App Store

Last year, I started using the iTunes Affiliate Program.
The program allows you to make a little money by linking to your apps with your affiliate token and lets you track where clicks and purchases come from, as well.
I thought it’d be interesting to do a little retrospective, now that a year has gone by.

Using Affiliate Links

Turning an (Mac) App Store link (or almost any other iTunes – based link) into an affiliate link couldn’t be simpler.
All you need to do is append your affiliate token (like &at=your_token).
Additionally, you can provide context with your links so you can track them more easily later on.
For instance, I “tag” my links with “twitter”, “facebook”, “blog”, “website”, “newsletter”, “yoinkdemo” and so on.
That makes it very easy to track where your customers come from.

I use affiliate links for every iTunes link I share – be it an app of my own or that of another developer.

Tools and Info

There are tools available to you to make affiliate linking even easier, like John Voorhees’ Blink (for iOS).
I personally don’t use any extra software – I have a note in Notes.app with all my affiliate links and then just change the aforementioned context string.

If you’re interested in an in-depth look at the iTunes Affiliate Program, I recommend you read John Voorhees’ excellent comprehensive guide about it on MacStories.
It’ll get you up to speed on how to set it all up.

Where do Clicks Come From?

A very interesting aspect of the iTunes Affiliate Program is its tracking capabilities.
When someone clicks your link, you know:

  • the country the user is in
  • when the link was clicked
  • the context string you provided for the link (like “website”, “blog”, etc)
Live-View of Clicks on Links

A click presented in the live-view of iTunes Affiliate Program’s dashboard. I can see the click came from the US, and from within Yoink‘s “Demo Expired” window.

Furthermore, it tracks what the user purchased – a Mac app, an iOS app, a song, a book, etc.

Top 5 Countries

Based on the number of clicks, the top 5 countries from where people click on my links are:

  1. United States
    22,498 clicks
    $254.15
  2. Brazil
    924 clicks
    $4.96
  3. Germany
    570 clicks
    $76.70
  4. United Kingdom
    91 clicks
    $46.10
  5. Spain
    50 clicks
    $19.17

Apparently, more clicks don’t automatically equal a higher payout.

Conversion Rates

The program allows you to see the conversion rates for your links.
Who really purchased after clicking my link? Here’s what I found out:

  1. 38.62% purchased an app after clicking a link on my website
  2. 25.70% purchased an app after clicking on the link from the “demo expired” window inside the app
    (I haven’t had the affiliate link in the “demo expired” window in Yoink for the entirety of the year, more like only half a year)
  3. 00.72% purchased something when they clicked on a link on my blog

I can’t be sure what the user purchased – once a user clicks a link with an affiliate token, that token is used for the next 24 hours for that user.
Which means that they might click on a link for Yoink, but don’t purchase it. Then, some hours later, they purchase a book on the iBook Store – that will count towards that link’s conversion rate.

A Year of iTunes Affiliate Program Links

Here’s the gist of my first year in the iTunes Affiliate Program:

  • Clicks: 24,647
  • Items Bought: 4,465
  • Revenue Generated: $ 9791.12
  • Payout: $ 685.38
  • Average Conversion Rate: 18.12%

Granted, $685.38 isn’t a lot, but it’s money I wouldn’t have seen otherwise, and as an indie developer, every bit counts 😉

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OS X 10.11 El Capitan

I’m happy to say that all my applications, Yoink, Glimpses, ScreenFloat, Transloader and flickery are compatible with OS X 10.11 “El Capitan” and work perfectly on Apple’s new operating system, which will be released tomorrow, September 30th.

I’ve tested all my apps on the Golden Master of the upcoming Mac system upgrade and haven’t found any showstoppers or issues.

Should you, however, discover anything you feel is a bug, an annoyance or an issue, please be sure to get in touch with me either by mail, twitter or Facebook – I highly appreciate your help.

I hope you’ll enjoy tomorrows upgrade of OS X, I know I am very much looking forward to it!

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Transloader 2.1 Icon

I’m happy to announce today the immediate availability of Transloader 2.1, a significant and important update to the app that lets you start downloads on your Mac remotely from your iPhone or iPad.

Transloader Explanation

I’ve also prepared an App Preview Video for the occasion:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VAKEpWVArc]

Easier and more straight forward to use

Transloader 2.1 features an Action Extension so you can add links directly from a website you’re browsing – here a short video of the Action Extension in, well, action 😉

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPuCp9HO5So]

The update also comes with a Today Widget, which offers you a quick look at the state of your downloads right from within Notification Center.

Transloader's Notification Center Today Widget

Improved Feedback

Transloader 2.1 on the Mac will send your iOS devices push notifications when downloads finish or fail so you are always in the know about the state of your downloads.
The Mac app also got a UI overhaul and now fits in perfectly with OS X Yosemite.

On Sale – 65% off!

As part of Two Dollar Tuesday, Transloader is on sale today (March 10zh, 2015) for just $1.99 instead of $5.99 – over 65% off. Head on over and check out the other cool apps as well 😉

System Requirements

For full functionality, iOS 8 or newer and OS X Yosemite or newer are required. An iCloud account is necessary for Transloader to work.

Links

Transloader on the Mac App Store ($1.99; 65% off)
Transloader on the iOS App Store (free)

Transloader Website
Transloader Press Kit (direct download)

I hope you enjoy the update – if you have any feedback or questions, please be sure to get in touch via mail or twitter! I’m looking forward to hearing from you.

—-
My name is Matt, I’m the developer of Eternal Storms Software. If you’d like to comment, you can catch me on twitter here: [twitter-follow screen_name=’eternalstorms’ show_count=’yes’] or by eMail.

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