You look at all these bestselling apps, and you are tempted to make your own version. There is a small glitch however – there are hundreds of thousands of developers who are thinking of doing the exact same thing. A successful app may seem rosy and perfect, but a lot of work goes into building it. It takes weeks or even months to create it, and then several more weeks to promote it and get it accepted by Apple.
The Idea
The first step is to come up with an authentic idea, something that you have an expertise over, and which is also not already available. If your key goal is to make money out of your app, you should make sure that there is a significant market demand for it. A proper study of the app store, and the most popular apps, the top paid apps and the top free ideas should give you a rough idea about what people like, and which group you should be targeting. It is important to ask yourself the question – ‘Are people downloading the kind of app you want to make?’
Promotion
You may think that once your app is listed in the app store, your work is done. In fact, it has only just started. To be counted in one of the top apps in the store and make your app a success, promoting the app is essential. It will get your app noticed and also increase the sales. The best and most widely used ways for promotion are social media and marketing. The very first thing to do is to submit your app for review to as many sites as possible. It often creates a domino effect – getting reviewed by one site will get you noticed by the others who will then also want to talk about your app. And the more that your app is reviewed and talked about, the more number of people will hear about your app and spread the word. A press release may also be very useful as it will get your app noticed by the traditional media – newspapers, bloggers, magazines etc, and will introduce your app to a different kind of audience. A promotional you tube video will not only promote your app to potential buyers and investors, it will also help in pitching your app to bloggers.
Feedback
The importance of using customer feedback to build a better product cannot be stressed enough. Paying attention to your users’ needs and complaints is direct opportunity to realize how your app is fairing with the public and a great marketing opportunity also.
Updating
A great feature of the App Store is that new versions move to the top of what is new in the category. Continually incorporating features that customers want and updating your app is a good way to maintain sales.
With the right kind of effort, your app can definitely be the next big thing.
