I cannot fathom why the authors of some shareware apps don't put the price on the app's web page. I have to click a "Buy Now" link to find out. This feels to me like either someone was a bonehead and neglected to display something people obviously want to know, or they're trying to hide something.
Is there a school of thought — perhaps empirical evidence — that this practice increases sales? That would at least explain it, but I'd still find it annoying.
Other than the company logo, the following should be the most prominent items on an app's web page:
- High concept. A very quick description of the product. I should be able to see at a glance what it does for me.
- Requirements. Whether it's for Mac, PC, and/or other.
- How to get. A download link, the price, and a "Buy Now" link. These items should be grouped together.
There can be other goodies — feature lists, screenshots, screencasts, testimonial blurbs, and so forth — but the above items should be absolutely trivial to spot.
Here are some examples.
Bad. IllumineX doesn't display the price for ecto on the product's main page. [UPDATE: See the comments for a clarification from Gary of IllumineX.] The download link is all the way across the page from the "how to buy" link and looks very lonely:
So-so. Lemkesoft displays the price for GraphicConverter, but it could stand out a little more:
Also the price is not next to the download link, which you have to scroll down to see.
Great. Red Sweater Software does it exactly right. Each product's home page shows the most important information at the top in a clear layout that's consistent across products like MarsEdit and Black Ink:
Everybody, please do what Red Sweater does.
Thanks for the feedback. I don't think that this phenomenon is based on any marketing research about increased sales resulting. It's really more an artifact of the "try before you buy" orientation of the shareware market. It's very important for all potential customers to easily find the download button. Showing the price with the download button is a good idea, and certainly won't alienate any potential customers.
Thanks, Gary, for clarifying that it wasn't a calculated omission. I just discovered that a friend's product page makes the same omission. I'll ask him about that, as I should probably have done with you before singling you out as a "Bad" example. I should also have mentioned that the ecto page does do a good job of clearly saying what the product is and that it's a Mac app.