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AppGratis Is Nothing More Than A Black Hat Marketing Company

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Re: AppGratis Is Nothing More Than A Black Hat Marketing Company

#81

Post by cmccabe »

danvideo wrote: post #30
recoiledsnake wrote: post #20

>as a user I want to be able to find the best apps for my task. Quality apps. Apps that will help me achieve whatever it is I'm doing. And I want Apple to decide that Why? Anyway it's abundantly clear that Apple is failing at that task, especially with new changes to the way search results are displayed.

> And I want Apple to decide that — not another company that takes (large) kickbacks from app developers [...] I want Apple to be ultimately responsible for my app marketplace experience. Yes, that line bugged me as well. Forgetting about AppGratis (because I don't know enough about their business) how do you as a consumer just know that the store owner must be better at curating/rating items for you than a third par…

No, you see, Apple taking a 30% kickback is good. AppGratis taking kickbacks is bad. They're completely different scenarios. For one thing, the names of the companies are different.

Re: AppGratis Is Nothing More Than A Black Hat Marketing Company

#82

Post by mynameisvlad »

alxbrun wrote: post #9
jacquesm wrote: post #8

AppGratis simply served a need, both on the consumer side (App discovery) as well as on the corporate side (app promotion). What ratio paid apps to free apps they were running is guesswork but I'd imagine if they would fail at the mix they would fail in the marketplace. The bigger problem is that they were simply too good at what they were doing and were competing with Apple on Apple's turf. Apple would like to contr…

"AppGratis simply served a need, both on the consumer side (App discovery) [...]" How can you call "discovery" a process where users receive everyday a push for the app that paid the highest bid to AppGratis ?

Did you find out about a new app? Yes? Then you've just discovered it.

Re: AppGratis Is Nothing More Than A Black Hat Marketing Company

#83

Post by ameen »

ishansharma wrote: post #4

This is something I had in mind since starting. It was always a paid model. And then inside the app, they pretended as if it was single person running it all. Even description was deceptive: "I pick one app, contact developers and try to make it free for a day" (Don't remember exactly) There's no reason for anyone to get angry about this. Apple has removed even App Shopper app (which was a genuine one), removing this…

Calling it a "paid app promotion app" isn't factually correct. Most of the app developers who participated in AppGratis deals didn't have to pay anything. AppGratis' major revenue source was through commissions from the Affiliate program.[1]

The only justification for the removal of this app is that it was against Apple's AppStore Guidelines & policies.

[1] http://www.apple.com/itunes/affiliates/

Re: AppGratis Is Nothing More Than A Black Hat Marketing Company

#84

Post by Matt_Cutts »

AJ007 wrote: post #37
Irregardless wrote: post #25

This story isn't adding up so far. > But sources close to [Apple] say it was more than a little troubled that AppGratis was pushing a business model that appeared to favor developers with the financial means to pay for exposure. http://allthingsd.com/20130408/confirmed-apple-kicks-appgrat... That's the closest thing I can find to a "confirmation" that AppGratis was accepting cash in exchange for a higher rank in thei…

One of my friends in the mobile space told me about some app doing this, but I don't know if AppGratis. At least one mobile app was offering a free app of the day and charging thousands of dollars for the placement. Not my strong area, but I will point out that the rest of the blogger's post is fantasy . If you are correct, then nothing he wrote is right. - Paid links is not blackhat SEO. Blackhat SEO involves buildi…

"Paid links is not blackhat SEO"

Of course it is. Blackhat SEO is SEO that violates search engine guidelines. Here's the link that documents that paid links that pass PageRank violate Google's guidelines: http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&#38...

Re: AppGratis Is Nothing More Than A Black Hat Marketing Company

#85

Post by 2pasc »

jrochkind1 wrote: post #69
2pasc wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AppGratis sponsored content was marked as Sponsored on the screen advertising the app, or by being called "Discovery App of the Day" (vs. Deal).

Wait, "Deal" means paid placement and "Discovery" does not? Or is it the opposite? How exactly is it you think this is clear? It is true that there is certainly plenty of 'old school' media that intentionally confuses the difference between paid-placement advertisements and editorial content too. And venues that do that are disrespected and considered deceitful too, even if there are plenty of them.

Sorry- my mistake. In the US, the Sponsored apps were marked as sponsored. They could have been more clear about it, but you can see that. The others were just regular content for consumers to discover.

Re: AppGratis Is Nothing More Than A Black Hat Marketing Company

#86

Post by chipsy »

jruderman wrote: post #68
calbear81 wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some games benefit from push notifications as reminders to do something like "feed my dragon or else it will die" or "your free spins are available now". These are integral to the core mechanics of the gameplay vs. a marketing message like "buy some coins for $1.99, on sale now!" or something to that effect.

Waiting by not playing a game is never a "core mechanic" of a game. It's either an excuse for the app to grab your attention (play now to get a bonus) or a way to drive IAP (pay so you don't have to wait).

In VESPER.5 you play one turn per day for a meditative experience.

Re: AppGratis Is Nothing More Than A Black Hat Marketing Company

#87

Post by derefr »

mikeash wrote: post #63
ultimoo wrote: post #19

I still find it strange at times to wrap my head around the fact that for decades we championed a distributed and an open world-scale system - The Internet. And now, we are going back to policies controlled by 'guidelines' and rules and terms and conditions of large corporations -- Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Blackberry. Either we as a developer community got lost somewhere; or this was a careful, well thought-out…

I'm not sure how much things have really become worse here, as opposed to just shuffling things around. 20 years ago, a lot of people would have owned a Nintendo system or similar, which had all the things you discussed and more. 10 years ago, most cell phones could run third-party apps, but the requirements were so strict that almost none of any interest were available. The PC was theoretically an open system, but M…

To put it another way: everyone (except Richard Stallman) has always wanted to use both open and closed systems. There is room for both, and neither will kill the other.

Re: AppGratis Is Nothing More Than A Black Hat Marketing Company

#90

Post by hayksaakian »

anoncow wrote: post #55
jacquesm wrote: post #8

AppGratis simply served a need, both on the consumer side (App discovery) as well as on the corporate side (app promotion). What ratio paid apps to free apps they were running is guesswork but I'd imagine if they would fail at the mix they would fail in the marketplace. The bigger problem is that they were simply too good at what they were doing and were competing with Apple on Apple's turf. Apple would like to contr…

>AppGratis simply served a need, both on the consumer side (App discovery) as well as on the corporate side (app promotion) This exactly. I am sorry to say this but the submission appears lopsided. The submission accuses appgratis of being "black hat", but doesn't explain how. Does AppGratis run botnets which download apps? If it is genuine users downloading apps - the business is white hat. It doesn't matter if the…

> It doesn't matter if the users get points, dollars or karma for downloading stuff.

So you're a OK with pay-for-downloads but not botnets?

Is there really a difference?

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