Useful tips on marketing your iPhone App

Ways to Promote Your Apple iPhone App and Make the Maximum Profit

Congratulations on successfully creating your Apple iPhone app and even more importantly, on getting it approved by the Apple App Store. The next step you need to think of is to promote your iPhone app and make the maximum profit from the sales of this app. While general app marketing techniques are more or less the same across the entire range of mobile devices and platforms available today, the App Store deserves special treatment, as it is a huge store that includes mobile apps in every imaginable, probable category. Marketing your iPhone app in such a way as to make it stand out among them all is quite a Herculean task.

Listed below are some ways you can use to successfully market your iPhone app in the Apple App Store:

Promote App in the iTunes App Store

Promoting your app in the iTunes app store is one step you should never neglect, as it may well prove to be the single most influential factor in bestowing you success in this app marketplace.

It is a fact that the most avid iPhone users are constantly on the lookout for newer apps for their iPhone and iPad. These users would most probably visit the iTunes App Store to get useful information on the latest apps. This is the reason why focusing on this app store is so important to you.

Focus on Making Your App Appealing

Since the iTunes App Store is a veritable gateway for you to make good profits with your iPhone app, you should focus on making the app most appealing to visitors. For this, the overall appearance of the app must be effective enough to generate a good conversion rate among visitors, that is, to rope in as many customers as possible. The following is what you should do in order to enhance app appearance and make it more engaging for your visitors:

1.      As we have seen before, properly naming your app is one of the most important steps in achieve success with app marketing. Your app name should be such that it describes the function of your app, cleverly including the keyword within itself. A good app name is the first and foremost thing to get your app featured prominently in the latest app listings.

2.      The app description should be clear and concise, stating the exact purpose for which your iPhone app has been created. This description should be keyword-rich as well. You should also feature clear photos and video previews of your app, so that potential users get a good idea about the same.

3.      Next, get as many customer reviews on your app. The more the positive reviews, the more are the chances of your app being featured repeatedly in the app store listings. The best way to get started with this is to share your app among family and friends, asking them to post their reviews online.

Submit App to iPhone Review Sites

Many iPhone developers tend to overlook this simple but very effective technique to further promote their app and give it most visibility in the marketplace. App review sites are nice locations to feature your app for free, as also get your much-needed user reviews for your app.

Though this technique does not guarantee instant app popularity, it does give you one more way to get your app that precious little piece of attention from visitors to such sites. Besides, this is a place which offers you an additional opportunity for link-building to your mobile app Website, in case you have already created one.

Social Network and Website Banner Ads

Most app developers typically concentrate on promoting their apps via the various social networks today. While this may be able to bring in a few users for your app, it cannot be the primary vehicle for app promotion. For instance, advertising on social Websites such as Facebook can prove to be very expensive for you. Not only that; not too many users are particularly interested in clicking on the ads placed on such Websites. Hence, advertising on these sites may not be worth the time, effort and money taken for the same.

The same is the case for banner advertising. Unless you are already a well-established app developer, who has won accolades with many apps in the past, the chances are that not many visitors on social networks will want to click on your ad. Nevertheless, it may help generate a certain minimum amount of sales for you.

In Conclusion

In conclusion, though marketing via social networks and mobvertising certainly enable you to make money to some degree, the most important step towards successfully marketing your iPhone app would be to feature it in the iTunes App Store and also try and gather the maximum possible amount of positive user reviews for the same.

Wish you all the best with your marketing venture!

Android Market Vs. Apple App Store

There was a time when we assumed that no mobile app store would be good enough to beat the Apple App Store. Then along came the Android Market, which got off to a sluggish start. Now, with the explosive growth of Android apps, experts aver that the Android Market will soon supersede the Apple App Store.

The Android Market has made remarkable progress with as many as 28,000 new apps in April, 2011, as against the App Store’s 11,000. Analysts now think that Android would be able to surpass Apple by mid-2011.

Here are reasons why the Android Market may have a clear advantage as against the Apple App Store:

Easier to Enter the Android Market

Apple has been known for their extremely stringent rules and regulations for developers desiring to get an app into their App Store. Though they did revise their Developer License Agreement, developers still find it difficult to get their apps approved in the App Store.

Besides this, Apple is not always consistent with their rules and regulations and there are several gray areas as regards app submission to the App Store.

The Android Market, on the other hand, has chalked out clear rules and regulations for app submission and most of these rules are standard and go easy on the censorship issue as well.

Android Market Friendlier

Getting app store approval is an app developer’s dream. Creating an app can be a highly complicated process – the developer spends months working on it. Apple, many developers feel, adopts an unfriendly attitude towards them, curbing their creativity. The company even sets rules on the development tools to be used to develop apps for the Apple iOS.

The Android developer, on the other hand, faces so such opposition for app submission to the Android Market. Openness is the key here and app quality is of utmost importance.

More the Merrier

The Android Market has a simple philosophy – the more the users of their platform and the apps available for the mobile platform, the more money it has the potential to generate.
Picking up gradually, the Android OS has now emerged as the favorite of the masses. Android devices are much more desirable than Apple ones. Correspondingly, Android apps are increasing in number as well.

Android Payment System to Improve

Presently, the biggest problem with the Android Market is that there is only one way to pay for apps – via Google Checkout. But that is expected to change soon, as Google is already planning to create a better user environment, giving both the developer and customer more payment and transaction options.

In-App Advertising

It is a known fact that the Android Market has a much higher number of free apps than the Apple App Store. However, that in no way implies that developers cannot earn with their free apps.
Developers earn a decent amount of money by means of in-app advertising. Google plans to introduce a feature whereby users can make purchases from within apps, thereby generating more revenue for the Android developer.

Conclusion

In conclusion, though the App Store has, at present, about 3 times the number of apps in the Android Market, the latter’s growth definitely deserves mention. We may well be at the threshold of major changes as regards the mobile app stores scene.

Before you become a Freelance Mobile Developer

Mobile app development is taking over our world today. With the endless demand for smart phone apps, this field is full of Apple, Android and BlackBerry developers. Submitting your app has become much easier, with the major app stores relaxing their restrictions. Most app stores charge a nominal registration fee, which makes it more lucrative for the app developer. But can a freelance mobile app developer really earn that much to support his own living? Is it worth becoming self-employed, freelance mobile app developer?

Pros and Cons of becoming a Mobile Developer Contractor

Here are the things you should take note before you decide to become a freelance mobile app developer.

Each App Store has its own drawbacks

Each of the major app stores comes with its unique drawbacks.

• The Apple App Store still continues to slap several restrictions on app developers. Besides, the huge number of iOS developers would make it difficult to make your mark as an independent mobile developer.
• The Android market is easy to enter, but the mobile platform is fragmented, thanks to apps for too many types of mobile devices.
• BlackBerry World is not systematized enough. Besides, this has to be installed on the device before use.
• The webOS and Windows Mobile 7 are much lesser saturated.

Registration Fees

Most mobile platforms require you to pay up an initial registration fee. While the Apple App Store charges developers an annual fee of $99, the Android Market is much cheaper at a one-time registration fee of $25. The BlackBerry World charges one-time fee of $100 as well. Nokia Ovi charges a one-time registration fee of $73, but adds on other signing fees as and when applicable.

The Android Market works out the least expensive for you, while Symbian is the most expensive one.

As you can see, you also need to consider the cost you will incur as regards registration and signing fees for each of these app stores.

Company Registration Fees

Some app stores also charge you what is known as “company registration fees”, which is a fee to certify that your app has been “verified and tested” in their marketplace. At this point of time, Symbian is one platform that charges a hefty company registration fee. The Apple App Store charges you a fee to sell your app in their store. Most other platforms are free and you can download and use their SDK without fearing the above restrictions.
Of course, paying certification fees is optional and only required if you want to access certain advanced features of that particular app marketplace.

App Store Commission

Most of the major app stores charge you a 30% commission on the sales of your app in their marketplace.
The BlackBerry World charges only 20% commission. The webOS pays their developers via PayPal, which decreases your commission further. Hence, this one may not be an extremely viable for you, returns-wise, especially if you are a US-based mobile app developer.

Breaking Even

It is important for you to consider the pricing of your app, as you finally need to break even your expenses and returns. Most of the major app stores stipulate a minimum price point of 99c. Only the BlackBerry World has a minimum price of $2.99. This shows that you will be able to recover your initial investment without too much trouble. So there is no major risk factor involved here.

Actually earning from your app

Your aim is not just breaking even, but also making a decent sum every month, from the sales of your app. For this, you will first have to decide a target sum you want to earn and based on that, see if you can manage to generate the volume of sales required to make that much amount of profit. While you are projecting this figure, you will also have to look at the size of the particular marketplace that you are targeting. Right now, Apple and Google are at the very top of the rung. Hence, these also have the highest number of app users, which means, you have that much more chance of making profits in these markets.

Conclusion

In conclusion, you can definitely make profits being a freelance mobile app developer. But how much you can make each month depends on your costs, your marketing efforts, volume of sales and so on. Analyze each mobile platform in detail before selecting your chosen platform or platforms and then go ahead and develop apps for the same. 

Good luck!