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Visibility of new App in Appstore is like winning a lottery

M

mhc1

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 4, 2012
4
0
My wife and myself set up a new Company to start iOS app development... We are very new to this and have decided to have a go.
Well, we thought setting up and making the interesting games were the hardest tasks... What a monumental misconception that was....

We thought concept of the game was pretty good, and also execution of the game was also ok for a newbie, plus price was also reasonable for various reasons that we have reviewed.

However, getting any visibility in the AppStore is like winning a lottery. The search doesn't appears to make good use of Application Tags rather more focused around Name of the Game... Myself and wife has never used Facebook nor Twitter in our past life.. And struggling to understand how it all works without causing too much grief to the followers (not that we have many followers) and etc.... Anyway, here are some of the things we have done so far, but not as being very effective. So far we've made 3 sales.. with pretty good reviews.

1. Started off with Youtube Video clip... We think this is interesting ways to get some traction, but very little views till so far. To think of it majority of views would have been me and my wife :) If you are interested have a visit.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rf0WTL-X34A May be put some comments as well (Thanks)

2. With a luck we stumbled across limelight site, which allows to set up mini-iphone site, which appears to be pretty impressive from what we saw and we made our site... http://plucky-pro--2.limelight-cedar.herokuapp.com/ Anyone who haven't used this service, should try I think...

3. Twitter account being set up... @comokoo_plucky what a name... Well, very little followers.. But again not too sure what to do or What are the best ways to grow and engage with the followers.. May be someone can suggest something here that we can learn from....

4. Facebook, we haven't even started yet.... May need to look at this as other avenue for advertising.. Any handy tips would be much appreciated.

Well, if you have managed to get this far, here is bit more about the game, that aren't really gets represented in other medias...

The Name: Plucky stands for Play Lucky... It wasn't really targetted for lottery only. Well, once can setup any types of games with Ball selection.
We even used this to decide which price tier to use for AppStore... :)
I am not a big lottery player, but occasionally play when there is big jackpot, well knowing that there is very little chance winning the game... :)
But often, we find choosing the number is just pain... rather than FUN...

It isn't complete yet, as we have loads of features that we think would be good to have with this.... So if you are interested have a go... Sorry, there is no free version as yet... We thought this doesn't really need one.. But may be we are wrong... We will come up with something shortly if nothing changes. Any idea how we should tackle this ? I am afraid, even if we get the free version out there it is still going to be like a winning a lottery to get any traction..... We haven't given up yet, as we believe there are chance and hope all the internet community can help achieve this....

Thanks for reading rather long boring thread... Once we settle, we are planning on starting up a blog as well as We have learnt all the don'ts in hard ways..... :)

Please if you buy the app nice comment or two would be great or least let your friends know there is something interesting out there in the AppStore "Plucky Pro" http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/plucky-pro/id546016819?ls=1&mt=8

Thanks Again...
 
Unless you're a large publisher or a known developer it really is tough to get seen out there. You're doing all the right steps so far: Making videos, posting the link on forums, posting a blog, and more. If the app truly is outstanding and works well it will take off once the word gets around. I am in this same spot and my app has been out for a year and every day it gets a little more popular. The business for a small first timer is tough. But unlike the lottery, with hard work of marketing and getting the word out, it can be successful in the long run! Goodluck to you and I'll check the app out!
 
wickerman1893 said:
Unless you're a large publisher or a known developer it really is tough to get seen out there. You're doing all the right steps so far: Making videos, posting the link on forums, posting a blog, and more. If the app truly is outstanding and works well it will take off once the word gets around. I am in this same spot and my app has been out for a year and every day it gets a little more popular. The business for a small first timer is tough. But unlike the lottery, with hard work of marketing and getting the word out, it can be successful in the long run! Goodluck to you and I'll check the app out!
Click to expand...

Thanks... It really helps us to get feedback like yours... I hope you are doing well with your venture as well... Time will tell... with a lot of hard work of course... It's so mesmerising that there are so many ways to spread the word out there. But not successfully finding the right one or may be lack of effort OR even more of not wanting to be Spammer or annoy people has been our biggest show stopper.... Lucky I found this Forum and allows us to speak and promote our hard worked efforts.... Again. Thanks for the encouragement....
 
it'll take time... just keep up the good work... post blogs, always update social media accounts, do backlinking and forum posting, etc... :D
 
Marketing has always been 90% of the work for successful software. That has not changed just because you now have a distribution system that reaches half the planet at the touch of a button...
 
brandyboot said:
it'll take time... just keep up the good work... post blogs, always update social media accounts, do backlinking and forum posting, etc... :D
Click to expand...

We are finding this a hard way as every starters... It has been pretty daunting to understand how those social media works.... So far, I am seeing more success as in getting response in this forum... Wow 416 views so far... It is pretty awesome...... :) Thanks for the feedback.

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braddick said:
Novelty apps priced at $2.99 are a tough sell I'd think, these days.
Click to expand...

Hello.. Yes, this was one of the hardest part of the initial release... We were tossing around so many and landed with this price based on bit of logic and help from our App :)... It seems there are way too many good apps selling for free and in-App purchase.. Or via Adverts. There appears to be mixed views in the community what price are reasonable.... IMHO, the market is getting much harder to compete with those large Companies coming at bottom low with huge budget and advantage of its existing community presence.... Just a thought, that there are a lot of places that you could potentially market your new products, but it seems all those platforms are not so smart in introducing new and interesting product... May be this is a new niche areas that community can start build up I hope..... Thanks for the feedback on pricing.. Yes, it seems it can easily get percieved as expensive in a such a tight competing market... We are thinking of running promo period to reduce price (may be free) for a period to see if we can pick up some interest from community....

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thewitt said:
Marketing has always been 90% of the work for successful software. That has not changed just because you now have a distribution system that reaches half the planet at the touch of a button...
Click to expand...

90% you say... After a long hours of fight for about 6months development of ideas to final product, I find it 99+% time harder to get any visibility across to the community. Now I fully appreciate the magic behind the marketing isn't a magic but needs careful planning and perfect execution.... Hopefully we can get there and hope it won't be too long to get there either... :)
 
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