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How I doubled the price of my software product and sold ten times as many copies

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Re: How I doubled the price of my software product and sold ten times as many copies

#41

Post by CoreDumpling »

nhebb wrote: post #14

I initially sold my app for $39.95. Trying this trick about 4 years ago, I doubled the price to $79.95. Sales went down. Way down. I backed it off to a 50% increase - $59.95 and sales came back up. The volume was lower than at $39.95, but the revenues were higher. I also sell site licenses for the product at $995, and I bumped that up 50% to $1495. The sales cycle is typically longer, so I let that price stand for a…

I'd guess that $995 was within the $1000 corporate credit limit, and $1495 was not.

Joel's article on pricing ought to be required reading, even if he offers no hard and fast answers: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/CamelsandRubberDuckie...

Re: How I doubled the price of my software product and sold ten times as many copies

#43

Post by stayjin »

msencenb wrote: post #39
stayjin wrote: post #35

Am I the only one that cannot stomach the idea ( doctrine ) that one should sell his product as pricier as he can get away with or so that one maximizes revenue? I can understand that when I don't have a clue about how much is my product value, I can probe the market for an optimal price setting, but... but then again I should not be clueless about my niche and my product costs, should I? If I have a concrete plan sa…

"Am I the only one that cannot stomach the idea ( doctrine ) that one should sell his product as pricier as he can get away with or so that one maximizes revenue?" There is a fine line here. In my mind a product should be priced relative to the value it creates for people. If this price point provides more money than one needs to sustain daily life then I think its a perk. Besides that if I make a product that is mak…

I can see your point and I think "the value it creates for people" ( including both developer and customer ) is a good metric for how much it should be priced. The problem is, why should we assume that the price is the only ( or the most relevant ) proxy for "value it creates for people"...

Re: How I doubled the price of my software product and sold ten times as many copies

#45

Post by swombat »

pbreit wrote: post #29
swombat wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> whenever I'm searching for something on Android's Marketplace, I tend to look at paid apps first whenever I have a specific need and know what I want, even though I'm a cheap bastard. I do the same in the Apple App Store. I rarely ever browse through free apps. Prior to the App Store, I also very rarely bought any software. Since iPhones and iPads and all that stuff came out, I'm buying a good 1-3 apps per month on…

But, if anything, the App Store has proven that lower, non-zero, prices are better. The App Store has also demonstrated that 0.00 is no longer a magic number when your payment information is on file.

The App Store has also demonstrated that 0.00 is no longer a magic number when your payment information is on file.

Great insight. I'm writing that down somewhere.

Re: How I doubled the price of my software product and sold ten times as many copies

#46

Post by anamax »

stayjin wrote: post #43
msencenb wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Am I the only one that cannot stomach the idea ( doctrine ) that one should sell his product as pricier as he can get away with or so that one maximizes revenue?" There is a fine line here. In my mind a product should be priced relative to the value it creates for people. If this price point provides more money than one needs to sustain daily life then I think its a perk. Besides that if I make a product that is mak…

I can see your point and I think "the value it creates for people" ( including both developer and customer ) is a good metric for how much it should be priced. The problem is, why should we assume that the price is the only ( or the most relevant ) proxy for "value it creates for people"...

> The problem is, why should we assume that the price is the only ( or the most relevant ) proxy for "value it creates for people"...

If you like, think of value as having economic and non-economic components. You're charging money for the economic value.

Re: How I doubled the price of my software product and sold ten times as many copies

#47

Post by eps »

I am really curious to look at this beautifully designed Windows app. I am in the middle of running my own experiment trying to see if a truly high design polish in Windows app can translate to the higher revenues, and it'd be interesting to compare the visuals. If anyone has any pointers as to what the OP app might be, please share.

Re: How I doubled the price of my software product and sold ten times as many copies

#48

Post by credo »

It has been a long time since I read the book, but "Predictably Irrational" (among other things) talks about the same principle - how pricing impacts the perception of quality.

It is a great book that I'd recommend to all entrepreneurs and students of economics

Re: How I doubled the price of my software product and sold ten times as many copies

#49

Post by killerswan »

stayjin wrote: post #35

Am I the only one that cannot stomach the idea ( doctrine ) that one should sell his product as pricier as he can get away with or so that one maximizes revenue? I can understand that when I don't have a clue about how much is my product value, I can probe the market for an optimal price setting, but... but then again I should not be clueless about my niche and my product costs, should I? If I have a concrete plan sa…

Just balance your marginal cost and customer demand to choose production and pricing that maximizes your profits... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microeconomics

If you know customer demand so well that you don't need to experiment, that's awesome.

Re: How I doubled the price of my software product and sold ten times as many copies

#50

Post by chopsueyar »

cschmidt wrote: post #10
chopsueyar wrote: post #4

There was a really excellent HBR article on pricing some years ago. Still relevant.

Have a link or reference?

How Do You Know When the Price Is Right?

by Robert. J. Dolan

Published Sep 01, 1995

http://hbr.org/product/how-do-you-know-when-the-price-is-rig...

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00005RZ5D/ref=as_li_ss_tl?...

I said it was old...but still relevant!

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