I am a new developer that just released my first app on Friday. So far I've sold a grand total of 3 copies, 1 of which was someone that I know! Horrible. Is my app crap? Here is a link:
I've got a few promo codes to hand out if you are interested. I'm a little discouraged. Didn't expect big sales, but thought maybe 10 or 20 would buy on opening weekend.
Advice I am looking for:
1. Is my app crap?
2. Should I be selling it, or just give it away free?
3. I've submitted to a dozen or so review sites and am waiting for reviews. I've got a very simple website, twitter, blog (all with pretty low followings unfortunately). Am I missing any simple, free stuff that I should do to up my visibility?
Thanks for looking at this thread.
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Your screenshot techniques needs work. How are you supposed to lure in your customers?
Something catchy?, something professional? or maybe something that looks enticing. Coming off from an engineering degree, I did do an elective on a subject that taught the importance of attracting the customer and how to advertise well. So I'm going to look at the image for one 1 second and come back with some feed back.. here goes....
ok done.. Out of that 1 second here is what i can think of.
1. Icon is dull.
2. Why is the font black, its so hard to read it (let alone having font in an icon when the word Score or what ever is going to be labeled directly below the iphone icon.
3. it looks like its done by 1 person - even if it is done by 1 person. Customers dont give a crap about that so make it look like its done by a team of 800 people
4. It looks amateurish, alot of common technique being ignored. One of the simplest and easiest technique is Keep it Simple.. what i can recall is the detail of the gloss of the icon, the black title and 2 pencils in a wooden background..
to answer your question.
1. I dont know about the functionality of your app, but just from glancing at it doesn't look functional at all and thus the app looks crap.
2. it will probably make no difference, your better off getting that $1 a month or whatever.
3. Doubt going to reviewers will help at all, unless its very functional but i am guessing they are going to have 1 quick look and then it heads to the delete button straight away.. sad but probably true.
its your first app and take it as a learning experience of the market of whats needed and all. Heck even i made simple apps that are just absolute crap but something pull those 20 sales a day
You might want to check your key words. When searching for "Score keeping" in iTunes, your app does not show up. There are 23 other score keeping apps listed, but not your app.
its your first app and take it as a learning experience of the market of whats needed and all. Heck even i made simple apps that are just absolute crap but something pull those 20 sales a day
Thanks for you feedback. That is probably the biggest lesson I'm learning here. Appearance is everything. The app is pretty functional; I and everyone in my family use it all the time to score our games. I just need to work on showing that to the users quickly I guess.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Today's Posts
You might want to check your key words. When searching for "Score keeping" in iTunes, your app does not show up. There are 23 other score keeping apps listed, but not your app.
- Olaf
I have questions with that. I don't have "Score Keeping" as a key word, but I have "Score Keeper" "Score" as key words. But searching for "Score Keeper" you have to scroll through like 500 apps before you get to my app. It's there, but not high. How to you counter that?
Thanks guys for your quick feedback. This forum is awesome.
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It's there, but not high. How to you counter that?
That is a chicken and the egg problem, you need good placement in the search results to get sales, but you need high sales to get good placement.
You need some sort of external action to get the ball rolling. Sometimes you get lucky and just being in the new release list will do it for you, unfortunately it looks like you missed that one. Word of mouth, some sort of advertising, etc, are you choices now...
Let's say, your app is simple and in an oversaturated niche.
I would make it free with AD and IAP to remove the ADs.
Then I would move on to the next app, which would be something more unique.
I'd agree with this sentiment. It actually looks pretty clean and like a pretty decent effort for your first app, but it is a saturated market so you'd have to really stand out to have a chance. As said above, it's a nice first app, but it doesn't stand out.
put some ads and an IAP to remove the ads, take another look at your keywords, and move on to something bigger and better. for example, if you are #432 for score keeper, but somehow there are only 23 apps for score keeping, i might consider changing keeper to keeping.
I would make it free with AD and IAP to remove the ADs.
Then I would move on to the next app, which would be something more unique.
Quote:
Originally Posted by clarky07
I'd agree with this sentiment. It actually looks pretty clean and like a pretty decent effort for your first app, but it is a saturated market so you'd have to really stand out to have a chance. As said above, it's a nice first app, but it doesn't stand out.
put some ads and an IAP to remove the ads, take another look at your keywords, and move on to something bigger and better. for example, if you are #432 for score keeper, but somehow there are only 23 apps for score keeping, i might consider changing keeper to keeping.
Thank you very much guys for your feedback. I've kind of agreed with your sentiment as well. I always looked at this app as a guinea pig, learning experience app. Biggest lessons I've learned: research target markets thoroughly before deciding to build an app, make the app look really pretty, especially the icon, think about what makes your app unique and make sure others know it instantly just by looking at screenshots. I'll pull out the big guns for the next app. I'll look at making this app free and do the AD and IAP route... Another thought is to make this free and put promotions and ads for my own app in it instead of using add networks. Just make it a tool to promote my other apps once I get them out there. I'll check around in the "Promotion Techniques" forum on that idea.... Thanks again for the feedback. This forum is awesome. I hope to be around here more...
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Two points that you might consider:
1. extend the functionality of your app. This doesn't work for all apps, and I can't think of any way to extend your app. If it keeps scores of games, maybe add rankings where people of a group can compare, maybe add graphs showing improvement over time or graph a few different people.
Just throwing out some ideas.
Keep in mind that you are in a way, competing against high end apps for someones $1. This is very tough because you have to win a whole bunch of $1 sales to get anywhere.
2. consider what the customer is getting with your app compared to other apps. Is your app better/faster/cleaner or does it do more than the others? Look at the others and see which one is highest ranking, is yours better than theirs? If not, you have a steep up hill climb.
Probably best to make it free, put in a link to your site, put in an ad that will display when your done with your next project, change the key word search, update the graphics and see if you can add something over and above the others and have that on the 1st screenshot.
I am a new developer that just released my first app on Friday. So far I've sold a grand total of 3 copies, 1 of which was someone that I know! Horrible. Is my app crap? Here is a link:
I've got a few promo codes to hand out if you are interested. I'm a little discouraged. Didn't expect big sales, but thought maybe 10 or 20 would buy on opening weekend.
Advice I am looking for:
1. Is my app crap?
2. Should I be selling it, or just give it away free?
3. I've submitted to a dozen or so review sites and am waiting for reviews. I've got a very simple website, twitter, blog (all with pretty low followings unfortunately). Am I missing any simple, free stuff that I should do to up my visibility?
Thanks for looking at this thread.
I would worry more about keywords and making the icon a bit punchier then wait a few weeks as it takes time to build. Look at the titles people use. Some are long & descriptive, not just the name of the app.
My first app went live 4 weeks ago & sales were very low. Fixing keywords (I used up 99 out of 100 chars available) helped get it into view. Sales have not rocketed but have increased steadily & this week is twice last week & I'm into double figure sales per day so I would suggest that you should not get discouraged yet. Just get on with the next app & make it better.
I think the screenshots could be worked on. I don't know the percentages but I'm willing to be the majority of the people go straight to screenshots and skip the description.
I'm not a fan of the blue text on the wood background.
Get a high quality icon. Something that will stand out more.
Something I read recently is fail fast. Not saying to give up on this app but don't get too attached to it. If you sense it's not working, try another app.
Just remember that execution of your idea is more important than the idea sometimes. So if you're making an app that's already in the store, how will you be different? Why download your as opposed to others?
Like others have said, maybe make it free with some IAP. Or use this app to start building a porfolio of apps that you cross promote to get more downloads.
Two points that you might consider:
1. extend the functionality of your app.
2. consider what the customer is getting with your app compared to other apps.
Thought about adding ability to email/facebook/twitter your game scores, but not sure I want to spend the time yet.
I tried to go in to designing my app with idea that you can have lots of players (other apps limited to 4) and you can see a history (other apps only show you a running total of your score, not scores of each round)
Quote:
Originally Posted by SundialSoft
I would worry more about keywords and making the icon a bit punchier then wait a few weeks as it takes time to build.
...
My first app went live 4 weeks ago & sales were very low. Fixing keywords (I used up 99 out of 100 chars available) helped get it into view.
Yeah, I need to re-evaluate keywords. I think I'm going to make some minor visual updates and change keywords in the next couple days. I'll try to make a better, more catchy icon too.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bhsu21
Congrats on your first app!
I think the screenshots could be worked on....
I'm not a fan of the blue text on the wood background. (EDIT by iOSDave - me neither. My wife liked it. )
Get a high quality icon. Something that will stand out more.
Something I read recently is fail fast....
Just remember that execution of your idea is more important than the idea sometimes....
Like others have said, maybe make it free with some IAP. Or use this app to start building a porfolio of apps that you cross promote to get more downloads.
Hope this helps.
Thanks bhsu21! It helps a ton! I'm not too attached to this app... it was fun to create, and I use it all the time for myself to keep score of games I play. That's good enough for me. I think my strategy right now is to make some quick and easy visual changes, new icon, update keywords, think about screenshots, then evaluate things. I'll probably cut my losses at that point, make it free, cross promote and get my next killer app into the store!
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Thanks bhsu21! It helps a ton! I'm not too attached to this app... it was fun to create, and I use it all the time for myself to keep score of games I play. That's good enough for me. I think my strategy right now is to make some quick and easy visual changes, new icon, update keywords, think about screenshots, then evaluate things. I'll probably cut my losses at that point, make it free, cross promote and get my next killer app into the store!
I wouldn't give up on this app just yet. Your market space isn't just "scorekeeping", it's "universal scorekeeping". Many of those couple dozen apps that come up are for specific games or sports.
You are competing with things like "Keeping Score" and "ScoreMaster". They're all pretty terrible looking. Yours just happens to be the worst.
If you made yours "best of breed", I think it could be one of those long haul apps that will always have sales trickling in.
Ditch the hideous font and background. Cutesy fonts make people run like the plague - they just look like poorly built amateur apps. Study any really successful listview based iOS app and just shamelessly rip off the design.
I wouldn't give up on this app just yet. Your market space isn't just "scorekeeping", it's "universal scorekeeping". Many of those couple dozen apps that come up are for specific games or sports.
You are competing with things like "Keeping Score" and "ScoreMaster". They're all pretty terrible looking. Yours just happens to be the worst.
If you made yours "best of breed", I think it could be one of those long haul apps that will always have sales trickling in.
Ditch the hideous font and background. Cutesy fonts make people run like the plague - they just look like poorly built amateur apps. Study any really successful listview based iOS app and just shamelessly rip off the design.
I agree on making it look too cute. Make it look polished. Hire someone to do the graphics for you. Will be worth it.
Glad to help Dave! You're doing a great job. Just keep at it. Learn from each app.
This... but really look at your niche. I would not recommend paying a lot or graphics if you're going to only end up getting 5 sales a day with this app. It would be better to start a new app and invest in that using your experience gained.
This... but really look at your niche. I would not recommend paying a lot or graphics if you're going to only end up getting 5 sales a day with this app. It would be better to start a new app and invest in that using your experience gained.
Yeah, I agree. You shouldn't really put much more time into this app unless you are thinking of making it better than the other Score Keeping apps.
... but really look at your niche. I would not recommend paying a lot or graphics if you're going to only end up getting 5 sales a day with this app. It would be better to start a new app and invest in that using your experience gained.
I'm settling in to this mindset as well. I have learned a lot with this first app. I'm going to try a couple more experiments to see how they go though. I want to update graphics, simplify a few things, change keywords, etc. I'm not going to spend too much time though. I just whipped up a new icon for the app. What do you think? Improvement or no?
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