(Locked) Licences and FlashDen Earnings

Hi guys, I heard on the grapevine that some of you have been concerned about reduced sales on FD. There was also a theory that this is something to do with the new licences in place.

So I’ve had a look at FD’s revenue for the months of April and May. The differences are very small, with an increase of 0.1% in total sales from April to May. This is a fairly normal change as FlashDen is a mature marketplace (being three years old) its growth rates fluctuate a bit, sometimes they are fairly low, other months when we run a particular promotion they might go up. For the marketplaces as a whole, May was easily the biggest month ever and continues a long series of record growth.

Certainly there is nothing in the numbers to suggest that the new licences have affected earnings in any way. However, we’ll definitely be keeping an eye on it as we have heard a couple of anecdotal accounts on the forums from buyers saying the new licences concerned them.

So that leaves the question – why are some of you experiencing a drop in sales recently? I couldn’t figure it out, so I asked the development team. The best theory they can suggest is that they have recently improved search and this may have impacted some sales.

The way search is working now is significantly fairer for all authors. We have improved our weighting algorithm. Now when a buyer searches they will get more relevant results to their search terms. This may be why we’ve been getting reports from some authors that their sales have dropped, and reports from others that their sales have gone up in this period.

If this is true, it means that long term this is good news. The more relevant the site is for users and the easier it is to find the file they need, the more likely they will be to buy and come again.

I can’t say definitely that this is the case, but it seemed the most plausible reasoning for these reports at this time. What I can tell you definitively is that sales are steady and increasing. May was the biggest month ever for the marketplaces overall and the second biggest for FlashDen.

So the take home message is not to fear or be alarmed. Having said that, we always take your concerns seriously so I will watch closely to ensure that licences do not affect anyone’s sales. As you might imagine we keep a very close eye on how sales go up and down

I’m heading home now, but I’ll check this thread in the morning if you have any feedback or thoughts!

I think I don’t like the new search engine

thanks Cyan for providing some inside information. I am happy that the new licenses are not the direct cause of low sales and it is actually the new search feature.

May 2009 was my worst month since Jun 2008 but I haven’t uploaded any big file for a long time that might be another reason for my slow sales.

Cyan,

The new search engine is absolutely better than the previous one. Thank you once again.

There is also a huge drop in referrals, do you have any idea why is this happening?

Thanks Cyan for information. My latest 3 month sales list is below.

March 2009 >>> 484 Sales

April 2009 >>> 439 Sales

May 2009 >>> 340 Sales

I have uploaded new files but my sales never go up. I looked at top authors list and I saw every author’s sales decreased about 100 sales.

There is also a huge drop in referrals, do you have any idea why is this happening?

+1

the referral system looks like totally dead to me

three things i think might contribute to this (in order):

1) the switch to AS3 . I think at last, AS2 only authors are having their sales split with AS3 authors.

2) the referral system seems to have reached a saturation point.

3) FD/3rd parties (due to the ref cut) are not advertising as much?

strangely my total sales numbers are way down but actual earnings are pretty good, i guess somehow the new search & browse are showing off my high priced files better.

I think there’s too many new files, sometimes are low quality more files on marketplace means more distribuite earning

Cyan, I think you might have actually missed the point. If sales have only gone up 0.1% (which is very poor compared to the member growth rate) then clearly the new licences have had no positive effect on sales.. to truely know the effect we need to know the previous months growth rates.