noahkagan

Hey guys

Noah from http://appsumo.com here.

Super interesting comments and a bit surprised / flattered so many of you guys know about us.

We're focused mostly on web software, generally web apps / content that help startups succeed.

What kind of specific stuff is it for hackers that we aren't providing today?

Ps. We have an HN Special - free Thinkgeek.com coupon ($10 off $40)

Email me: hn at appsumo dot com

My bad. We do have a sponsorship program :)

The partners are working with us again on http://rewardlevel.com :)

Updated with links on the site. Sorry.

We tried to enable that and saw worse results than just letting the algorithm decide. We'll test more of this in the future.

For now you can block sites you don't want showing on your profile link.

Great question. Yea, go to profile > block rewards

Good call on the geo-location. Coming soon.

Right now the algorithm optimizes to the rewards that work best for your site.

Mike,

Appreciate the feedback.

We will solve it with inventory and the algorithm, just takes some time get it all right.

Redesign for pop-up and hopefully js version with roll-over coming shortly.

Yea, hopefully google apps can do its job at protecting spam.

Yea, pretty terrible :P

Let me think of something. Don't really want to push changes live but tonight or early tomorrow.

Please keep the feedback coming!

Aaron.

Awesome feedback. Should we include how we make money in that paragraph?

Great questions Paras.

A) We make money on some of the rewards which will be paid. We are seeing good conversions on the "customers" (the people who opt-in to receive the rewards) we send to the companies. For the next few weeks we are giving tons of credit for people to add their companies / products as rewards.

B) Yea, it's hard to say whether the users are "good" customers or not. The data is showing they are.

We look it more as a bonus for the person to try out your service. Think of it as a free bonus that makes you more likely to try a product (ie. free toothpaste w/ toothbrush purchase)

We've seen .2% up to 30% increase. Varies by website and still a bit early as we are adding more rewards to the system.

It's less about them being right or wrong and more about the way they choose to run their business. It works for them, may not work for everyone.

For me the most valuable thing was really writing out the story of the site & simple mocks before you start building.

Trying to do more of that now.

I use it on okdork and appsumo. Personally it helps me find the keywords that convert the best.

Good call Paras. Updated.

The first 500 will get the startup plan at (500k), the next 500 will get basic plan (100k). Then it's over. Did NOT expect this to be so hot.

per month.

It was hard to figure out the price since it's lifetime. May just call it priceless...

Sebg

True. The overall CTR dropped. The main difference b/n the two emails was having that button. Stats showed a low # of clicks to that button vs. other links.

The clicks did convert as once we changed the button to "see it" that email outperformed the previous one.

haha. true. updated.

and by liberate they mean spam.

Let me know what issue you have. I can talk to the guys.

Wow. That was fast. We have 10% coupons if you email me. Only for HN readers.

We are going to have them plus some other developer favorites starting Nov. 8th.

If you have any questions, email me: noah @ appsumo

Everyone will do an interview. They want the links and possibly free traffic for minimal work. It did help that I personally knew them. Once you get interviewed, you are pretty likely to promote it if it's a good reference.

The issue is most people approach it with generic template emails and crappy questions.

Luckily, I was writing in personal finance for a few years before I joined Mint so I knew most of them. Some of them included Ramit at http://iwillteachyoutoberich.com, Cap from http://stopbuyingcrap.com and Jim at http://bargaineering.com to name a few.

We just went and interviewed the guys above or asked thme for guest posts. You have to think how to serve their interests (traffic / exposure / relationships with a potentially cool company).

Yea, the Mint blog.

We-Saab-E

Not sure about how much they raised. I know O'Reilly alphatech (sp?) backed them among others.

I lowered the prices of the books that are just previews / bonus chapters instead of the full price of the book...

Let me know what you want :) noah@appsumo