Tips for going Free *without* services like FAAD, etc.

[Rainier]

What's the most effective way to go Free? Any tips?

[Foursaken_Media]

Originally Posted by Rainier

What's the most effective way to go Free? Any tips?

Just drop it free, send out emails to press, tweet it, post about it and pray Seriously though there isn't much you can do other than hope that as many sites pick up on the price drop automatically. There are so many examples of every possible scenario you can imagine (from rising up hard to not even making a dent in the charts, both with and without a free services), that its really hard to predict how your free campaign will go without just doing it... at the very least you'll end up with more users, which is always a good thing (even if you don't make any extra money from it).

I will say its definitely getting harder and harder to do really well with a free campaign as freemium becomes more and more prevalent... at least from what we've experienced and seen with other games. Not saying its not possible to do well, just that its getting harder. That being said, you can still do pretty well in the "middle of the pack" as the free scene grows... just depends on a lot of different factors.

[Rainier]

Thanks for the input!

[antony.thai]

And send an email to fgotd@pine-entertainment and tell them about your game.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/free-game-of-the-day/id553174517?mt=8
(the leader of that team told me that they only put good game on their channel and don't accept any kind of fee from developer)

This team did the promotion without any fee so far, some developers told me that their performance is really good. So you could try.

Antony

PS: I don't pr them, I'm in Pine Entertainment too but not in the same team with them. ;-)

[Rainier]

Originally Posted by antony.thai

And send an email to fgotd@pine-entertainment and tell them about your game.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/free-game-of-the-day/id553174517?mt=8
(the leader of that team told me that they only put good game on their channel and don't accept any kind of fee from developer)

This team did the promotion without any fee so far, some developers told me that their performance is really good. So you could try.

Antony

PS: I don't pr them, I'm in Pine Entertainment too but not in the same team with them. ;-)

Thank you Antony! I've never heard of a situation before where the developers didn't have to pay a fee. Is there a catch? An SDK to install?

[batgirl717111]

i haven't tried this but heard of this from another dev- before he price dropped to free, he upped the price a little to 1.99 or 2.99, so when it was dropped free it was marked Free (normally 2.99) and it seemed like a better deal. like i said i haven't done this but it is something you could try.
Also, my apps get listed in a lot of aggregate sites from doing press releases from prmac.com (like $25)- maybe do an announcement of the price drop, it would spread the word around a little more (even if you're paying $25 to go free lol, still cheaper than faad).

good luck!

[Rainier]

Originally Posted by batgirl717111

i haven't tried this but heard of this from another dev- before he price dropped to free, he upped the price a little to 1.99 or 2.99, so when it was dropped free it was marked Free (normally 2.99) and it seemed like a better deal. like i said i haven't done this but it is something you could try.
Also, my apps get listed in a lot of aggregate sites from doing press releases from prmac.com (like $25)- maybe do an announcement of the price drop, it would spread the word around a little more (even if you're paying $25 to go free lol, still cheaper than faad).

good luck!

Thanks batgirl! The thought crossed my mind too, since I figured people would have an additional incentive if they thought they were getting a better deal. Some are downright transparent though -- I remember seeing once an app that was discounted from like $49.99. Still, it's a good idea to bring something back to a non-promotional price like $2.99 instead of the race-to-the-bottom pricing of $0.99.

[Therealtrebitsch]

Definatelly up the price even to $4.99 before you go free, but only if your app really has quality.

I did it a few times and it works.

You don't need FAAD for this. You get the same results without them.

[Rainier]

Thanks for the tips!

I have a new question:

After the free promotion expired, how did you price it going forward? Did you revert back to the original stabilized price, or did you actually INCREASE it to try to capture the purchasing momentum at a higher price?

[Foursaken_Media]

Originally Posted by Rainier

Thanks for the tips!

I have a new question:

After the free promotion expired, how did you price it going forward? Did you revert back to the original stabilized price, or did you actually INCREASE it to try to capture the purchasing momentum at a higher price?

Well, unless you've gathered (literally) millions of downloads while free, you won't see much (if any) of your free momentum convert to the paid charts, tbh. In fact, usually after a few days of an average free campaign, you're already spiraling down the free charts... and that's if you were fortunate enough to do well in the first place.

If you can hit around 400-500k downloads then you might see a tiny hint of a boost for a few days, but I still wouldn't count on it.

That being said, if you can generate a few 100k downloads, you will likely see a nice little boost in revenue due to IAP purchases at least.

But you should just take it as it comes... figure out what to do once you see how well your free campaign goes.

And again, as always, in the App Store anything can happen, this is just from our experience (we've done quite a few free campaigns over the years)