App Promotion for fellow Indie Developers using the 80/20 principle.

App Promotion for fellow Indie Developers using the 80/20 principle. - General Marketing & SEO

Hi Fellow Developers,
A little bit about myself. I am part of a group called 'New Rich' . The NR is a group of individuals who make just enough money to fulfill their dreams by doing things that excites them with their free time . Each NR is excited by different things and I find my excitement in teaching others what I have learnt and still learn from the group. I am currently working in India and I teach a lot of youngsters the way of the new rich and enable them to be financially free by blogging, App development E-Commerce and me and my fellow NR's do a lot of free knowledge sharing on this front . I see that a lot of developers develop brilliant apps but fail to get it in front of the market and the app gets lost in oblivion. I hope that I can give my two cents here and be able to help you in promoting your apps. This is my first post and I would not be able to post links here . But will update the post if it proves popular and once I have posted 10 comments.
Warning : Post would be long and will be updated from time to time so feel free to grab a cup of coffee.
The post is based on two principles.
80/20 Principle (Pareto's Law) : 80% of your downloads comes from 20% of the sources.
Pareto's law on income distribution can be applied to just about anything you want . The usually accepted assumption that all the work you do will yield equal result is false. For example : Most of the blogs will have that 10 or 20 posts out of a 100 which gets them more than 80% of the traffic. Only 20 % of what you study will be asked in your examinations. 80 % of your effort on preparation for the exam is useless. So what if you can know that 20 % of your promotion effort which is giving you more than 80 % of your downloads ? Then all you will need to do is spend more time on this 20 % and not waste time on the other 80 %.
Parkinson's Law : Work expands to fill the time available for its completion
After you know that 20% which is giving you the best results. Come up with the things you should do to maximize and DO IT NOW !!! Keep a deadline of 3 hours to complete all your promotion task and call it a day. Don't fall into the trap of reading a hundred posts on promotion and not doing even one . Dont get into the habit of 'paralysis by analysis'. Another suggestion would be not to read something to its entirety. Even this post. Read the part that you really need to do now and the rest when you are ready to execute .
You must be well aware by now that more than 80% of the apps in Playstore get majority of the downloads and consequently more than 80% of the revenue. I don't want to bombard you with stats bore you to death. This is also true with marketing and sales. 80% of your sales will come from 20 % of your sources. Here I want to distinguish between sales and marketing.
Marketing : Where you let a lot of people know about your app . Promotion, Ads, Guest Post are examples for marketing.
Sales : Where you convincing a person who reaches your play store link because of marketing to download your app. Beautiful app Icon, an HD YouTube video explaining your app, screenshots explaining your app features on each screen and not just a plain screenshot are examples of sales.
Our method for app promotion is simple. Find out which 20 % of the events or actions that you do gets you 80% of your success (80/20 Principle) and Do more of that 20 % to get you the best result in the least amount of time spent(Parkinsons Law).
Finding out which 20% of the things you do is getting you 80% of your result
One of the problems is finding out from where you are getting your downloads. So the idea is to measure from which source you are getting maximum downloads. This can be done in three ways.
Whenever you are posting your playstore url ALWAYS use an url shortner(search "Google url shortner" ) and use the short link to post about your apps in forums. This will allow you to track the sources from which you are getting your clicks from and this is very important.
You can now link your app to Google Analytics. This will allow you to track how your downloads are generated. Using this you will be able to better determine the percentage of your downloads which are generated through Organic(People searching for your app or keyword in your app description through Google Search and Play Store) and InOrganic(People clicking on some link you have posted elsewhere and reaching your app) . Google on how you can add your app to google analytics page and its easy.
Another effective method to know if your app was mentioned on any blogs or news is very important to keep track of your app.
Enter your app name in quotes in Google Search(Ex : "FallToid app") and click on "google news" . At the very end of the search list you will have an option to called "Create an Alert" . Set that up once and whenever your app is mentioned on any news or blog you automatically get alerted about it by Google.
If you do the above , you can be rest assured that you are tracking almost all the sources of your downloads. Also I have noted that many people don't trust short-links so it would be better if you add something like (shortened link to play-store) to let people know that it is a play-store link.
Next up, Posting links to your app . I have a list of forums and websites on which I have had success promoting my client's apps and I will post those when I am able to do so. But basically there are two kinds of apps .
Promotion based apps : These are the apps which people don't want currently or don't know it exists but will download them when they come across it. These apps will not get much organic downloads. But can go viral based on the downloads they get. Examples for these apps are most of the games and some of the apps. User sees the link or reads about the app from some website or forum and downloads the app. These apps need more promotion channels including Social network sites.
Need based apps : These are the apps that user goes looking for. Examples of these are popular games like Chess, Crosswords, Scrabble etc or some root apps such as SuperUser, or sim unlock app like SuperSimUnlocker are examples of such apps. These apps will get organic downloads but will need some promotion and acceptance initially.
This post will talk about promotion based apps.
I love forums like XDA for promoting my apps for one main reason . You don't need permission to create a post(like this one) provided that you follow the rules and add some value to its readers. Forums are after all about user generated content and the more good content they get the better it is for them . Plus most of the forums are free. That is why I suggest you begin by writing a useful content for the users of the forums and add value first. I have also seen that many of us will just reply to a thread that talks about an app and spam it with your play store links . This is useless and does not work 80 % percent of the time . Spend most of your time here and it will be worth it .
Next up app review sites , If you can pay 100 bucks for a couple of review sites to review your app it will do wonders to your promotion . Don't look at this as an expense but as an investment. If you have faith in your app then go ahead and spend it . At worst you will at-least know what does not work .
Play store is not the only app market for you you know , Play-store has the highest number of users but also stiff competition . Place your app on all the alternative stores that you can find and this will get you more downloads. The main goal is to get your app in many places as possible and who knows if an influential blogger likes your app then he may spread the word around.
You have already heard it many times that your app needs to have a social presence. But Google+, You Tube is much more important than Facebook and Twitter simply because these are Google Products. Integrating Google + in your app as well as an HD video on YouTube will make Google like you very much . Also if your app is doing very well including GoogleAdMob will get you much much more promotion than using any other Ads platform simply because this is a Google product and it is in the best interest of Google to take care of the app which earns them most.
Add your app in product hunt dot com . This will get you some eyeballs.
I know press release is important but I dont want to spend all my time on it . What I do is spend 50 bucks on pitchpedgion dot com and send my app to over 120 influential bloggers at a time and call it a day.
The last promotional effort that I do is I find the app which is similar to my app. For Ex : If I am doing a calculator app I find out the competitor app and lets say the name of the app is "Calcu" . Then I search for the app on Google along with the quotes. This will give me the list of websites that this app was mentioned in and get in touch with them and use this trail to promote my app in the same places.
I have also noted that many of us just spam comments this actually works for some time . As you can see comments are sorted as latest comment first. So this means that if you add a comment earlier and don't add your comment often then you will get to the bottom of the comments and will be a futile effort.
That is it . Now sit back and analyze from where you are getting maximum downloads and spend more time on it . Don't worry about the least 10 percent since it is not worth your time .
I will post part 2 of this post shortly.
Mods, Please consider this to be a sticky post and if I have broken any of the forum rules please send me a pm allowing me to correct myself. Happy Promoting.

Great read, looking forward for the next part!
It's true 20% of my apps have the +80% of total revenue! Do you think i should focus on promoting those 20% or the others?

Related

How to Promote Android Apps?

Hi, I'm a new app developer and I recently published my first app on the android market. Unfortunently I'm not getting any downloads besides those from friends. I've tried posted in app development forums like this one but that did not create an downloads. I also tried running an admob campaign and that did not create any downloads. I've been reading through the forums here and at other sites and it seems people won't download unless you have reviews and other people downloading. If others won't download because no downloads then nobody will download. I would really appreciate any advice. I'm not expecting or hoping for 10000 + downloads but I was hoping for at least 5 downloads since it's been almost 3 weeks now. Thanks for the suggestions.

go to smaller android blogs and ask them to review it. create youtube video and show how it works

This blog post documents my experience in App Marketing
This blog post documents my experience in App Marketing
http://karim-ouda.blogspot.com/2012/05/android-app-marketing-dumping-my.html

Submit your app to http://50bestandroidapps.com/
Submit your app to 50bestandroidapps.com
It's a good web site to get your apps promoted. :fingers-crossed:

the_main_app said:
Hi, I'm a new app developer and I recently published my first app on the android market. Unfortunently I'm not getting any downloads besides those from friends. I've tried posted in app development forums like this one but that did not create an downloads. I also tried running an admob campaign and that did not create any downloads. I've been reading through the forums here and at other sites and it seems people won't download unless you have reviews and other people downloading. If others won't download because no downloads then nobody will download. I would really appreciate any advice. I'm not expecting or hoping for 10000 + downloads but I was hoping for at least 5 downloads since it's been almost 3 weeks now. Thanks for the suggestions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Increase SEO of app..
In app details, enter large no. of keywords related with the app. Also, enter name of other similar popular apps as keyword.
It'll not just increase visibility in built-in search results, but also on external search engines and curators!

I might be able to help?
If you are looking to get your app promoted, I actually own and operate a website called Droid App of the Day, so if you would like a free app review visit my site (I cant post links as am a new member). A google search won't fail you!

the_main_app said:
Hi, I'm a new app developer and I recently published my first app on the android market. Unfortunently I'm not getting any downloads besides those from friends. I've tried posted in app development forums like this one but that did not create an downloads. I also tried running an admob campaign and that did not create any downloads. I've been reading through the forums here and at other sites and it seems people won't download unless you have reviews and other people downloading. If others won't download because no downloads then nobody will download. I would really appreciate any advice. I'm not expecting or hoping for 10000 + downloads but I was hoping for at least 5 downloads since it's been almost 3 weeks now. Thanks for the suggestions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello friend, I have the same problem as you! I also have a new android app, but cannot promote it properly. Could you please, share your experience on promoting your app. It would be interesting not only for me Good luck!

I have wrote this guide for people like me. I have wrote almost everything I tried when I was promoting my app.
http://obscurant1st.biz/blog/how-to-promote-android-app/

obscurant1st said:
I have wrote this guide for people like me. I have wrote almost everything I tried when I was promoting my app.
http://obscurant1st.biz/blog/how-to-promote-android-app/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great article! Thanks for sharing this

Few words about google play app pronotion
Empirically, I determined that a new application has to be seen through search Google play. Search is all that we have without money for a marketing campaign.
Therefore,application should be optimized in the following order:
Application name in google play. This name may be different from the name displayed on the desktop device. The application name contains 30 characters, they should contain the main application keywords.
Description of the application must be clear and also contain keywords.
Attractive icons are very important.
The application must be beautiful and functional. No need to buy a device for $ 300-500 and install an ugly app. People want a beautiful application.
Publication of forums mentioned above.

Well if you don't mind paying for installations try appbrain. It features an option to pay per installation, for a small number of installations you can go as low as 0,20 per installation. They only allow to promote free apps though, and if your income is from ads you will probably not get your money back.
Other options are going to forums and telling the users about your app. Or contact review blogs. Appeggs usally posts good apps, or try app of the day blogs. But make sure your app is ready for the big public or else you might just end up getting bad reviews,

I wrote a little guide on how to promote your apps http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2225125

I wanted to add that the guide that i've been using (a small one) and that lead our team to initially post a thread here on XDA is: http://karim-ouda.blogspot.kr/2012/05/android-app-marketing-dumping-my.html
Interestingly enough, the author of that guide has posted here as well!

So keywords actually do stuff then? I only tried it in one app, I didn't tell anyone I built or released the app. Not even one or two people and admittedly it has had 200 downloads.
I thought it didn't really do anything. Think I have to add keywords to all my apps descs now.

Be careful with keywords: http://droid-blog.net/2011/06/13/how-to-not-get-kicked-out-of-android-market/
This is also interesting: http://droid-blog.net/2011/07/11/four-reasons-why-your-app-wont-be-successful/
And for tips: http://droid-blog.net/category/aso-2/
Ok. It is all from the same blog but I found it very helpful.

Advertising is one option, the other is to advertise your app on various forums, facebook groups. Making youtube video is also a good practice. It avoids you negative reviews as user has already been aware of all app features.

First of all, I want to say that I have no experience in promoting Android apps. But I did some work in promoting websites for businesses, and I can suggest some things.
Key is a having a functional app. If users download an app which is half done and has disabled functions because they aren't done yet, they are going to uninstall it. Second suggestion, a great design is makes a difference for a lot of people whether they're going to install it or not.
When you have both those things, you can get on with actually promoting the app. I would search for an SEO copywriter to get the description for your app. SEO copywriters are specialized in optimizing texts for Google. And I would look into advertising on Facebook. I think you can actually promote your apps, and advertise only on phones. This way your advertisement will only be showed to people who are using Facebook on their phone. User will probably more tempted to install the app.

My app is now having more 1600+ downloads! I am planning to do a major update which might increase the app exposure!
EDIT: I would like everyone to know that I have started a free review service, so if anyone in the process of promoting thier android app, they could consider requesting a free review from me!

the_main_app said:
How to Promote Android Apps?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello to all.
You can promote your apps at Appsorg.com :good:
Appsorg.com - Helps you share and organize your Android apps from around the web.
ps - This is my first post at xda, but this is not a spam )
I really think this site will be very helpfully to all of us

App promotion
Thanks for all the interesting links and posts on app marketing ideas. We're a new app developer & in the same boat.
It seems that App Store Optimisation along with submissions to as many review sites as possible are good starting points. We started looking at pre launch strategies as well focusing on building up some marketing steam.
Check out pre apps. It's a pretty interesting idea. We also submitted to any app dev competitions and as many journalists as we could. Paid reviews are worth a look at as well if you can scrape a few 100 bucks together but make sure the site has traffic
dinamotxt dot com

StartApp

Hi,
first of all, if I can convince you to try out StartApp, Mod Edit: Link Removed
» StartApp FAQ
Well then, let's start. As I already announced here, I am currently trying out a new ad network for one of my apps. The network is called "StartApp". And although it is a little bit more intrusive than AdMob and not every user is going to like it, I am, however, already yet pretty satisfied with its results. In just two days I earned now more than $13 - which might not sound like a lot for some of you, but for me it actually it is quite much. Because in comparison to AdMob it's around 20 times more!
But simply look yourself:
» With AdMob banner ads I earned around $10 in the last 30 days.
» And now my StartApp earnings from just the last two days: $13.34.
(Well, of course, that were just two days, we will see, if this will hold on in the future.)
So how does StartApp actually work? Basically, there are two ways to earn money with StartApp.
1st Way: SDK Integration
Regarding of which option you choose (full integration / partial integration), with this way you will earn money for each installation of your app. I will simply quote the FAQ:
Our payment is based on number of app downloads; you get paid for each download generated with our SDK inside. There are 2 integration levels available: Full and Partial. The amount of payment depends on the integration level you choose. For full integration, we pay $0.055 for each new U.S install , $0.01 for each new install from any other country. For partial integration, we pay $0.04 for new U.S installs and $0.008 for new installs from any other country. A new user would be a user who's device does not have the StartApp SDK present. A returning user (with the StartApp SDK on his device) will grant you $0.01 each from the US and $0.005 for all other countries for both full and partial integration.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
2nd Way: Popup (Exit) Ads
I will simply quote the blog:
The Exit Ad introduces StartApp developers to the rev share model, providing continuous income and great eCPM, all while keeping the seamless user experience that users expect and value.
The exit ad will display a full screen banner ad when the user exits the application, intruding minimally on the user experience of your app. When the user clicks the back button or the home button on their device to exit the application, they are presented with an ad that leads to a mobile website or a free app download when clicked. If they click “Not Now” the app will exit as normal.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please note that you can also add those popup ads to other points of your app, e.g. "natural breaking points" (like a user saves a file or loads a game level and while the file is being saved or the game level is loaded, he cannot do anything anyway - so why not showing him a popup add now?).
(3rd Way: Referral Program)
You'll get $10, for the first 100 downloads a developer who was referred by you makes. The referred developer himself gets a bonus of $25 if he crosses this 100 downloads (that bonus is only for those being referred!). And afterwards, it even goes on: For every other of the following download-levels being crossed by the referred developer, you’ll get an extra payment:
- At 1,000 downloads + $25
- At 10,000 downloads +150
- At 100,000 downloads +$500
- At 1,000,000 downloads +$1,500
So summing it all up, you can make up to $2,185 for each referred developer. Therefore here again my appeal to you: Mod Edit: Link Removed Give it a try. It's a win-win-situation.
» StartApp FAQ
» Register now
(ATTACHEMENTS: SCREENSHOTS)

It sounds good, but the way they seem to work it is super intrusive.
http://www.startapp.com/faq/
How does it actually work?
We will supply you a SDK (including a step by step implementation guide). Integrating our product takes about 3 minutes! Once implemented, update your app on the market and add our disclaimer text to your app description. We are very focused on maintaining transparency, so it's highly important you let your users know about us. Your user will then get a search icon on his home screen, a bookmark link and a browser home page, all directing to our web search URL.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i'd rather see ads, than have an app change my browser start page and add search icons.
Plus the permissions are kind of rough. System tools and read messages are hard for most people to accept.

Well, yes and no. You can decide to offer the user a clean app without any ads, but instead you include this shortcuts and bookmarks installation procedure. The user can easily decline this dialog (I think he has to do it 3 or 4 times until it stops appearing anymore):
In my opinion, this dialog is quite transparent and clear to the user. If he (accidently or deliberately) chose to accept this dialog, he can afterwards easily delete the bookmarks and shortcuts (drag to the trash or delete the link for the browser). After all, your users are going to have a completely ad-free app. In my opinion it is not that intrusive, since StartApp does not "settle into the system" or something.
You can also choose to only use those exit-popup-ads. I cannot say how much you can earn with them yet and if it is really more than with AdMob. But you can give it a try, especially they could be useful while loading a game level or saving a file or something (as explained above). The user might be more willing to look at those ads if he cannot do anything else at the moment anyway. That might be a cleaner solution than those AdMob ads, on which the user clicks accidently while playing a game, because the controls are next to the banner or something.
Concerning the permissions, here you can find an explanation. What do you mean by "read messages"? There is no permission needed to read SMS or something.
Personally, I decided to give StartApp a try, because AdMob's eCPM was somehow unexpectedly low (much lower than for other apps from me). Also, many, many stupid people installed my app (which is for ROOTED PHONES ONLY) and rated it negatively because "it does not work ('****', 'crap', '**** you', ...)". I certainly do not have pity on those who cannot even read...
Mod Edit: Link Removed

for the message thing I was going by their "can I see this live" link from the FAQs which goes to
start app quick search https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.startapp.quicksearchbox on the play store.
Is the one they install different from that one? also, system tools does show up in the play store descriptions, so they need to update where they say it doesnt.
Other than that it sounds interesting. The money you are currently getting from them includes the search combo, or is it just the interstitial(Exit) ads?
I like interstitials for some situations. and it seems so far for you they are paying out better than admob.

out of ideas said:
for the message thing I was going by their "can I see this live" link from the FAQs which goes to
start app quick search on the play store.
Is the one they install different from that one? also, system tools does show up in the play store descriptions, so they need to update where they say it doesnt.
Other than that it sounds interesting. The money you are currently getting from them includes the search combo, or is it just the interstitial(Exit) ads?
I like interstitials for some situations. and it seems so far for you they are paying out better than admob.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Out of ideas- Startapp truly has a very non obtrusive solution to monetize your apps and users accept this concept as it is much more friendlier than push notifications or even banners which appear from nowhere anf interrupt the usage of the app. Regarding the quick search you saw from their website it is identical to the one that will appear via the installation of your app. Bear in mind. that as Null0R has mentioned above, Startapp is 100% compliant with Google's policy, meaning the user can choose whether to accept or decline this addition, and it wont affect the installation of your app.
If you need and examples of apps using Startapp's SDK let me know.

Hey,
sorry for the late answer, I was waiting for an answer from StartApp myself.
Other than that it sounds interesting. The money you are currently getting from them includes the search combo, or is it just the interstitial(Exit) ads?
I like interstitials for some situations. and it seems so far for you they are paying out better than admob.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The very main part of the money I currently earn (still always around $8 - $10 per day) from StartApp definitely results from the SDK integration itself (bookmarks, search icon, ...). Currently, I earn only around $0.1 - $0.2 per day from interstitial ads. Thats not really impressive, but it still can concete with AdMob I guess (since my AdMob revenue never was really a lot higher on the same app I think). On the StartApp dashboard it says, my eCPM is $0.16. In AdMob, I always had around $0.07 eCPM. Paradoxically, my AdMob-eCPM raised since I integrated StartApp (I now have those two ad networks in one app). Now it is $0.10.
Like you, I also wanted know how many they actually pay for interstitial ads. The answer, however, was not really that concrete.
The advertisements that are shown on the exit ads earn various amounts due to the different agreements that we have with the advertiser. Depending on what advertisements are shown we help you out by calculating a eCPM for you. You are able to use this to compare the payment amounts between other ad networks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here they also say:
RevShare- StartApp will share a percentage earned from these advertisements with you. Payments are sent every month in a NET30 terms (30 days after the end of the payment period). Your Ecpm is easily visible in portal. The eCPM may change depending on various parameters.
[...]
hitman: do you pay per impression or per click ?
Matthew: We pay eCPM, which allows us to calculate a payment from both pay per impression and pay per click.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What might be interesting for you as well is that StartApp introduced a new type of interstitial ads last thursday: http://blog.startapp.com/3d-ad-latest-ad-type/
for the message thing I was going by their "can I see this live" link from the FAQs which goes to
start app quick search https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...quicksearchbox on the play store.
Is the one they install different from that one? also, system tools does show up in the play store descriptions, so they need to update where they say it doesnt.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think, this permission is not part of the requirements of the StartApp SDK. Rather the app itself needs to read messages, since it is a search app and you can search through your contacts, your messages, your apps and so on with it. At least, this would be my guess. You can check out my app's permission requirements: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.felixheller.sharedprefseditor (writing to sd card, however, is not part of the StartApp requirements).
For those who are being interested, I am willing to share my StartApp stats after one week of usage.
(click to enlarge)
So basically, I earned $56 in a week with StartApp. This really is a lot in my opinion. When I started with AdMob, I needed around 9 months until I reached my first $100 (until my first payout). How it seems like I need around two weeks with StartApp. So this is a quite dramatic improvement, I think, everybody noticed that on his own, huh?
Mod Edit: Link Removed

For me StartApp generates many fake-virus reviews.

ufomstr said:
For me StartApp generates many fake-virus reviews.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
"Fake-virus reviews"? I don't understand you. How do you mean this?

null0R said:
"Fake-virus reviews"? I don't understand you. How do you mean this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That means that antivirus software (not all, few of them) report StartApp as virus (or adware, depends on app). Then wanna-be-good users that don't understand what's going on posts 1-star reviews that there is virus in your app.

ufomstr said:
That means that antivirus software (not all, few of them) report StartApp as virus (or adware, depends on app). Then wanna-be-good users that don't understand what's going on posts 1-star reviews that there is virus in your app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh yeah, I get stupid comments as well. Few of them stated, that they actually do like the app, but that they do not like the new permissions and thus they won't update. They like the app. They rate it with one star. Logic.
Today I got the first time a "virus-comment" as well. Well, I try to deal with it. I always try to give friendly answers to stupid comments. I try to explain the permissions and why I chose to use something different than AdMob. You should also add StartApp's disclaimer to your app description (you actually have to):
We love creating apps, and want to keep them free forever. In order to keep our development running we are using a search service to generate some revenue from this free app. This app will add a couple search links on your device in the form of an icon, bookmark link and browser homepage. You may delete them easily (drag to the trash or delete the link for the browser), if you choose to use them, thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To be honest, my average rating went a bit down since I included StartApp. But I still get lots of high ratings. Still, many users seem to be satisfied. So am I since I included StartApp. In my opinion, the earnings were definitely worth it until now.

For me it didn't help. I've added description about antivirus, but there are too many idiots that don't read description or are just dumb. Almost all of may 1stars are for virus... I will have to remove startapp.

when startapp release money on august 2013?
Hi,
Paydate of June is 1st August 2013, but today is 2/8/2013 and i still get nothing from Startapp. What's wrong? I'm at GMT+7, Hanoi, Vietnam.
the second question is : my friends, android developer were play startapp, said that their paypal account is loocked when withdraw money from startapp. Any one can confirm about it?
Look forward your answers, thanks!

startapp
9android.net said:
Hi,
Paydate of June is 1st August 2013, but today is 2/8/2013 and i still get nothing from Startapp. What's wrong? I'm at GMT+7, Hanoi, Vietnam.
the second question is : my friends, android developer were play startapp, said that their paypal account is loocked when withdraw money from startapp. Any one can confirm about it?
Look forward your answers, thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hey i got an email and said they will paid in 8 aug, so i am waiting for 8 aug to come. i don't have clue about paypal account get locked

I use startapp in my app and yesterday XDA wrote article about my app:
http://www.xda-developers.com/android/easily-backup-your-apps-data-contacts-and-messages/
After few users reoprted my app as virus or malware, article about my app was updated and now it says that my app contains a malware.
If anyone going to be promoted by XDA portal don't use startapp

mane55 said:
I use startapp in my app and yesterday XDA wrote article about my app:
http://www.xda-developers.com/android/easily-backup-your-apps-data-contacts-and-messages/
After few users reoprted my app as virus or malware, article about my app was updated and now it says that my app contains a malware.
If anyone going to be promoted by XDA portal don't use startapp
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Or don't use startapp at all...And I guess it wasn't exactly a "few" users...
http://www.xda-developers.com/announcements/xda-and-adware-apps/

mane55 said:
I use startapp in my app and yesterday XDA wrote article about my app:
http://www.xda-developers.com/android/easily-backup-your-apps-data-contacts-and-messages/
After few users reoprted my app as virus or malware, article about my app was updated and now it says that my app contains a malware.
If anyone going to be promoted by XDA portal don't use startapp
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ouch. thats a rough way to lose the "portal bump" and definetly makes it rough to recover from.
I've seen quite a few different apps using startapp being reported as viruses(even if they are not) and nothing kills a good rating faster than that.
Everyone ends up having to makes a bunch of apology follow ups and ends up dumping startapp.
So, not to seem rude or anything, but I don't think this is a good monetization solution for developers.

Well, I have removed startapp from my app. At least now we know that XDA don't allow apps with this kind of ad networks .
It is not a good monetization solution for developers - your app is marked as virus.
I will never use aggressive ads network in the future that mark your app as virus.

Fake virus
null0R said:
"Fake-virus reviews"? I don't understand you. How do you mean this?
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Click to collapse
In my case Leadbolt was generating fake-virus reviews. I got tons of bad reviews complaining that my app was infected. However, this happened only to one of my apps.

9android.net said:
Hi,
Paydate of June is 1st August 2013, but today is 2/8/2013 and i still get nothing from Startapp. What's wrong? I'm at GMT+7, Hanoi, Vietnam.
the second question is : my friends, android developer were play startapp, said that their paypal account is loocked when withdraw money from startapp. Any one can confirm about it?
Look forward your answers, thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
I cannot tell you a lot about that yet. International transfers take some time for sure. Today is the 13th August and I still did not receive any earnings, too - neither from StartApp nor from AdMob. But at the moment, that does not seem to be a thing to be worried about in my opinion. Because my first AdMob payout also took about 19 days (19th February). I will simply wait another week and wach out.
Although my referral links were removed (sorry 'bout that, didn't notice that rule and others posted referral links as well on other topics...), I still wanted to share my most recent experiences with you anyways. So here it is.
My earnings are still quite high. I earn about $12-$13 every day with only one app using StartApp. That's cool. I didn't change anything on my apps since I introduced StartApp.
On the other hand, my ratings of this one app are still going down slowly (including some false virus reports as well). That's stupid. But at the moment that's not a big enough reason to cancel this "StartApp experiment" in my opinion. I'll just wait a bit further, I guess. Maybe I could also write the StartApp support and ask them what to do about those virus reports and negative ratings and if they have some tips or something.

null0R said:
My earnings are still quite high. I earn about $12-$13 every day with only one app using StartApp. That's cool. I didn't change anything on my apps since I introduced StartApp.
On the other hand, my ratings of this one app are still going down slowly (including some false virus reports as well). That's stupid. But at the moment that's not a big enough reason to cancel this "StartApp experiment" in my opinion. I'll just wait a bit further, I guess. Maybe I could also write the StartApp support and ask them what to do about those virus reports and negative ratings and if they have some tips or something.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey,
I am happy to hear your earnings are still high, there shouldn't be a reason they wont be
Here is what Startapp support answered: " Thank you for letting us know about this feedback from your users about messages from their anti-virus software.
We encountered several AV apps that have mis-flagged our SDK as Adware.
After working with with most of these companies, we now have only Dr. Web, AVG and Norton and a few others that are still flagging us as ad ware.
Our latest SDK offers an opt-in EULA for the end user, giving them the choice to add our search app. This user-friendly approach is a step forward to keeping your users aware and creating a long term business that will keep us and you, the developer, earning for the long run. We take the privacy of you and your users very seriously.
Some developers have also posted a message in their description letting users know that it may be flagged as a virus, but that it is not a virus
I hope this answers your question. If you have any more concerns, please let me know."
In addition, Google chose to present its "Disclosure of Ads to Users" using Startapp's EULA as an example of how to be transparent towards the end user.
Of course this doesn't change all anti viruses diagnostics but it does show that Google finds Startapp solution as very user friendly
Hope this helps

[Q] I Created a great app but don't know how to promote it!

Hi I recently published an app on google play but I’m not sure how to promote it.
I have spent 7 months developing it and now I’m trying to reach wider audience, I tried to promote my app on admob but it did not get the amount of installs. are there advertising options better than admob for my app and can you suggest any?
My app is called Smart Booster I posted the apk file.

I would like to share my experience with you..
Our company have developed many apps including Android and iOS.
At the first stage of our promotion,we choose Facebook ads.But unfortunately,Facebook only drove a very small amount of audience.Then we tried google display ads,.Google will show your picture ad on the relevant sites after you set the key words.The result is much better than FB ads.We are inspired and keep looking for more ways to promote our app.
I came across an app review site : Bestreviewapp（you can use google to find it) from another forum somewhere.Like most devs,I think such site is unbelievable and useless ,but I still wondered whether it really works.So I registered as a reviewer first,to see what it looks like.I saw many apps listed there for me to download and review,and they paid me real money after I reviewed and rated the app.A few days later,I have completed about 10 app reviews as a reviewer,I decided to try their service as developer for my own app.I ordered 30 reviews from US app store from them, got 24 5-stars and 6 4-stars.During the campaign ,I noticed my daily sale was increasing.I got double downloads than before.As they also recommend my app on their social media:Facebook,twitter and Google+.I think these also helps my app gaining more exposure.
Now I keep cooperation with them and I also review other developers' apps now and then.

How can I increase downloads

How can I increase downloads on my application without paid promotion? Here is the link https <Remove this space> ://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.random_messenger.android&hl=en

Alexhudson623 said:
Simply just try to offer good and quality apps for users or for website design service[/url] site owners. People do really appreciate good apps. I would like to share an example of the game app Candy crush which is doing just amazing and there are millions of users for this game app for now. And hundred and thousands of downloads have been made. People just love good apps. If you are making great then obviously you'll get liked by every one and the downloads will also increase which is a white hat technique.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Really? You are saying that just make your game and people will find it if it's good enough? Maybe that was true some years ago, but certainly nowadays it's completely wrong. Optimize your keywords to be shown in relevant searches is one of the keys (ASO), but unfortunately not the only one. Spread the word in alternative channels is also necessary... but it isn't enough neither. Actually, get users without spend tons of dollars in advertising is quite a challenge. I really would like to hear some advices from someone who have experience in this.
By the way, JeanPierreQC, your idea is quite good, but I'm afraid there's many apps which do exactly the same, anyway cool idea, it's a pity you need a lot of users to make it work.

With patience
Unless you get very lucky there is no any simple way to get users fast. The market places are very competitive. Market you apps in social media and internet forums, get all your friends and relatives download your apps. Make many apps that draw users to your other apps. Make so great app that somebody wants to become your partner and does the promotion for you. Simple things like the signature banner below this message can make the difference in the long term.

try to implement the ASO to trigger the app installs

Don't forget that download alone isn't enough. you need the users to be engaged. Having thousands of downloads will not give you higher ranking if everyone simply uninstall it immediately. So be aware from pay per install plan where the users has insensitive to perform the installation. At the end of the day, your app needs to be able to keep the customers with you.

ASO is imho a bit overrated. Having relevant keywords and a nice looking icon and screens, and stuff like that, is simply common sense to me. As long as you have that you have good enough ASO really. ASO isn't some secret trick to get thousands of daily downloads like some people seem to think. There are no secret tricks for that.
To get a lot of download you need to put in A LOT of work, and/or A LOT of money. And have a really good app of course.
Anyway, I good idea that has worked very well for me is localising. If you can't localise your entire app you can at least localise the app description. Adding a few more "big" languages for my app description have almost doubled my downloads, even though the app itself is in english only. It's also cheap as you can get translations for $5 each on fiverr. Sure you won't know how good they are for that little money, but it's basically no money spent and it's probably a lot better than google translate at the very least.

If you are sure that your app is engaging enough for users then try to put as many sharing options as possible within you app like fb,whatapp,twitter. this can boost your downloads.

digibligames said:
Anyway, I good idea that has worked very well for me is localising. If you can't localise your entire app you can at least localise the app description. Adding a few more "big" languages for my app description have almost doubled my downloads, even though the app itself is in english only. It's also cheap as you can get translations for $5 each on fiverr. Sure you won't know how good they are for that little money, but it's basically no money spent and it's probably a lot better than google translate at the very least.
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Click to collapse
Hi,
Pretty interesting and good suggestion.
Could you please share some stats or further experiences about with v.s. without localising

Have you tried PR to push your app?
There's a blog post called "State of App Promotion" that you should check out. Can't post the link because I'm a new user, but just search for "DecisiveAds" on Twitter. It's pinned to the profile. Good luck!

AAP -Android App Promotion
Try AAP - Android App Promotion app on playstore as they provide free download exchange services where you download an app and your app gets downloaded in return .You can see the results in daily reports and take appropriate measure while doing so .

I checked the AAP - The idea is good, but the app has only 1 thousand installs, probably no more than 300 active, that means using this app I can drive maximum 300 installs - not serious promotion. Additionally, it is not clear, how google will consider this way of promotion - legitimate or not? So, taking a risk for few more installs worth?
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Free mobile app

Hi,
Insensitive install is quiet good for new app, because google don't care too much about uninstall for the first month of launch. Many big company also use insensitive install. But link building, website review, user review, how often user come back to you app is also really important.

dandev99 said:
Don't forget that download alone isn't enough. you need the users to be engaged. Having thousands of downloads will not give you higher ranking if everyone simply uninstall it immediately. So be aware from pay per install plan where the users has insensitive to perform the installation. At the end of the day, your app needs to be able to keep the customers with you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry but this is so wrong...
Having thousands of VALID downloads will boost your rankings even if 900 of them uninstalled it a day later. I'm writing from experience and not guessing

website promotion
The ultimate goal of search engine promotion is to increase sales. The more people see the site in high positions in the issue, the more people it visits and theoretically can become your customers. In order for a seo to produce results, it is necessary that the site be properly optimized using tools for a technical audit of the site and its analysis on parameters such as links, content and others.

Low budget for marking

Hi all,
I have low budget for the marking of my new game that i will publish soon
I have only $200 , is that amount will effect or i will just spend for nothing ?
and how i can use them ?
Thanks

It would be very easy to throw that money away. It won't do a lot, all told. Focus instead on the app, encouraging people to review it positively, managing bad reviews, building up a good relationship with an initially small number of users so that they'll tell their mates and build your numbers up. Talk to people for whom your app solves a problem. They don't exist? Well, there's your problem and $200 of marketing won't help

Ryan.T.Student said:
It would be very easy to throw that money away. It won't do a lot, all told. Focus instead on the app, encouraging people to review it positively, managing bad reviews, building up a good relationship with an initially small number of users so that they'll tell their mates and build your numbers up. Talk to people for whom your app solves a problem. They don't exist? Well, there's your problem and $200 of marketing won't help
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ryan has an important point: actually, adwords, facebook ads, *can* bring some result but at a too much heavy cost. I have tried them and my cost per install was like $5 to $10, for free apps...
Prompting users to review your app in your app works, but do it at moments when they achieve something positive with your app, like attaining a certain level in a game. Building a relationship is a key, i can't agree more to that

$200 is a low budget.
Try first the all free methods we all know are aware off (mailing, asking parents and friends to download and promote the app, posts on forums and so on).
Also try to exchange reviews with other developers (I'm always willing to do it, for instance).
And if your really want to boost the number of downloads of your games in order to look more attractive for users visiting your Google Play page, you can buy incentive installs from tapjoy (0.10 / install will give you up to 2,000 downloads (but I don't think it worth the effort, as vast majority will remove your app right after they get their rewards).

Here are some useful methods to increase downloads for consumer mobile apps:
• Application name-is unique
• Keywords-including related keywords, but be careful - don’t stuff every keyword into your app
• Make Facebook or Twitter page for your app and write story of your game there to attract every users
• Description. Your description is clearly the value of your App
Best of luck in your app business.

Database Users

welcome