Hi! This is the Daily Overpass! My name is Eric and I MAKE APPS!
Now today, I want to talk about the getting featured by Apple strategy.
Okay, so this is Episode Number 100. I finally made it! I was always thinking if when I
get to 100 should I just stop right well I run out of things to talk about
In fact, I wasn't sure if I'd be able to make it through the month of January
doing it free, doing the video frequently, and being able to keep going but,
I appreciate all the questions in the comments you guys have coming and also,
you you're tolerating with me on days when it may have been a little bit slow
when we talk about things that are not even app related or just sort of you know,
maybe just like a personal story or, or you know, me working in a certain place,
or something like that, so I really appreciate all that, and one thing so,
so I was thinking whether or not, when I got to 100, I would just stop and then, I
was thinking no you know what I'm just starting to pick up steam and you like
with everything else you learn as you go and so but we really have to do is ramp
up things right you need to to start doing a better job on a lot of things
like just change it up a little bit for the next 100 episodes and I'm not sure
how yet, I think we need to you know, talk about some more interesting topics right
um, and also you know the thumbnail, so you know, NeonBlades said yesterday,
"Ah, one more thing. After 100 vids, I strongly advice you start working on the
thumbnails, you must make them more appealing you got four and a half
thousands subscribers and you're still low on views, you have to thumbnails are
showing you and half of showing the title uh, and, just showing you with a
different shirt, how about you know, you pull up nice thumbs. I bet you'll get
double the views." And that is absolutely right the other so one of the things
that yeah, I've noticed is you know my thumbnail suck! I thought they were good
at the beginning, but you know, when I thought, what I started doing daily
I thought I would be going outside more, and I thought I would be me on the road
and everything, but it's just me sitting here and one thing um if there's one
thing I learned from doing the 100 videos so far, the 100 daily videos is, I have like four shirts, right?
It could be like I could be tried be all cool like I'm Steve Jobs
and I and that's on purpose because I don't want to make decisions in the
morning when I'm dressing. But that's not the case I don't.
I hate buying clothes right, so yeah, when you put all the thumbnails together,
you see do man, I have like I have like my wardrobe is just terrible
so that's something to think about charge. So we're gonna, we'll jazz up the
thumbnails a little bit and maybe I'll stop saying my name is Eric and I make apps.
Maybe I'll say, maybe, I'll just say my name is Eric or maybe, I'll just say
I'll just make up a new name, right? 'coz I always, I've always hated the name Eric.
And if your name is Eric I apologize for what I'm about to say but, I speak from
experience here. Is like Eric, it just seems like when people say the name Eric
it sounds like they're whining like, Ehh-ric (whining tone), right? I want to be something strong and bold
like Jake, Jake! Hi this is a minute of Overpass, my name is Eric. Oh alright, this is the minute Overpass,
My name is Jake and I make apps!
That sounds so much stronger, right? or, or Steve, or Mike, or Dave just like a one syllable.
Just, "Hey! I'm Dave", right? that sounds so much better than, "Hey! I'm Eh-ric", right?
So anyway, thanks for putting up with me for the hundred episodes of the
Daily one so far will keep going and yeah, I'm really looking forward to it.
Anyway, today what I want to talk about today, is, is being featured by Apple.
Yeah, I've read a lot of things lately about a lot of articles, not just lately,
but you know, a lot of people were the strategy on putting out an app, is to put
out something that's, not very neat. It might not be very specific to a certain
market, but the hope being that you know, if we could get it featured by Apple,
then will, will be set right, and it seems to me more along us IOS developers, I don't
notice it so much with Android developers it might be a generalization
but, a lot of Android developers don't seem to be looking towards being
featured, because the way Google Play works is so much different, right? But you
know, it reminds me of like years ago, uhm, I used, I'm a big Seth Godin fan so,
I've read, I read pretty much all of his books, I used to read his blog every day. Here's
one of the ones I read. I read this one back in like 2003 with purple cow. I mean
it's really good one about marketing and everything like that, right?
And ah, and I remember reading a blog post of his like, God it was a long
time ago. Where are you talking, and this was like before the app market even. And
he was talking about uhm, book authors. He was talking about how many authors
were out there, that were just you know, they would put out a book that was not
very special was kind of just ho-hum and their whole strategy was you know, if
only Oprah would review it on her show then they'd be set like that was the
dream. If only we could get Oprah to read it, right? then or, or a big famous celebrity,
right? And this is what I think about when I think about the strategy of being
featured by Apple, right? I think it's it would be great if it happened, right? it'd
be great if you could you know, can make that happen put yourself out there and
I'm just and I know there's strategies to be noticed by them and everything but
if you put an app on the market, I just think that being featured by somebody
else and hope to be able to schmooze up to them it puts so much outside of your
control, right? You know on a daily basis, you know, when you're trying to get
people in to see your apps and try to you know push out to all these different
channels, you know, put things out into social media you know, maybe to of, maybe
do videos, all that kind of stuff you know that's, that's something you could
proactively do. But, hoping that somebody else will notice you, it just, it just
always seemed far-fetched to be. Now I could be completely wrong let me know if
you guys have had that you know, that strategy and it worked, where you've
decided to go out there and, and really work at you know, getting Apple to notice
you or even Google to notice you and featuring you and if that helped to
bring monumental success, and if even if it was lasting success because my
understanding is that you know if you're featured by Apple you might have two or
three days of high downloads but then you know, you're not going to be featured
there forever, unless you have high downloads from the beginning, right?
Yesterday, I talked about, ah, my change, my app name and that even changing the
keywords my app still stayed at the top, right? And, I think one of the reasons is
because we have the app stores are so saturated that the app markers are
starting to reward high download rates and it's a chicken and egg situation,
because you know, I mean the app stores what they want to do is if somebody's
searching for something they want to give them the best one at the top, or the
one that's most likely the best and they can't you know, the only way they know is
based on reviews, and number of downloads, and how popular it is so, you
know, the popular ones stay at the top of the list they remain popular. The
newcomers find out hard to get up to up the list because nobody will try them.
And it's just such a chicken and egg thing at the moment that you have to
rely on lots of other things like advertising and everything like that.
Ahm, and you know, and you, to think that to be featured is just, um yeah, I just to me it
just seems like it, like a strategy it doesn't seem like a strategy it's not, to
me it seems like a wish, and not a strategy, but you know I could be wrong,
it just you know I've never really pursued that kind of thing. So anyway, let
me know what you guys thinks. I'd be interested here what you guys say. I know
a lot of you guys are Android only, and you might not even think about that kind
of stuff you know, being featured on, on a, on Google you know, it cuz it's, it's,
It's much different, it's so much you know, geared towards the individual
person and everything but anyway, let me know what you guys think. I'm looking
forward to the next 100 videos, you know, thanks a lot guys and I'll talk to you
on Monday.