Note: this post is mainly targeted towards our Binpress publishers, but is relevant for anyone who publishes their own software product (or service).

The success of our components varies widely, from high-volume selling / downloaded components to relative unknowns. The amount of sales / downloads a component generates is a factor of both the traffic it gets and how well that traffic is being converted to a purchase / download.

We’ve previously covered several ways in which you can get your component noticed and generate additional traffic to it (and we’ll be revisiting it soon), and this time I’d like to attack the other part of the equation – converting your component traffic into goal completions (either a purchase or a download).

So what can you do to improve your components performance?

Retouching component content

Re-read all of your component content, starting with the summary and description. Does it make sense? does it convey what need your component is helping and how it does it? good component content should obey the following criteria:

• Readable – content should be easy to read all the way through. Good grammar is a must, and try to avoid overly technical jargon. Try to think how it looks to someone without your specific expertise (but a developer still).
• Concise – Get to the point as early as possible. You might be losing you audience with a long introduction and lengthy explanations that are not needed and could be confusing readers. Summarizing features in a bullet list helps. Add headings between large blocks of text and make your text easily scanable.
• Comprehensive – while it seems contradictory to the previous point, make sure you touch upon all the important points your component addresses. Structure your content in a way that allows readers to quickly understand what it does, and then supply additional content if they are still interested and want to read more.
• Well-formatted – Use the markdown syntax (explained in the content editing pages) to better format your content. Use headings where needed, use bold and italic effects to highlight specific text and add bullet lists for quick summary of points. Don’t forget to properly indent your code so it will appear formatted in the content page.

Keep in mind the summary appears in all component listings and on our affiliate widget – use that text to convey very quickly the essence of what your component does. Don’t forget to mention important keywords readers are looking for, such as programming language and relevant frameworks / platforms.

If your component has a visual aspect such as a UI, adding high-quality screenshots really helps readers understand what they’re getting. Adding a nice thumbnail helps your component stand out and be more distinctive in component listings.

Reworking the pricing scheme

We’ve written at length about how pricing affects the success of a software product and you should go over it if you haven’t already, but I’ll repeat the basic ideas -

• Pricing matters
• For any software product there is a range of pricing that within it conversion is optimal.
• Pricing should reflect the perceived value of the product.

Pricing your own work is very difficult, in every field. Especially so with source-code components, for which the market is young and mostly unknown. Lowering or increasing the price could have a substantial effect how well you sell – you should read the aforementioned article for more details.

Make incremental adjustment to your component pricing and see how it affects conversion. Make sure to give enough time for data to accumulate and become significant.

Engage your audience in the comments

It’s no surprise that our top publishers are very active on the comments section of their components. Engaging interested visitors can both lead to a direct conversion (by convincing them your component is what they need), or to a future conversion as it both provides more information and shows your professionalism.

Make sure to respond in a courteous manner to comments visitors leave on your component page. You can answer concerns they may have and those comments are there for future readers that might have the same questions.

Use the comments to improve your component content – if a question is repeatedly asked, make sure it is well answered in the component description. If people are looking for a certain feature which is currently missing, consider adding it to the component.

When in doubt, ask us

Not sure how to go about changing the content or pricing? if you want to run something by us or just ask a few questions, you can always use the admin feedback section that you went through when you got your component approved. We try to be as available as possible and set you in the right direction.

Posted in Binpress Marketing