I am always delighted when the Tapbots release a new app. This, their third, could very well be the best of the bunch. It acts not only as an extended clipboard but allows you to easily copy and paste things from your Mac to your iPhone and vice versa. That goes without mentioning the stunning user experience. Remarkable!
Developers, get inspired!
The new app pages really emphasize screenshots. Big win for good looking apps and yet another reason to invest not only in usable design but in a fun and attractive face.
You only have one chance to launch your app so it better be big. For this you need to build pre-launch buzz and a following who will buy the app on day one. That is the purpose of gradesapp.com.
I tried to make it very simple so that anybody who is slightly interested in the app will not hesitate to do what I want: give me their email. The results have been quite good so far.
Now the trick will be to drive lots of traffic to this page. I have some ideas.
One quick note: I designed this for the most part but I hired Matthew Miller, a very talented web developer still in highschool, to implement it. He also ended up helping designing some of the details that I was too lazy to do myself. It has been a great experience for both of us and he is currently working on implementing the second stage of the website. I’ll get to that later.
Speaking of marketing, if you like Grades I would sure appreciate your comments on my AppStar Awards entry (its a finalist).
Its official. Grades is one of the 15 finalists in the AppStar Awards in the “utility and other” category. A few days ago, I blogged about why I spent 8+ hours to make the entry video. Well, it looks like it was worth it!
Whether I win or not is secondary. Being a finalist means I get 49 seconds of concentrated attention from 25 of the most influential people on the web. If just a few of them like the app, they could generate significant buzz.
So go ahead and browse all the finalist demos and give Grades a thumbs up if you like (make me happy). There are quite a few interesting apps in the bunch. It should be fun to watch.
Apple’s static analysis seems to be rejecting apps that use Apple’s own backward compatibility techniques. Here’s hoping Apple will fix this soon.
I’ve polished my entry since my last post about it. I decided it was worth the extra work to polish the message and increase my chances to win or get noticed. Winning this contest, or at least getting noticed by the “uber jury”, could very well play a large role in getting my app the exposure needs to succeed.
For those interested, I used Atebit’s awesome/free SIMFinger for the iPhone simulator magic, Garageband to compile the soundtrack, ScreenFlow to capture and edit the screencast, PhotoBooth and Photoshop to capture and edit the pics, and iMovie to add the final layer of polish. It was a lot of work. Hopefully it will be worth it.
I’ve been dying to hear experiences from developers trying the free+ model (free with in-app purchasing for revenue). To my delight, Riptide games just posted data and analysis of their experiences, two weeks in.
A few notes:
Developers: pay attention. TapTapTap in conjunction with Taptivate have created an app we all need to study. The following video is not a promotion but an analysis of a few of the things TapTapTap has done to make this a app another smash hit. You’ll have to forgive the um, every other word, um, um syndrome, I need to work on that.
To summarize, Voices has a “wow” idea, a “wow” skin, and a “wow” user experience and they make it easy to share that experience to let their users market the app for them.
Buy the app and check out the MacHeist Tweetblast. Classics, Convert, now Voices: TapTapTap have mastered the craft of making and marketing hit-based iPhone apps. Learn from them.
Perhaps it’s a testimony to my poor screencasting skills but I pretty much took a whole day out of my life to plan and produce the video embedded below. Maybe it was stupid. I will have to do another whole screencast for the final app (because of all the changes I will make from now to launch).
So why did I do it? Simple. Appsfire is running a contest: the App Star Awards, awarding cool upcoming apps (based on short video demos). The prize? $1500 and a free ad campaign. I don’t really care about that.
Here is what I do care about:
The people judging this contest are the influencers in the tech community. I don’t even need to win; I just need to get noticed by one or two of these fine folks to build tremendous buzz and produce a snowball marketing effect.
Maybe I’m stupid to promote this contest (more competition for me) but we’ve been asking for ways to market our apps outside the app store. This is an opportunity to do just that. Don’t miss it.
At any rate, here is the draft video (would appreciate your input). One thing I need to know is if it clearly conveys what the app does and why it is useful. I am thinking maybe to add the tagline in there somewhere (”Find the easiest path to the grade you want”) but I’m wondering if it is necessary:
I highly recommend studying a recent report put out by Kisky and Vision Media about iPhone marketing strategies. Check it out: Winning iPhone Strategies (also embedded below).
Its a lot to digest. A couple quick thoughts:
UPDATE 1: I’ve embedded the document below.
Update 2: I am being convinced that some of my analysis here may be a bit shortsighted and based on a “not particularly scientific” survey. Take it with a grain of salt. Look forward to another post about this.
