[Marketing] Sugar tryout (was Re: sugarlabs.org redesign)

[Sean DALY]

Daniel - you mean the main download page [1], right? Not the VirtualBox
page [2]?

These and other wiki pages are indeed long and complex. We could break
those out into a dozen subpages to keep each one manageable. This problem
was meant to be solved by the new website template designed to replace the
static main site.

I believe Bernie has a stat tool for pages including the static main site,
i remember seeing a report where traffic was like a thousand times more
than usual after one of our press releases in the past.

Conversion rate will both improve and remain very marginal as we streamline
the existing structure since we haven't had press coverage for some time.
I'm all for measuring, the number can only go up. However, without even
measuring anything, there can be no doubt that every extra click will cost
us downloads when we get press coverage rolling again.

The best way to do it is to propose a default pair of pancake buttons
(SoaS/VM) based on the visitor's OS and language, and hide the complex
lists under an "other systems and languages" link. Adobe (Flash, Reader)
and OOo do it like this.

VirtualBox: I believe the installer autoconfigures itself for language
(around 20 langs) after first screen in English, but we need to know if our
VMs could autoconfigure for lang/keyb and if so, how much work that is, I
imagine the alternative being a matrix of prebuilt machines by language
(for sure that will be work). The learning curve and resources required is
why I want to reach out to Oracle.

For SoaS, I believe it has always been default US-en lang/keyb, we'd have
to ask Peter if a reasonably simple solution for multiple languages is
available - ideally, a language setup screen when first run.

Sean

1. http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/DocumentationTeam/Try_Sugar
2. http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/VirtualBox




On Fri, Nov 8, 2013 at 8:11 PM, Daniel Narvaez <dwnarvaez at gmail.com> wrote:

> Of course I agree with you that less barriers the better but I think we
> need to pick our battles. With current state of the downloads page I'd
> expect the conversion rate to near the 0%. It takes a *lot* of extra clicks
> to achieve the same.
>
> I propose that we
>
> * Rewrite the downloads page offering *simple* instruction only
> for Soas and Virtualbox.
> * Keep the current page somewhere on the wiki, prominently linked, it's
> fine for techies.
> * Start measuring conversion rate. I suspect we don't have a way to count
> the number of users that managed to reach the Sugar home. But measuring
> completed downloads would be a start.
> * Gradually get rid of as many barriers as possible and see how the rate
> is affected.
>
>
> On Friday, 8 November 2013, Sean DALY wrote:
>
>> Of course it doesn't stop us from marketing, but it adds two extra
>> hurdles for teachers to deal with (the GPL VirtualBox installer + the PUEL
>> extension pack necessary for passthrough USB support). So techies won't
>> care, but I guarantee a percentage of teachers will. It's a well-documented
>> axiom of internet marketing that you lose up to 50% of prospects with every
>> additional click - this is precisely why Amazon deployed 1-click purchases.
>> With three clicks instead of one, I hope we don't lose 20%, 30%, 50% of
>> interested teachers. After all, there's already a barrier: the huge size of
>> the downloads.
>>
>> It's obvious given our limited resources we need to evaluate our most
>> resource-effective ways of publishing prepared VMs. This is what I had in
>> mind about approaching Oracle. But we need to try to maximize our potential
>> conversion rate without additional hoops. I'd be happy with anything over
>> 10% (software/SaaS average rate is roughly 7% [1]), and we won't even be
>> gating the download in a contact form.
>>
>> My proposal two years ago to make VMs the preferred method for teachers
>> to try Sugar met with opposition from Peter and others who preferred SoaS.
>>
>> Sean
>>
>> [1]
>> http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article/chart/average-website-conversion-rates-industry#
>>
>>
>> On Fri, Nov 8, 2013 at 5:49 PM, Daniel Narvaez <dwnarvaez at gmail.com>wrote:
>>
>>> Do we really need a single installer? I mean I see it would be ideal but
>>> it feels like it might be tricky licensing, implementation and maintenance
>>> wise.
>>>
>>> From what I understand from Thomas, after installing VirtualBox, it's
>>> just downloading and clicking on an icon (I should really try it but I'm on
>>> a bad connection these days). It might not be perfect but it doesn't really
>>> sound bad, what is stopping us marketing Sugar this way really?
>>>
>>>
>>> On Friday, 8 November 2013, Sean DALY wrote:
>>>
>>>> Not only doable, has been done for some time now [1,2] and is
>>>> multi-platform (& what I use to demo Sugar on a Mac)
>>>>
>>>> The Oracle PUEL license [3] very interestingly permits free
>>>> redistribution for educational purposes, opening the possibility of a
>>>> single installer, ideal for our needs.
>>>>
>>>> In the past I have suggested approaching Oracle for a marketing
>>>> partnership under a CSR (corporate social responsibility) banner.
>>>>
>>>> Sean
>>>>
>>>> 1. http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/VirtualBox
>>>> 2. https://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Sugar_Creation_Kit/VirtualBox
>>>> 2. https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/VirtualBox_PUEL
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Fri, Nov 8, 2013 at 1:25 PM, Gonzalo Odiard <gonzalo at laptop.org>wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> At least the virtualbox looks doable and a good way to show Sugar.
>>>>>
>>>>> Gonzalo
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On Thu, Nov 7, 2013 at 9:44 PM, Daniel Narvaez <dwnarvaez at gmail.com>wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> On Thursday, 7 November 2013, Sean DALY wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> The larger problem is the absence of a marketing strategy, we need
>>>>>>> to know where we are going to communicate effectively. In particular, we
>>>>>>> need to choose and implement how to offer Sugar tryout to teachers and
>>>>>>> journalists.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I can think of a couple of approaches
>>>>>>
>>>>>> * Get Sugar running well on the CuBox-i. Find budget to buy a few of
>>>>>> those to distribute to chosen journalist and teachers. Try to partner with
>>>>>> SolidRun to offer Sugar as an out-of-the-box installation option.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> * Make it easy to run Sugar inside VirtualBox on Windows and OS X.
>>>>>> Without having investigated too deeply it seems that a two step process
>>>>>> would be both realistically implementable and easy enough for the user
>>>>>>
>>>>>> 1 Install virtualbox
>>>>>> 2 Install a Sugar application (which would take care of setting
>>>>>> up the appliance).
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Thoughts? Other ideas? If we can agree on one or two concrete,
>>>>>> realistic approaches, I think we can at least attempt to get them done for
>>>>>> 3.102.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> --
>>>>>> Daniel Narvaez
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>> Marketing mailing list
>>>>>> Marketing at lists.sugarlabs.org
>>>>>> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/marketing
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Daniel Narvaez
>>>
>>>
>>
>
> --
> Daniel Narvaez
>
>
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