Avoiding Buyer’s Remorse - Smart Shopping on AppSumo
Today, we're diving into AppSumo, a fantastic platform for discovering amazing software deals at unbeatable prices. We'll be exploring how this site helped launch major tools like Zapier and sharing tips on how to make the most out of your AppSumo experience. From how to avoid common pitfalls to leveraging reviews and support resources, we've got all the information you need to make informed purchases and find those game-changing tools for your podcasting needs. Let's get started!
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Timeline
00:00 Navigating App Sumo
01:20 What is App Sumo
02:31 Everyone Leaves Happy
03:18 Avoiding Mistakes
04:36 Check Reviews
05:54 History Check
07:08 Checklist
08:05 Disclaimer It Is Addicting
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00:00 - None
01:20 - What is App Sumo
02:31 - Everyone Leaves Happy
03:18 - Avoiding Mistakes
04:36 - Check Reviews
05:54 - History Check
07:08 - Checklist
08:05 - Disclaimer It Is Addicting
If you've ever heard of the software called Zapier,
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it started on a website called AppSumo. And today, I'm
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gonna give you some tips on how you can find ridiculously low
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prices for some great software and avoid
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any mistakes. Welcome to your podcast website, the
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ultimate guide for podcasters looking to level up their online presence.
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Whether you're a seasoned podcaster or just starting out, this
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show is your go to resource for mastering the art of building
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and optimizing your podcast website. From website
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basics to advanced SEO strategies, we cover it all. No
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tech jargon. No confusion. Just practical
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tips and actionable advice you can implement right
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away. Here is your host, Dave Jackson.
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Yeah. Believe it or not, Zapier now if you've never heard
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of Zapier, it is a tool that you basically say, if this
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happens, then do this. And you can basically
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tie a bunch of software together. So for example, when
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someone signs up at the School of Podcasting, it will then
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automatically add them as a premium member in
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Captivate, all that kind of stuff. If this happens, then
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do this. And Zapier started
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on AppSumo. So what the heck is AppSumo?
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AppSumo is a website slash service
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where they find up and coming companies that have
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software, and they broker deals to where
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you can get well, I'll give you an example. I just bought one.
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It's a keyword tool called WriterZen. And
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this was on AppSumo a couple years ago, and I remember when they went off
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the site. So that's the one thing. There's a bit of a scarcity
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thing going on where if you don't get it now, you might not get
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it. But, Writer's Den is
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something that came on, and everybody's like, oh my gosh. It's back. This is amazing.
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And it's $79 once. You get
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a lifetime deal. Now all the cool kids call that an
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LTD because, you know, in America, we can't handle 3 words. We have to
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abbreviate it. And so what I wanted to do was just
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explain some tips because this is a great website. I've
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never really been burned by any, you know,
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website or a software that went out of business or they
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ended up not honoring their deal because AppSumo is really
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they they make sure that everyone is happy. And I'll give you an
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example. I bought a software once, and it it
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wasn't really anybody's fault. But I thought the software
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did one thing, and it turns out it was really designed
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to do something else. And I went in, and they have
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a refund policy. And so I was like, you
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know, a refund policy is only as good
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as it's honored. And, for example, I just bought this rider's
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den. I haven't really used it yet, so maybe I'll review it later. But it
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has a 60 day money back guarantee. And I actually
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went in once, and I had used the software for maybe a
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day. And I could just tell immediately, this is not what I thought it was.
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And I was able to refund it. Now how can you end
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up avoiding that situation? Well, there are a couple of things you can
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do. When you go to the website and you see
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the product, you can go down and basically see
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a couple different things. One is questions. And so you'll
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see where, actual AppSumo
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people have asked questions. And so this shows you how
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attentive the company is to answering questions. And
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so you have to remember that in some cases,
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this company might be 3 people in a basement. And
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so if you don't see a lot of answers, then don't
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go crazy. Like, oh, I can't believe they did this, because they might be actually
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answering their actual customers. And so I see here
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they've answered most of the questions here. There was one
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that I was like, oh. And they said,
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here's one. For those questions that require a closer look, please email
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our support team. And then there was another one where they
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said, yeah. Our support team has already answered these questions via
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email. And I was like, well, wait. Like, what was the
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answer? Let us all learn together.
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Now in addition to questions, and, really, I think my
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favorite place is underneath the name of whatever you're looking
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at, they'll show you where the owner
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of AppSumo apparently really loves tacos. And so
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where Amazon has their 5 star reviews, on
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AppSumo, you have 5 taco reviews. And in this case, the thing
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I actually bought was called Writer's Den, and it has 4 and a
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half tacos. And when you click on that, I can see there are 249
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reviews, and you can sort them by newest to oldest
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by ranking. So if I look at the lowest rating here,
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somebody says, hey. It's kind of like another writing
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tool in a sea of so many, and
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they're just not that difference. Well, okay. But if I go back
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to the newest one, it says this is a very useful
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tool for SEO research and content optimization, which
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is really their bread and butter. So this is yet another company.
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This they've added some sort of AI writing tool. I love in the,
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the one video they actually show you. You
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can write original content, and then AI writes it. And I'm like,
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is that really original content when AI writes it?
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The other thing I did is I went to
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LinkedIn, and I saw that the actual
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company has been around a few years. I can see where they were on
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AppSumo. And so they had a lot of positive reviews
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on that. And then I went to their website, and I
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noticed this is where you wanna check out their support area because there's nothing
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worse than I remember when companies used to do this. I
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don't think they do this too often now, but they used
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to have forums. And you'd go into the forum, and you could see where somebody
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asked a question 6 months ago and never got an answer. So I don't see
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many people doing this, but I did wanna see their support. And especially
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with software, I want videos. Somebody to walk me
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through. And what's cool in this case with writer's end,
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they actually have a button at the bottom of their screen that says academy.
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So if you wanna learn SEO, they've got a free course. You don't even have
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to give them your email. They have, a brand
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monitoring on search engine, kind of. They have a bunch of, you know, tutorials
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here, and they're up to date. They look good. They
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are in English, which is great for me because that's the language I speak.
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And so that's another thing you wanna look at. So first of all,
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check the questions to see how attentive they are,
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keeping in mind that many times these companies have a very small
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staff, then check the reviews because these are from people that actually
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purchased the product. And you can see and and they're very good. This is
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a little bit like YouTube where people are very open about why they don't like
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a software or what they wish it did and things of that
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nature. Then research the company, and this takes all of, you
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know, 5 minutes to go over to LinkedIn, see when it was open, or or
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check the about page on their website, and then check their
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support. And that will usually give you a good idea of what's
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going on with the software, what's going on with the company.
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And, again, you have this insane
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refund time. So if you buy a piece of software and you don't
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like it, you can often return it. I've done that twice.
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And no hassle. You get your money back.
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So those are some tips, and I just wanna give you
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kind of a disclaimer here. AppSumo is very
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addicting. It really is. I have bought many
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different products over the years, and many of them I still use. I can think
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of a couple that I go, oh, wow. I remember when I bought that. Yeah.
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I never used it. But I there is a program
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called their plugins program that I think is a $100 a year,
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and you get 10% off. Well, like, in this case, I
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just bought this particular tool for writing,
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and it was $79 for life for
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life. And I saved $8. So if you buy, you know, one
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piece of software a month, then you're gonna make up your
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money pretty quick. And so that's just something I want to let you
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know before you go ahead and over there. It can be
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an addicting place to be. I I have the same problem with Facebook
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Marketplace. When I was young, I'm a musician. I was
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20. I had money in my pocket and no bills. And if I walked
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into a music store, I often walked out with things that maybe I
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didn't want. But as I was doing this today, I'm like, you know what? I
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should talk about this on the podcast just to make you aware
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of it and also help you choose things that really
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fit your needs. I'll have links out in the
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show notes, or they do have an affiliate program, which is kinda
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cool. If you go to your podcast website,
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And AppSumo is appsum0, and I'll
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put a link to these in our resource section as well.
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Your podcast website is part of the Power of Podcasting Network.
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Find this show and all of Dave's other projects at power of podcasting.com.
