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Comment by famfam | Hacker News Reader

These kinds of posts always send me into a tailspin of jealousy. :) I've still not made enough money on the AppStore to even be paid out once. And my app went up almost a year ago!

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I'm in the same position, had an app out for a while now. Released it for free for two weeks, seen INCREDIBLE numbers -- almost 200K downloads -- then back to paid, and... fizzle.

Does anyone have any experience in marketing apps? I would love to know which methods have the most results.

I have friends that game their apps into the Top 50 by buying it with 30 or so different accounts they set up. This is not in the entertainment category though. I hate marketing and I hate marketing for the iPhone more than anything. So many of the iPhone app review blogs seem like payola plays too. "Expedite your review for $200" and that kind of crap. This guy's smart because he probably got Xbox blogs to cover it, not iPhone blogs.

Agreed about payola, although most of the avenues I've advertised through did not require anything other than a free copy of my app (game). Some wanted you to advertise through them, although it's a no-obligation deal.

But I like your comment about getting XBox to cover your app -- the XBox market probably isn't very saturated with iPhone apps, so his must have stood out well. Good idea, thanks :)

There were couple of points he attributed to the success.

1) Eyecandy (he said it is 50% of the battle, on iphone people love eyecandy) 2) Getting genuine reviews on the blogs which allowed the app to go viral 3) Make an app for yourself, if it helps you getting something done and you can't live without it, others may also find it useful.

You should "tell hn" about your app and "ask hn" for some thoughts, ideas. Congratulations on shipping the app.

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