Thread: My iPhone App Journey

Good progress. Keep us updated. I figured you lived in NC with that user name. I lived in Chapel Hill for about 1 1/2 years.

Man, I'm waiting for my first app to be approved. It has been 4 days now,
It is a simple game, will need to start marketing it though.

Originally Posted by Jake

Good progress. Keep us updated. I figured you lived in NC with that user name. I lived in Chapel Hill for about 1 1/2 years.

I am a die-hard UNC Tarheels basketball fan living in the state of Alabama...kinda weird I guess, haha. I've actually never been to Chapel Hill, it's on my list of things to do once I'm in the "Fastlane".

Originally Posted by Tony71

Man, I'm waiting for my first app to be approved. It has been 4 days now,
It is a simple game, will need to start marketing it though.

It took 9 days for mine to be reviewed and then approved. Good luck with your app!

how much did you spend on developing the app?

Originally Posted by theag

how much did you spend on developing the app?

I spent under $1000. I found a local start up that was looking to expand their portfolio. If I had went elsewhere state side I probably would've been looking at paying 2-3x that.

Update: 7-7-12

Thankfully now the app store issue has been fixed!!

I have no idea how many downloads I lost during the down time, but my downloads went from (2) all day on the 5th to (20) yesterday when it was fixed after lunch. I spent most of yesterday and this morning sending out emails to bloggers and review sites. I've got my fingers crossed on those!

I had a couple of wins last night with Twitter. A dog blogger with almost 15K followers reviewed and recommended my app via Twitter. Also I had some others tweet about how much they enjoyed the app. It's great to be getting good feedback, but I have to convert the enthusiasm into more downloads.

I posted one of the photos taken with my app to Reddit and it is now #1 in the TrollingAnimals category! The photo is linked to imgur where I have a link to my app. Hopefully this will create some sort of viral quality to the app that I can capitalize with.

Update 7-8-12

I've not heard anything back from the app review sites and tech journalists that I emailed. Considering I sent them on the weekend I've not really given up on them just yet, maybe I will have a surprise in my inbox Monday

One thing I have learned during the process of making my first app, is the importance that Twitter can be as a marketing tool. I have made several connections through Twitter and can attribute the little success I have had to that. The promotion my app received from the dog blogger that tweeted about my app actually boosted sales for that day!

Update 7-10-12

Well good thing I didn't give up on the cold call emails! I actually had one respond. It was another dog blogger who thanked me for reaching out to her with my app and that she would definitely take a look at it. Also, had another blogger download my app and contact ME to say that she planned on including my app in one of her upcoming posts!

I know I'm not hitting home runs, but if I can base hit myself to hit my goal (make my money back) then I will consider it a success
Speaking of homeruns... I did tweet Oprah and asked her to check it out.. LOL. I have been having some fun with some Twitter contest. I've been giving away free Postagrams of peoples' pets in Retweet contests. I've spent $0.00 (received 5 free for signing up) and gained several targeted followers and new users for my app by doing this. It's a perfect contest giveaway for me because I can look big by saying "I will send a photo print of your pet to ANYWHERE in the world!" Actually sent one to a guy who owns a Pit Bull Rescue in United Kingdom yesterday!

Also, I have a few more promo codes left for the verison 1.0 of my app DogCap-Your Dog's Thoughts on Camera. If you would like to try it out for free and give me a good review then send me a PM

Originally Posted by Tarheelfan2009

I did tweet Oprah and asked her to check it out.. LOL.

Good idea. I just told Tom cruise to check out my app. Thought he may want to use it to screenshot sms conversations.

Jake - great idea for a first app! Our first app was a dog / puppy related app as well. Apple will make you crazy with the delays though, we've had to learn to be very very patient...

I know I'm not hitting home runs, but if I can base hit myself to hit my goal (make my money back) then I will consider it a success

Can u explain why you needed to invest money for your app if you are the builder?

Originally Posted by Kfleming

Jake - great idea for a first app! Our first app was a dog / puppy related app as well. Apple will make you crazy with the delays though, we've had to learn to be very very patient...

Tarheelfan is the OP who made the Dog app. I'm just a spectator on his app journey.

Update 7-11-12

Downloads dipped a little bit yesterday, but still on track thankfully. I finished up a promotional video of my app yesterday.. it includes some user submitted photos, reviews, and a look inside the app. It isn't the most professional video in the world, but it was worth a shot. It's more of a "hype" video than anything.

Also, had my PrMac press release go live and very happy with the way it looks. It helped boost visibility of my app through Google search so it was worth the time.

Update 7-12-12

Downloads holding steady after a week. I'm not blowing it out of the water, but I am still on track to hit my goal! My app now has 16 Five Star Reviews so it is pretty disappointing that in a few days they will disappear due to the update I am rolling out.

GREAT NEWS is that I had my app featured by a popular dog blogger! You can check it out here... Fun new App for Dog Lovers....DogCap

I'm following you on Twitter and I really like your tweets. Keep up the hard work

Originally Posted by wade1mil

I'm following you on Twitter and I really like your tweets. Keep up the hard work

Thanks!! And thanks for the encouragement! I have been trying to bust my butt on Twitter because that has landed me about 90% of my downloads probably. Thankfully I am truly a dog lover so it makes it a lot easier spending so much time there tweeting to other dog lovers. 500 targeted followers now! Woo hoo!

I did take notice that Mike39 used a $50 Free Facebook ads campaign and grabbed the same deal from my hosting (Bluehost). The results yesterday blew my mind! I had around 40 Facebook Likes on my page yesterday and this morning I woke up to 86!! 32 of those Likes came directly from the ads. It is WAAAY above what I was expecting from the TOTAL campaign which I have scheduled for 5 days at the rate of a $10 dollar limit per day. Hopefully some of those likes will convert to downloads!! I have the campaign targeted at ages 13-35 Male/Female who like dogs living US,UK, or Canada (my three most downloaded countries from the app store)

Does apple cancel many orders? Google rejects attempted purchases very frequently. A lot more than I thought possible.

Originally Posted by Jake

Does apple cancel many orders? Google rejects attempted purchases very frequently. A lot more than I thought possible.

No, cancellations really hasn't been an issue for me. I would definitely Google that (if you haven't already) to find out what number of cancellations is "normal"...just to make sure you aren't running up against some kind of app store bug.

I thought Apple was "perfect" and "bug free" and it cost me pretty big on release day since I wasn't prepared to handle any hiccups on the release day or how to respond to customer complaints.