What are your thoughts on DriveThruRPG?

[Onix]

[Corone]

I usually let them watermark my stuff as it isn't a bad layer of anti-pirate.
Not real security but makes people think twice, not so much a worry with a free product though!

I'd add that drivethru have been really good for my products.
It is great to just put them up there and not have to worry about anything else.
The array of tools to see what you've sold etc is really good too, too easy to spend all day playing with them.

My only gripe is the adult filter.
Its a vital function and they should have it.
But if someone isn't signed in they only see a space where your product is saying 'adult filtered'.
It would be good if they had 2 levels, one for 'the book is adult but there is nothing adult about hte cover or the blurb'
and another for 'the whole thing should be locked out'.

Otherwise they've been a really good company,
and now they are adding a POD service it is a good way to get your books available in print.
I've got both sale and free pdfs on my section and all the free ones get downloaded about 20-30 times a month.
Technogrammaton got 100 downloads in the first month, which nudged it up my 'must finish this someday' pile!

[Onix]

I'm trying to figure out how to track the number of downloads. I can see the number of views, but it compares the views to "sales" and although I know that people have downloaded the PDF It still says 0 sales.

[koipond]

When you login go to the Sales report section and select view a sales report.

Don't run a quick report. They only show the pay ones. You want to just run the custom on by picking a time frame.

It lets me know the following:
December:
30 people picked up the pay version of Geasa
380 people picked up the free version.
January:
10 people picked up the pay version
106 people picked up the free version
Feb:
3 people so far have picked up the free version

[Onix]

You have a pay version and a free version? How does that work?

Edit: I checked it out, I get it now.

Thanks it's making sense now. I was clicking on the quick reports and not getting a result like you said, running a full report works. Thanks!

[koipond]

I do. Geasa has a free version which is basically just the rules. I stripped out the examples, the flavour text the images that were used. What you get when you download the free version is the BY-SA rules that can be modified, used and even sold if people want. The idea there is to see if anyone else wants to use the ruleset, and modify it to fit what they want to do.

The pay version has all the stuff in it, examples, flavour text and images and stuff. It's also got like an additional 10k words on things that people had problems with during playtesting and some example setting that you can use to jump in.

[Stargazer]

I am using DriveThruRPG/RPGNow for both my Warrior, Rogue & Mage stuff and Andrew and Jason's Resolute, Adventure & Genius. In my opinion it was the best way to get the word out. Most people ignore even the greatest free games if they are hosted on one's blog, but it's suddenly hip and cool when it's on RPGNow. In addition to that, the featured reviewers get a copy each and usually help to spread the word and post reviews if they like your stuff.

But there are also drawbacks. Of course OneBookShelf, the company behind these sites (RPGNow and DriveThruRPG are basically the same site with different skins) isn't that fond of people using the site to host their free stuff only. This is not surprising because they have to pay for the hosting and running of the sites. But since free products are a great way to drive potential customers to the site, they don't cause any actual trouble to you when you just offer free stuff over their service. Let's hope this doesn't change any time soon.