Deductions 1.0 has been launched. Deductions is my first product ever, so this is all new to me. At this stage, I’m just trying to get the word out that my product exists. But it is also early days, and so I’m just focussing on the low-hanging fruit. I thought I’d share some of my impressions of the first couple of days, in the hopes this information might be useful to others when they do an initial release.
My aims and expectations for the first two days were modest. First, I wanted to post a press release to prMac. It turns out that free press releases on prMac have a three-day delay. So much for releasing simultaneously with the press release. At least the work of writing the press release is finished.
Second, I wanted to submit Deductions to a collection of download sites. Deductions is now posted on Apple Downloads, MacUpdate, I Use This, Bodega and VersionTracker. These sites moderate their postings (which seems eminently reasonable), but this means you do not have a lot of control over when your application will post (I had this silly idea I’d get it posted everywhere in a day). Deductions posted on MacUpdate first, within about 20 minutes of my submitting. It posted on I Use This and Bodega shortly thereafter, and on VersionTracker and Apple Downloads in just under three days.
All of these sites have different requirements and restrictions (e.g., the descriptions should be a certain length, the application icon and screenshots should be certain sizes, and so on), but it is generally a simple matter: you submit the application, wait for it to be moderated, and it posts. VersionTracker is a bit more complicated than the others, because there are three steps: first you get your account approved, then your company description gets approved, and finally your application gets approved. This process was not difficult, but the stages stretched things out a bit.
I have some statistics on downloads from some of the sites, and they are probably not surprising. For three days on MacUpdate, the downloads have been 73, 22 and 3. Since MacUpdate lists the most recently posted applications first, I’m guessing there is a causal connection between how close to the top of that list the application is, and how many people download it (the application slipped off the first page halfway through the first day). So far, there have been 2 downloads from Bodega, and 52 downloads from VersionTracker. I don’t know about the other sites, and haven’t yet figured out how to get Google Analytics to track download clicks from my own site.
One surprise. An anonymous editor from Softpedia found deducitons and posted it, pulling a description and list of feature from the website. This editor then sent me a message saying that my app was posted to Softpedia, and that if I didn’t like the posting, I could ask for it to be removed. I don’t mind their posting the app. The only problem was that they generated their own screenshots. In particular, the first screenshot reveals that the editor didn’t really get the purpose of the program — and took a screenshot with “softpedia,” “wwwsoftpediacom” and “macsoftpediacom” where logic formulae should be. I’m not blaming the editor; Deductions is a highly specialised program. But the first screenshot does look weird. I submitted some replacement screenshots that makes more sense (hopefully they’ll use it). Oh, and there are 15 downloads from Softpedia so far.
One thing has me a little puzzled: the tracked download count is about 165 over three days, and perhaps there are some others that are untracked (either from sites that do not provide that statistic, or from my own site). The question is: why? I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m happy that people are downloading the program. But Deductions is extremely specialised: it was written for instructors and students of formal logic. I just find it difficult to believe that that many instructors and students of formal logic are trawling the downloads sites. I suspect people download Deductions thinking it is something other than what it is.
So, that is the first three days. I guess letting people know about the program – especially my target audience of instructors and students – gets a bit more difficult from here on out. Maybe it’s time for me to review Wil Shipley’s Monster Marketing video from C4.
