

How We Jumped 50 Places in the iPhone App Store - for Free - JofArnold
http://blog.gymfu.com/notes/how-we-jumped-50-places-in-the-app-store-for-free/

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wallflower
> tweets from within the app...but instead we decided to also allow free-form
> responses risky, but important for maximum authenticity

I hope the MacHeist bundle people can learn from this.

Sending pre-constructed tweets is more like network marketing (alienate and/or
annoy friends) than word-of-mouth.

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JofArnold
We feel that pre-constructed tweets are downright lame; it's basically like
saying "Hey, Mr Customer - we neither trust you nor value your opinion, but we
want you to get your friends to buy our stuff anyway". Really old-school!

\-- GymFu Jof

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buugs
Cut the price, spend time advertising (through social networks)... jump 50
places all for free.

(Aside: Another thing that I can't check because I have no access to Itunes
but a jump from say 1000-950 is not amazing neither is 700-650 so depending on
where their app is placed and how many apps there are I don't know that this
means anything.)

~~~
JofArnold
It went into the top 50. We'll supply more stats once they are worthy and
detailed enough for comment --GymFu Jof

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jbellis
"So why not cut out the middle-men and make a sort of “in-app PR” – i.e. new
features in exchange for tweets from within the app?"

I could have sworn that was against app store terms. If not, it still feels
kinda slimy.

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Timothee
I think what's against the app store terms is to show disabled features that
are only available in the paid version of an app. (which Apple has done for
years in QuickTime ironically)

This probably falls in a grey area: if you compare it to game levels that are
only activated after you achieve something, it's pretty similar in spirit. Now
that I think about it, I think some games are borderline then…

~~~
JofArnold
Yeah, that's how we saw it. It's definitely a concern of course! \-- GymFu Jof

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colonelxc
I guess that is free, if all of your time is worthless. Good customer service
and PR is a good thing, but it's certainly not "free."

~~~
Timothee
I suppose it's free in the sense that it's something they did themselves,
rather than spending money on ads or external services.

It's free as in "didn't cost us money", rather than "didn't cost us anything".

~~~
JofArnold
Precisely. When you've got no cash, you at least have yourself!

Furthermore, this trial taught us a lot; the lessons and the feedback from the
community have been priceless - well worth the time we put in.

\-- GymFu Jof

~~~
Hexstream
Please don't sign your comments on HN.

~~~
JofArnold
Sorry! :P

