So, I earned $15,354 on AppSumo. Here are 3 reasons why I won't ever do that again 🙈
1/3 Crazy commission.
I wasn’t able to find out the exact amount of the commission because they made it shady. But people say it is 70%.
Don't get me wrong! I’m OK with giving a cut for having new clients. My affiliate programs have always been ~50% more generous than the average market.
But hey. They just took all my money lol 🙂
AppSumo stats.
2/3 Low-quality clients.
People come to AppSumo NOT for products.
They come for bargains. For the emotions of buying something crazy cheap 🤑
These people are not product guys. They are gamblers.
If you are making SaaS you want to avoid this audience AT ALL COST. These people won’t contribute good to your community.
They will ask you for more and more features and integrations because they want to have a cheap 1000-in-1 tool to pay less.
They will complain a lot because they feel like you are obliged to them.
They will ask a lot of questions and never read guides.
The most important, they will distract you from what your real audience needs.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not blaming these people or calling them bad. I'm blaming AppSumo, which was designed to encourage this behavior.
AppSumo marketplace product.
3/3 Crazy churn.
Out of 210 sales, 71 people asked for a refund. 33%! 😬 It means people bought it because they were under heavy emotions or misled. They did not want it really. Or they just wanted to trick me. All this sounds unhealthy.
I need people who are genuinely interested in my product. People who want it to become better. The ones who will support me and my work. These people are the foundation of my SaaS. AppSumo gives you gelatin instead of concrete for your foundation 🫤
About LTDs in general:
Although I disliked my AppSumo experience, I adore the idea of selling SaaS LTD and I will do that again for my SaaS Paracast.io. It is a great way to build an initial audience around your product and get a cash injection. If you do not want to miss that guide, subscribe to my newsletter: https://10k.isora.me/ (no ads!) 😺
Great points!
Unfortunately, I think a lot of founders find out pretty quickly that relationships matter more than MRR.
My questions to founders thinking of using Appsumo:
1.) What are your off-platform marketing strategies?
2.) How much traffic can you drive to Appsumo versus what you receive organically?
3.) How are you building relationships with those that signup through Appsumo?
In many cases, either there's no answer to those questions, or the idea was that launching on Appsumo would automatigically do the marketing for them.
It won't because it's not designed to.
If anything, it's purpose is to get your first influx of users that you can learn from, refine your product offering with, and then move away from the LTD once you've really nailed what your ideal customer wants.
Easy attention doesn't mean easy retention.
Thanks for the thoughtful addition Charles!
Thanks for sharing your experience. Was considering using.
Thanks for sharing.
Regarding customers who asked for refund, do you have more data on why they cancelled? Maybe there was a misunderstanding between what they expected and what you were selling? Just curious.
Super helpful. Was considering using. Thanks again.
I need only money
If you need money you need strong relationships with clients.
One of my plans is to do some LTD offers at AppSumo, but after read this, I'm not sure anymore. What are the other ways to do LTD without this insane return from customers?
Do LTD standalone, on your own page. My next post will be about it.
Thanks for sharing your experience. I had always thought AppSumo was a little sketchy with their "insane discounts".
These FOMO-generating things are always pushing me away.
Thanks for sharing. I ran an LTD too and have mixed emotions. In one way, we learnt more about product market fit but on the other side, we ran into LTD buyers that had impossible expectations.
wahh
Thanks for sharing. I think another consideration is that, your product may well continue to be 'findable' on sites like AppSumo and, if you've charged off of the 'bargain rack' it may set expectations of low quality or, the idea that you only have to wait for a bargain to come back.
It can happen, but I wouldn't worry about it. If your project is great it is great and people buy it. An AppSumo listing can't break it.
Thanks for the insights!
Hello,
Your sales almost 70% people will know the product after some time then again search for your post.
I was considering LTDs as well but didn't seem like the right choice at the time, I guess I need a bit more research on it in general. Thanks for sharing your first-hand experience!!!!
It could possibly work well. But not as your first launch.
Hey thanks for this insightful experience. I have heard other experiences with other founders on AppSumo. I think I am getting an idea of whether to put up my product there or not. How long does payouts take?
AppSumo customers enjoy a 60 day return policy. For product owners that means you get paid out the net amount for any month (after refunds) two months later, at the beginning of the month. Example: whatever we sold in June (minus the refunds for June) will likely be on our account early next week.
Hey. Not much. A week or so.
guys, I highly recommend checking out: https://www.thebootstrappedway.com/appsumo-breakdown/
there are tens of deals with the actual revenue from Appsumo + other hundreds of deals with their average total revenue
This comment was deleted 2 years ago.