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Comment by rbritton | Hacker News Reader

I'm highly ranked on organic search (#1 for most terms), have paid ads, pursue articles when the opportunity arises (these have historically helped a lot), limited giveaways, and watch google alerts for mentions of the app and respond as appropriate. The main app is generally in the top 30 grossing for its category, and I've found being high in that to be self-reinforcing. Being in the primary field the app is for has definitely helped since I have friends and contacts there.

One notably potential source I have not really pursued much is social media, Twitter in particular. I'm one of those people that pretty much never uses it and doesn't understand the allure.

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I don't see Twitter being a good place to market your app. Google+ would be fantastic because it's been adopted by your target market.

Your app is a little different than most because your price isn't in the basement. That means you can afford to spend a little bit to acquire a customers. The 99 cent app can't afford to spend much at all to acquire a customer.

What App is this? If you don't mind me asking?

I'll have to think about it. I'm not sure if disclosing it puts me at any disadvantage, but I want to make sure I'm not overlooking something.

I think you've already disclosed it a few years ago. It's already a mature app for all I can see.

Looks like I did -- I'd totally forgotten about that.

The app is Portfolio: http://ipadportfolioapp.com/

It's a tool for presenting visual or audiovisual work to others (e.g., prospective clients) and is used by photographers, designers, sales reps, florists, and pretty much any other field where that presentation is a key part of the job. The customer-facing appearance can be completely customized to match a business's branding while leaving the management bits out of sight.

It started out life as a tool for our photography studio to present more recent work to prospective clients since it's incredibly expensive to keep the print equivalents up-to-date. The original price was $9.99, which was bumped up to $14.99 after a couple months if I remember right. The current $12.99 price is only a few months old and is a result of the market leveling out a bit. In its first year or so the revenue was $10-15k per month, but the saturation of the App Store and the introduction of new app possibilities that dilute the ratings (e.g., magazines) has lowered it to its current revenue. It definitely won't last forever, but I believe it will continue to be worth my time for a while yet.

It wouldn't hurt considering it would be free advertising. If I generated steady income off a popular app, I would be letting everybody and their momma know about that app. I would even throw a sales pitch right now!

It might cause more competitor apps to be made, which might put that constant stream of money to danger.

And for the less performing apps?

Similar but no articles since there seemed to be much less interest from writers and publishers.

Where do you put ads?

AdWords. They're the only ones I've ever personally had a positive return from. At least as near as I can track it.

I've considered that, but the last time I tried you couldn't use the words iPhone or iPad in a Google Ad. Has that restriction gone away, or how do you work around it?

You can use those terms if you get permission from Apple. I can't remember the email address offhand, but there is one you can contact for approval.

wouldn't iOS be a better term anyway?

Highly depends on the market. If you're aimed at tech geeks, maybe, but I'd guess that your average iPhone/iPad user doesn't really know what iOS is unless they've jailbroken.

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