Every now and then, we at TheKeptPromise are throwing BundleHunt into our marketing mix to promote some of our apps.
In fact, we have a promotion there right now. You can get our acclaimed collage app "GoodTimes" as part of a bundle of your choice. Find it here: GoodTimes at BundleHunt.
For those of you who don't know BundleHunt, it's a daily deal site for Mac apps, where you can find phantastic apps and bundle them at a very nice low price (10 apps for $19.99 for example).
Users can find apps there that usually cost alone as much as the bundle (or even more).
So, without going too much into the financial details, obviously a developer gets significantly less paid when selling an app via BundleHunt vs. selling in the Mac App Store or with self distribution.
That's the reason we often get asked, why we – as app developers with already successful apps in the Mac App Store and in other marketplaces – sometimes participate in BundleHunt deals, even though we could potentially earn more when selling the app directly to the user.
So yes, the question really is: Why promote via BundleHunt?
Actually we see several advantages. For starters: We really like the site and are users ourselves. Often enough we could find great apps there for a low fixed price in a bundle. And we believe that it is important to identify with the distribution channels we use.
Then, of course there is the reach that a site like BundleHunt has. Thousands of visitors at any given time is a very attractive target for a developer. After all, developers obviously want to get their apps into the hands of as many users as possible.
We also believe, that there are users that simply don't know certain apps exist, even though they might be super helpful to them. With millions of apps out there, it's obviously not easy to get everyone's attention. That means being part of 50 apps that the BundleHunt users choose 10 from, is a significant way to get found by users that otherwise might never have heard from the apps that are out there.
So all in all, the sheer volume of users that can be found via BundleHunt is highly attractive for developers. Chances are that once they have one app from a certain developer, they might be interested in other apps from them.
So it's a win/win situation: The user gets apps that are really, really valuable to them (as said, there are apps that usually cost alone more than the entire bundle price), and the developers get users they would otherwise not have gotten.
So are there only advantages to it?
This depends on the point of view of each developer. While there are certainly developers who dislike the idea of giving away their apps (after all they have spent months or years of developing, optimizing, etc on them) for a significantly lower price than the usual price at, for example, the Mac App store.
Also, some would think that loyal users – who paid the full price in the past – might feel treated unfairly, if all of a sudden the app is available for much less than what they paid.
So all of this must be taken into account by each developer individually.
One solution could be, to promote more of "legacy"-apps at BundleHunt. Meaning apps that have been around for quite some time. Rather than some brand new app with a very high demand at the other distribution channels.
Again, every developer has to answer these question for themself. And I am sure there will be as many different points of view as there are developers.
Conclusion
In our view, using BundleHunt every once in a while is a great promotion tool. Considering all the above thoughts, it's fair to say that a developer can benefit from the massive reach of the site, as well as that the users can benefit from the high level of quality the apps there bring to them at a low bundle price.