Selling Apps: What am I doing wrong? Need outside perspective

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3385631

by mmackh • 15 years ago

13 18 15 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

Hi HN,

As a side job, I've taken up developing, designing and trying to sell apps. The market is crowded and there seems to be no room for my apps. I had a pretty good first week selling an app that I've spent seven months of my free time on, making $200 on the highest day. Now, it's down to about $2 or $3 a day - barely selling any copies, constantly slipping in the charts.

Are there any people on HN with serious experience, willing to help out a beginner? Together we could come up with a list that can really help people. I feel like I'm the only person in the room who doesn't get get the joke. Should I just quit?

p.s. I've tried some things already, which unfortunately didn't work for me:

- Bamify Ads - Getting my Designer to dribbble the app - Writing bloggers - Having Sales $2.99 -> $0.99 - Improving the app - Adding features that were requested - Having a nice website - I don't think being young helps you either - Trying to get some exposure on HN - Being in the Instapaper App Direcoty - Having a Youtube video - Having a great name: Read

billpatrianakos2• 15 years ago

Being young is a double edged sword. I know from experience. The best I can do for you is tell you that persistence pays off. You'll find success just after you're ready to quit. If you resist that urge you'll be alright. Also, great design has a lot to do with how people judge whether to buy an app or not. Male sure the previews are beautiful and are actual screenshots, not those stupid ad-type things. Actually show the app working. Having a site dedicated to the app that links to the app store is also good.

Features and eradicating bugs are important but when two apps are of equal quality I've seen the prettier one win every time. So make sure everything from the UI to the app icon is beautiful and fits with the iOS experience. I'm embarrassed to say even I'm guilty of deleting apps because of their icon alone! And I'm a programmer! Imagine how regular users must be.

mmackh5• 15 years ago

Thanks, that was insightful. I think you would be able to judge the app just by looking at the screenshots in the App Store, here's a link: http://rdit.in/get

billpatrianakos2• 15 years ago

It actually looks really beautiful! I have some criticisms though.

First off, the app itself is beautiful and so is the website for it. The preview Images in the app store aren't so great though. Those are the types of preview photos that I was talking about that turn people off. Just show the app in use instead of images with how to use it superimposed on top of it. My opinion is that you should just use screenshots of your most marketable features and leave out the diagrams. The one exception would be the photo of the white iPad that shows the feature that looks kind of like mobile Safari's Reader feature.

Otherwise I'm stumped. It looks really good to be honest and at only $0.99 I don't know why people wouldn't buy it. Maybe you just need to get on some more blogs and do more marketing. The app store is very competitive and apps like yours are everywhere. Your UI is a feature though - don't forget that!

coryl• 15 years ago

Link to said app?

mmackh5• 15 years ago

Sorry about that, I didn't want to make this look like an ad: http://readapp.net

App Store: http://rdit.in/get

rooster82• 15 years ago

Perhaps it's telling that you intentionally left the links out because you didn't want your genuine question to look like a veiled sales pitch? I know personally I'm not a good salesman, and I also would have been inclined to leave out the link for the same reason.

Perhaps the problem is that you haven't been doing a good job of selling your product to the people you talk to?

Your app looks beautiful, and if it's as good as it looks, it deserves to be used. It will help people. It will be worth the cost to them. You'll be doing them a favor by selling to them. But people don't realize that, and (unfortunately) products cannot always sell themselves. So what you might need right now is to learn salesmanship or hire someone to help you with that. Get that person in contact with bloggers. If you have an amazing product but can't convince people why they need it, it's a real shame.

This is just speculation. Best of luck to you!

nathanbarry4• 15 years ago

I've had some success with higher priced apps ($200), but my $1 and $2 apps haven't made much traction. I just released Commit yesterday: http://thinklegend.com/commit

Hopefully it will do a little better than my last app.

I'll answer whatever I can (nathan@thinklegend.com), but I think we are in a similar position. I'd love to hear what you learn.

mmackh5• 15 years ago

I really love the design of your new app. I'll email you later

nathanbarry4• 15 years ago

I like the name of your app (Read), short simple names (Draft, Fluent, Commit, Brushes) are really nice.

_ud4a• 15 years ago

i'm not sure what your apps do but one method to promote them is to implement a referral service within your app.

For example if it's a game, maybe if the user refers 10 people they get some sort of credit in the game to help them advance etc. (however i'm not sure how you can track referals through app store. maybe someone else can chime in).

nathanbarry4• 15 years ago

I think if your app is inexpensive and has some good offers as in-app purchases this could work well. Similar to what DropBox did for extra storage.

tudorizer2• 15 years ago

You're posting a question about how to get traction here and not even a link to the said app? :( Do I have to google your username, or check your profile then see that you have a twitter account in the hope that I will find something there ? Not good. You're on a pretty good position on HN and maybe going higher. Take advatange of that.

mmackh5• 15 years ago

Again - didn't want to make the thread look like an advert -App Store: http://rdit.in/get

tudorizer2• 15 years ago

No prob. Now the link is present :)

rooster82• 15 years ago

Both your site and the screenshots from your app look beautiful. It looks like you've done great work. But I personally do not feel inclined to try your app because I do not see anything it does that I'm not already getting from Reeder, Flipboard, and Instapaper. For people in my position, is there anything you can tell me that will make me want to try your app?

pknerd• 15 years ago

Be thankful atleast you made this one and still making it. I could not get the figure even in months!

Selling Apps: What am I doing wrong? Need outside perspective

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