Hey! This is the Daily Overpass! My name is Eric and I make apps!
Now today, I want to talk about incentivized reviews.
Okay, so today, I want to talk a bit about incentivized reviews.
But first, if you don't mind, I'd like to ask you, guys, a favor if you have a few minutes.
If you ever look at the description at the bottom of this video, there's always a link here.
Have a look at my screen here.
There's always a link here that says "If you're a fan of Overpass company, leave us a review
on Google Maps."
And if you leave a review, then it shows up.
It helps us in the Google Search rankings and it's really helpful.
Some of you, guys, have done it already and I really appreciate it.
And I'm not saying - so basically it opens up a Google Maps link here and you leave a
review for the company.
And I'm not saying you pretend that you're a client because that would be dishonest.
But you can just say that you like the videos or the content has helped you and everything
like that.
And really what we want to to do is for people who are looking for app developers out there
who are knowledgeable, that if they are doing a search in a local area, and they won't affect
you, guys, if you're a competing app developer.
And if they look something in a local area, then it will help that Overpass knows what
they're talking about and we put content all the time, and everything like that.
If you could that, I'd really appreciate it.
But let's move on.
So, I want to stick with the theme of reviews.
I really meant to ask you, guys, for ages, but you know, I hate to ask for things.
So, reviews.
I had - somebody left a comment a couple of weeks ago on one of the videos where we talked
about the remove ads functionality inside the apps.
They said - what they do is they remove ads if the person leaves a review.
They said, "If you leave a review, then we'll remove ads."
And this is something that I've noticed a lot.
I noticed some apps do this and I've had clients said this to me.
Coz one of the things is most important in terms of your apps in the ranking is reviews.
So I've had clients say, "Could we just say we'll give you something free if you leave
a review?"
Coz that would be - then they will leave a review and we go higher up in the rankings.
But that is against the Google Play policies.
The same way I can't say, if you'll leave a review on Google for me then I will give
you something.
I can't do that on an app either because that makes it less - that impedes the integrity
of the reviews.
So have a look at the Google Play page over here.
By the way, if you have gone through and read the Google Play Developer Policy, then it's
always a good idea to that, but it's so dry.
They make them very cartoony.
It seems they are always improving it.
but it's still so dry going through.
You can't do this, you can't do that.
A lot of times the language is just - it's vague.
Like you know other people are doing it.
But if you'll have a look at here: user ratings, reviews, and installs.
You've got an example of a common violation here.
Love your feedback, for a limited time, we'll give you a 10 percent discount if you leave
a 5-star rating and everything like that.
So, and this is something we haven't done.
I mean at one point on Ear Spy when it was still called Ear Spy on Android, we were doing
unlock a feature.
If you liked it on Facebook or on Twitter, if you tweeted about it, or if you liked it,
then we will give you the unlock code to unlock it.
And I wasn't sure.
Some people started complaining saying I was manipulating reviews there.
But I wasn't.
And in the end, we removed it anyway because it was causing a little bit of confusion.
It was just a headache.
I don't really think it helped spread.
What we saw was a lot of people setting up Twitter accounts with no friends, no nothing
and so they can tweet about it and they can unlock the feature and it was kind of productive
in the end.
But this is something - so, why you cannot incentivize a review.
You can't say we'll give you something in exchange for the review.
A few years ago, I saw this review exchange website.
You review my apps and I'll review your app and everything like that.
Which was, again, a violation even though they said it wasn't a violation.
So they keep getting more strict about this kind of things.
But you can do is say, "will you please leave a review?'
And I talked about it before, for the longest time, we have a comment pop-up, it was just
a dialogue box saying, "Do you like this app?
Leave a review."
But then in the end we found out that it isn't really working so we came up with a cartoon
character that said, "Please?
This app needs reviews.
Please leave a review", and all this kind of stuff.
People would go and do it as long as you can provide the value.
If you could provide the value and then you ask for a review, that's the ideal time.
And if you're really smart about it, and I haven't outdone this, then you would ask for
a review.
After they're getting really good scores, or after they're doing really well in the
app, or when they are at the most pleased with the app, that's the point you asked for
it coz you don't want to get uhm - I mean, you can't say please leave a five-star review
and not leave - I mean, you want to have an honest review.
And I honestly think - you know, I've had some really bad reviews on Ear Spy and the
rankings has always been really well.
I think it's just having that dialogue, and I think having any reviews is better than
having no reviews at all.
I mean, if you had all bad reviews that would be bad.
But I mean, having a few bad reviews, it's not gonna sink yet.
Anyway, those are just my opinions for today.
For those of you, guys, who are using incentivized reviews - oh, by the way, I've never heard
of anybody getting their accounts banned for this reason.
I'm not saying it hasn't happened, but I've never heard of it happened.
So, if you're somebody who's been banned for this reason, if you don't mind sharing that
I'd really like to find out.
Or if this is something you've been able to use but get by, or is it something not policed
but you know, one day they may get crack on it, it will be ral issue on that too.
Anyway, that's it for today.
I will talk to you, guys, again tomorrow!