On 5/14/2011 10:58 AM, Brian Conrad wrote: > Some time I'm going to find a 10 minute marketing course link we can > all benefit from. This will explain how giving away an app for a day > may increase your overall sales. If it's about raising your app in the ratings, then yes, there can be a net win. But there are other ways to raise your app in the ratings without devaluing it (and ALL apps!) in the mind of consumers.
> And don't forget that the Android Market offered an opportunity for > developers to lower their price for the holiday season to spur more > sales. I have picked up deals at Fry's for a $90 piece of software > where after "instant savings" and "upgrade rebate" the price amounted > to $20. Or even some things that are free after rebate. Anything where there's a rebate form involved they're counting on some large percentage of people not filling in the form; I forget the numbers, but something like 60% of people don't follow through, so a "$10" off coupon typically only costs them $4, on average (if I'm remembering the numbers right). > Or even inexpensive USB sticks and cables that are "loss leaders" to > get you into the store. THAT is what giving away free apps on Amazon seems most like to me. And that's why it seems like they have some gall asking people to give away their apps for a day. Yes you'd get exposure in front of a lot of users, but you'd probably get MORE exposure with a pay-per-install advertising agreement. Apparently TapJoy was doing such a good job boosting app ratings that they were forced to limit their effectiveness by Apple: http://venturebeat.com/2011/04/25/tapjoy-limits-certain-promotions-after-apple-rejects-a-series-of-apps/ With a deal like that you can promote a paid app by giving away your entire profit to "buy" a higher rating, which is immediately useful to gain more purchases. I'd want some kind of guarantee from Amazon that my ratings would stay high following the promotion, or otherwise all you get is a small amount of name recognition from the people who saw the app during the promotion, plus any additional word-of-mouth generated from the free installs. The latter could be significant, depending on your app, but I can get that word-of-mouth from TapJoy and other similar advertisers, and I don't have to give the ENTIRE profit away at the same time (though I know someone who does). > I suspect that the majority of us here know how to code an app but > little about marketing it. Are you claiming to know better? Then please enlighten us instead of just teasing us with hints. > My first submission to Amazon got approved so I'll see how that goes > and I would love to know if these Android devices are comings sans > Android Market and maybe even Google API. Congrats. Be sure to let us know how that works out for you. :) Tim -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Discuss" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-discuss?hl=en.
