MacSanta Blog

Well, there was plenty of developer interest, but just not enough hours in the day. We had hoped to come up with a fresh concept to use in the week leading up to Christmas, as with MacSanta 2006. A lack of new ideas, however, coupled with the demands of the real world and real job have conspired to prevent this. So, MacSanta is taking the year off, to winter down in the Caribbean perhaps, and work on acquiring new deals for the future.

Will MacSanta return in 2009? Only time will tell. To keep abreast, your best bet is subscribe to this blog’s RSS feed (toss it in your Dinosaurs folder).

We tried this once before, and got a paltry 42 diggs. With over 120 developers (many with multiple employees) participating, it certainly seems like we can do better than that. So how about it folks? Whether you’ve already been featured and want to drive traffic to the Extended Deals page, or your day is coming up and you want people to subscribe to the RSS feed, digg the article here:

http://digg.com/apple/Save_20_on_Great_Mac_Software_With_MacSanta

Earlier today (December 3rd), the MacSanta web site at http://www.macsantadeals.com went down. We’re still trying to ascertain just what happened, though currently, the problem appears to be cured.

We rapidly moved the site to our dedicated server at Pair.com, and I anticipate no further issues. We changed the DNS nameservers to point to Pair, and now we’re just waiting for these changes to propagate fully. If you’re reading this, that change has happened for you and you’re accessing the Pair version of the site.

“What would possess you, you of all people, to host this with DreamHost?”, I can hear you asking. Well, MacSanta began last year as something of a last minute scramble. DreamHost makes for a great sandbox to set things up, as you can rapidly add features on (MySQL, say) without needing to wait for help. It’s free to add on like this (or at least, already paid for), while we’ll be incurring additional (minor) charges to host at Pair. And of course, it worked just fine last year. So we stuck with it. In a single word, “Whups”.

As of around 3:30 EST, the problem with DreamHost seems to be fixed. That means that regardless of your DNS, the site will load. In the next day or so, everyone will get the Pair version of the site, but we’ll obviously keep both around while that change propagates. That will hopefully be the end of the troubles. We’ll be featuring the deals from this abbreviated/spotty day 3 on day 4 as well, so tomorrow (12/4), there will be a full 10 deals for users.

To summarize: we’re back, and I believe we’ll be up for the rest of the month without further problems.

-Paul

MacSanta 2007 has officially begun! We’ve got everyone scheduled, and the updates are happening automatically, so things will be a lot smoother on our end than last year. Some notes:

• Sign-ups are closed for 2007, but if you want to be added to our announcement list for the future, just email macsanta@macsantadeals.com. Everyone who participated this year will be on that list automatically.

• MacSanta - Can You Dig(g) It? Click to Digg the story and send more traffic to the site.

• As far as additional promotion goes, any place you promote MacSanta is good for you, good for users, and good for your fellow developers. Don’t forget our badges either.

That’s all for now - things are off to a great start, and I think we’ll see momentum build throughout the month.

–Paul

Late last night I caught up on all the participants, so you should have received a confirmation email showing your randomly-selected day, and also providing a preview link to check your listing.

The Naughty List consists of devs who’ve signed up but haven’t sent along proof of their donation. That list sits at 10 developers right now. If you haven’t received a confirmation email from me, you’re likely on that list. Get in touch if I haven’t spoken to you! Just pass along the donation receipt from the EFF, and we can get you on the schedule.

Otherwise, we’re looking good. We’ve got a great line-up, and I think this will work out great. And hey, you can’t beat the price, right?

The fun will kick off at midnight (PST) on December 1st (late Friday/early Saturday), and new deals will also be posted at midnight each day.

Ho Ho Ho,
-Paul

We’ve currently got over 100 participants, with more still joining up. There are only a couple days left to sign up, so don’t wait!

Things kick off on December 1st and we’ll have new Featured Deals on the front page every day, through the 24th. The 25th through the the 31st we’ll feature the full list of participants, all offering 10% off.

You’ll be on the site from the day your deal is featured. For example, if you’re one of the Featured Deals (20% off) on December 10th, you’ll be on the front page that day, and on the Extended Deals (10% off) page the 11th through the 31st.

Days are being assigned randomly, and we’re really not sure what days will be best. Early in the month, there will likely be fewer visitors, but you’ll be featured on the Extended Deals page for longer. Later in the month there will be more visitors, but you’ll spend less time on the Extended Deals page. We’ll see how it goes.

I’m currently in the process of sending out confirmations for each sign-up. I’m through about 2/3rds of the applications, but if you haven’t heard from us yet, don’t worry. We won’t lose anyone.

-Paul

MacSanta 2007 is nearly here, and we’re ready to get started with signups.

This year, we’ll be featuring one-day deals from December 1st through the 24th. Each day up to ten companies will be featured on the front page, providing 20% off all their software. After each day is complete, the full list of participants will be updated. This list will provide a smaller 10% discount valid through the end of December (December 31st).

See the sample front page.

See the sample list of participants.

We’re looking to again provide great deals for users along with increased sales for developers big and small alike. If you’re interested, just follow the steps below.

Step 1) Sign up through this form. Be sure to fill it out exactly as indicated - failure to do so may delay or prevent your listing.

Step 2) Make a donation of $50 (or more) to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, with MACSANTA in the Why field. The aim here is solely to keep this limited to serious sellers. A $50 donation should still be affordable for even the smallest sellers.

Step 3) Set up two coupons in your store:
• A 20% off coupon, with coupon code MACSANTA07. We’ll let you know which day you’ve been assigned once you’re approved.
• A 10% off coupon, with coupon code MACSANTA07TEN, good through December 31st.

Step 4) Email a screenshot of the receipt from your EFF donation to macsanta (at) macsantadeals.com.

That’s all there is to it! Signup runs through Friday the 30th and we’ll be capping the participants at 240, so if you’re interested, sign up now!

You can email macsanta (at) macsantadeals.com with questions or join #macsanta on Freenode.

-Paul

I posted to the MacSB mailing list about MacSanta 2007, and got some good responses and interest. I was unsure if we’d put it on again this year - it was spontaneous last year, and while it worked out well, there were certainly some bumps along the way that I think could be magnified.

I think we’ve worked out a good plan for 2007 though, so stay tuned for information on that in the next couple of days. Until then, have a Happy Thanksgiving!

-Paul

Welcome to the MacSanta blog. Nothing to see here yet.