Title says it all…
MacUpdate want to sell my app direct.
Anyone any experience/ joy/ pitfalls to relate?
I considered selling through them, but I am afraid they are getting sadly behind. The number of downloads of the trial is downright ridiculous. Then I asked about pay per click but they want $500 up front.
To only break even it would have taken 30 sales, which I frankly doubt they can make.
We do, we sell a couple of copies a month. Being apart of a MUBundle is where you can really make some money.
What % of the original selling price does an author get in such a bundle ?
Last one looked like authors might get 25% of the original selling price (if that).
Does that turn into long term users & repeat buyers/updaters or one time “sale shoppers” only ?
Depends on the bundle, but 2~5% is about right.
I would day that depends on the product. App Wrapper for instance, we often sell copies through bundles and then people re-new in the future, and vice versa. I don’t have any exact figures. It’s only recently have we been able to see this kind of information (because all serial numbers are generated through a Xojo made web app at sale time).
To be honest with you; most of the Mac ‘download’ sites are a bit of a wasteland nowadays. I do wonder if there’s a general slowdown in Mac app development?
[quote=332548:@Sam Rowlands]Depends on the bundle, but 2~5% is about right.
[/quote]
Ouch
[quote=332548:@Sam Rowlands]
To be honest with you; most of the Mac ‘download’ sites are a bit of a wasteland nowadays. I do wonder if there’s a general slowdown in Mac app development?[/quote]
Or a side effect of the Mac App Store being the easiest way to find & get stuff for a lot of people ?
[quote=332553:@Norman Palardy]@Sam Rowlands Depends on the bundle, but 2~5% is about right.
Ouch[/quote]
I have the experience that a close friend of mine ran a bundle site for a while and it’s not the cash cow that it might seem. However it’s a great way to promote applications and to get them to reach to new customers, not to mention a great way to promote your brand. One of the alternatives is to pay for advertising, which in our experience has never really paid off. But then we can’t afford huge advertising budgets and have to design the campaigns ourselves. It seems that I’ve actually had more luck with designing flyers for my friends Thai restaurant!
I would agree that technically the Mac App Store is the #1 place for people to find apps; but we’ve noticed a huge slowdown with the App Store also. I’m pretty certain that the main reason is over-saturation, caused by the clone armies (companies that take anything half successful and create a cheap copy). I also believe that the second biggest problem of the App Store is the App Sandbox. There’s a bunch of apps that I use, which are no longer available in MAS either because they couldn’t be Sandboxed to begin with or as Apple have changed their rules, cannot be sold in MAS.
If Apple would work with developers who couldn’t sell their apps in MAS, and figure out secure ways to allow developers to accomplish tasks, MAS would have a lot more Pro level applications and IMHO would be more vibrant. Instead (as in the case for Panic), they simply don’t care.
[quote]@Norman P What % of the original selling price does an author get in such a bundle ?
Depends on the bundle, but 2~5% is about right.[/quote]
hahahahahahahaha
But I cant find any details of their percentage on individual sales in the FAQ
(You’ld imagine that would have been a pretty FAQ, wouldnt you?)
If you have a chance to recoup your tremendous loss of margin in renewal, that is feasible. But frankly on such a small market it is a severe proposition.
It really feels as if the MAS is the only game in town, and even so, it is far from being as vibrant as it once was. Guess iOS push is making an expected dent.
Altogether, Windows Software is barely breathing, Mac has seen better days and seems on its way to a (too) peaceful existence.
The slump in sales is not necessarily limited to the old PC/Mac market, though. From I read around, iOS and Android have been impacted lately, and even Amazon physical stuff sellers are complaining !
MacUpdate has also started to get a very bad reputation for encapsulating apps in their own installer that tries to install adware.
Indeed. And that will run even more people away. I think they are getting desperate.
BTW, I just checked the statistics. I have 4 apps available for purchase on MU since April, ZERO sale 
In case you wonder, three of them usually never sell less than one per day on the MAS.
Mac Update is a corpse.