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Is it worth running a lifetime deal?
by
Mark
What's been your experience with it? Was it worth it?
No. Your goal is to find people who want your product so badly that they'll pay you properly and continually for it. If you have to give away a lifetime deal at a (presumably) very low price, you're not testing your market properly - you're entering a market which is too small or offering a product which isn't valuable enough for people to pay you properly for. And that's a lot of grief that you want to avoid.
I offered a lifetime deal on a business which, it turned out, was in a market that was too small to ever make money. Six years of tiny profit later, I'm still honouring that deal for the sake of the customers who rely on it. I suggest that you do not offer a lifetime deal.
DEPENDS!
If this is your first rodeo and you don't have an audience, and the product is still in its nascent stage, yet seems promising.
It's easier to get more feedback and reviews from your LTD audience.
Though keep in mind the LTD audience now has matured and the market is very cutthroat, so they expect a polished product from day 1 with good amount of features, as most LTD users feel like they've been cheated in the past with promises of updates but disappointed with founders running away with their money when the product runs it's course.
There seems to be a fair bit of risks involved both at the user end and the founder. But if done correctly for a limited time it can definitely add as an additional seed fund for the product.
Shameless plug : We're experimenting running an LTD on Appsumo currently https://appsumo.com/products/awedio/
When I was starting my Bootstrappers Community I told people that they could join and pay the membership, but I would never kick them out if they decided to stop paying. Most people either are still active and paying or end up stopping using it and stopped paying. Only one is still very active even though decided not to pay.
I don't have that deal anymore but it was a good way to convince people to join initially. So if you need users to create the initial value for your product I think that it makes sense to have such a deal
It's so tempting but it really isn't sustainable (at any sensible price). I'm still honouring a lifetime deal from nine years ago, though fortunately that's contributing to MRR now because the deal was on an older app that puts users on a path to the new app when they upgrade their phone.
Depends on type of product
depend on the products
I've been running a LTD for the past month, and have been really happy with it. Worth considering if you have a B2B product.
What has worked for me:
I'm a bit ignorant on this - so my monthly subscription is $390, you'd price it at about $390... promote to my 1k email subscribers and then... share on LTD FB communities?
Would love to know numbers for any success you've had :)
The LTD communities are quite price sensitive, I can see some folks complaining $390 is too expensive, so if you have a lower limit/usage plan too that would be received well.
But 10x my $9/mo and $25/mo plans worked well for me. Most folks went for the higher one. I've sold almost 100 LTDs this month via this private sale, might go to one of the marketplaces later (theoretically with higher sales)
Promoting on your email list is great. Promoting in the LTD Facebook communities might not be allowed, check the rules. But someone might bring it up themselves and if you're aware of the conversation, you can answer questions, the buyer's really like that.
Depends on type of product and what you need actually.
Most of time it's not worth because these sites will eat your present traffic and future traffic.
Also if they market your product then yoh will end up paying 60-80% revenue to then only getting 20-25%.
here are some great articles here on IH about lifetime deals:
If it is your personal life time deal, then no. But if you are talking about AppSumo then yes if you have little to no traction. Don't think it as a way to make money but a way to get users to try your platform to validate, get feedback, etc. Hopefully, if your product gives value to other it will slowly grow organically after the LTD.