

My app failed and makes no money - matbeeche
https://www.shoestring.com.au/2013/06/my-app-failed-and-makes-no-money/

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danprime
Sorry to hear about your app failing. However, a link to the app on iTunes in
your post might help a bit :)

I would love to hear/read what your thoughts on your user acquisition
strategy. Did you get it reviewed by sites? Was there anything built in to
share the game (not multi-playing features, but a way to get others/friends to
play)?

~~~
BrandonCowan
[https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/gravityicons/id534926366?mt=...](https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/gravityicons/id534926366?mt=8)

Over the years, I have tried most (free/cheap) avenues to help market my apps.
In general, I market them through PR (I know this is not a sustainable
strategy despite my arguably successful track record with it). As with many
'rookie developers', I thought this app would be the next Angry Birds and
little promotion would be needed for it to take off. Additionally, I didn't
attempt to get PR for this app because in my eyes, it would be difficult to
pitch to the media and for every media pitch that doesn't go ahead, I see this
as slowly breaking away a relationship built with journalists, reporters etc.

I did try to get the icon owners (eg. Temple Run developer etc) to post on
their Facebook pages etc about the app but only a few did, and the ones that
did, didn't have tens of thousands of 'likes' or anything like that,
unfortunately.

I added in an alert to share the game after beating one of the bonus levels (I
forgot which one but I think it is around 25/30). I should probably put it
earlier but in general, people close those alerts anyway without an incentive
to share the app. Overall, I have made quite a number of mistakes with this
app. I have learnt from them and I am moving on.

~~~
danprime
Thanks for sharing.

While I'm not a game developer, I have been trying to get our team members to
focus not just on building the product/app but also on thinking about
developing a user acquisition process for each app. This may sometimes involve
PR and talking to the media and app review sites, but my experience (which
matches your thoughts) media exposure doesn't always result in an actual boost
of registrations/downloads/revenue. So it's not just a goal of "get more
customers" but making it more specific, e.g. "get more people to share my
game/app" or "increase exposure to a specific target interest group", etc.

Thanks again for sharing. Best of luck with your future projects!

