How do you get users for your applications?
How do you get users for your applications?
For those of you who have released freeware or shareware applications, what are some good ways of getting new users? Any good stories or tips to share?
Last edited by firace on Thu Feb 23, 2017 12:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Re: How do you get users for your applications?
The best sites to announce your software (IMO) are below. When I post updates of my apps to these, I get good hits to my website for a few days afterwards, and usually 3 or 4 sales. Not much to be happy about, but there you go. I actually think the "trick" is to announce quite often to these sites to keep your app constantly in the public eye, because one particular company (not mine) releases an update every two weeks and the change log is always just "internal changes". 
In other words, I reckon it's bullsh*t and he just wants to keep being freshly listed. I'm thinking of trying this, too. 
Anyway, the best software sites that I personally use are:
Softpedia.com - Fantastic to be listed in, and so easy to work with!
MajorGeeks.com - Superb, but hard to get into (they're very selective).
FileHippo.com - Very good results, but leans more towards freeware.
Download.com - Don't believe the hype: I don't get many hits from being listed there. I think this used to be good but its reputation is really down the drain now. I recently updated my apps with it and got no major increase in hits to my site (compared to what the sites above do). Apparently Tucows.com is down the drain too, so skip that.
I've also tried advertising on Facebook and Reddit - both didn't result in any sales or many hits. Reddit's stats said over 12000 people saw my ad but only 12 clicked on it, and no sales resulted. I haven't tried Google AdWords yet because to be honest I don't fully understand it - it looks too complicated and I feel like I would be throwing my money away. More expensive than Facebook and Reddit, too.
Lastly, I also tried two different "giveaway" sites where you make your app free for 3 days (or whatever you choose). Instantly got 1500 visits to my website in one day from one of them (my usual is around 100 hits per day), and despite apparently over 2000 people registering their interest (with their email address given to me) and downloading my app, I made zero sales from it. When I emailed 100 of them to ask if they were interested in upgrading, most replied with "no thanks and unsubscribe". Therefore 2000 people just got it for free.
Luckily it was limited in functionality and can't be upgraded without payment, so I think the people who go to those sites just want a quick freebie with no intention of buying. A shame, because my app is $19 and I was really hoping to (ideally) get 2000 x $19 = $38000 from it. Even just 100 x $19 = $1900 would've been nice.
As they say, writing the software is the easy part; marketing is hard. There are no easy solutions. Just keep getting the word out to as many people as you can. Put your website in your email signature with a catchy tagline to entice people to click it. Answer questions in forums (like Reddit) with links to your software that answers those questions (but not too often though, as you'll get banned. Apparently only 1 in 10 posts can be a link back to your site; any more and they ban you). I do get hits to my site from my Reddit posts, so that's good.
Another thing I do is use Google Alerts to get real-time messages from Google when a particular phrase relating to my products is found on a website. So if I was selling dog food and a new alert came to me about dog food from site XYZ, I could then go to XYZ to see if any discussion forum is there about it, and make my own post to let people know what I'm offering.
It's a good tactic because the discussion is fresh in everyone's mind, so your product will be 100% relevant to what they're talking about, but you do risk getting banned from the forum if your post looks too spammy.
That's all I can think of for now. I'm not a marketer and still learning this part of the game.
In other words, I reckon it's bullsh*t and he just wants to keep being freshly listed. I'm thinking of trying this, too. Anyway, the best software sites that I personally use are:
Softpedia.com - Fantastic to be listed in, and so easy to work with!
MajorGeeks.com - Superb, but hard to get into (they're very selective).
FileHippo.com - Very good results, but leans more towards freeware.
Download.com - Don't believe the hype: I don't get many hits from being listed there. I think this used to be good but its reputation is really down the drain now. I recently updated my apps with it and got no major increase in hits to my site (compared to what the sites above do). Apparently Tucows.com is down the drain too, so skip that.
I've also tried advertising on Facebook and Reddit - both didn't result in any sales or many hits. Reddit's stats said over 12000 people saw my ad but only 12 clicked on it, and no sales resulted. I haven't tried Google AdWords yet because to be honest I don't fully understand it - it looks too complicated and I feel like I would be throwing my money away. More expensive than Facebook and Reddit, too.
Lastly, I also tried two different "giveaway" sites where you make your app free for 3 days (or whatever you choose). Instantly got 1500 visits to my website in one day from one of them (my usual is around 100 hits per day), and despite apparently over 2000 people registering their interest (with their email address given to me) and downloading my app, I made zero sales from it. When I emailed 100 of them to ask if they were interested in upgrading, most replied with "no thanks and unsubscribe". Therefore 2000 people just got it for free.
Luckily it was limited in functionality and can't be upgraded without payment, so I think the people who go to those sites just want a quick freebie with no intention of buying. A shame, because my app is $19 and I was really hoping to (ideally) get 2000 x $19 = $38000 from it. Even just 100 x $19 = $1900 would've been nice. As they say, writing the software is the easy part; marketing is hard. There are no easy solutions. Just keep getting the word out to as many people as you can. Put your website in your email signature with a catchy tagline to entice people to click it. Answer questions in forums (like Reddit) with links to your software that answers those questions (but not too often though, as you'll get banned. Apparently only 1 in 10 posts can be a link back to your site; any more and they ban you). I do get hits to my site from my Reddit posts, so that's good.
Another thing I do is use Google Alerts to get real-time messages from Google when a particular phrase relating to my products is found on a website. So if I was selling dog food and a new alert came to me about dog food from site XYZ, I could then go to XYZ to see if any discussion forum is there about it, and make my own post to let people know what I'm offering.
It's a good tactic because the discussion is fresh in everyone's mind, so your product will be 100% relevant to what they're talking about, but you do risk getting banned from the forum if your post looks too spammy.That's all I can think of for now. I'm not a marketer and still learning this part of the game.
Last edited by Dude on Tue Feb 28, 2017 6:58 am, edited 2 times in total.
Re: How do you get users for your applications?
Wow, awesome information! Thanks for sharing.
Re: How do you get users for your applications?
Hi,
Right now, most traffic and sales comes from Google.
So, find the main keywords for people searching something that are closely related to your software and try to rank as high as possible in Google.
I am using GSA SER to help me getting high rankings in Google.
IMHO software sites are not more the soruce of sales. Things has changed and now basically are Google. If you can find Forums related to your niche (but i mean HUGE forums) that let you advertise your software, could help too.
Right now, most traffic and sales comes from Google.
So, find the main keywords for people searching something that are closely related to your software and try to rank as high as possible in Google.
I am using GSA SER to help me getting high rankings in Google.
IMHO software sites are not more the soruce of sales. Things has changed and now basically are Google. If you can find Forums related to your niche (but i mean HUGE forums) that let you advertise your software, could help too.
ARGENTINA WORLD CHAMPION
Re: How do you get users for your applications?
I think ricardo's right: you need to have the relevant keywords and search phrases in your product pages. That way Google matches up what people are searching for, with your website. Well, that's the idea anyway... doesn't always work like that in reality.
Re: How do you get users for your applications?
You are only discussing the distribution channel, but there are a lot of other points to be taken into consideration to make a program successful:
- Is your program needed at all by someone?
- What is the benefit of your program?
- Is your customer willing to spend money on this investment?
- Are there free or cheaper alternatives for your customers?
- Does the price / performance ratio agree?
- Does the program meet expectations at all?
- Can he use the program intuitively?
- Can he use the program without having to read the manual for a long time?
- Does the operation and the appearance match the standards?
- Is the program error-free?
- .....
Believe me, to be able to sell something successfully, many points must be fulfilled. The best and most expensive advertising will not do any good if you want to sell a sneaky product. Conversely, you will not be able to sell a good product if too many other points are not correct.
- Is your program needed at all by someone?
- What is the benefit of your program?
- Is your customer willing to spend money on this investment?
- Are there free or cheaper alternatives for your customers?
- Does the price / performance ratio agree?
- Does the program meet expectations at all?
- Can he use the program intuitively?
- Can he use the program without having to read the manual for a long time?
- Does the operation and the appearance match the standards?
- Is the program error-free?
- .....
Believe me, to be able to sell something successfully, many points must be fulfilled. The best and most expensive advertising will not do any good if you want to sell a sneaky product. Conversely, you will not be able to sell a good product if too many other points are not correct.
sorry for my bad english
Re: How do you get users for your applications?
just on a related note, this isn't major but probably something to be aware of - https://arstechnica.com/information-tec ... the-store/
Re: How do you get users for your applications?
Money generating system : First, you have a choice (They said : Mega Feature)... 2nd you have no choice at all! (They said: Security Risk)Keya wrote:just on a related note, this isn't major but probably something to be aware of - https://arstechnica.com/information-tec ... the-store/
Re: How do you get users for your applications?
Dude wrote:I think ricardo's right: you need to have the relevant keywords and search phrases in your product pages. That way Google matches up what people are searching for, with your website. Well, that's the idea anyway... doesn't always work like that in reality.
I think that, right now, most of your time will be devoted to marketing. Its not easy or trivial get good rankings in Google for competitive niches/keywords.
But there is NOT ANOTHER CHOICE.
I make a living from selling software and most part includes, in one way or in another, Purebasic, sometimes combined with PHP, javascript, etc.
And in my case, the name of the game is MARKETING (read Google) if you want to get sales.
Its NOT easy at all, but is something that can't be ignored.
Almost for sure, you will need to use some seo tools like SeNuke, GSA SER, etc. to achieve that.
ARGENTINA WORLD CHAMPION