Looking For Self-Promotion Methods

Monetizing, Advertising & Marketing Marketing Methods
1

Hi there.

Before I ask, let me give some quick background. I took an AP Computer Science class in high school. I’ve always been business-oriented and wanted to make my own business. I took this as an opportunity and, after self-teaching myself how to program for Android, I published my first apps slightly more than a year ago. I then took a break from app development as I’ve been very busy. I’ve now got more time, just published some more apps*, and plan to keep going and really focus/concentrate on building up my app empire.

*Currently, my apps are tools/utilities that assist players of popular games (i.e. an MMORPG, as well as some console games). I recently wrote a library that allows me to pop out more, similar ones with ease (for separate games). I’m certainly looking to diversify my app “portfolio” and expand into other areas, as well.

Not really doing much over the past year has definitely hurt my prospects, but I hope to reverse that and get the ball rolling. Here is what I’ve started doing over the past couple of months:
[ul]
[li]Put buttons in my apps to view all my apps on the Play Store.
[/li][li]Put buttons in my apps to follow my company Twitter profile.
[/li][li]Have a dialog appear after x amounts of use to rate the app and follow my company Twitter profile.
[/li][li]Actively engaged on Twitter, using popular hashtags and performing searches on keywords relating to the games that my apps target.
[/li][li]Telling my friends to download and rate* my apps, if they play the games that my apps target.
[/li][/ul]

*I only ask them to rate them, I do not ask for a 5-star or a good review, but just to rate. I like to follow the rules :slight_smile:

I’ve already noticed an increase due to my efforts. I’m pulling in around $25-30 a month (yes per month, not day), and netted around $150 total. Which is not bad considering the [lack-of] effort over the past year, and the fact that I’m a student and this isn’t my full-time job. I certainly hope to bring that number to per day instead of per month, however. Which from what I’ve read on this forum, is a very reasonable expectation and goal.

Being a student, and the fact that my profits are almost null, I cannot afford expensive methods of advertising and promoting. I’m basically asking for some self-promotion methods (things I can do myself) to help get more downloads (and eventually more revenue/profit).

I’d like to hear from you guys, whether it be methods you employ, or tips you may have. Even if you just want to comment on my little “story”, absolutely feel free to do so as I’d love to hear any and all thoughts (even criticism).

Cheers! :smiley:

P.S. I’m surprised there’s not a sticky with a list of methods.

2

Welcome!
I suspect the main reason there aren’t stickies is that:

  1. The forum only has 1 admin- the owner.
  2. People aren’t usually ready to give up secrets to success, especially to potential competitors.

With that said, this forum is largely friendly and we all try to help each other out.

My advice to you would be to create apps that fit real world needs. Also, if you find a successful app that you believe you can do better, give it a go.

The Google Play market, which is by far the most significant on the Android platform, is volatile and ever-changing. This can be good, but for us indies its usually more bad than good.
Stick at it, don’t give up and play by the rules. Do that and you stand a good chance of the success you’re hoping to achieve. :cool:

3

Thanks for your immediate feedback. :slight_smile: I’m just finishing up two more game-utilities right now, then I’m moving on to a more “real-world”-ish app, as mentioned. Fortunately, it can also be based off a library I already wrote, so it shouldn’t take much effort.

I absolutely understand the idea of not giving away trade secrets. Which is why I believe in not giving away app names as well as ideas. However, you would think that at least some of the methods of promoting your app are more well-known.

Was that saying do, or don’t play by the rules? Don’t give up and do play by the rules? Or did the “don’t” apply to both? Sorry, just a basic English misunderstanding. :stuck_out_tongue:

Anyways, I genuinely enjoy the whole application life-cycle of creating, testing, publishing, and maintaining apps (I think it’s the business person in me). I’ll absolutely keep working at it. Here’s to hoping I can make this into even more. :slight_smile:

4

There are threads on here that devs have discussed many techniques, but you unfortunately have to search for them manually :frowning:

I meant DO play by the rules. The profits can be rewarding on the risky side, but Google has tightened it’s ship a lot now and there is also a lot more legal stuff going on in mobile. There are a load of threads here about people who’ve had issues with copyrighted material, trademarked words etc.

5

Haha, of course :smiley:

Yep, I’ve seen some of those threads here myself.

6

I just wanted to chime in and say keep it up as well. Its not easy to get going, but I can relate to your story (I didn’t go to school for any CS or anything like that, but self taught, building small things here and there, taking a year away, making a few dollars here and there, etc.). It’s great to have a community here that seems to support newcomers!

7

Thanks for the support mate. :slight_smile: Started from the bottom. :smiley:

8

Hi - good question and maybe this thread will be a place where people will share self-promotion ideas. I think the things you have done so far are good. The one things I’ve started doing this week is in-house ad campaigns. I’m doing this using AdMob and have found an increase in downloads through it. I wrote a short blog post on it the other day - Anonymous Droid Developer: Promoting your own apps - AdMob in-house ad campaigns - note there are short term drawbacks in that you will lose ads that make you money, but it could help you to promote your own apps.

If anyone else has any other self promotion ideas I’d love to hear them - newbie as well!

9

Let’s hope so.

Thanks for this tip! This is definitely something I’ll look into.

10

Sites like the one I’m running help a bit: Sold Game - Mobile Game Development and Reviews

11

Interesting, but I don’t have any published* games.

I have a game that’s kind of like half-finished. :smiley:

12

In that case let me know when you publish :slight_smile:

If I understand correctly: your looking for marketing activities you can do pre-launch?

13

I’m not realy sure on the status of my game and what my plans are with it. I mainly started it as a learning experience for libgdx and Box2D. I accomplished a lot and there’s a playable prototype. However, there’s SO much more to do, such as implementing in-app purchases, all the in-game UIs, the in-game store, etc. It’s quite discouraging haha.

I’m actually looking for, mainly, post-launch marketing methods. I don’t have a wide enough “fan”-base yet, to announce something, and have them “waiting in line”. Currently, I’ll launch/update my app, then going on a big self-promotion spree (i.e. getting all my friends to download my apps, getting their friends to, social networking, optimizing for search results, etc.).

14

In that case, if I were you I would treat it same way as you treated libgdx and Box2D - a learning experience, and the longer you wait, the more time you lose, you could be doing something and learning. It’s a bit too much to give you a complete knowledge on the subject and it changes with time, also your personal approach matters as well … so just do it, see what happends, improve - exacly like with programming.

15

No, it’s not. It’s the developer person in you that likes these things.

The businesses person in you likes the marketing and selling stuffs related to application market :wink:

16

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Actually, I like business and selling in general. :stuck_out_tongue:

17

It sounds like you may have a pretty useful app seeing as though it’s moving without much effort on your part, so you should probably try getting it out to a larger audience. Though there are several effective ways to promote and sell your app, some methods such as Facebook ads or Upsight.com will cost you a little bit in advertising, but there are also a few free options, so perhaps begin by checking out this site Source Code, Apple, Android, Ios, Mobile Apps, Blackberry, Ipad (if you haven’t already) In addition, there are of course apps that were made for the purpose of selling other apps, which is another possibility that’s worth looking into :wink: Good Luck!

18

The only problem, is that the apps are for a specific [but quite popular] MMORPG (game). So while they are certainly growing, they’re only for a select audience. Since I’ve posted the original post, I’ve already published a few more apps that will [hopefully] help me achieve a greater target audience. Furthermore, I have more plans, to release some more apps, for even more audience. :slight_smile:

It’s to the point that I have so many ideas, that I have to pick and choose which ones to further embark on (i.e. Can I implement them in an efficient yet successful manner? Will they reach a large audience? Opportunity for profit/income? Etc.).