Promoting your software on Giveaway of the Day
Direct Access, on the 3rd May, was featured on Giveaway of the day. This is a Russian website which, each day, offers a special deal on a software application. Here’s a brief report on how the thing works and how it can help market your software. I got convinced on using it after learning the experience of my Italian friends at Incomedia with their web authoring tool Website X5 and our fellow entrepreneur Chris Thompson with GoCRM.
What is Giveaway of the day
When you list your software on Giveaway of the day you are basically offering it for free to anyone that requests it for one day only. Your software is listed on the main page of this site (which really gets a lot of traffic) for one day. The licensing process ensures that people get your software for free only for the promotion day.
The licensing can be handled directly by Giveaway of the day or you can create your custom registration system (which I warmly suggest). They package your application with their executable so that it installs only on the day of the promotion (users have to install and activate that software that day).
Why would you want to give your software for free? Basically to increase your visibility and future referrals. So, the idea is quite different from other deal of the day sites, like Bits du jour, which are meant to increase your sales for a day.
Normally, the license you offer has the following limitations: no support, no commercial use, no upgrades.
My experience with Direct Access
The Setup
I have my website hosted so I was a little scared not being able to handle the traffic, especially as I decided to use my own registration algorithm that generates the licenses and sends them via email to the users. So I asked my good friend Marcus Tettmar to host a backup of the registration server application which ended being handy as I had a couple of problems with the main server (very slow DB).
As you can see, the traffic is consistent: almost 12,000 visitors and about 37,000 page views and about 15GB bandwidth. As you can see from the charts, the peak is at 9am (Italian time) when the promotion starts with people who are lurking to get their giveaway: then traffic decreases to rise a bit around 3pm when Americans get up. I got a big number of users from Italy, too. Maybe it’s time to start localizing Direct Access.
Data for the 3rd May
Data for the 4th May
Comments arrive at bunches as they are approved by the moderator. I replied promptly and it looks liek that very appreciated by the community. In fact, although, the term say no tech support, I and Marcus – who helped me answering the comments – walked every user through the registration process (which proved more complex than I anticipated). Also the number of email I received was conspicuous: more than 400. Fogbuz along with Direct Access proved to be of great help to quickly answer emails.
Andrew Klein, of BladedThoth.com, wrote a mini review of Direct Access (he reviews all the software listed on Giveaway of the day). He made good comments and gave me good starting point for future improvements of the product.
The problems I got
Fortunately, things went pretty smooth and the vast majority of users got their registration email in few seconds. The major problem I had was, as expected, with the license file delivery. My license is delivered as a lic file (which is a signed XML file). A number of support requests were related to license problems (email not received, spam filters, corrupted license file, license file embedded into the email instead as shown as attachment, people not proficient with using their pc and requesting assistance…) and some others to installation problems (mainly, people not having the .NET framework). In addition to that, as I used the term “register on my website” a number of people went to the register link on the nagarsoft.com website instead of the specific page for Giveaway of the day.
The Results
I still need to finish analyzing the data, but about 3,500 people registered Direct Access and got their license (which registration coming at a rate between 120 to 180 per hour). I assume that a number will stop using it but it will nevertheless give me a solid user base that will help me discover new uses of the software and shaping the development of the product and provide useful support and a number of them, hopefully, will upgrade to the future versions. 
What kind of software performs best
Giveaway of the day is visited by people with different IT background and you get a lot of novices with very little experience. So it looks like that the software that work best is the one with no learning curve where the user can immediately start using it. Niche market tools won’t probably work very well and will get you overwhelmed with support questions.
How to get your software listed
To get your software listed, just write to the support team of Giveaway of the day and you’ll get a reply in few days. If they are interested in listing your software, they will be back to you in a few days and you will even get paid for it. You will send them a brief description of your software (and optionally a description of other software of your company) and you are all set.
Here are some suggestions to make things smooth:
1. Get your server ready: prepare to handle a peak of traffic (I got 12.000 unique visitors in 24 hours). So check with your provider (especially, if your website is hosted) if this will be ok with them or if you need to do anything. Fortunately, your application will be hosted by Giveaway of the day so downloads will not suck up your bandwidth. The Giveaway of the day people will package it in their own executable which will work on the promotion day only.
2. Monitor the forum and your email: people will come up with any kind of question about your software. If you are unresponsive, it’s very easy to get bad comments. Be ready to promptly answer by email and monitor the forum. I replied to each message and sent step by step instructions on how to complete the registration process if necessary. If you sending the registration code via email, problems will happen so be ready to handle things manually.
3. Have a backup ready: if you are implementing your own registration system, if you are on a hosted server, have a backup ready on another server, just in case. My server at webhost4life managed the load pretty well: I just had a couple of problems and having the backup registration server on Mjtnet server worked perfectly. Things can and will get a bit crazy!
4. Make things as simple as possible: try to simplify the procedure to register your software and provide instructional material on your website (screenshots and video tutorials work best). The video tutorials I have at http://www.nagarsoft.com/VideoTutorials.aspx convinced many people who were a little skeptic to download and try the software.
Conclusions
I think that Giveaway of the day is a valuable marketing tool. It will put your software in front of thousands of people. If you are a startup and would like to give your business a boost, this is a tool you should definitely try.
Technorati Tags: microisv, giveaway of the day, nagarsoft, direct access, promotion, software
23 Comments so far
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very nice, you think this would work for FireStats?
I’m not an expert but I doubt it. I saw you already offer a free non commercial license and your product seems focused on a specific niche.
That’s interesting Andrew. It’s been a few days since your freebie was hosted - have you seen an increase in sales generated from what I would assume is a lot of word-of-mouth between potential users?
GAoTD seems to me to be about increasing awareness of products, so I’d be interested to see you post in a few weeks or a couple of months on whether this has had a positive impact on sales - the bottom line for all of us ISVs.
Thanks for the great info, im gonna have to check it out.
I think it takes a little time to see an increase in sales and people who got the software from Giveaway of the day have no need to purchase. However, I’ve seen a boost in downloads.
[…] Vía: negarsoft.com […]
Andrea,
Once again, you have not only provided a great product, but you have provided great information to others looking to start their own software company. I am glad you are so open about these things and I hope the goodwill you garner by doing this results in free publicity and increased sales.
I know that because of these things I plan on giving your software as gifts to some of my computer savvy friends.
Very Respectfully,
Chaim “Tinjaw” Krause
Thanks for your kind words Chaim. I’m happy this information if of use to other microISVs.
Hi Andrea,
I already read your posts about Bits du Jour. I am interested in finding additional ways of promotion for our product (which is a niche tool). Although you say that niche tools won’t work very well we still need to make it more visible.
I would like to know a thing which makes me very curious. What does it mean that the developer will get paid for the software?
Cosmina
Hi Cosmina,
I think it may be worth a try for your product.
Giveaway of the day will also offer you a certain amount of money to distribute your software for free. So, why not?
My recommendation is to monitor the GotD forum and post comments (I don’t see this happen very often). I think that can really make a difference.
Keep in touch with the people that download your software. You’ll be amazed at how many useful comments you’ll get.
My personal suggestion is: try to collect emails to deliver the registration code (that’s much more work but will pay for itself many times over) and keep in touch with your prospects.
Andrea,
Thank you for your quick answer.
I saw on their site that they give you some amount of money but I didn’t understand how they calculate the amount. I thought you would have more information about how they do that.
to create our custom registration system? Otherwise we don’t have access to their contact information?
This is the reason you warmly suggest
I will monitor thei forum. Thank you for the idea.
Cosmina
The amount of money you get is negotiable. They offer you a certain amount depending of the type of product you want to list. They are pretty flexible on that.
If you ask users email you have a way to stay in touch with them, ask their feedback (and many will be happy to provide that) and possibly offer them upgrades to future versions.
The only way to ask them for emails is by creating our custom registration system? The Giveaway of the day don’t provide that in their offer?
Yes, that’s right.
I may be bothering you with all these questions. Suppose you still have to work…
Not at all. If you have more questions for me which you prefer to keep private send me an email.
Thank you Andrea.
I have a question about Bits du Jour. I want to know how do you sell through them. Do you make them their affiliates and give them 30% from your sales?
Yes, that’s right. It looks like the conversation is becoming one to one. Please, if you have other questions, write me by email.
I don’t have any other questions :D.
Thank you very very much for helping me understand how this works.
Andrea,
Did you have any negative feedback from existing subscribers resentful of the fact that others are getting for free what they had to pay for?
I hasten to add that I’m a delighted user who doesn’t begrudge a penny.
I am however, curious. I hope to sell my own product in the not to distant future and I find the experiences you share very useful.
I managed to get Macro Scheduler on Bit De Jour, thanks to your email. At the time I was wondering how somebody might have felt had they payed full amount the day before.
I was thinking it might be a good idea to offer some kind of sweetner for existing users.
I had no problem so far. Just a customer wrote me who was upset since he purchased Direct Access a few days before the promotion. I explained the term of the promotion (no support, no upgrades) and everything was fine.
Ahh, no upgrades.
I can see that could work well.
Include some must-have features in the next major upgrade to entice them to register.
Thanks for taking the time to answer.
Yes, hopefully they will be interested in the features of the new version and will upgrade