

Why can't I sell this App? Be honest, please - mmackh

Hi HN,
As a side job, I've taken up developing, designing and trying to sell apps. The market is crowded and there seems to be no room for my apps. I had a pretty good first week selling an app that I've spent seven months of my free time on, making $200 on the highest day. Now, it's down to about $2 or $3 a day - barely selling any copies, constantly slipping in the charts.<p>Are there any people on HN with serious experience, willing to help out a beginner? Together we could come up with a list that can really help people. I feel like I'm the only person in the room who doesn't get get the joke. Should I just quit?<p>p.s. I've tried some things already, which unfortunately didn't work for me:<p>- Bamify Ads - Getting my Designer to dribbble the app - Writing bloggers - Having Sales $2.99 -&#62; $0.99 - Improving the app - Adding features that were requested - Having a nice website - I don't think being young helps you either - Trying to get some exposure on HN - Being in the Instapaper App Direcoty - Having a Youtube video - Having a great name: Read<p>The app: http://rdit.in/get<p>Email me if you want a promo code: info@readapp.net<p>This is a repost, since in my submission earlier I forgot to mention the app
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paulsilver
Looking at your iTunes page, when it first loads the description I can see of
the app does not make me want to buy it.

Because of the Christmas special text you've put in, all I see about the app
is "Read is a beautiful and revolutionary app to consume your favorite news,
blogs or stories. Flick left & right to jump"

Lots of people claim their apps are beautiful and revolutionary. I have no
idea if your app is either of these things, but also neither of these points
is particularly useful for me to decide whether to buy it.

"Read your favorite news, blogs and stories without adverts" would sell it
more to me. You either need to convince me to spend the money with that one
line, or at least to click the 'more' link to see the whole description.

When the description is expanded, the list of features needs to be adjusted. I
have no idea what "Casual Google Reader Integration" is, rather than normal
Google Reader integration.

Personally, I would re-order this and put "Get rid of all the Ads & Clutter
with our Clear Read technology" at the top - say what the feature does before
what it's called.

Second, I'd put your point about streams.

As the third point, I'd probably have "Read more easily with our hand-picked
fonts." or something similar

The other points I'd probably split in to a separate list. They feel more like
details that I'd kind of expect in a reader, rather than big selling points.
However, I'm not an iPad user so I'm not comparing this to other apps I've
seen.

Personally, I'd have thought mentioning Instapaper & Read it Later would just
remind people they already have an app that makes it easy to read some content
they are interested in. However, as I said I'm not particularly familiar with
this space, so that could be good. I'd definitely have them down on the list
of features though, as that sort of point starts confusing people who don't
know about those services.

Moving to the website:

I can't see most of what's going on in the app when I click on the links as
the mock iPad is mostly off the screen when I'm reading the text. Also, your
tag line is going to be 'below the fold' for most people when they load the
page.

What's with the weird eye in a ring?

The text doesn't sound particularly professional, e.g. "Going through articles
is an estimated 170% faster than regular browsing. Since all the clutter is
gone, Read will only load the most important stuff: content."

"Going through" and "stuff" doesn't fit with a pro reading app. Also,
"estimated 170% faster" sounds made up.

Looking up forgotten words doesn't fit under "Personalized".

Under "Simple" you say "Don't think of Read as a feed browser", which I
wasn't, as I can't tell what it does do on the website. I can guess it's an
app to read stuff in, because of the name and the amount of text on the
screenshots, but you don't actually tell me what the app does on the website.

Personally, I'd move the mock iPad over to the left, then put some text next
to it on the right which tells me what the app does which is unique and why
it's nice to use. You can do extra selling underneath, once people know what
the app is.

I'm sorry if this comes across as a bit brutal, but you did ask. From what I
can see you've done a load of work in the app. Getting the website and App
Store description improved should be a whole lot less work, and should help
you convert a little better.

------
tstegart
This is an interesting problem. I have a few suggestions.

1\. I echo the other people that the description needs some work. Its not very
compelling above the fold. 2\. I think you can get rid of the announcement
about your Christmas sale and fill that space instead with a better
description. Its doubtful the "80% off" text is a worthwhile marketing
strategy compared to the space it takes up. That strategy usually works best
when people know the price of what they are buying beforehand. But people
probably don't know what your app was priced at beforehand, so they're
unlikely to think they're getting any sort of deal. 80% off my favorite
grocery item is huge. 80% off something I've just heard of? Not so big. You
can use the space better. 3\. Improve your screenshots. Marketing is about
creating an image. You don't need the instructional shots with the hand in
there prompting people how it works. You need amazing, awesome, cool pictures
that make people go wow. They'll figure out how it works. Wow them first. 4\.
I would raise your price to match your competitors and keep it there. Or maybe
just below them. People don't do a lot of price comparison on the App Store
(at least I don't). I just bought a $400 phone, I'm not wasting time seeing
which app is the best deal to save a few cents. I'm searching for the app that
solves my problem and I'll buy it. If it solves my problem, its worth it. If I
had to hazard a guess, dropping your price doesn't gain you any ground over
your competitors as much as it loses you sales. I would put the price back up
and leave it there. Don't put your app on sale again.

Lastly, I would say some people are right when they advise you to let this one
go. You're stuck between some well funded, good competitors and free. Its not
a good place to be. People buying apps like to go with the leader because they
feel it must be good, because other people have bought it. Or they like to go
free because they're cheap. Unless you have the marketing budget to convince
people you're as good as Flipboard or all the other apps more popular than
you, then its likely you can't put enough effort into this by yourself to make
a big difference. In purely economic terms, if you put in 700 hours of
marketing work, you would probably make less money than doing 700 hours of
freelance developing. You've learned all the lessons you can learn from this
app, use your time instead on other things with better returns.

I would advise putting in a bit of work to make everything look good and
fixing any remaining bugs, then move onto something else. Its not a failure
not to be #1 when you're a single person. Some business niches just require
more capital, whether its a marketing budget or development time, and you
might not have it.

Don't quit, just study your next project carefully. Pick the one requiring the
least development time, having the easiest marketing strategy, with the
highest return. Until you have a company with 50 people to do all your work,
that should be your strategy.

------
vannevar
Your app is actually more successful than most of the apps in the App Store:
the median annual income per app is less than $1000. See [http://communities-
dominate.blogs.com/brands/2010/06/full-an...](http://communities-
dominate.blogs.com/brands/2010/06/full-analysis-of-iphone-economics-its-bad-
news-and-then-it-gets-worse.html) for a good analysis. Income in the app store
is distributed according to a power law, which means that the most successful
apps make thousands of times more than the average. They are the lottery
winners, and nothing you do is likely to put your single app in that category.

On the bright side, you've created a cash cow. It requires little maintenance
and generates about $100/month. To get that same return from an investment,
you'd need a sizable chunk of cash, probably in excess of $25,000. So don't
think of your app as a failure, think of it as a $25,000 trust fund. Now go
out and create some more.

------
steventruong
If you build it, they won't come. That generally only happens in Field of
Dreams the movie. It's all about marketing. Putting your App inside the App
Store alone isn't good enough. It'll get you some sales possibly but if you
want to rocket your growth, you need to be more strategic about marketing.

Having said that, I don't see any real compelling reason why I would
personally want your App. If you're going to compete with other reading Apps,
whats your advantage? Do you even have a small number of people who love your
App who can help drive feedback and promote the App without being asked (this
is one of the first steps for any entrepreneur).

------
BrandonMTurner
This is a crowded space as you mentioned. I don't know why this is any
different then Flipboard from reading the description, only thing maybe is
that you remove advertisements and make it easier to read. However, the big
difference between you and Flipboard is that Flipboard has a brand that I know
of, its free, and I know there is a large team behind it making it better all
the time (or at least trying to).

Edit: One thing I forgot to say, is that the app actually looks pretty nice.
Sadly, I don't think that is enough to break into the market.

~~~
mmackh
I understand what you mean, many companies like Flipboard, Zite, FLUD are
backed by teams and incredible high funding. I'm 19 and worked on this whole
thing on my own, which makes me sad

~~~
bradhe
If you knew this, and felt like you are at such a disadvantage (as evident by
your tone), why are you surprised that it is not doing well?

Let this one go. Be more innovative on your next project.

~~~
mmackh
Because I honestly believed, and still do, that my app provides a service that
was missing on the iPad. About being more innovative - ideas do not come easy
to me. Any suggestions?

~~~
pgroves
My advice would be to use this app as your 'portfolio' for building other
people's ideas on a contract basis. ODesk or Guru.com are decent places to
start, although here in Chicago Craigslist has a suprising number of iOS
contracts.

You will likely find people to partner with that have more niche markets to go
after. One of your problems, IMO, is that you're product is very general and
therefore has lots of competition. Once you are familiar with a smaller (but
not too small) market, you will likely end up with many more ideas for
products people will pay money for.

Contracting is underrated in the startup world, IMO. You can spend 6 months
out of the year building other people's ideas, and the rest of the time
building your own until your own products can support you.

------
silverlake
Your description is a terse list of techno-babble that will baffle my mother.
I still don't know what a stream is. Or clear read. Or "casual" reader
integration. Basically every sentence is a mess. Explain your product to a
non-technical human, then let her write the marketing blurb. This is why
marketing people exist.

------
iradik
You are obviously talented, so I wouldn't give up. But marketing is also a
skill.

I mean people are fighting hard to be in the top 25. That's where all the
money is!

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Tail>

------
mmackh
Clickable link: <http://rdit.in/get>

------
mars
maybe you should offer a free version including advertisements

~~~
mmackh
I'm planning to do that

------
dextorious
Well, it looks nice and polished. Haven't tried it yet, I will later. If I was
looking for such an app I would have considered it, have I known about it.

But: it's an RSS Reader.

Most people have already settled on one by now -- NetNewsWire or Reeder
mostly, but there are tons of others out there.

I don't see any great differentiating factor from those two, so any success
you can have can only come from:

1) being there first with that app (you weren't) 2) having more visibility
(which you don't, ie. less money to spend on ads, less reviews for you app in
re: Reeder and NNW, etc).

My suggestions:

1) Check the sore spots of other RSS Readers, especially the market leaders
and try to correct some of those. Then post about how you corrected such and
such.

2) Add some unique, your-app-only, feature. Or a bunch of them. Post about
those again.

3) Engage the community of potential buyers. Setup a forum and ask people what
they would like to see in an RSS Reader. Add the best/more popular of the
suggestions.

