How can I advertise/promote my app in the best way possible?

What I tried is just post a topic here, used to do it on iPhoneDevSDk (they used to have alot more visitors). I also tried prMac, but didn't really noticed anything spectaculair.. so I'm looking for new ways too

Stuff that's worked well for me:

PRMac. I've had some hits and some misses with it, and can say it's 50% down to your skill in PR writing and 50% down to how interesting your product is. If your product is just another variation of an app that's been done 100 times before, your PR has to be amazing or nobody will be interested. If the product is something new and amazing it's not so important. Either way, you have to get the journalist's attention with the title.

When PR has gone right for me, I've had apps featured on a bunch of major websites which leads to a huge spike in sales, so this can definitely work wonders

Making the app free for a short time. A bunch of sites will pick up on that and highlight the app, so it's free marketing. A word of warning though: Only consider this option if your app is good enough that people will recommend it. There's no point giving it away if you just lose sales.

Sometimes when I've tried this, I've seen lots of free downloads followed by a small bump and then lower sales, as the 'market' got the app for free. This is the danger. But when I've done it with apps that sell OK without marketing (meaning people are recommending it), I've seen HUGE volumes of free downloads followed by a massive spike, then much (like 10x) higher sales long term.

Of course, the usual rule applies: If you want any success at all on the app store you have to build a product people want. If you can make something new and fun or useful, people will buy it. If not, you'll have to spend money trying to persuade them to buy it, which isn't a viable business plan.

Get in the print edition of MacWorld.

My sales had been at 2/day for a few weeks. With ML's release, it bumped to 20/day. Monday I had 150. Tuesday I had 550. My ranking has slipped some, from 14th paid in the whole store to 28th paid, but I think this boost isn't over just yet.

How do you do that? I have no idea. They just decided to list my app as one of the MAS's 49 greatest and write a three paragraph review without ever contacting me. I found out about it when people started writing emails mentioning they saw it there. (Battery Status was released in mid January... so I have no idea what caught their attention for the September issue of the magazine.)

Hi Rohit,
You should definitely submit to TouchArcade, the MacRumors site that reviews games. They also have a developer forum like this one just devoted to games, so you can get a lot more info about marketing games there. (http://forums.toucharcade.com/forumdisplay.php?f=8). I keep a list of other review sites (although its lacking in game sites a bit because our app isn't a game) on our website: http://www.overnightbuses.com/personal.html
Its an excel file with a list of review sites and contact info.

I've read in plenty of places that the best way to promote your game is to have a video on your site so people can see what the gameplay/graphics are like. Plus reviewers can check you out as well.

I would recommend doing your own PR on the side, sending out emails to small blogs and sites that might cover you. I try do this once or twice every day.

Lastly, check to make sure your keywords are optimal and your descriptions are optimized. I can already see you have a line break in the App Store description for cube dodger in the first two lines, which is a no-no. You might want to check out the list of developer articles for ones on App Store keywords and search: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1343399/

cismohit said:

well you can hire a SEO Expert for this

Click to expand...

SEO Experts for Applications don't work very well in my opinion. You need a great looking icon, a set of great, retina optimised screenshots and a great description.

Then hire a write to write you a brilliant sales pitch and send it off to Review websites.

Use a service like prMac to create a press release too, you should see some installs.

You can also look up for some huge app blogs and send them a request to review your app. You can buy a book in the iBookstore about how to become notabel by bloggers. https://itunes.apple.com/be/book/pitch-perfect/id528277176?l=nl&mt=11

gene438 said:

You can also list it at (link spammed site).

Click to expand...

That site seems to have very few inbound links. Maybe nobody reads it.

Better to find a site that ranks much higher in search results and actual current usage.

Any suggestions for higher ranked app listing sites that are more than just link spam?

(e.g. appshopper.com seems to have an alexa rank above 10k).

This is my experience so far

In the past, when I launched "iMathGenius", in the first couple of days, the download was decent, but over the time, it dropped dramatically. When it reached a level that was almost no activity, I set it to free for two weeks, the download was huge during the two weeks. But the price you paid here was that later when any new upgrades for iMathGenius, it was always free for all of free downloads. Therefore, be careful for setting your app free.

Nowadays, I tried to send my app to various app review sites. No one seems to be willing to review your app for free, even though their website says so. Most likely, they will just say due to overwhelming requests, it will take a long time for them to review your app for free. It is just another polite way to say that they will not review your app.

I did pay to a reputable website to do an ad campaign and the result was not that great, at least not to my expectation. Friends of mine explained to me that no one is interested in math in this country. Who wants to do more mental exercise. I was just not convinced. That's why I wrote this Math Trick to teach anyone who wants to improve his/her math skill. My kids love them and their math skill are top of their class.

iOSimage said:

But the price you paid here was that later when any new upgrades for iMathGenius, it was always free for all of free downloads.

Click to expand...

Updates are free for those who pay for apps as well. Updates are always free to any previous owners, whether they paid for the app or not.

ArtOfWarfare said:

Get in the print edition of MacWorld.

My sales had been at 2/day for a few weeks. With ML's release, it bumped to 20/day. Monday I had 150. Tuesday I had 550. My ranking has slipped some, from 14th paid in the whole store to 28th paid, but I think this boost isn't over just yet.

How do you do that? I have no idea. They just decided to list my app as one of the MAS's 49 greatest and write a three paragraph review without ever contacting me. I found out about it when people started writing emails mentioning they saw it there. (Battery Status was released in mid January... so I have no idea what caught their attention for the September issue of the magazine.)

Click to expand...

wow well done on getting it in print man!

ArtOfWarfare said:

Get in the print edition of MacWorld.

My sales had been at 2/day for a few weeks. With ML's release, it bumped to 20/day. Monday I had 150. Tuesday I had 550. My ranking has slipped some, from 14th paid in the whole store to 28th paid, but I think this boost isn't over just yet.

Click to expand...

Given that, according to the above, some people actually seem to read these print magazines, has anyone tried buying print ads in these magazines?

And does buying an ad increase the likelihood that the magazine will review your apps?

firewood said:

Given that, according to the above, some people actually seem to read these print magazines, has anyone tried buying print ads in these magazines?

And does buying an ad increase the likelihood that the magazine will review your apps?

Click to expand...

How well would MacRumor's banner ads work?