So, I have four app in the app store based on two code bases. Here are some tips that you may find useful and that I wish I had known.
- Wait until your app is REALLY finished before submitting it. It only really gets one shot at the front page of the "new apps" part of the appstore. The people who see it there are going to be your initial user base. If its only half finished then people will download it, try it and uninstall it. No questions asked.
- Make sure it is in the right category. I released a music news app and foolishly marked it as "news" first and "music" second. Who looks in the news category?If i had marked it the other way round, i would have got a lot more hits.
- It usually takes a week to get a new app approved. The app store gets the most action at the weekend, so submit your app on a Thursday or Friday. Then nine times out of ten it will be live on the Saturday and you will get maximum exposure.
- You have two apps, same code base but slightly different content. Say, one is a "lite" app. If you submit two apps, one an update to an existing one and the other a new app based on the same code, the update will be done before the new app. I think it is about 4 days for an update and a week for a new one. This makes me think updates are not as rigorously checked or that there is less paperwork for the reviewer to fill in. I am just saying ...
- "Lite" apps. They are there to give someone a taster of the real app and nothing else. If I am not doing many updates then I have no problem with renaming the lite app and resubmitting it as a new app. That way it gets maximum visibility. Some existing users will not get the update, but who cares as they probably are not going to buy the app.
