Welcome to Chez Cliff!

We’ve released two upgrades: one for the Free version and the other for the Pro.

Within hours of being released, an email floated into my box stating the new Pro version didn’t work.  The software was crashing and this guy wasn’t too happy abou tit.

Crap.  First bug of the software.

I’m not sure the guy expected to hear a response so quickly but he got one.  Fortunately I was working on an advertising plan when his email came in.  He was probably thinking that for $5, he wouldn’t get much in the way of support.  But he did.  My customer service support is definitely better than Dells.

In the end, we figured out where the problem was.  I informed the Russians, in the hopes that for the next release we can prevent this problem from happening again.

I still felt bad the dude had some problems.  To compensate him for his experience, I sent him a link for a free copy of the eBook.

I wanted his experience to end on a positive note.

In these uncertain economic times, it’s nice to know that jobs are still being created.

Do you want the best job in the world?

Here is what it entails.

You life on and island, next to Australia.  You SCUBA, snorkel, feed the fish, explore other islands, check out a new spa . . . and the only thing you really have to do is blog about it.

Your salary: $105,000 USD.

This actually is a stroke of marketing genius.  The tourism board of Queensland creates this dream job and suddenly the entire world is focused on this site.  So much focus in that it shut down their website.  Over 1 million people within a 3 day span?

Then there are the lingering after effects.  Everyone is going to want to know who was finally selected.   More often than not, these same people are going to subscribe to the weekly blog to find out what this person has to say about their experiences.

In the meantime, Queensland gets a lot of publicity for their $105,000.

Are you going to apply?

My first attempt at trying to get higher conversion rates was the idea of giving my eBook away with the purchase of  a software.

FREE is the most powerful marketing word.

What I decided to do was implement the idea and then wait four weeks to see what the results were.  It may take a few days before people really start to notice the offer.  The best play is to track data over time and see what the results are.  Four weeks seemed sufficient.

On the iTunes screen for my application, the offer for the eBook is front and center.  People have purchased the software and have followed the instructions for getting their prize.

The free eBook idea was implemented Week 5.  Per the data, however, this had no impact on the conversion rates.

After 4 weeks had passed, I did a post-mortem on the idea.  A few people did take advantage of the free eBook, which may have helped sustain sales.  But it didn’t do anything as far as increase sales.

I thought about streamlining the free eBook process.  Right now, it’s four steps to get the free eBook.  But the solution I came up with would be on the expensive side.  I’d rather try and take advantage of other marketing avenues that don’t cost nearly as much or are free.

The next marketing idea has already been implemented.  I won’t be reporting back on that one until the end of February just because I have nothing to report at the moment. 

Now I have some numbers to share with the class.

I have to say for the record that I can’t share income with you guys.  We’re a company with investors and I can’t talk about the money flowing through the doors.  What I can do is discuss conversion rates.

Simply put: conversion rates is the number of people you actually get to perform a specific activity.  For instance, 100 people walk into your store and 10 people actually buy something.  Your conversion rate is 10% (10/100 x 100%) = 10%.

In the online world, you have 5,000 visitors to your site and 1,000 of them sign up for a newsletter.  The conversion rate is 20% (1,000/5,000 x 100%).

This goes without saying: you want your conversion rates to be as high as possible.  If every customer purchases something from your store, your conversion rate is 100% and you’re doing extremely well.  This is where you rely upon your marketing strategy to ensure that your conversion rate is as high as possible.

I’ve been tracking my conversion rate week over week between my free software and my Pro software.  You can see the results below.

Conversion Rates for first 8 weeks

I’m tracking two sets of data.  First is the overall sales (World) and then US sales.  The US conversion rate would be higher than the World’s conversion rate simply because the application is more US-centric.  People in Japan or the Netherlands may try the free version but have little interest in the Pro version.  This drives the world’s conversion rate lower.

Week 1 saw a large spike due to the fact that the Pro version was available on the front page of the iTunes Finance site.  As with Google, first page search results yield the most number of hits.  Since falling off the first page, the number of sales has fallen off.

For my analysis, I’m going to ignore Week 1.  It would be almost impossible for me to keep releasing updates to my software in order to keep it on the first page.  Since 90 to 95% of the time, my application will be on page 2 or greater then those weeks provide a more representative number of how my overall sales will do.

Ignoring Week 1, the conversion rate has held between five and ten percent with the average being 7.8%.  My immediately goal is to raise this to between 10 and 15 percent.  This would effectively double my sales.

How do I play on doing this?

I’m glad you asked.

One thing I’ve learned from the marketing research is that you try one thing, see what works and doesn’t work, and then try something else.  If I implement too many ideas, I won’t know what really worked and what didn’t.

In a future posting, I’ll be talking about the first idea that I tried which met with failure.

I don’t have anything against printers.  It’s not that I hate them, not like Ikea.  It’s just that I don’t think they really serve a purpose in my life.  Everything is digital.  My trip to Paris produced 500 digital photos.  How many of those did I print out?  Two.  How many did I place on the web?  All.

Even eFax has done away with having to have paper copies around.  I compose a document, click the eFax button and away it goes.  Any copies I receive are stored digitally on my hard-drive.  No fuss, no muss.

Now that we’re in the processing of creating multiple streams of passive income, the value of the printer has returned.

When I’m creative, I like to draw.  I’ll print out a specification or a plan and while I’m reviewing, my imagination starts to wander and the pen starts doodling.  What if we did this like this?  Or what if we moved this button over there?  What if the logo zipped around like this?

Thanks to the monitor purchase, the store gave me a $50 printer for free.  Well not exactly free.  It was $50 with a $50 rebate.  

So why am I writing about this?  I’m glad you asked.

I wasn’t aware that printers can now be plugged directly into wireless routers.  Bonus!  No longer does a printer directly have to be plugged into my laptop.  If I’m typing away on the couch, the bed, or even on the patio one click of the button and my printer whirs to life.  More importantly, anyone who joins my wireless network can also print off the printer.

Don’t worry true believer: the network is secured with a password.  I don’t want to be watching the Bourne Trilogy and have the Traci Lords porn collection start appearing in my living room, thanks to one of my neighbors.

And as always, it was no problem setting it up.  After I plugged the printer into my router, my Macbook perked up and asked if I’d like to use that printer.  I clicked “Yes” and everything was done.

You gotta love technology.