Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How (not) to sell your iOS app

stoicjesterstudios.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 100 posts

Re: How (not) to sell your iOS app

#11

Post by IanDrake »

thestoicjester wrote: post #4
IanDrake wrote: post #3

Just played it. Fun game. Here's what it's missing... First time I loaded it the menu seemed sluggish. When I pressed buttons, the button gave no feedback and I wasn't sure if the click had registered. I understand there's loading time involved, but some feedback would be nice. During game play when I "Shoot" there is nothing that displays a shooting event. Balls just explode if my cross-hares are on it. That seems o…

Cool, thanks for the feedback. The menu buttons do have an invert effect when you tap them, but it might be too subtle. There's also audio feedback when you tap a button, but that doesn't help if you have your sound off.

Right. Most buttons I did notice feedback. It was mostly when I first entered the app. Didn't see feedback on the button in the splash screen or the screen immediately after (if I recall correctly). And yes, I had sound off.

Also, when posting to HN. It would probably be best to organize an up vote campaign. I'm not saying game HN to get on the front page, but getting some initial up votes and comments will help you to get others interested in a headline they might otherwise ignore in the "new" section.

Re: How (not) to sell your iOS app

#12

Post by cageface »

Apocryphon wrote: post #5
ecaron wrote: post #2

tl;dr There is plenty of advice out there on how to publicize your iPhone app, and all of it is worthless.

So, is there counter-advice?

My counter-advice would be this: if you want to make money writing apps, get consulting gigs and write them for somebody else.

Re: How (not) to sell your iOS app

#13

Post by nobody_nowhere »

Newsflash: "if you build it they will come" is bullshit. It's dawned on your that you're not getting your message out.

Now what?

1. Buy ads. It costs about $0.00001 to show an ad banner on mobile. $0.01 to buy on a click basis. $10k to get into the app store top 25. Do the math. Minimums apply.

2. PR: meet/call or otherwise contact the people who can get your message out and convince them how cool your game is. Or pay someone who can do this for you.

3. ?

Marketing is hard work, get busy!

Re: How (not) to sell your iOS app

#14

Post by helipad »

I suppose a lesson that you might have learned is that doing things the expected or accepted way is not always the right answer.

As you alluded to, releasing pre-Christmas and pitching bloggers with free promo codes is so common as to render it useless unless you're remarkable about it.

Re: How (not) to sell your iOS app

#15

Post by ddelphin »

cageface wrote: post #12
Apocryphon wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, is there counter-advice?

My counter-advice would be this: if you want to make money writing apps, get consulting gigs and write them for somebody else.

I think a better way to put this is if you want to make GUARANTEED money writing apps... I still think on the whole, its better to release a product yourself than do consulting for someone else.

Re: How (not) to sell your iOS app

#16

Post by corin_ »

cageface wrote: post #12
Apocryphon wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, is there counter-advice?

My counter-advice would be this: if you want to make money writing apps, get consulting gigs and write them for somebody else.

It's not unlike the decision of doing a startup or working for someone else. You can either settle for a typical paycheque, or you can take a gamble, which might see you create a huge hit, or might flop and bring no returns.

Re: How (not) to sell your iOS app

#17

Post by adjwilli »

Yeah, I agree with @rkalla that this marketing anti-pattern summary will likely prove to be your best marketing piece so far.

Also, I would recommend finding a good graphic designer to help you out. The icon for Bullseye Factory doesn't promise $1.99 worth of fun. Plus, I'm sure you can think of something more creative than stripped balls in a perfectly preserved yet empty factory. How about going along with the Jester theme and making it some sort of a factory taken over by zombie clowns?

Your game is technically very impressive, but needs a good theme to sell it. Looks at Nuts for instance. It's probably slightly less complicated technically, but it has a funny, slightly juvenile name, cute squirrels, and various alternative objectives.

Re: How (not) to sell your iOS app

#18

Post by geuis »

Here's my experience with a Hangover 2 app I released 1 month before the movie came out. (it was taken down after Warner Bros sent Apple a C&D.)

1) Reviews are the most important things when you sell an app. I made the app free for the first week or so until I had about 10 5 star reviews. DO NOT use scammy tactics for fake reviews. Make sure your app is well polished for what it does. If it's not, don't put it in the App Store.

2) Review reminders. Basically the user uses the app a few times and they get a notice asking if they would like to review it. Include something like the appirater class. Google that.

3) Built-in sharing options for Facebook and Twitter. These should link back to the iTunes page for the app or to a custom site.

4) Setup bitly links for each sharing option. This helps in keeping stats about where your app is being talked about.

In the first week or so I was getting 3000 downloads a day. When I hit my 10 review goal, I switched to $.99. It's disheartening to see that 3k number drop to 20 the next day, but that's money in your pocket now. For the rest of the month, I averaged 20-30 paid downloads a day.

Things not to do: There are lots of stupid people out there. They will leave 1 star reviews because they hear no sound. Their mute is on. Don't get upset about these people.

Twitter is great for campaigning. Don't write bots that listen to the stream for people talking about the movie that then follows them and does @Soandso check out my Hangover2 app! Surprisingly, it actually works very well. It ran for about 45 minutes and followed 400+ people. About 50 of them clicked through (bitly again) and I think a few people bought it. However, Twitter banned the account after 45 minutes. So, don't do what I did.

Don't write well polished apps that use sound clips from a big upcoming movie. You might argue that it's fair use, but that doesn't mean crap when WB decides to stomp on you.

Re: How (not) to sell your iOS app

#19

Post by cageface »

ddelphin wrote: post #15
cageface wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My counter-advice would be this: if you want to make money writing apps, get consulting gigs and write them for somebody else.

I think a better way to put this is if you want to make GUARANTEED money writing apps... I still think on the whole, its better to release a product yourself than do consulting for someone else.

It's certainly a lot more fun, but if your goal is revenue, particularly as a solo developer, you're going to have to do very well on your own to match what you can easily make as a consultant/employee.

Re: How (not) to sell your iOS app

#20

Post by thestoicjester »

rkalla wrote: post #8

Here's what DID work for you -- summing up all those failures into a well written, entertaining and light-hearted article that is genuinely helpful to anyone else in the iOS game. Oh yea, and the front page of HN this time around. It sounded like you got your hands wet in a lot of different things. That doesn't necessarily mean you are going to retire on this game, but think how many people are aware of you now and w…

I appreciate all of this.

The purpose here was to take a quote-unquote negative experience and spin it into something hopefully helpful for other devs, and myself (hello, hn front page).

The plan has definitely been in the back of my head for a while to release a free ad-supported version. I just wanted to get this postmortem-type thing out the door first, and it's been difficult to force myself to sit down and take a hard look at how things went.

Post reply on HN