Creating and Selling Your First iPhone App

When planning to create or develop a new iPhone app, you must take into consideration if you are adding new functionality to an existing functionality or content or improving on an existing functionality or content. The App Store is filled with a ton of useless duplicate apps that do not add any value to the customer - unless you have that killer app that result in tons of online chatter and downloads.

The one category in the App Store that is an exception to the rule seems to be games. As of January 2010, the App Store boasted more than 50, 000 game titles to both the iPhone and iPod Touch. The gaming category is the most popular category of the iPhone where consumers seem to flock to and download both free and paid content. Three quarters of the downloads to the iPhone are games and other fun filled entertainment content apps. Why do people keep downloading these games? For starters, they are fun, very entertaining and time consuming especially if you waiting for the bus, train, or have a flight to catch. The interesting thing about games on the iPhone is for the most part they are relative inexpensive. You can play a game and become bored with it, beat the game and move on to the next or you can just go the App Store and buy a new game for $0.99 cents, giving you the opportunity to create interesting and fun games.

If you tour the App Store and identify apps that fall into this category you will notice and have a full understanding as to how the categories are built and into the App Store. Having a unique understanding of the category or environment you will be entering is one of the first steps to becoming an iPhone App developer. The goal is not to beat the best or the largest or well-funded organizations. Your goal of becoming an iPhone App developer/entrepreneur is to contribute to the ideas of the App Store. This will require a well thought out plan so that your execution is great. You will not have to spend thousands of dollars to hire a team of developers to pull it off. The idea is to study what is out there and develop a product that is lacking or does not exist.

Finding your Niche

There are basically three strategies for getting into the concept stage of creating your own iPhone app:

• Determining the requirements in your niche
• Exploring your niche for demands that will be met by an iPhone app
• Specifically taking an inventory of what you are able to do and provide

It is possible to work specifically with one strategy, or perhaps you could work them all back and forth until you have something tangible to offer. It is recommended that performing all three angles, will produce the greatest mixture between something that is required in your niche, something which connects using the community around you, and something which connects with who you are, your knowledge, and what you can supply.

The key thing to understand is that you do want to get hyped up about creating an app that no one has come up with only to find out that the app already exist. Have a firm understanding and grasp the App Store universe and the context of the iPhone.

Chris is an iPhone enthusiast and has been creating apps for four years. Check outwww.ethernetsurgeprotector.net and find the best deals on an ethernet surge protector at very low prices. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Chris_Zilari

20 Ways To Market Your Iphone App

Apple has now 300,000 plus iPhone apps available for sale at its App Store. The competition is fierce so in order to succeed you must aggressively promote your iPhone app if you want a fighting chance. What’s the best way to promote your app? You must employ multiple tactics to crack the success code. Simply relying on word of mouth is not enough - you need to get the attention of the news media. How? My solution is to seek publicity to help get the word of mouth going which will then lead to those highly sought after downloads.

Here’s a list of 20 tips I’ve compiled on how to promote your iPhone App.


1. Is your name catchy like ‘20 Minute Meals’ or ‘Doodle Jump’ both winners of Apple’s Design Awards? If not, consider renaming your app so it can be found more easily in Google searches and in the App Store.
2. Include and promote content in your app that cannot be found anywhere else.
3. Offer a free download to newspaper columnists, technical and non-technical alike.
4. Send out a well-written press release to the media announcing your new app and its special features no one can do without.
5. Use free online press release distribution. It’s a great way to access trade pubs, blogs, and consumer magazines.
6. Get a launch sponsor and co-promote. Hook up with a company that could benefit from being associated with this app.
7. Create a demonstration video and place it on your own YouTube channel.
8. Distribute the demo video online using free services like TubeMogul.
9. Create a tune or license one to play along with your YouTube video
10. Offer a free trial for users with an upgrade path to the paid version.
11. Host an App Launch Party for friends, family and prospects. Make sure the cake has your logo on it. Order custom imprinted balloons displaying your app’s icon.
12. Get friends and business associates who are well-versed on your app to create a buzz by posting on Twitter, Facebook and MySpace.
13. Set up a Facebook Fan page to showcase your app. It’s free and easy and your fan page can be found in search engines.
14. Create wallpaper with rows of your app’s icon and use it on your profile pages in Facebook, Twitter and MySpace.
15. Within your app, create Twitter and Facebook update features so users can easily post comments on their social network about how great your app is.
16. Participate in Q&A forums online, such as WikiAnswers and Yahoo Answers.
17. Get listed in free online directories such as DMOZ.
18. Place free classified ads on Craigslist.
19. Create your own blog and post an announcement about your new app or about a feature update to your app.
20. Get reviews of your app placed at such sites as AppStoreApps.com, the Apple iPhone Apps blog, AppSafari, 148apps.com, AppCraver, iPhone Application List, AppShopper and AppRater.

After reviewing the above list ask yourself these questions:
- Is our iPhone app getting all the media coverage it deserves?
- Is our competition getting more than their fair share of media coverage?
- Would media coverage get people to download my iPhone app?
- Do I have a PR strategy for continuous year round media coverage for our iPhone app?


If the answers to these questions are not satisfactory developers should consider a publicist who’ll 'pitch' the media on their iPhone app. A publicist will create a story idea involving the app that would interest the people who read, watch or listen to a particular media outlet that would cover the app.


If you have the internal staff and expertise to commit to your public relations effort then you should still consider hiring an outside PR firm to just promote the iPhone app. The reason? There is much to do and it’s a big world out there with plenty of media outlets to reach. The outside PR firm can focus on the iPhone app exclusively.


The busier you get, the easier it is to "set aside" consistent, important PR activities. Don't get caught in that trap! If you want your iPhone app to be a success then hire a publicist who can get the publicity you deserve!

By: Scott Lorenz.

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How to create IPhone Apps

There many ideas and suggestions for applications for the iPhone as this piece of technology takes off. With these guidelines you can go through the process of creating your own application for your iPhone and putting your ideas into practice.

With so many iPhone App Reviews and iPhone Game reviews around wherever you look, you may get the inspiration to create an application yourself. There is a plethora of iPhone Apps available. However, there is always room for more, and ideas keep coming for new applications for this revolutionary phone. It can be daunting to know where to begin. However, if you have a great idea for an application then you can work through the following steps in order to create the iPhone App and make it a reality. When you are about to create your iPhone App you should work out whether it will solve a specific problem and if there is a gap in the market for your idea.

Step 1: Perform Market Research

The first thing you should do when creating any iPhone application is to do some market research on the idea you have to ensure that it has not been already created. By doing this research you are learning from the mistakes of others and ensure that you do not produce a poor application like some others have done in the past. You should really consider what problem your application is likely to solve and also whether you can make it original and fully functional. You should really think about any value that your application may bring to the customer. 

Step 2: Determine who will purchase your App 

Once you have looked into the application and started doing some research you should determine who your application will bring value to and why. There is no point in creating an application that looks great but has no practical use to anyone and nobody will buy. If it is a game you are developing you should ascertain as to whether it is original and something that people want to play. If it is a utility application then it should be directions to somewhere that people actually want to find. Also, ensure that the application you produce is simple to use and does not take too long to get anywhere on. 

Step 3: Design and Program your App 

Once you have made sure that your application will be of some use to someone then it is time to design and starting to use programming for your application. If you are a designer then there is various software packages you can use to get you started. Work from sketches that you have made and go from there. If you are not a designer then you should try and hire one to help you. It is essential that you go with someone who has experience and also someone who can then perform the programming to make sure the application works correctly. 

Step 4: Submit you application to the Apple Store 

Once you believe that your application is ready to be sold then you should create certificates for the application and submit to the Apple store. In addition you should define your Application ID’s and compile the application. Then you should upload to iTunes and transfer to your iPhone device.

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