iPhone Game Development - Chris Craft [152]
Assume that a certain percentage of people—let's say 100 percent, to keep things simple—is willing to look through the first page of 25 applications in a category, and a smaller percentage is willing to look at each additional page. So, for the applications on the second page of 25 apps, maybe only 90 percent of people are willing to browse this far. And only 80 percent might be willing to go far enough to see the applications in the 51 through 75 rankings. If this is the case, if you can promote your application enough to move from the third page of apps to the first page of apps, you increase the percentage of people who see your application from 80 percent to 100 percent.
FIGURE 10.24
The App Store categories
App Store approval wait times
When you submit your first application to the App Store, you will likely be very anxious about it getting approved to be on the App Store. There is no fixed time for how long this approval process takes. It has taken about seven days for one of our typical applications to get approved, sometimes longer. In some cases you may even receive an Extended Approval Time Notice e-mail from Apple informing you that your application is taking longer than typical to review. Not only will you have to wait for your application to be approved when you first add it to the App Store, but all updates will have to be approved as well. This is true for bug fixes and feature enhancements to applications.
Marketing Yourself
Today's marketplace requires developers to create loyal customers who will purchase tomorrow's applications. Competition is extreme and margins are tight, so you need to stand out in a crowd and be memorable. Here are some ways to further promote yourself so that you stand out against the competition.
Social networking
One of the strongest ways to promote your iPhone applications is to use social networking technologies. Sure, you probably have a Twitter account, but does your company have one? (You can see ours in Figure 10.25.) How about your latest application? There are times when it makes sense to have a company Twitter account, and there are times when it makes sense to have a Twitter account for an individual application, especially if it is a popular app.
Social networking makes it easy to put people in touch with each other. That's also why it's so great for companies and their products. If you have good synergy between your company and your products, you can probably simply use one account for all of them. But if your company has two very different products—say, one is a “death-to-all-zombies” type of game and the other a kids' lullaby application—you might want to create two separate accounts.
This applies to Facebook just as much as Twitter. Again, maybe your company should have a fan page, and maybe your application should have one as well. A Facebook fan page is a great place for you to share pictures and a video about your applications. It gives users a comfortable place to go to give you feedback without having to worry about you using their contact information inappropriately.
In-app marketing and advertising
You know you can have in-app advertising show ads inside your application. But there are other forms of advertising and marketing that you can include in your application as well. For example, many developers include a More Games or More Apps screen in their applications.
FIGURE 10.25
AppsAmuck on Twitter
This is a great opportunity to upsell your application's customers. If a customer loves one of your applications, he will probably like another one of your applications. Be sure to create a link to either your application's Web site or a direct link to your application's App Store listing (Figure 10.26) so that you can actually complete the sale if the customer is really interested. Links directly to the App Store listings are more valuable, because with an App Store link you can direct users right to the on-device App Store so they can buy and download the app immediately.
Take advantage of the iPhone's capabilities to help pitch