The Old Joel on Software Forum: Part 4 (of 5) - How much do downloads translate to sales?

How much do downloads translate to sales?

I know this is a stupid question to ask. But too often, we see claims of 1000 downloads a day and so on.

Based on your personal experience, if you have application downloaded x times a day, what percentage of folks actually bought it?.

Of course, there is no single answer to it. But i am just interested in your personal experiences.

K
Monday, May 10, 2004

Shareware Lou
Monday, May 10, 2004

I've heard of conversion rates as high as 10%, but that seems to be the exception. Usually 1-4%.

Edward
Monday, May 10, 2004

we work on a rule of thumb of about 2%, and mostly thats pretty accurate.

FullNameRequired
Tuesday, May 11, 2004

0.5 % - 1%

gigel
Tuesday, May 11, 2004

Wasn't there a Joel article on this one?

Sathyaish Chakravarthy
Tuesday, May 11, 2004

2% is the kneejerk answer to any blind marketing.

What's the response rate to mailshots, 2%

What's the response to free samples, 2%

You'd hope downloads would be higher, maybe not.

I think actually the 2% relates to something like, you have a crowd of 100 people, you shout something unintelligible but with the right rhythm of excitement and two people buy it straight off.

Press gangs, I believe, worked in a similar way.

Simon Lucy
Tuesday, May 11, 2004

Don't make the mistake of seeing large download counts on download.com and using some simple maths to work out what people are making, many of those download counts are artificially boosted.

The ratio you will see will vary depending on the type of software, the quality and how well your web site works. My ratios vary between 0.25% and 15% for different products.

Tony
Tuesday, May 11, 2004

I just did the math for ours. Just over 3% in March and just over 4% in April. That seems consistent with what's being said here.

JT
Tuesday, May 11, 2004