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Lets Help Developers Sell More

G

gajit

Guest
Im sincerely concerned to hear that some products only sell in their hundreds Id like to suggest a few things that may be obvious but might help. I hope that this will be considered constructive and not teaching to "suck eggs"

1. Please put loads of varied screenshots on the product page (where we can find them) so that we can really see the hard work and detail that you have included. When Im thinking of purchasing you can not show me enough! Those who show few all round views of VCs etc make me very suspicious as to what is modelled.

2. Get a usable, user friendly paint kit out simultaniously as repaints appear all over different forums and are free adverts. More repaints makes the product look more popular.

3. Enlist in advance some of the fantastic repainters to support the product - they will also be excellent beta people and create a wide range to impress us on those screenshots - provided your willing to sacrifice a few sales.

4. Be upfront about "known issues" that will be fixed ASAP. It may be better to delay someone's purchase than to create a raft of "constructive" comments on your own and other forums.

Any other ideas?
 
gajit said:
1. Please put loads of varied screenshots on the product page (where we can find them) so that we can really see the hard work and detail that you have included. When Im thinking of purchasing you can not show me enough! Those who show few all round views of VCs etc make me very suspicious as to what is modelled.
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It should really be down to developers to show off their product as something worth buying. It says a lot if they can't be bothered to stick on a bit of anti-aliasing and give a thorough walkaround of the externals, internals and variations of models and paints available. I mean, if they don't put the effort in where selling it is concerned, then who's to say they put any more effort in whilst making it?

I reckon Aerosoft lead the way when it comes to showing their products off in a positive fashion.
 
Tweek said:
It should really be down to developers to show off their product as something worth buying. It says a lot if they can't be bothered to stick on a bit of anti-aliasing and give a thorough walkaround of the externals, internals and variations of models and paints available. I mean, if they don't put the effort in where selling it is concerned, then who's to say they put any more effort in whilst making it?

I reckon Aerosoft lead the way when it comes to showing their products off in a positive fashion.
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Agreed and agreed.
 
So... how many times should we clone Nick? :engel016:

Seriously, I agree that screenshots in particular seem to make or break a sale for a lot of people. They don't for me, because I'm getting seriously picky with my purchases now and I don't care how good or bad a product looks, it has to be something I'll use regularly. This means I have a lot of stuff that many people here would write off at first glance, but don't have many of the "five star" models.

I do claim to be unique. There ain't no clones of me out there. No-one would want to!!!!:wavey:
 
Aerosoft also leads the way if it comes to number of staff available to work on all these fancy things like marketing..... :sleep:;)
 
gajit said:
Im sincerely concerned to hear that some products only sell in their hundreds .............
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Excuse me... make that MOST products..... you'll find very few that sell more these days.... maybe over a 2-3 year period, and even then.
 
Marketing a product is always usually money/time well spent. This is why I continue to get work, and the same goes for Mr. Nick who is a master at his craft. Aerosoft has indeed learned to master this craft, not only with numerically superior amount of products (which leads to more exposure in the long run), but with plain good marketing tactics.
 
To echo Francois, that's always been the case gajit. The number of sales has massively reduced from already low figures. Anyone who thinks developers are trying to "rip us off" with "ever higher prices for the same product" could really do with knowing a few developers.

This hobby really is not a money pit in any way, shape or form.
 
Good suggestions gajit and a worthy sentiment. Without the developers our FS is stagnant and dying. The world economy sucks causing people to be tighter with their cash and the FS market seems to be shrinking besides. We need everyone in this game and to keep them sticking to it they need to make sales.

One thing that gets developers sales is getting their "face" out there, networking. i.e. patronizing sites like this. I've only been simming for about 8-9 months and have purchased 8 payware add-ons. Every single one of those sales originated here at the Outhouse. There are too many developer sites for me to visit individually, continuously to check what's just released or in development. If I did that I'd never have time to fly.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Due to recent events some developers are thinking of leaving this site, losing a big part of their networking ability. Unfortunately this will mean they lose the opportunity to sell to me, I may be just one sale but I'm sure there are others like me that visit very few sites.

In regards to this situation I have advice for the developers and us as customers. I'll call it the "Mother Rule".

To the developers - Don't release a product until it is good enough that you would take money from your mother for it and be quite proud of here opinion on it (assume your mother is a simmer).

To the consumer - when commenting on a product pretend your mother made it and released it and she is who you are commenting to. Sure point out any issues and give advice on improving it if needed but I bet if you keep your mother in mind you'll probably use some tact and give solid advice, you'd want your mother to be successful right?

The second half of this post went semi off topic but is still related to the OP. I didn't want to start a new thread going "there" and this seemed like a sensible place to tack my thoughts onto.

Rob
 
IanP said:
To echo Francois, that's always been the case gajit. The number of sales has massively reduced from already low figures. Anyone who thinks developers are trying to "rip us off" with "ever higher prices for the same product" could really do with knowing a few developers.

This hobby really is not a money pit in any way, shape or form.
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Now you are talking!!!....this hobby, wether we like it or not, is very small compared to many others, this is not a Money Maker for developers, those who think those guys are getting dollars or Euros by truckloads are goofy or worse!!!!...this is a small hobby with small Mula!!!!.....I could name 10 others that blows the numbers of users compared to us Ciber P i l o t o s!!!!!!....most people don´t even know we exist!!!!
Salud,or Cheers to all developers, good luck in your hard endeavor.....some people sure would like to kill the hen of the golden eggs if they could.....and a special Salud!!!! to all Freeware Developers whom we all Must thank everyday of our hobby life!!!!!..........some misguided pilots should turn into photography, ship building, chicken farmers, fishing worm growers, astronomy, street runners, or maybe Gurus:isadizzy:, one did and became president of a country (What???, how??:pop4:)........:icon_lol::icon_lol::icon_lol:...
Like someone said somewhere,sometime....Make Love and Fly Away!!!!!!:gameon:......Where is the Meat!!!!!!!Where is the Islander????..need that beauty....:icon29::icon29:
 
2Low said:
To the developers - Don't release a product until it is good enough that you would take money from your mother for it and be quite proud of here opinion on it (assume your mother is a simmer).

To the consumer - when commenting on a product pretend your mother made it and released it and she is who you are commenting to. Sure point out any issues and give advice on improving it if needed but I bet if you keep your mother in mind you'll probably use some tact and give solid advice, you'd want your mother to be successful right?
Click to expand...

Excellent advice! It has been said that if you truly want to know someone, you must make the effort to walk a mile in their shoes.

One of my mentors once told me that how I express myself often says far more about me than it does whatever about which I happen to be writing or speaking...

In many ways, I miss the "good old days" where users had a chance to "edit" a message before Quickmail (or other BBS mail client) would dial up their local BBS to transmit the latest batch of replies...

Such has saved me from looking foolish more than once, believe me!

I'm also grateful that most web forums now have the "Edit" function enabled... :ernae:
 
Well meant I am sure... but my Mom died not so long ago. Not gonna help me. :kilroy:

What's more interesting to point out to the poster who has no time to look around on the Internet for products he might be interested in: that goes two ways. Us small-town publishers can impossible visit all these forums and fan sites and what not... so we put most of our news on our own site and on a few MAJOR news sites.

I understand about communities... been probably one of the first people ever to work with them come to think of it, but real news will be posted first and foremost on sites like Avsim, simFlight and the likes.... then itgets copied to a lot of smaller (blog) sites.... and eventually discussed in forums such as these.

I love yapping with all of my customers (as you can tell) but only have so much time every day and can only visit so many forums too.... so my advice still is to visit at least the major news sites as well as some forums.
 
Nick and I have talked about forming a super screenshot team, we are in the midst of designing outfits as we speak, of course mine will have a banana somewhere on it, LOL, but seriously, stay tuned. :ernae:
 
Here's an idea, how about we go and fly around enjoying ourselves in FS and let developers do what they do? :icon_lol:

Seriously, while I'm sure that everyone that is over-analyzing the developer/consumer relationship means well, let's let them do what they do. All developers shouldn't follow some cookie cutter way of doing things, it's what makes some products stand out from the rest and vice versa.

Everyone of us has a different opinion as to what "the" important features are in a given addon, you will not please all the people with a release, just accept that.

Personally the only thing on the list I feel is important is a paintkit upon release, the rest should be up to the developer and whether it's done or not, is not a big deal to me. If I want shots of a product that the developer doesn't provide, I come to the users on the forums, works every time.

As for "known issues" that is again, subjective and you have to keep in mind, not every developer has the same skill set and may not be able to provide you with the neat gimmick that the other developer could.

Bottom line, "YOU" want to help developers sale more, buy a product, post lots of screenshots and rave about it to other users!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :ernae:

Now I am off to check out the Hawaii addon I got for 1/2 price at PCAviator (see, I am doing my part to boost sales, LOL)
 
Bob be very carefull where you put that banana!

Sorry for your loss Francois.

You are right of course, we as consumers need to dig around a bit too. Avsim I do visit (more so with the library up) and I'd totally forgotten about simFlight (OS re-install, forgot to save my bookmarks, doh!), thanks for reminding me I will be visiting there regularily again.

This is SOH Combat Flight Center and although we all discuss everything here I think those making military models should consider this a must visit site to promote their wares. Personally I think this is the best FS forum so I visit here everyday when I get off work, I like it so much I donated towards its upkeep and I'm one cheap son of a Beech Baron.

Some say this is not the place for promoting commercial products. I disagree. This is a FS community and new products drive the industry and keep people interested. I come here to view screen shots, trouble shoot issues, check out the latest repaints, read others stories and personal experiences, and to check out new products.

My purchases have been based off what the developer has posted and what consumers have posted so I should correct my earlier statement. Developers that are not here are leaving it up to the consumers to sell me there product.
 
MCDesigns said:
Here's an idea, how about we go and fly around enjoying ourselves in FS and let developers do what they do? :icon_lol:
Click to expand...

Who is stopping them?

Also - does anyone know how many FSX microsoft has sold to date? Or FS9? How many newcomers into the market every year? Or - how many new members join SOH every week?

What is a shame about the market is that I know some people who buy the box but have no idea that addons, even freeware are available until they are told by recommendation.
 
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