While you are waiting for Apple to review (and hopefully approve for sale) your apps, don’t just sit on your ass doing nothing. Use this time to prepare for what is going to be a few days of hard work. It’s called launch day.
You’ve got one shot to do this right so you get the most exposure possible for your app. You have at least a week or more to get ready for it. Use the time wisely.
WHILE YOU ARE WAITING…GET EVERYTHING READY!
Start crafting and editing your emails and press releases. Read them over. Read them over again. Send them to any writer/PR/media people who like you and let them read them/tweak if necessary.
Test all the links to make sure they are valid.
Check your app website. Make sure everything is working, check all your links. Obviously the links aren’t going to be live, but check them to make sure they are correct. On launch day do a final check and fix if they are wrong. Get your Facebook page/twitter account/etc ready to launch.
FIND YOUR AUDIENCE
You’ve already got your Facebook friends, Twitter followers, email lists, family, etc as a built-in market. That isn’t going to be enough.
Start making lists of email addresses and websites you will be sending press releases and submitting your app to. Google is your friend already I am sure. You’ll be spending even more time together.
Find magazines, bloggers, forums, podcasts, groups, and sites who’s readers and followers would be interested in your app. Start liking pages and joining groups on Facebook and following people on Twitter.
Here as well are three lists of app review sites here, here, and here that will get you started.
For example, I went online and found emails or submission pages for almost every camera club and photography magazine in the world. Made lists of bloggers, photography forums, Google + communities, and Flickr groups. Since one of my apps was for people shooting with their iPods/iPhone, I started following prominent iPhoneographers on twitter.
NEWB APP DEVELOPER MISTAKE
As you are making lists of online communities/forums/etc, you should actually be signing up and taking part (don’t mention the apps at all) before you launch. These groups don’t like it when you join and just post about your app. Doing so will most likely result in you being called a spammer by people on the group, having your post deleted, or being banned from the site. Trust me. I posted info on a Flickr group and less than a minute later two people replied with SPAMMER. And these were photographers who you’d think would be more supportive of someone launching a photography related app. I had my posts deleted on others, and even my account deleted on one site.
So join up, start contributing, so when you do finally mention your apps, you hopefully won’t face a backlash. You may also want to contact the admins of a site to find out whether or not they would even allow you to post the info.
UPDATE!
On July 1st, 2014, new anti-spam legislation came into effect in Canada, which just made it illegal to contact anyone for business purposes without previous consent…so unfortunately you can scratch sending emails to anyone in Canada about your app unless they ask you to. Now, if they are soliciting tips or ask people to send them info, that’s okay. Please note, this only applies to you if you live in Canada…Spam away if you are from another country.
That’s the online world. There is still the traditional methods of getting the word about new things. Hit up your local newspaper/radio/television. People still pay attention to that. A great press release will get their interest, but try to find a hook for them. Local boy makes good only goes so far.
So, once that app hits Waiting For Review…roll up your sleeves and get to work.
If you do, then LAUNCH DAY will be a success!
Noel Chenier
PS-Help out a fellow developer! Download the free versions of my Photography Assignment Generator Apps and let me know what you think!
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