How do you plan Lifetime Deals?
I have developed a few saas. Most of which were AI based saas and they needed AI to produce output. I wanted to run lifetime deals on those saas, but there was a problem that for how long can I sustain those users? I have been through a lot of lifetime deals platform to see if those were good fit for my saas. Then there came another problem for me. All of those platforms were taking a minimum of 40% sale commission while asking me to heavily discount the listing price.
For me, those platforms were charging way more than I expected initially. Then I realized that it would be a disaster for me if I ever launched my saas on these platform. I also came to know that there were people known as power users, and these people tend to exploit your application and its features.
I also was confused whethe providing lifetime deals directly to the users of your saas would be good? But, the question here still arises - For how long can you sustain these users as your api bill will be there for you every month for the rest of your life?
So, did you ever plan for lifetime deals? Or would you ever go with lifetime deals?
Replies
I have bought over 260 products on AppSumo, so I've seen a lot of lifetime deals from the buyer side. Not as a power user though lol. Maybe 10% of them I actually keep using.
Back when I was thinking about listing on AppSumo, someone pretty well known told me the average retention for most tools is about two and a half years, so if you base your lifetime deal on a longer period than that, it works out better for the seller. Made sense to me. With the platform fees you cannot do the math that simply though.
Still, nobody knows me in English-speaking markets, so I decided AppSumo is fine to use until I get a foothold. I have applied with two products so far. Both rejected. From what I can tell it was not about how good they were, they just were not what AppSumo wants to push right now. I'm releasing a social media automation tool and alternatives to Kajabi and ClickFunnels soon, so I will try again once those are done.