Hi everyone. As you all know it is not easy promoting your game. We're out of development for Sudoku In Space (except for adding on more puzzles and an awesome story line) and we're now into marketing mode and trying new and different things.
I'd like to start a thread here of tips and tricks for us all to contribute to. That way I hope the community will grow and help each other grow. As mall indie developers we really need to lean on each other for support.
One of the easiest things we can do for each other is simply download, share, and review each others games. If you don't like someone's game then write them directly and don't give a nasty review as that can really kill an app in its early stages. I try to do this for as many of you as I can and many of you reciprocate and I truly truly appreciate it.
One thing we're trying out is joining some app review exchange groups on Facebook. I just started today so I can't share much as far as results go, but I will later.
Here are the groups I've found that look good (or come recommended by friends):
Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/groups/reviewmyapp/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/aareview
https://www.facebook.com/groups/369574626514993/
Google Plus
https://plus.google.com/communities/110898192675994674517
https://plus.google.com/communities/104717782253208662719
Also remember that Google weighs app rankings HEAVILY on how many +1 shares the app has, so make sure to ask folks to do that.
As many of you know, I'm also exploring other stores:
http://forum.thegamecreators.com/?m=forum_view&t=212098&b=41
Unfortunately, the article I point to seems to have numbers that may be too good to be true because they are counting "downloads" which may never be installed or cancelled. So we're getting really nice numbers that are unfortunately not worth so much. However, we're seeing a tripling in our number of daily downloads (which isn't a lot). So these other stores are doing something! We're also planning to release on SlideMe in the next week or so, I just have to make some modifications.
Finally, I'm hoping we can also talk about App Store Optimization (ASO) here.
This is an odd subject and I'm only just beginning to learn it.
We did ASO for our keywords on iTunes and for a couple of searches we rank pretty high. Unfortunately they are searches with low traffic. One of the searches (how to play sudoku) ranks us #2 (because there are only 2 apps listed for that!). Unfortunately, simpler searches which most people will use are already dominated, so finding keyword combinations that are relevant to our app is turning out to be quite difficult. We're also considering trying to add some keywords to the app's title on iTunes, but that's a challenge.
Next up is "ASO" for Google Play. This is a challenge too. Google uses the description to search for keywords. It is said that your keywords should appear 3-5 times in your description, but never more than 5. I've read on some sites that adding keywords to your title may help, but I think this may not be so true anymore since even if you do a direct search for, say, Sudoku In Space, you'll find us far down the list (but we're on the move!). What Google seems to rely on more is link building, downloads, install lifetime, and g+ shares. For link building what you need to do is get a link to the play store on various websites, so when you post here or other forums make sure to post a link directly to Google Play. Also, if anyone wants to put links to our games on their site I will do the same for you on our site.
So let's hear it folks! What are your experiences, resources, and tips on this WIDE topic?
EDIT:
Almost forgot!
There's also a great tool for spreading the word through Twitter. It's called Indie Developer Retweet Group.
http://www.innovatty.com/twitter/IDRTG/index.php?page=home
You sign up and retweet other's tweets and they retweet your (must be submitted through there form). The point system is pretty straightforward. We've gained 60+ followers in just a couple days through that (mostly other indies) and had quite a bit of retweets done (20 before shutting it off to save points). There's also the hastag, #GameDev which is also retweeted by a bot and gains us 1-5 followers each time.
