The big difference between producing Add-on-Con 08 vs. 09 was the amount of knowledge I gained from the 08 event. I was able to use this knowledge to help our small team focus on things that would produce the greatest amount of awareness.
The first thing we did differently was integrate more tools for data collection:
Eventbrite for ticket sales
EventVue’s javascript widget
Woopra real time analytics
(Woopra was used to see how SEO and SEM activities were doing in real time, I became addicted.)
Page views
Referrer
Geography
Google Analytics
Page views
Bounce rates
Search terms
Referrer
The second thing we did differently was introduce a viral game on the home page that allowed people interested in the conference to promote the event in a fun interactive manner. The game had over 500 unique plays and more than 2500 total plays, which generated 325 unique posts to Twitter.
The things that did not work:
EventVues Javascript widget
I worked with Josh and Rob from EventVue on a new widget they were testing. The widget allowed visitors of Add-on-Con.com to see who else was attending and then offer anyone, in there social network, a discount.
The service was getting some clicks, but no ticket sales and I started to get nervous so I turned it off, once off I started getting ticket sales. I turned it on again, sales stopped. Turned it off, reported my findings and Rob and Josh decided to not to turn it back on.
Event listings:
Mashable 28 visits no sales
ReadWrite web 32 visits 1 sale
Ads on LinkedIn generated 0 visits
VC blogs ‘08 vs ‘09
Our favorite VC bloggers were kind enough to write a post in 08 and 09, thank you:
Brad Feld’s blog generated 9 sales in ‘08 and 4 sales on 11 referrals in ‘09
Fred Wilson’s blog generated 15 sales in 08 and 0 sales on 39 referrals in ‘09
Bijan Sabet’s Blog generated 9 sales in 08 and 1 sale on 5 referrals in ‘09
Thank you for sponsoring and or talking about Add-on-Con ‘09, it made a big a difference in the success of the ‘09 event. The blogs that drove the most traffic in ‘09:
Techcrunch.com did a great job driving traffic and sales in 08 and 09.
Blog.chromium.org / referrals 317
Developer.yahoo.com / referrals 237
stevesouders.com referrals 84
tech-wd.com referrals 74
thereister.o.uk referrals 55
thenextweb.com referals 30
The biggest surprises on traffic came from these sites or add-ons:
The success of the iPhone App store in terms of creating developer interest in supporting that platform (due to stories of top app developers making $100K or more per month) is clearly an existence proof for both consumers’ willingness to pay small amounts to enhance their user experience and developers going to where the money is (i.e., 100,000+ high quality apps developed in less than one year). However, Firefox users (who unlike phone users aren’t conditioned to pay for anything) will probably need to be eased into such a Paid Marketplace system if it is going to be successful enough to really reward Add-on developers beyond the current $1K per month peak revenue levels being seen by a handful of top Add-on developers who are asking for Contributions via Paypal.
The Idea
In the Q&A after the keynote, it was suggested that such a Paid Marketplace might be jump-started by having Mozilla return to its users a portion of the SearchBox revenue that these users have enabled Mozilla to earn in the form of UserPoints (or KarmaPoints or Zillas or FireChips whatever). Assuming 100 UserPoints were given to every Firefox user every month, the existing Add-on Contribution system could be easily modified to allow users to make donations with either Paypal Cash or Mozilla UserPoints. All un-donated UserPoints each month would be automatically contributed to the mix of Add-ons actually in use (based on anonymous system-wide Add-on usage stats). To give them value to developers, it was suggested that these UserPoints could be backed by an actual cash-out pool that was funded by a portion of Mozilla’s SearchBox revenue.
More Information
The key to the idea is that it would support, but not rely on, user-directed contributions of a pre-funded amount of virtual currency (e.g., possibly called “UserPoints”) that users would donate on a monthly basis to their favorite Add-ons.
To ensure that all “un-donated” UserPoints are fully deployed at the end of each month a pre-defined formula (based on system-wide, Add-on usage stats) would be used to ensure 100% of the users who have benefited from installing and using at least one add-on for at least one month participate.
To make the ecosystem more than just a sophisticated Add-on rating system, Mozilla would agree to cash out any developer’s Add-on’s accumulated UserPoints on a monthly basis from a pool of funds that would be replenished each month with a portion of the revenue that Firefox end users generate for Mozilla by using the default browser SearchBox.
This talk covers the best practices for writing add-ons in Internet Explorer. We’ll describe the intricacies of the browser’s architecture and its evolution through recent features like Protected Mode and Loosely Coupled IE. We’ll also discuss a set of improvements and guidelines for add-ons that will optimize its performance, reliability and compatibility in Internet Explorer.
With thousands of add-ons used by hundreds of millions worldwide, the Firefox Add-ons ecosystem is changing the way people use the web. Over the past year, initiatives like the Contributions Pilot, Developer Hub, Collections, and the site-wide AMO redesign have grown interest and participation by users and developers alike.
Join this panel to learn more about the last year in Firefox add-ons and what the next year holds for the Firefox add-ons community!
Each browser vendor has created an add-on gallery that provides rich distribution opportunities for add-on developers. But these channels have their limits. Join representatives from W3i, Conduit, and OpenCandy to discuss opportunities and techniques for growing your distribution channel and gaining broader adoption of your add-on.
Presenters
Moderator Alec Jeung (cooliris)
Ryan Weber (W3i), Adam Boyden (Conduit), Chester Ng (OpenCandy)
Most modern browsers provide methods of extension: allowing us to add visual elements, contextual menus, access the content area, and more. While this idea of an enriched browser is exciting, the reality of creating that same experience across all of the popular browsers platforms can be a daunting task.
This panel of web extension geeks will explore the question how can we “extend the browser’s” without loosing our mind.
Moderated by Lloyd Hilaiel (Yahoo)
Panel members: Miguel Cepero (W3i), Karen Teng (AdapdiveBlue), Mike Wertheim (Surfcanyon) , Aaron Boodman (Google)
Complimenting an add-on with a website provides benefits that an add-on strategy alone can not provide.
Whether it’s creating additional customer acquisition pathways – from organic search to passed links – or lowering the conversion friction, learn how leading developers are using websites to compliment an add-on strategy. (49:02)
Moderated by Fraser Kelton (adaptiveblue)
Presenters Alec Jeung (cooliris), Alex Iskold (adaptiveblue), Todd Agulnick (xmarks),
Jayson Ayers (OneRiot)
Robert Reich (OneRiot and Add-on-Con Founder) asks Eric Jung (FoxyProxy) James Joaquin (Xmarks), Chris Finke (Finke), and Justin Scott (Mozilla) what if Mozilla opens a marketplace but Google and Microsoft do not?
Building on the puzzle theme used to launch Chrome Extensions, the Chrome Product Marketing team decided to create a puzzle for Add-on-Con. I am very happy to report the puzzle is now complete and my family had fun finding the little black and white pieces.
During the construction phase of the puzzle a few things stood out.
A puzzle language was created to describe the different shapes:
This one was called dog ear
These were flaties
People working on the puzzle went through a similar emotional experience:
This puzzle looks hard
This piece will be easy
It has to be here
I am going to find it
(two hours later)
The piece must be lost
(two hours later)
This piece is not here
(I am done for the night)
We kept organizing the puzzle pieces into small groups.
This allowed us to feel like we were accomplishing something
In the end working on the puzzle reminded me of a software project and like all software projects our puzzle had a few bugs:
we had 5 corners,
2 extra pieces
1 missing piece from the center of the puzzle
Thanks Google we really did have fun puzzling and if you have an extra Nexus One Phone please send it over so we can decode the message. Twitter Handle @menro.
Robert Reich (OneRiot and Add-on-Con Founder) asks Eric Jung (FoxyProxy) James Joaquin (Xmarks), Chris Finke (Finke), and Justin Scott (Mozilla) what its going to take to transition free Add-ons to pay? The group also talks contribution pricing.
The Add-on-Con Blog is focused on the companies and individuals that build, market and support browser add-ons. The blog is edited by Robert Reich, community member and founder of Add-on-Con. If you would like to contribute please send me a note robert@oneriot.com.
