

Show HN: Xplode – Mobile App Promotion and Monetization - codyko
https://xplode.iddiction.com/#!

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onmydesk
Apps that display Apps other than your own for purchase or promotion in a
manner similar to or confusing with the App Store will be rejected, unless
designed for a specific approved need (e.g. health management, aviation,
accessibility, etc.) or which provide significant added value for a specific
group of customers

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onmydesk
Wow no response to the fact you can't use it on apples app store. I take no
pleasure in pointing it out but this is pretty fundamental. Time for a new
project?

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king_magic
After watching the video and reading the FAQ, I still don't really understand
how it works. Is there some bar always hanging out at the bottom of my app
that a user taps on to bring up the app discovery grid?

If so, I'm personally not interested. No offense, it just feels as painful of
a user experience as iAd.

I'd much rather programmatically call up the app discovery grid based on some
action a user in my app takes.

That all said, my comment may be moot, but I wouldn't be able to tell because
I haven't been able to figure out how Xplode works from the Xplode site.

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codyko
Good points! Integration is completely customizable. The bar is optional, and
you're free to programmatically call up the grid using breakpoints defined in
your code. If you do choose to integrate the bar, it can be completely
customized to fit the style of your app. It can also be placed on the top of
your interface if this is more appropriate.

We're allowing complete customization so that the developers that know their
users best can decide how to implement it in their apps.

~~~
king_magic
Ahh ok - that's much, much more appealing. I would definitely consider
something like this.

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AznHisoka
Stop with the buzzwords. How does it work? Tell me and I'll pay you.

As it is, it looks like a bunch of BS. And Disney uses it? Really? Do you want
me to email some exec from Disney to verify this? Because I have a contact..
don't make me do it!

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lnanek2
It looks like a clone of ChartBoost and AppFlood. As an indie game developer,
I have found these sorts of things somewhat handy. Often you don't really want
to bother monetizing a game with ads and the like while it is growing and you
would only make a couple hundred a month anyway. Instead you can show these
cross promotion options instead. Basically it is like selling ads and using
the money to buy ads for yourself, but more efficient since you are cutting
out the middle.

Cross promotion methods are part of how larger companies get their games so
many users. E.g. farmville will advertise cityville, etc.. So options like
these help smaller guys compete with some of the powers of larger companies.

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ameister14
Your blue <h2> tagged text is underlined on hover, leading me to believe they
are links. They are not.

Right away, I am unhappy.

Then I realize this is your how it works page and there is no text about how
it works anywhere on the page.

-Actually, that's not your how it works page, you've just got the wrong link in your faq, taking me to /#how-it-works and not #!page/how-it-works. Pretty confusing.

I don't want to watch your video. If you want me to watch it, you'd probably
do better by having a mid-sized box video preview, so I don't worry that the
player isn't embedded.

You can't have a CTR of 140%. That's not possible. It would mean 40% more
people clicked an ad than saw it. I'm not the mayor of Chicago; I can't get
more people to vote for me than exist in my district. Likewise, you have to
see my ad to click it.

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codyko
Thanks for the tips and the note about the broken link. We'll fix these
things.

As I mentioned in another comment, we had a developer that saw an overall 140%
CTR because his users clicked on the app discovery grid multiple times.
Meaning - there were users that clicked on multiple apps in the app discovery
grid.

~~~
ameister14
So, if I'm reading you right, you have a grid with multiple options open, and
you counted clicking each option once so if I click two options, that's +2, 3
options would be +3, but viewing the options page only counts as 1?

The problem is that you should only get 1 click from 1 view for a particular
object. So if I am selling 3 things in your grid, and someone clicks on all 3,
it's not +300% for me, it's 100%. If someone clicks one out of the three
options, then overall I'd have a 33%.

It's not as useful that way, though. So if I transition this to talking about
a series of banner ads as an example: If I have 3 ads for 3 different products
on the same page, I'll count their CTR separately. If someone clicks on ad 1
but not ad 2 or three, then ad 1 has 100% and 2 and 3 both are at 0. If
someone clicks all three on the same view somehow, then each ctr would be 100%
for that view.

100% is the max. Otherwise it's not really useful; how do you know from your
way which ad is successful? That's really what CTR starts to measure.

Plus, 140% out of how many options on the list? What if there are 20? It's
just not useful unless 100% is the max.

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keithwarren
I would be really curious to see a ratio comparing user engagement and usage
when they download from something like this vs when they discover you on the
app store.

I would assume that app store or other inbound discovery that was within the
context of their search would become a much more engaged user of my app - but
I would really like to see data on that spread.

~~~
codyko
I see your point. I think cross-promotion, if done right, can drive some very
engaged users. In both cases, it's a true organic user. However, with this,
it's likely you're getting users with better engagement than a random user
browsing through the store. A lot of developers have integrated our app
discovery grid with a button that the user chooses to tap on. This results in
installs from dedicated users who are already engaged with that developer's
apps and chose to view it in an effort to find more of the developer's apps or
apps the developer would recommend.

Although this doesn't contain the control data you're curious about, here's an
example of the results one of the developers on our platform is seeing:
[http://easytigerapps.tumblr.com/post/78759270430/developers-...](http://easytigerapps.tumblr.com/post/78759270430/developers-
listen-up-heres-the-mobile-discovery-tool).

~~~
keithwarren
So you are saying the apps which show up are curated with respect to context.
So if I make a bible reading app, strip club apps will not show up as
options...more likely you will see religious or reading apps?

~~~
codyko
It is completely up to the app developer to choose which apps they want to
show. The developer controls this. So they can just show their own apps and /
or apps that are complementary to theirs. They can change this in realtime on
our backend dashboard.

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acgourley
Does anyone have suggestions on their favorite static site generator for
building a standard html/css/js website? Looking for basic templating and file
formats sublime will understand how to work with.

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farhanpatel
I'd like to try it. But guess I need an invite. If you can send one that would
be awesome.

Our company is currently looking for a new iOS monetization strategy.

~~~
codyko
Awesome! Just request a code on the Xplode registration screen and we'll send
one your way:
[https://xplode.iddiction.com/registration](https://xplode.iddiction.com/registration)

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chourobin
Why won't they be up front and explain how they plan to make money?

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josephwegner
140% CTR? What does that even mean?

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codyko
We had a developer that saw an overall 140% CTR because his users clicked on
the app discovery grid multiple times. Meaning - there were users that clicked
on multiple apps in the app discovery grid.

