A fast, easy to use, free, and community supported 2D game engine
Ricardo1980
Member
Hi all!
How do you promote your new game?
I have a list of websites, blogs (mac, games) and forums (programming, developmnet, game design) and what I do is just send them a review of my game.
There are other things I could make, for instance sending Promo codes.
I would like to know your ideas.
Thanks.
letmeknow
Member
Same. What else could I do?
I got review from one o.a.t.s site. but it does not help the sales. Nothing happened.
I also integrated OpenFeint with the hope that will help increase the sales for my game. However, I don't have more customers because of OF.
All I find out is I never find my game listed in any of OF's menus. OF just list what benefit for them, such as OF's Free app a day, which developer will share the benefit to OF.
In my case, the number of users using OF is extremely low just about 1%.
you mean you send them a request for review without promo code ? when you send your review you should include promo codes and all links related to your apps (web site, app store link, press kit with press release and graphics, video trailers)
Have you done a video trailer ? it helps a lot to attract bloggers
Have you send a Press release via prmac.com ?
there are some sites that does promo contest as well
you can try also advestising...I did not do that yet but ads are good for selling!
letmeknow
Member
There are very few cases that ads can help promote your apps unless you place your banners on some very famous iPhone site.
I just laugh when seeing an ad banner on a free app (a/some days) site. My god, people are looking for free, there are always free apps to play right here right now right in front of your eyes, while bother paying ?
Spend your money wisely, since (IMO) the Apps store economy is down.
I've been reading The Business of iPhone App Development by Dave Wooldridge, which I think has some good ideas. It might be worth checking out.
I've also done a few video trailers, which have been helping a little. I haven't spent anything on advertising, but all I've heard is that it doesn't offer a very good return on investment.
We had a successful launch that surpassed our goals, which was achieved through a combination of PR distribution, pre-launch coordination with media partners, promo code giveaways, forum posting, Twitter account, and word of mouth.. though we're still learning and have a long way to go to meet our long-term goals.
We also maintained a blog from the beginning of production which you can check out here:
http://6thmega.com/
For our press release, we included links to our blog, to our Flickr image feed, Twitter, and YouTube trailer, which you can check out here:
http://6thmega.com/puff-puff/6th-mega%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%9Cpuff-puff%E2%80%9D-multi-touch-iphone-game-now-available-on-apple-app-store-453.htm
Here are a couple links that might be useful:
The folks behind Project 72 outlined the steps they took
http://www.dogtownstudios.com/insider/
A large list of review sites on Unity forums
http://forum.unity3d.com/viewtopic.php?t=51201
30 more review sites
http://www.travisdunn.com/30-review-sites-to-promote-your-iphone-applications-games
52 ways to market your iPhone
http://www.pr-inside.com/ways-to-promote-your-iphone-r1774279.htm
Thinking on APPLES RANKING
http://www.readwriteweb.com/start/2010/02/iphone-appstore-ranking-algorithm.php
Some PR FIRMS:
http://www.triplepointpr.com/
http://appular.com/
http://appency.com/
Some thoughts about PR firms:
http://www.intomobile.com/2010/03/12/appular-from-marketingpr-company-to-iphone-app-publisher/
http://www.mobilecrunch.com/2009/08/22/cheating-the-app-store-pr-firm-has-interns-post-positive-reviews-for-clients/
http://www.iphonedevsdk.com/forum/promotion-techniques/14489-appular.html
Still at early stages of my game design but I would suspect the following should be part of a good Marketting plan.
1. A website of your game , a simple one with gameplay videos
2. Gameplay+ trailer videos in YouTube
3. Presence in social networks like Twitter and Facebook
4. Anounce your game 2-4 weeks before it's available in the to generate some buzz
5. Anounce your game throughout iPhone game news site and blogs. Make sure to give promo codes both to the site owners and a few for thier users as part of a giveaway
6. Promo code giveaway to Twitter + Facebook followers as part of rewards to join
7. Discount oro ffer your game for free for a limited time, be sure to announce this as well. I always download games offered free for a few days!
8. Build a great game! A great game advertises itself!
That's all that come to mind ATM
Set your launch date ahead a couple of weeks at least when submitting to apple, don't rely on it flying through the app review process. You can distribute promo codes AFTER you're app has been approved but BEFORE it has gone live in the app store.
Work with a designer if possible, we had a mass of traffic through Mike's site (www.fullyillustrated.com) and the trailer/ promotional material he was able to put together helped as well. We added a link to the app in our email sigs as well.
edit: @paris18m has it pretty much summed up here;
8. Build a great game! A great game advertises itself!
@6th mega cool links ... thanks
also I've read that the most important is to try to do much as noise as possible at the same moment (pr, ads if you do, reviews, contest,...) in order to try to go up in the charts and have some visibility in the apple store. If you do one thing after another (PR then one week later ads, then...) it has not the same impact.
letmeknow
Member
Some review sites asking for money for a review. I just received some emails asking for money (because there are too many apps for review, we provide an expedited review for a $xxx fee, blah blah blah)
Never pay a cent for such people, internet surfers never care about what they wrote for you.
If you have extra money, instead of paying for your app review, pay for ads on some famous sites. It's surely bring more customers.
@letmeknow, totally agree with you, better spend time/money on some ad space.
@Duckwit, if you get 10 ratings the first day, I would say that's not bad, as I believe only 1% to 5% people leave a review, so 10 ratings could mean about 1000 downloads, which is not bad for the first day. What really matters on the ranking is the number of downloads on a country, the ratings don't affect on the ranking.
50+ sites for trying to promote your game with links to the submit game page for almost all of them.
http://overspark.com/appsites/
I put this together at the end of last year so i'm sure its a little out of date. it's still the most comprehensive list ive seen so far.
Duckwit
Member
@itlgames But if people look at the 'Release Date' and look at the newest apps, and they see one with like 5-10 ratings or so it might make them incline to toward looking into it? I mean would it be a sneaky tactic to pay some friends to purchase and review it on the first day?
Worth it?
I believe that unless your app is a real crack and gets tons of downloads the first couple of days, it's unlikely to have any rating/review that soon, or any genuine one. So maybe it's worth to get friends to get some reviews, yeah. But then you will realise who are your real friends!! I did have a very disappointment experience from few friends not even bothering...
So yes, having some ratings may incline more people to download.
Well, anything that could help sales is good to do, if the review websites do it for free (just with a promo code), then yes, I think it's worth it. But when they start asking for money, I am not too sure it's really worth it, as it may be better spending the money on a ad space instead.
letmeknow
Member
It depends on how you get your ratings. If you just give away some promocodes to friends or developers/indies, you sure will get some ratings/reviews.
Free apps are much easier get ratings than paid apps, do you know why? :)
Because when people delete the apps, the pop-up ratings will appear.
(Free apps shall be deleted easier than paid apps)
letmeknow
Member
:) have you ever thought about the the ratio of people using iOS3.x & iOS4.x ?
Just like the number of people using Windows XP v.s Windows 7.
Some people,like me, don't bother update to iOS4.x. Why?
First, I know iOS4.x is different from iOS3.x.
2- I know my device work well with iOS3.x, not sure with iOS4.x, like using Windows XP to me. If I want an iOS4.x, I will buy iPhone 4 instead.
3- I never use iOS actually. All I want is a stable platform to run some apps, listen music, call, etc.
The number of iOS3.x users shall still be huge till next year and the year after.
Lot of people from iPod Touch (except 1st generation) will actually update to iOS4 as it's free, before they had to pay to upgrade to 3.X, that's the reason why there were so many 2.X users, hopefully now would be more 3.X and 4.X
Glad to know the delete popup is not there anymore on 4.X!
Duckwit
Member
Now as for promoting..... if you live near a town with lots of people walking around.... print hundreds of pieces of paper advertising your game and hand them out. ;)
Or post them through peoples doors.... leave them in their gardens..... stuff them in their mailboxes..... put boxes of them in front of their doorsteps.... stick them on back of cars ..... ask the local paper round person to post one with the paper.... tell everyone you know to tell everyone they know to tell everyone ..... drop them on the sidewalk on public school paths .... stick them on trees in the park.... get one of those e-mail lists and send one off to all of them..... get some space on a website .... ads..... stick them on bins and cigarette deposits.... ALL AT ONCE! That's publicity. ;) an interesting technique as well....
Codemattic
Moderator
Some people are promoting their games by buying user reviews:
"Charges Settled Over Fake Reviews on iTunes"
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/27/technology/27ftc.html?hpw
The Federal Trade Commission said on Thursday that a California marketing company had settled charges that it engaged in deceptive advertising by having its employees write and post positive reviews of clients’ games in the Apple iTunes Store, without disclosing that they were being paid to do so.
But we all knew that was going on already!
ob1
Member
@Codemattic I was talking with a publisher one day and he told me : "If you are not doing it, then you are doing it wrong".
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