Wall Street Journal talks about App Store marketing

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On August 26, 2009

The Wall Street Journal has posted an article recently in its blogs section about the methodolgies that developers can use to market their app in the App Store.  Not surprisingly, some of them rely on timing and luck.

One interesting tactic that was mentioned was trying to quickly turn around a copycat app for a popular one.  Do you realize how many iFart clones are now in the App Store?  Seriously, as the App Store gets larger and obtains a greater variety of apps, it’s going to be tougher to create an original app for the iPhone (although this example of an app that can be used in conjunction with a rifle seems pretty original to me).

Another interesting fact is that the number one method mentioned for getting your app noticed on iTunes is good old word of mouth.  This is where sites such as What’s On iPhone come in.  I encourage all you developers to contact us with promo codes so we can take a gander and hopefully give you a good review.

Having never created or published an app, I was surprised when reading about the problems with release dates.  I heard that the vetting process for new apps takes months because there is such a long queue.  The approval process has a reputation for disorganization, but I’m sure Apple is doing its best.

If you’re a developer, what methodologies have you used to promote your application?  Did they work?