Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Oh, I'm Out There Jerry ... and I'm Lovin' It!

Do you remember that commercial a few years ago (I think it was a Superbowl spot) where a group was huddled around a computer screen watching the hit counts go up as their website was launched? The hit counter went 1 ... 10 ... 500 ... 10,000 and they went from elation (we have customers!) to panic (can we handle the bandwidth?!?!) in a matter of seconds. We'll that's what I've been doing this morning—watchin' the numbers tick up (with no concern that I'll reach a panic state).

I published Debt Quencher 1.0 yesterday and posted it to Apple's download site first. That was a non-event, because it's not up there yet, but their e-mail did say I could repost it in 90 days if it doesn't show up (90 DAYS?!?! Wassup with dat? They do know the internet is designed for immediate information exchange, right?). I proceeded to post it next to MacUpdate and VersionTracker which both went live this morning.

At first I was shocked to see even a couple downloads on MacUpdate, then I nearly wet myself as I refreshed my VersionTracker page and saw the 7 switch to a 13 (I didn't even see the 7 downloads happen). I e-mailed my wife at work and she started watching the numbers climb as well. Oooo look, 15! Hey, it's up over 20 on that one! Wow, almost 60 downloads in three hours!

Now, none of this equates to money at this point, so it's the equivalent of watching your horse pulling up along the outside in a race that you have no bet—exciting even without the hope of a payoff. I'll probably be twice as giddy when the first purchase hits my account, even though it's gonna take an awful lot of $14.99 customers to pay the bills around here.

For now, I'm just enjoying being out there. Thanks to everyone who downloaded a copy and made my morning!