Hi! I was thinking of doing a promotion for apps and games similar to freeappaday, but completely free for devs to enter their app(s). I'm sure this would be great advertising for many apps that aren't widely known. Would you be willing to submit your app if I did this?
True, but all developers should have a chance to advertise their app, not just the one's who have enough money to do it.
I'd be willing to enter Rogueship in the promotion as well. PM or email me if you get things rolling.
I agree with this. Im a individual developer btw. And advertising is becoming harder and harder these days, as big sites are very selective and mostly just want you to pay for advertisement. I lost my daily job, so paying for advertisement is out of the question. And furthermore, not making enough to put food on the table either.
Well, you'd have to register a domain and get a fair bit of advertising to let people know about it..But if you're willing to do that then yea it could potentially be good.
Maybe a cooperative of several indie devs could partner to defray costs of running the site. The same group could seek or evaluate worthwhile apps. Meanwhile, banner ads on the site would seem fairly innocuous as a form of support. People hardly pay notice to them, and you could add a disclaimer that the banner doesn't represent an endorsement. Google AdWords are even less obtrusive as a form of support. You could essentially run it as a blog. That route could even allow user comments or ratings if you wanted. I say run with it.
Yea, if you could use banners like the ones TA uses [unobtrusive, eye-candy] it'd be a good source of revenue for site-management.
Well I'm working with sunrise on this and we're all set up to do this If we get enough developers! If we can get it done quickly enough we might even start in Febuary. by the way travisdunn we would love to have rougeship on our calendar you to rocotilos!
motitas, i already pm'ed you. If anything, just click the link in my signature (for the game detail/website). Thanks.
I would like to caution developers about making your app free. If your game isn't in the Top 100, it isn't very likely that making your app free will bring it up in the charts. I can cite many examples of this NOT working. Soft Freak Fiesta started out free on the first day, then went paid. It was featured on the front page of TouchArcade (among others), has great reviews and was even Featured in the App store. Soft Freak Fiesta never made it into the Top 100, but it did rise as high as #24 in Strategy and then took a nose dive. Currently the price is $0.99 (I would advise them to raise it to at least $1.99). These are the dangers of STARTING free. So what happens when a model like the one in this thread is used? The appvent calender is a good example. Those apps, even though they were heavily promoted daily, never actually got new sales. They didn't raise in the charts, unless they were already in the top 100 rankings. Many of the games that were listed in the Appvent calender completely dropped out of the Top 200, with the majority out of the top 100. In FreeAppADay, the games that were out of the Top 100 never did rise in the charts. If the promotional model was actually working, those apps should see a nice rise. Zombie Pizza remains off the charts (and out of the Top 200). So what is the point of making your app free? There really isn't one, if you are intending to use it as a marketing model to generate more sales. The only way this works is if you make the app free forever, and use advertising within the app itself to generate revenue (AdMob, GreyStripe). However, if this whole Free App thing goes through, I really hope that it works. I don't want it to fail.
I would be interested in how exactly you intend to differentiate your site from freeappaday other than it having no cost. Maybe allow more than one free app a day? Will you accept any app/game or will you have "quality standards"? If you'll have no standards, then as the "freemium" business model evolves, I think you'll get a long line of folks wanting to make their apps free and be featured. If you will have standards, will they be objective standards or subjective? If subjective, who gets to decide? Also, from the information that came up from the faad thread, I think you should warn developers that if they don't have an appropriate business model, their app's sales and ranking could suffer.
Sunrise this sounds fun i have no apps out (yet) but i would love to help in any means possible, BY ANY MEANS!!! ANYTHING!!!! Flickitty, that is a very huge point!!! Also, I think A great idea for a site would be where we email people when an app comes out. Because as I wait for Guerrilla Bob to come out, it gets boring constantly checking, ill make a new thread about that
Well the point of our [insert name here] calendar is to promote the game when it goes free for the day (or other period of time if the dev wishes) and not charge you guys for the advertisement. free app a day is "metiendose un queso" or in english ripping you off. Flickitty we understand that the calendar might or might not work, but the point is you don't have to spend $1200 to take the risk just 1 day of sales. @mindjuice: we won't be having you "qualify" to be on our calendar a game is a game and we are gonna do a few things differently to appvent such as pick a game of the month. we also want to have several other events happen on our calendar like releasing the game alongside the free day. Developers I am hoping that you guys can get involved 'cause otherwise this will never come true...
a good idea... i do think you need to have guidlines like they do.. such as 3 * minimum rating and really polished otherwise no one will be interested i think. And also maybe two free games a day to raise competition?! i wish you luck