Can anyone help me? Question on promoting a genuine app | Hacker News Reader

Can anyone help me? Question on promoting a genuine app

1 pointvitalipom8 comments

Hi, I have a genuine app I’ve been developing actively soon over a decade. It’s very genuine, indeed has new things to offer to the world. When I was offering it to people on the street they actually liked it. Now it is in a good shape. Like really looks as a hand crafted and appealing. Just to let you take a look at it to understand the quality you can google FKeyboard it’s on Android play market. It does have an innovative genuine thing (effects of letters pop out off the keyboard into the screen as you type) which is a first in the world user experience of its kind. BUT! I cannot talk to the tech guys that review those things. Like seriously, what’s wrong with me? Why I can’t convince anyone to review so that people would have get excided and it will run its way to everyone else? It did get a couple of news coverages. But each and every time time it was arghhhhhh like war. To get like just one news title. And others don’t even bother to reply? Why is it like that? Like I mean users from all over the world have been writing to me and we’ve became penpals and friends, we’ve been exchanging photos. I was answering to the kind ones and to the not kind ones. We’ve become friends with everyone (I and them). Then why is it so hard to reach the tech reviewers? Do they have lots of junk inside their mail boxes? Am I getting into the junk folders? Is it me who sounds like a robot in a review request? Is it the Android app thing that doesn’t sound legit once I’m emailing about? I literally put myself into every appeal I send, but it feels like I’m talking to void. Each and every time. Why? Why is that? Is it because I’m selling myself too much and I don’t know how to present myself in the emails? I really have things to say about myself and perhaps I sound like an automated sells person in my emails. What’s wrong with me? Please assist.

It's hard to say without an example of what you sent to a tech reviewer. If you want, post an example request here and I will give you some feedback.

A lot of youtube / insta / ... tech reviewers only review your things if you donate to their patreon account. I don't like it, but it seems to be an accepted way to "buy a review".

But on the other hand: reviews of tech guys are boring, no one outside our tech bubble reads them. A review of your app in mainstream media would be much more beneficial to you. Imagine if a national newspaper wrote about you, the users and feedback you would get!

You seem to have a good connection to your users. Maybe find a way to leverage this? Maybe among them is someone with influence who can vouch for you / refer you to someone in the mainstream media?

I’m not sure anyone will feel comfortable of me posting an email I sent them publicly. Generally I say I’m top 5k tech influencers in Crunchbase, I began university 4 years prior graduating from school and was studying later on in parallel to an army service. Can such presentation have a negative impact? (“Top 5k tech influencers on Crunchbase”)

How much would it cost me to have such a review from a YouTuber? Approximately. I’ll offer them.

My users are simple people, they don’t have connections to NYT :).

TY!!!!!

I don’t understand why it doesn’t lift. As if I’m lacking something fundamental in my communications.

I googled around and found out what your app probably is. FKeyboard?

1/ I could not find it on the google app store app on my phone. I only found it on the google app store website.

2/ when you read an article about your app, it says "Google tells you that the app has the ability to collect the data you write and that it can be dangerous." well for most inexperienced users, that's a major killer. If I see this warning, I am not going to install it.

3/ your app does something visually interesting, but it's not really that useful in daily life, from what I get from the youtube video. Though the video just shows some screen recordings and does not explain anything about the usefulness.

sorry man.

Not sure, what kind of usefulness are you expecting to see? The app is as is, visual effects to a keyboard. It’s a customization to the phone. I mean, you guys have never put a sticker on something? On a laptop? A car? A diary? It makes life happier. I mean, you know your computers have colors because something happened in between black and white screens and today’s tvs and computers. What’s up with you? Why so many people in here try to utilize everything? Do you try to utilize flowers and colorful T-shirts? Like, it’s the same thing. It makes you smile, it’s not supposed to help you deal with depression or make you make more money. It’s those little things that make you happy. Smile people, I mean seriously.

You actually helped me.

I’ve just changed its category from Productivity to Personalization. Thank you! It indeed will help clean the mess out from unnecessary misconceptions. I don’t know if I shall clarify its useful parts as you said: I don’t want someone to say there’s a keyboard that makes your life easier with its layout and some handy features without mentioning the visualizations. I will certainly consider checking out customization YouTubers though. Thank you so much :D

I thought it’s bad people dontypay attention. But omg, talking with a couple of tech guys here sort of leveraged my potential discoverability in like 3 days! lol Thanks so much! I figured out there are YouTubers that are doing just that when trying to think how to explain myself to you. tytytyty!!!!!!!!! :D

No problem.

FYI I don't have anything against something "not useful".

It's just that storage space on a phone is scarce for a lot of people because everyone wants you to install the app instead of going through their website for their services. Individual apps may not consume much storage and computing power, but in sum, it's a concern for people with mid-tier Android phones. And then, people start to filter by usefulness, if they don't see why your app is fun or engaging.

So think about maybe explaining / having someone explain why it would be fun to use your app!

I wish you success.

anonymize the email, then. just the body of text with the explanations about your app. i don't even know what your app does.

For youtubers: Ask one per DM who you think is a good fit. I don't know your app, so I can't recommend you one. Prices vary very much among youtubers, depends on popularity.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com