App Store

#21

You should lower the price point to somewhere between $2-$5 and keep it there. It would be a shame to lose the top app store ranking when it goes back to $15.

You may be right, but another thing to keep in mind is the volume needed to maintain the same amount of income at a lower price point.

Staying higher in the rankings isn't worth it just for the sake of the rankings if you're only making the same amount of money.

Plus, there's the additional support cost.

Re: Show HN: I made $8000 in one day on the Mac App Store

#22
post #17

Interesting, so 6000 x 2 ($12,000) vs 300 x 14 ($4,200) a price elasticity factor of 3. If you are reading John, how did you pick $14 as the price? Pricing software is always difficult because you marginal costs are 0. One school of thought is to take the time needed to write something, pick an hourly rate of what you would have had to pay a person to write it (or use what it cost you to produce it [1]) and then divi…

The marginal cost is also time and energy spent on support as well.

Excellent point, really its only zero to distribute. Definitely need that cost included as well.

Re: Show HN: I made $8000 in one day on the Mac App Store

#23

Did you actually have any angry customers contacting you who paid full price for the app?

What percentage of people actually get angry at this sort of thing? It's insane for luxury items -- either you value an item at the price it's listed for or you don't. If you don't, why are you buying it in the first place?

Re: Show HN: I made $8000 in one day on the Mac App Store

#24
post #7

How do you separate how much of the sales increase was due to the sharp price drop, and how much was due to promotion by Two Dollar Tuesday?

This is a good point. It'd be hard to measure credit assignment for the success. My guess:

1. Increased exposure: 50%. Buyers got to be reached in the first place.

2. Expiring deal: 40%. This is a close second. Besides establishing urgency to act, it reduces buyer risk without raising value doubt associated with a permanently low price.

3. Lower price: 10%. Lowering the price, IMO, wouldn't have helped much without the increased exposure or the certainty of the price restoration the next day.

Re: Show HN: I made $8000 in one day on the Mac App Store

#25
post #7

How do you separate how much of the sales increase was due to the sharp price drop, and how much was due to promotion by Two Dollar Tuesday?

It's tempting to attribute too much of this to the price itself. Promotion on the App Store(s) can be really tough so a special one-day event like this with coverage from major blogs is extremely valuable. If this were a $5 app that dropped to $2 the developer may have received less lifetime app revenue than he did with this $14->$2 one day promotion—there's a lot of psychological value in being able to get a $14 app for only $2, and only today.

As another data point, so far the only way I've managed to get anyone to notice my app was by making it free (and then it was picked up by all the "free app of the day" feeds and websites, as well as a podcast). I also had a similar "sales" graph:

http://www.syncingdreams.com/2012/03/over-9000.html

Unfortunately my giant spike didn't come with any money since the app was free. I ended up making an extra $40 or so as a result of the "free" day sale (and subsequent 99 cent sale), which is (sadly) a huge spike in terms of percentage though obviously not something to write home about in terms of actual return. I did get a ton of reviews, including some really helpful and thoughtful reviews. Interestingly, even with all the free downloads (which I've read can result in a lot of negative reviews) I'm around 4-5 stars in every region except in Italy where I've been mercilessly panned as a "poor rip-off" of what I can only assume is The Impossible Game (the reviewers there only refer to it as "that famous game").

Re: Show HN: I made $8000 in one day on the Mac App Store

#26
At $1-$2 prices, purchases are made mostly on impulse. This is why I think e-books should come down to that price, too. For many authors the sales would just skyrocket, because people will just start buying 10 books at a time, without even thinking that it may take them a full year to read them all. But they will just "want them there" for a later read.

Re: Show HN: I made $8000 in one day on the Mac App Store

#27
post #10

Good job! btw: I love how their Revenue counter is poised to go up to a trillion dollars.

Conversion to Zimbabwean dollars, naturally.

Since I am the proud owner of 150 trillion Zimbabwean dollars, I'm not sure that counter goes high enough, really.

Re: Show HN: I made $8000 in one day on the Mac App Store

#28

Wow! What a great result! So how does one get featured in the two dollar deal? What have sales done now, back at the normal price? Would you consider dropping the price permanently?

I'm actually the maker of Two Dollar Tuesday. You can click go to developers area on the site if you're interested in featuring an app and we can talk. :)

Thanks for the offer! I don't have any published apps but sure someone will take you up on your offer.

Re: Show HN: I made $8000 in one day on the Mac App Store

#29

At $1-$2 prices, purchases are made mostly on impulse. This is why I think e-books should come down to that price, too. For many authors the sales would just skyrocket, because people will just start buying 10 books at a time, without even thinking that it may take them a full year to read them all. But they will just "want them there" for a later read.

But once they do realize that they have a year's worth (or more) on their reading list, why would they keep coming back to the store to buy 10 more books?

Re: Show HN: I made $8000 in one day on the Mac App Store

#30

This is a great result for a single day, but isn't this a sign of a wrong initial pricing? I would try to lower the price for a month or two, to see how the market reacts. I believe that you still have to find the sweet spot in the price/demand curve.

Not necessarily -- it could be different market segments. There might well be one group who will gladly pay full price, and a different group who'll gamble two bucks just to check something out.

Personally, $0.99-1.99 falls into impulse buy territory, while $14.99 means that I won't buy it unless I'm positive it's exactly what I need.

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