Marketing apps

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2
Jeff
  • Forum posts: 11

Jul 8, 2010, 4:21:29 AM via Website

Who knows the secret and can explain how to get an app sold on the Andoid Market. My iPhone version sells daily yet the Droid version can go a week with out 1 sale. Can someone tell me what I'm missing? here is a link to my site... http://www.mynaturesite.com The name of the app is MyNature Animal Tracks. Thanks for any advice you can supply.

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justJay 18
justJay
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Jul 8, 2010, 5:00:06 AM via App

I would be more interested in the Tree Guide personally, I tend to run into more trees then animal tracks. But currently only the Animal Tracks app is available on the Android Market. I will buy the Tree Guide when it becomes available on the Android Market.

— modified on Jul 8, 2010, 5:01:53 AM

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Douglas Carter 26
Douglas Carter
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Jul 8, 2010, 10:40:56 AM via Website

That topic is pretty big right now. The way the Android Market is right now, over half of the apps are available for free. Some people are of the opinion that Android users are cheapskates because we don't like to pay for apps. If there was an app out there that I really needed, and there were two apps: a cheaper app with a little less options, and a more expensive app with more options, I am fairly sure I would pick the cheaper one.

What a lot of app developers do is make 2 versions of an app, one with ads that costs nothing, and a pay version that doesn't have any ads. I think Jeremiah does that. Maybe he'll post up in here and shed some light on his strategy.

Also, $7 for your app is reaching above the middle ground of what many users are comfortable paying for in an app. There are apps that go for over $10 and even $30, but those are big feature apps from big companies.

Maybe dropping the price of the Android app to $5 might increase your sales, even though you will get less profit per download. Even a slight decrease in price may push over someone on the fence as to whether or not to make the purchase. You've probably thought about this before, haven't you?

Also, depending on the the time you want to spend on the app, maybe a good idea would be to split the app into different downloads (animal tracks, Trees, edible plants, North America, South America, Europe) and have separate downloads for different content. Maybe a cheap (or free) download for the main program, and each guide costs in the $2-3 range. Of course, that would be A LOT of work I would think, but I'm just throwing ideas out there for you.

— modified on Jul 8, 2010, 10:41:36 AM

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2
Jeff
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Jul 8, 2010, 12:46:05 PM via Website

Thanks for your thoughts on that. My kid and his friends were saying the same thing that users were cheaper, maybe their right. I do have a lite version that I had just a week ago withdrew from sale. I don't believe it was helping much if at all. I got to thinking why on the Droid would you even need a lite version when people can uninstall the app and get a refund anyway. I have thought of lowering the price and I may do that just to see what happens with it but there can't be that much of a difference between users. I wouldn't get involved with bundling my apps on the Droid only because I would never sink one more dime into programming another app for Android use with little to no return. I have even tried repeatedly to get reviews but there are few review sites and none even respond to emails. Anyway, thanks for the help, I'll keep trying

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Douglas Carter 26
Douglas Carter
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Jul 8, 2010, 1:02:40 PM via Website

We do paid app reviews here at AndroidPIT. If you go to this link, you can sign up for a test report. Sorry to hear you have been having so much bad luck. It looks interesting to me, as I am an outdoors person (former BSA member and all), but I live in Germany right now, and I haven't even managed to make it on a camping trip yet.

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justJay 18
justJay
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Jul 8, 2010, 3:04:56 PM via App

I can only speak for myself.. but I am more then willing to spend money on an app and have done so many times.

I pay for Slacker so I don't have ads or commercials, I paid for PhoneMyPc, QuickAppCleanCache, and WeatherBug Elite. I am currently in the market for a Tethering app.

Before I had an Android I had a BlackBerry Storm and had purchased many apps as well.

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2
Jeff
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Jul 9, 2010, 3:49:53 AM via Website

Douglas,
Thanks for the link. If things pick up on it I'll get ahold of you for a paid review. Right now though I can't see throwing any more money into on a gamble to stimulate sales when I can better use the money on iPhone programming.

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justJay 18
justJay
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Jul 9, 2010, 4:19:25 AM via App

Half of marketing is Public Relations.. and I don't see how posting on an Android form that you believe Android users are cheap is going to simulate sales. I happen to be in sales myself and have often had to spend money to make money.

So my advice is to put "both" your products on the Android market.. and give it time. Anyone wanting the Animal Tracks will probably like the Tree Guide and therefore buy it as well.

Also.. If you think back to when you first put your app(s) on iPhone's market.. I'm sure it gain sales momentum as time marched on.

One last thing.. Android phones are popping up everywhere.. on on every carrier.. you can't say the same about the iPhone. It will only be a matter of time until everyone that wants your app on their iPhone or iTouch has bought your app.. then what?

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2
Jeff
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Jul 9, 2010, 5:32:34 AM via Website

Hang on Jay, I didn't say Droid users were cheap..... your giving me a bad rap there. You make some good points but here is my experience so far. Sales have always been steady for the iPhone, up and down at times but only ever 3 days of 0 sales since November when it came out. I don't do a ton of dloads per day but enough to make me happy with it's performance. Then again, not something to retire on either. So that said experience on the iPhone has been good from the start after 3 or 4 days. Compare that to the droid version that has been out almost 2 months I believe and I have had total downloads for 2 months that I get in one to 2 weeks on the iPhone. I'm doing exactly the same things..... twitter, blog, and requesting reviews. I never did a paid one for the iPhone. Today I had the lite free version on the droid go live again only this time it's .99 cents. Since that went live I have had 4 dloads of the full version... that doesn't make sense when you look back at the history of the app sale/ I have hardly if ever had a multiple dload on a weekday. I have only sold 4 apps or more on weekends, I haven't had a sale in almost 1 week. So why all the sudden would it sell multiple times today? I only design I don't program, the programmer being in there today had something to do with it. Very vague but that's what I think, I just wish I knew what it was.

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justJay 18
justJay
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Jul 9, 2010, 6:07:47 AM via App

I appreciate the reply.. and do hope that you don't give up on the Android market. I do have one question: why did you choose the Animal Tracks over the Tree Guide to put on the Android Market? Does Animal Tracks out sell the Tree Guide on the iPhone?

One last note: the Animal Tracks app is over 24 MBs in size.. and could be a deterrent for many people.. at least until most phones have the 2.2 Android firmware which will give developers an option to give their app the ability to be installed onto the SD card; which at the moment is only the Nexus One. Until then you might not see many downloads.

— modified on Jul 9, 2010, 6:28:51 AM

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Douglas Carter 26
Douglas Carter
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Jul 9, 2010, 10:18:33 AM via Website

It could very well be that the increase in DLs is because of AndroidPIT forum members buying it after hearing about it here.

— modified on Jul 9, 2010, 10:18:54 AM

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2
Jeff
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Jul 9, 2010, 1:03:58 PM via Website

Jay,
A ton of reasons why I did the tracks first. One only because that was my first app I had developed. Another is that I have been in Field Guides for close to 12 years now http://www.northwoodsguides.com the animal track guide I have at this link far outsells any of the other guides by 5 to 1which naturally led me to believe more people are interested in tracks than anything else. Trees on the iPhone on the other hand has far surpassed the track guide in popularity as far as dloads go but one reason for that is that it had been ranked high from the start. I fully expected the tree app to only sell a couple dloads a day. I don't want to give up on Android, it was always my belief that it would be more popular than the iPhone for the simple reason of coverage area. Verizon in my opinion has more coverage than AT&T.

Douglas if they recent activity is just from posting then I will return daily to visit you and shoot the shit. : )

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Douglas Carter 26
Douglas Carter
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Jul 9, 2010, 2:17:25 PM via Website

Sounds like a plan! Have you thought about signing up to be a member of the AndroidPIT developer community? It's pretty simple, gives you a custom developer page on our website, and lots of other options. Take a look here and see if it interests you.

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2
Jeff
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Jul 10, 2010, 1:06:17 PM via Website

I started the developers page and also lowered the price last night to see what transpires. Thanks for the opportunities.

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Jeremiah 20
Jeremiah
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Jul 11, 2010, 7:14:15 AM via Website

Jeff, I would give more thought to making a free (ads) version of your software. I've made 2 apps so far, and my first one that has been out for about 6 months has around 300 downloads of the paid version and over 50,000 downloads of the ads version. If nothing else it will give your app lots more exposure to the users, because someone is 100 times more likely to download something free than something that costs even as much as $1 in my experience. I even know some people with android phones, that didn't even know how to setup a google checkout account (or that there was one), so they didn't even see paid apps. My ad version of the app brings in revenue as well, almost $3 on some days, just from ads. Alot of people will also buy the full app if they like it, just to get rid of the ads.

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2
Jeff
  • Forum posts: 11

Jul 11, 2010, 1:10:40 PM via Website

Jeremiah,
Do you also have an iPhone version of your apps? I would be curious to know the difference in daily sales. I did have a free version of the app with no ads it had all the track illustrations in it but no other content, no digital images of tracks, animals, maps or sound files and no search function. It did have a demo of how the full version worked. Both came out on May 7th of this year. The free version had 625 initial dloads with only a 40% retention. The Paid version had 60 dloads with a 85% retention rate. I got rid of the free version when it just dawned on me that if people could and do get refunds for their purchased app why bother with a free one. I turned that app around alittle and made a .99 one figuring that if I'm not going to do much in sales I may as well make a few cents when I can. I haven't tried Ads, I thought about doing it in the lite one but the programmer I have said not to do it as it would turn people off from the app all together. I can still go that route if need be. I still believe it's an exposure problem but I very well may be wrong. Hopefully over time it all improves. I do know though that I won't put another app on the Droid until this one gets no less than 4 dloads a day.

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Jeremiah 20
Jeremiah
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Jul 11, 2010, 11:59:26 PM via Website

Jeff, sorry I don't have a iphone version, and dont intend to develope for the iphone, so can't help you there. In my opinion more and more android users expect free apps and most of them have ads, so I believe most users accept them. Especially if you put the ads in tactfully. I make games, so I don't show any ads on the gameplay screen, no one wants to have an ad bothering them while they're playing the actual game. What I do is put the ads on the main menus. My opinion of the lite version tactic, is that it will turn them off from your app more than an ad version because their experience is with a stripped down version. Also don't rely on people being able to refund, that it will make them quick to download it. As I said before my free version has over 100 times as many downloads as the paid version. How have you been advertising? I too, emailed review sites and such but no response either. When my app makes enough money to buy an advertisement, I will probably put one on this site first (android pit). Would like to know if you know any good ways to get the word out?

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2
Jeff
  • Forum posts: 11

Jul 12, 2010, 12:12:05 AM via Website

I do Twitter quite a bit but i really can't gage how well it does. I do get the retweets which is the key to exposure to more people. I also maintain my blog and a facebook site. I have managed to land a review today and I also would like to be reviewed here but I can't justify the cost at the moment. When you figure I have had 60 paid dloads in over 2 months that's $300.00 .......pretty pathetic....but I can't see putting half that back into a review right now because I know from experience with iPhone reviews that it isn't a magic potion for tons of new downloads. Curious enough from Twitter I have had more people, around 10 to 1 ask for a Black Berry version. I know the recent price drop didn't do anything, I don't believe I have sold one copy at the lower price.

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justJay 18
justJay
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Jul 12, 2010, 3:02:04 AM via App

Not to sound to stereo-typical.. but sometimes its not the customer.. its the product. Personally.. I don't know to many people that would want or need an app to help them identify wildlife tracks.

I mean think of the average smartphone consumer; most live in a city environment more so then a rural area and are more interested in either business, sports, or pleasure apps like games etc.

I think your product is pretty cool but just not many people are running out and getting a Android or iPhone so they can have wildlife apps.

I think its great that you are willing to take the time and resources to develop such an app.. but from a business stand point.. I wouldn't bet the farm on it (pardon the pun).

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2
Jeff
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Jul 12, 2010, 3:12:01 AM via Website

Can't agree with you on that Jay. If I'm selling anywhere from 5 to 12 apps on the iPhone per day on tracking it's not the product. I can support that further with the Tree app that is up in the ranking and sells at a high of 58 per day to a low of 20 per day so there is a fairly good market for wildlife and nature related apps. Of coarse once that ranking drops the dloads will follow down to an aversge of around 5 to 12 as the track did. I still am under the impression it is exposure and the way this android market is set up. Or some flaw in the search keywords for the app or something the programmer left out in posting it..... something.....

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justJay 18
justJay
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Jul 12, 2010, 3:22:18 AM via App

You never did reply to my earlier post about the size of your app possibly being a deterrent.. your Animal Tracks is 24 MB I believe.. That's alot of memory for many phones; at least until the 2.2 firmware is the norm.

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justJay 18
justJay
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Jul 12, 2010, 3:26:40 AM via App

Quote from my earlier post:

One last note: the Animal Tracks app is over 24 MBs in size.. and could be a deterrent for many people.. at least until most phones have the 2.2 Android firmware which will give developers an option to give their app the ability to be installed onto the SD card; which at the moment is only the Nexus One. Until then you might not see many downloads.

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Jeremiah 20
Jeremiah
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Jul 12, 2010, 7:12:26 AM via Website

I tried searching for "wildlife" in the market and your app didn't show up... When you upload to the market it lets you pick keywords, and I would have thought wildlife would be a good keyword, so you probably should go over your market registration again. I bought the lite version, couldn't get the full version because its 24mb and thats just too much for one app, my phone only has around 90mb of app storage, I think. It's probably the pictures, illustrations and sound files that are taking up most of the space. You can do something about this... Make your app so that only the program is installed to the phone memory. Then after someone buys it, it downloads the media files and stores them to the sd card. This could really help your app I believe. Also, why does the lite version cost money? I thought the whole point of a lite version is to make it free, so you get lots of people trying it.

— modified on Jul 12, 2010, 7:20:06 AM

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Douglas Carter 26
Douglas Carter
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Jul 12, 2010, 10:50:53 AM via Website

Are there any other products out on the market that you have noticed which do the same thing, but are priced differently, sell better, or have some special features?

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Jeremiah 20
Jeremiah
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Jul 19, 2010, 6:37:57 AM via Website

I found another useful way to market apps if anyone is following this thread. I have an "ad" version of the apps I make. The advertiser I use is called AdMob. One of the great things they let you do is make/use "house ads". House ads are ads you make and show on your own apps. You can select what percentage of your ads showing in your apps are house ads, which apps show them, and which apps show which house ads. So say like me, you have an app that has over 50,000 downloads of the ad version, and maybe a new app that doesn't have many yet; you can make a house ad to advertise your new app. Then set it to display in your popular app. Have gotten over 100 click throughs to my new app in 2 days so far, with house ads set to show at 50%. And with admob, it doesn't cost anything!

— modified on Jul 19, 2010, 6:41:30 AM

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2
Jeff
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Oct 3, 2010, 4:06:11 PM via Website

Thought I would stop in for a quick update. The app is doing a little better, a sale a day rather than 1 a week.

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Jeremiah 20
Jeremiah
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Oct 3, 2010, 9:04:10 PM via Website

Nice Jeff! What price, size and marketing techniques did you use?

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2
Jeff
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Oct 3, 2010, 9:10:55 PM via Website

I didn't do anything really except ignore it. I wrote it off a long time ago as a poor decision on my part. I kept the price up at 6.99 as it's counterpart on the iPhone is. It could entirely be that the start of hunting season throughout much of North America has brought the numbers up.

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Jeremiah 20
Jeremiah
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Oct 5, 2010, 6:56:11 AM via Website

Yeah, hunting season could be the factor.

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Douglas Carter 26
Douglas Carter
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Oct 12, 2010, 1:11:43 PM via Website

Glad to hear your sales are increasing. Word of mouth for an app can do wonders, so once more Android devices are in the hands of wildlife enthusiasts, and people start talking about their wildlife themed apps, traffic/downloads will increase exponentially. Then again, that is pretty much how any app goes. Much luck in your endeavors.

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2
Deactivated Account
  • Forum posts: 10

Nov 6, 2010, 2:46:04 PM via Website

Hi,

Have a look here, this is a presentation on selling apps I gave during DroidCon UK 2010. Basic stuff but you might find it useful.

Thanks,

Tom

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Douglas Carter 26
Douglas Carter
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Nov 8, 2010, 2:49:26 PM via Website

How are the app sales going Jeff? Have you given up on Android and devoted all your time to iOS, or are you still giving Android a chance?

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Jeremiah 20
Jeremiah
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Nov 9, 2010, 4:02:03 AM via Website

Tom Mleko
Hi,

Have a look here, this is a presentation on selling apps I gave during DroidCon UK 2010. Basic stuff but you might find it useful.

Thanks,

Tom

Nice presentation Tom, where can I get the gDocs for the tools? I don't have any Brittishness to help me; if only we had paid our taxes :)

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ireneL 9
ireneL
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Nov 9, 2010, 5:15:33 AM via Website

Hi there jeremiah,

http://prezi.com/learn/portable-prezi/

In this case Brittishness will only get you 100mb of presentation for free after that Brittish will abandon ship and your on your own and your paying.:grin::lol:

English is my second Language :-)

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Jeremiah 20
Jeremiah
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Nov 10, 2010, 7:23:41 AM via Website

irenelopour
Hi there jeremiah,

http://prezi.com/learn/portable-prezi/

In this case Brittishness will only get you 100mb of presentation for free after that Brittish will abandon ship and your on your own and your paying.:grin::lol:

Thanks Irene, but I'm not trying to get his presentation. At the end of the presentation he mentioned that all "Tools" are available as google docs next week, but didn't say where to get them.

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ireneL 9
ireneL
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Nov 10, 2010, 8:07:33 AM via Website

@jerimiah

My bad... Since he deactivate his account im assuming his gevin up on android and focusing only on iphone...

As for the gDocs for the tool, at the end of his presentation he wants you to follow him on twitter @hyperbees... And im guessing thats where your gonna make your request for the gDocs tool....

English is my second Language :-)

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Jeremiah 20
Jeremiah
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Nov 11, 2010, 7:42:25 AM via Website

irenelopour
@jerimiah

My bad... Since he deactivate his account im assuming his gevin up on android and focusing only on iphone...

As for the gDocs for the tool, at the end of his presentation he wants you to follow him on twitter @hyperbees... And im guessing thats where your gonna make your request for the gDocs tool....

That's too bad for him, hope he does well. Thanks for the twitter tip :)

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Classteacher 4
Classteacher
  • Forum posts: 9

Feb 2, 2013, 12:00:50 PM via Website

I am not able to increase download for my app;

play[dot]google[dot]com/store/apps/details?id=air.com.classteacher.main

Please help...

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3
J Pendleton
  • Forum posts: 21

Feb 3, 2013, 8:36:45 PM via Website

I am also interested in this topic (android downloads). Not for my app, but I'm interested to figure out how to not get buried by android market/googleplay to help a friend. His app is a free game that I think is a really great product, but it is difficult to get the visibility that he needs to increase downloads. Any recommendations besides free social media to increase an apps visibility?

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