Best things to do when featured

We just cry when we get featured. That's all.

Actually, we have been featured 3 times in the past 2 months (Champion Archer, Swingaling, and Finger Sling.)

But how effective is it to send press releases after being featured? Isn't that the ultimate goal of the press releases? To get Apple's attention and be placed on the featured list?

For a developer, wouldn't it be better to then spend that valuable time to either A.) Update the featured game or B.) Spend time developing another game?

 

Mouse House 2 was featured this Tuesday.

Im dropping the price to 1$ today seeing how far it can climb.

 

It would be interesting to see how your sales are affected. We will test out different marketing tactics while Finger Sling is featured and let you know the results.

 

and how high will you let it go before putting the price back up?

it seems to be accepted wisdom to drop price when you've got visibility? does it make that much of a difference in total revenue?

 

congratz on getting featured,again
and I just want to know, what will you guys do when featuresd thing gone?

for me, after shark's treasure disappeard from what we are playing, sales drop to digital number in no time

I did PR later when 1.3 update came out,no use at all,so when 1.4 out, I just sent some code here

eventrully, when the day withnot a single sale came, I thought maybe it's time to move on to a new game?

 

Thank you! It took me forever to figure out xml codes. (I'm really lousy at these things LOL)

Personally, as an indie reviewer myself of an upstart of a review blog, I value the relationships I have with the devs I've met so far. Sending a press release is a formality, just a way of making the reviewer's life easier. As I've said before, a simple heads up will do.

Last night I thought of a new way (or could be old!) of promoting games I previously done reviews on - when I checked I had so many app updates due all in one day! I tweeted about each update for the apps that I do have - because these I can vouch for personally as good or great games. I attached both the iTunes link and the link to my review and I hope that in a small way some of those who checked the links out will buy the game.

So on top of tweeting about featured apps, updated apps will definitely take up some of my tweeting time

 

There aren't any really hard clear numbers for this, that I am aware of. I'm not sure about the App Stores Algorithm, but it seems to use a weighted system. Probably the last 3 days are weighted the highest. There could even be a modifier for Featured Games to artificially boost them higher in the rankings, for all we know.

The modifier would account for why games rise and fall so damn quickly.

However, if you want some real numbers- this is what happened to Flickitty during the week of Nov 10th:

Nov 8- 596 USA sales
Nov 9- 436 USA sales
nov 10- 185 USA sales - #6 Top Paid Adventure - highest rank attained

Now note that by November 10th, our sales had dropped substantially, yet we continued to climb to #6. Unfortuately, I don't have the rankings for the previous days as a comparison.

I know for a fact that on Nov 5,6,7 we sold more than on Nov 8,9,10 with our highest sales on Nov 7,8 (got that? lol) This would probably account for why our peak was on the 10th- those numbers hadn't come in yet until the following day.

 

That's actually a pretty good idea. I tweeted about your blog a couple days ago, even though I only have about 110 followers. I'd like to see your blog visitors grow.

I also tweet about various games- Charmed and Imp or Oaf are the most recent, and I'm about to tweet for Teh Internets if we can verify the link works.

 

Don't we get any love for being featured?

 

Unfortunately, I haven't actually played either Swingaling or Finger Sling since there isn't a free version available (I keep looking). They both look pretty good, though.

Champion Archer is recommended to me under Genius- the very top of my list.

 

great info, Flickitty, very interesting.

So does that mean you don't think that making the top 10 on the paid adventure list really helped sales at all?

 

Flickitty, thanks for the shout out. It's very appreciated, every bit helps! We owe you

We're presently featured as a 'Hot New Games', like Finger Sling (on device) and we saw a very slight bump....not as much as we would have thought though! After being featured on several sites we also saw a bump. Being featured on TA gave us the biggest.

I think what we learned from this is that you really have to know your market and sell to the people who want to buy your game (Duh!). When we do get Imp/Oaf into the hands of gamers they say, more or less universally, that they really enjoy it and get their money's worth...but it's difficult to get the game out to parents (who would really get the most out of the game) via the internet! The vast majority of parents (especially moms) with iDevices may not be reading sites like TA.

In my experience (which is first hand), the companies that create the very high-profile preschool and kids games have national television channels to promote their products and websites with hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of users, so they have a definite upper hand!

There are sites/publications like 'Children's Technology Review' that the major media companies submit to. This publication in particular is very highly regarded within 'children's interactive product' circles (from educators to industry).

I'm seeing more and more 'iPhone Games for Parents and Kids' sites popping up that review games that are 'kid safe' and fun for kids in addition to games/apps that parents would like 148apps.com, for example, have created 'Giggle Apps' for example.

We're not going to have to worry too much (if at all) about this market with our next release...but it's certainly something to think about for developers who are working on family friendly games (like Flickitty!).

 

That is a good question. I think logic states that being in the Top 10 helps sales via exposure, however actually GETTING the sale is entirely up to the game.

Flickitty has an identity crisis- it is very difficult to explain what it is. Once we got into the Top 10 Adventure, it was apparent that we really didn't fit or belong with the other games there (they were all big developers pushing well-known ports). Even Flickitty's icon may indicate that it is a girls or kids game, but I'm really not sure what we can do to change that image.

So that is a possible reason why we could hit the Top 10, but couldn't stick. Most other games don't have this identity crisis.

Our Free-to-Paid ratio is pretty good- almost 20%. So that indicates that if we can get our Free versions out there, that our sales will naturally climb. I think our Free version downloads have fallen right around where our sales are now, which puts it closer to a 1:1 ratio- meaning the Free version isn't doing a damn thing.

 

For these I couldn't agree more. Like in any business, create a contact list, get to know them and get the names right. Try getting reviewers and bloggers involved and develop the relationship.

When your game is featured, go to your strategic contacts that you know already and give them info and promocodes, not only for review, but for giveaways, for example.

I'm sorry to say that press releases are not to copy&paste. I personally quote a lot of text but never publish a press release as it is.

If you want blogs to write about your app, don't send the typical standard press release that will be deleted in 10 seconds. Open up and send us something personal: show the design process, how you managed to code it with no experience, sales figures, how piracy is affecting you, how does your office look like,... it will get your name out and since is personal it will feel more exclusive, we want to see the human side of the story, something interesting that any iPhone fan would like to read about. Tip: see the popular forum topics