Visibility in the App Market

I have a few friends that are selling in the appstores They cannot quit their day job yet (probably not in any time soon) . But there are a few things you can do to increase App visibility in the app store. More visibility for indie apps is one of the key ingredients to more sales. 

If you disagree that's fine with me. You might have your reasons for doing so. But with almost 1 million apps on the appstore, unless your app does something that absolutely no  other app can do (like control the mar rover), chances are people won't even see your app. let alone download it. Oh but wait.. how would people even know your app can control the mars rover ? Marketing ? Promotion ... hmm... Is that not a form of visibility too ?

There are multiple apps that monitor appstore activity. Users reach out to these apps to get an overview of whats happening on the appstore... Is Infinity Blade on sale? Did Rovio launch Angry Birdy 2014 ? When will we be seeing an update to those bugs in the Xcom game? This is daily, non charged promotions. And they make a world of difference when it comes to sales.

So what can you do? Obviously the first step is to pick your launch dates wisely. Make sure they don't overlap with any other major appstore apps. Mainstream devs tend to have specific pre-set launch dates. If you want to share the shelf with these apss its wise to understand when they go up or on sale. You might not be going head to head with them directly in terms of functionality... but it terms of limelight you'll be sharing with thm juga.

Update your apps regularly. When you update your apps, Your apps will receive a brief visibility in the apps that monitor appstore activity. specifically related to updates.

. Change your prices constantly. Even if you want to sell your apps at just 0.99, set it higher, 1.99 or even 2.99.. then drop the prices to 0.99 every few days. I normally spend 1-2 hours creating a 6 month price schedule for my apps, Monday 2.99, Tuesday 1.99, Wednesday 0.99, thursday 2.99, firday 1.99, staurday and sunday 0.99. Even if you have a free app. Just raise the price and reduce it. You'll even see a diffrence in free downloads! On  6 month blocks , i did not do this once. and i had almost no sales at all during that total 6 months. When i resumed doing this i started seeing some sales again getting me again a couple hundred every few months . (it was not the best of apps :P )

So if you already launched ur app, and do not have time to update, start with a price schedule first. I'm sure there will be some drastic improvements in your sales