Hum… I distribute a “donationware” and I do not fully share this view. The software is very well noted, downloaded thousands of times each month since several years and heavily used all over the world by Mac and PC users but very few people donate.
But this is a professional software and donation can only (easily) be individual. That may explain.
And I must say that I am always grateful to people who make a donation while they are not obliged !
Will see how the MAS goes !
[quote=64342:@Franck Perez]Hum… I distribute a “donationware” and I do not fully share this view. The software is very well noted, downloaded thousands of times each month since several years and heavily used all over the world by Mac and PC users but very few people donate.
But this is a professional software and donation can only (easily) be individual. That may explain.
And I must say that I am always grateful to people who make a donation while they are not obliged !
Will see how the MAS goes ![/quote]
Donationware is one of those odd things where if you don’t set a price folks have no guilt or remorse for paying nothing.
I forget where I saw the write up about some authors shoo changed from donations to low prices & saw their purchases (revenue) go way up.
It had to do with perceived value or something like that.
Sounds crazy but consider that when Apple initially bought NeXT they DROPPED the price of WebObjects from something like $50,000 a seat to $999 or so and virtually no one believed you could have an “enterprise class tool” for $999 but at $50,000 a pop they were happy.
Nothing in WO had changed - just the price.
Even at a low price, sell your app and drop donationware. It is simply perceived as freeware and very few people have any sense of donating. Having been a member of the Association of Shareware Professionals since more than 10 years ago, I have a lot of experience in asking people to contribute (“register”). The usual rate, confirmed by many other members, is usually 1 per a thousand or less.
In terms of revenue, let us admit donationware has the same return rate.
Sell your app $1.00 and have one throusand users download. This is $1000.
Put it for free and hope for donation. One user donates what ? $10 ?
The equation is crystal clear : shareware is dead, donationware is a fool’s trap. No offense, but you have been had for long enough. Stop being a victim and stand for your own creation. Put a price on your software.
Why do you think Association of Shareware Professionals became Association of Software Professionals ?
Get on the MAS with a price tag (more than $1), you won’t be disappointed. The MAS is a tremendous market, and worldwide as well. You will even get customers from France (yes, they exist 
).
I am having most of my software up as donationware - but I enforce a donation, simply saying “Pay as much as you think it is worth”. And I am surprised each time a donation comes in. Most people donate more, than I would have thought they did.
You do not think your efforts are worth it ?
Well… for me the App is in a 5 Euro range. Most people donate 10, or 20 Euros.
When I started in 1987, I had trouble considering my programs worth much more. But after communicating with users, I found out that some of them considered these program useful and worth more. Since then, I learned that users value the usefulness of their acquisitions carefully, and often compare apps. If people pay willingly 10 or 20 euros, maybe it’s time for you to ask for that.
At the beginning, I distributed full featured shareware programs, confident that the sheer number of downloads would generate enough sales. Then I found my stuff offered as “freeware”, stripped of its documentation and order form. That is when I started getting a clue. Shareware should not be full fledged. It should only give a chance to the user to get the feel of the program and then purchase. After all, this is a business I am conducting.
I am particularly satisfied with sales in the MAS. No shareware version there. Just hard sales. And very few support requests. Now I regret the years I spent peddling free evaluation software
Maybe I am considering things with in mind the fact that I pay the rent with my sales…
This is probably the largest difference to the stuff I do. I am a full time lighting and media programmer for events of all kinds, doing TV shows, concerts and all that kinda stuff. So all the Software developing is only a side effect. Since usually if I program something, its something I need for myself. Either because I am not satisfied with software that is already out there, or simply because nothing is in existance yet. But its always very specific… 
Here’s how I sell my “Find Any File” for OS X:
It behaves like shareware/nagware, i.e. I remind the user from time to time to play pay for it but to not otherwise limit the app’s abilities. Once he’s willing to pay, I give him 3 payment options with a title along with them:
$6 - regular
$10 - generous
$15 - very generous
That works pretty well. People get the idea what a fair payment is but if they really want to give me the “five stars + rating”, they choose one of the generous options, usually the $15.
Works for about every 5th payment.
Oh, and this is only doable when I sell thru my website. Via MAS, I charge a fixed $8 instead. Most sales I still make thru the MAS, sadly.
Have you tried to estimate the number of downloads versus the number of payments ?
This is my experience as well. I have been selling on my own web sites for quite a while, but once I placed the apps on the MAS, it picked up drastically
No, because I cannot easily tell which downloads are new users and which are just updates.
In general, the number of conversions from download into paid is considered a brilliant success if you get to 2% sales per 100 downloads. Most statistics are much lower. This would help you refine your nagging method.
Again, my case may be particular because my donation software is to be used in a professional (scientific) environment. So, it is ot for personal use but It replaces very costly softwares.
It is downloaded about 3000 times a month (since about 7-8 years). I get less then 10$ per month…
But I am still happy when I see it used all over the world !
So the rate of return is only 0.3 donation per a thousand downloads ? You really may want to revise the status of the next version…
You do not need to charge a lot, but my example of a $1.00 price would get you thousands already !
FWIW I am running 10.9.2 and used App Wrapper 2.5 to codesign and Sandbox my app. I was able to successfully run the app, log in with my Itunes connect test user, and receive a MAS receipt. (I didn’t need any work arounds).
I used Thomas Tempelmann’s blog to do this since it was my first app submission.
Do you know how much of the procedure is covered by App Wrapper or App Wrapper Mini?
I don’t know 100% but Sam Rowlands is on here alot and is superhelpful.
I do know App Wrapper did this for me: Code signed, Sandboxed, created the PKG file, told me what plist variables needed changing. I used 2.5 and not “App wrapper mini”.
App Wrapper took me 5 minutes to do all of that and it was Ridiculously Easy!! Well worth the price!!!
I also used the MacOSLib Xojo code in my app.open like Thomas’ blog states for the receipt validation.
So, it seems that you just need to add the receipt validation to the App.Open routine and run the built app through App Wrapper?
Yes Simon using OS X 10.9.2 and the newest app wrapper along with the macoslib Xojo code in app.open.
I just opened the wrapped version and the iTunes login appeared. I used my test account and it worked awesome. I was able to see the receipt in the folder after the successful app launch.
That’s great.
I have developed a lot of in-house apps but am venturing to the MAS for the first time and am a little lost. I have purchased App Wrapper Mini and, as far as I can see from the Ohanaware web-site this should be fine for me.
I know I have to register as an Apple developer but then do I have to download Xcode etc.? Or, maybe the better question is, what do I have to install?