2. Richard Foster, once a DOS programmer and now working for the family dry cleaning business and developing mobile applications part-time for his company Edgeway Software, is ecstatic about the results he is seeing developing for Windows Phone 7. … Richard has made $28,882 in four months with his suite of apps. Fast forward to February, and now I am making around $380 a day from ads from my 7 games. … I’d like to start chronicling my experiences as I start doing my Full Time Indie Gig. I started going full time April 1st, 2011 … -- Elbert Perez , occasionalgamer.com
3. Did you know … Research shows that 20% of product’s success is determined by the product itself and the remaining 80% is marketing* * I totally made this up
9. “Kik Messenger Effect” 22% higher than anticipated Android and iOS growth after launch on Windows Phone
10. Paid Apps Set a competitive price Consider psychology Consider who and where your customer is Set a price that makes business sense WP7 Developer ROI Calculatorhttp://www.wpdownunder.com/?p=2055
11. Trial Can’t try == won’t buy 70% more purchases than without trials Counter example: Cocktail Flow
12. In-app purchases No built-in centralized mechanism Roll out your own Use 3rd party services (MoVend)
13. Free apps with ads Generally perform better than paid apps* Best suited for long/frequently running apps (games)
14. Ad networks Microsoft pubCenter Google AdMob Smaato Millennial Media Mobclix MobFox AdDuplex*
15. Fill rate Smaato: “Worldwide, the average ad network fill rate was 18% in Q2 2011” Maximize ad space value by multiple network fallbacks. Fallback to AdDuplex or in-house ads. Silverlight: Windows Phone 7 Ad Rotatorhttp://wp7adrotator.codeplex.com/ XNA: ImproviSoft Ad Network Managerhttp://www.improvisoft.com
16. Promote your app, promote your app, promote your app, promote your app…
18. Don’t monetize on day one Giving your app away is the cheapest and most effective marketing instrument you have RenéSchulte: “Helium Voice was released in November 2010 and has 18,773 downloads as of today. Helium Voice Free was released in March 2011 and has 143,002 downloads as of today.”
19. Case Study: Chicks'n'Vixens Released as absolutely free (while in beta) Went on to be #1 paid game for some time after switching to paid New version released as free with ads
20. Case Study: gMaps Started as absolutely free Added ads and a “Pro” version later
21. Release date is a feature Be the first to solve a problem René Schulte: “… this was quite important since it got a lot of attention for being the first real picture effects / photo filter app in the market. The big blogs like Gizmodo, Engadget and MSNBC covered a few of the must have WP7 apps and Pictures Lab got featured in all. I guess that helped to jump start the app.” With every SDK/OS release there’s a chance to be the first to utilize some previously unavailable capability
25. Release Betas Beta-testers are your first evangelists Recruit beta-testers: WindowsPhoneBeta.com Twitter #wp7 #wpdev
26. Feedback loop Facilitate user feedback and ratings “Bad” feedback should go directly to you, good feedback – to the Marketplace Consider encouraging rating/review after a number of launches Good feedback Bad feedback
27. Publication Have everything to get featured background image is not required, but you won’t be featured without it Don’t submit on Friday Don’t auto-publish
32. Tip specialized blogs WPCentral.com, WMPowerUser.com, 1800PocketPC.com, BestWP7Games.com, WPCentras.lt (Lithuanian), WindowsPhone.lv (Latvian), WP7Rocks.com (Russian), etc. Make it personal Include short description maybe even something that looks like a review Link to your demo video. You made it, right?
33. Tweet and post to Facebook Decorate tweets with #wp7hashtag Tweet, retweet, post to Facebook from your personal accounts Help fellow developers (retweet, like, etc.) Temporarily change your avatar to app’s tile Mention app in your personal profiles
34. Monitor and react to feedback Monitor mentions of your app on Twitter, blogs, etc. Encourage transformation of positive mentions into 5* ratings React and address negative feedback
37. Show off your app everywhere! Show your app to your friends Show your app to Windows Phone enthusiasts Show your app to influential community and Microsoft people
41. Paid advertising On the web Specialized blogs App catalog sites WP7AppList.com, appsfuze.com, windowsphoneapplist.com, etc. BuySellAds.com (search wp7) Directly on Windows Phone AdDuplex, AdMob, etc.
43. Did you know … Research shows that 20% of products success is determined by the product itself and the remaining 80% is marketing* * I totally made this up
44. Summary Marketing is at least as important as the app itself Starting with free is the cheapest and most effective marketing instrument Be creative, be active, utilize all channels.