Sales experience on the App Store and the first $ 12,500
I'll tell you about the personal experience of the release of the Pocket Lists iPhone application, whose sales for the first two and a half months amounted to $ 12,500 . Application Category: Productivity.
The application is developed by a team of two people. I hope my experience will help orient indie developers who are planning to release their own application and do not have large financial resources to push the application to Appstore tops.
The application was released on December 1, 2011. It is said that December and Pre-Christmas week is the best time for the release of applications, and that new applications are easier to get to the top. You can probably be guided by this if a massive advertising campaign is planned along with the release, but in our case it was not so.
')
Immediately after appearing in Appstore, the application was lost among others. In the section of the applications of the Productivity category it was not even visible on the first screen when sorting by release date (update). Neither in Featured, nor even in the tops of the application did not appear. Sales in the early days were about $ 10 a day.
The short-term reduction in the cost of the application to zero helped a little (the application could be downloaded for free for one day). In one day, there were about 10,000 downloads, the application went up a bit in the tops, after which for a couple of days sales stayed at around $ 100 a day. However, after another two days, sales returned to $ 10 a day.
The announcement of the application on Habré in “I am promoting” ( http://habrahabr.ru/blogs/i_am_advertising/134204/ ) had no effect on the sales of the application.
Press releases about the application in Russian and English, which I ordered in Ivan PR , paid off in the Russian Appstore, but had no effect outside of RuNet.
The future sales prospects for the application by the end of the month were foggy ... Not depressing, but certainly not the way they wanted. Obviously, to advance to the tops, it is necessary that major blogs write about the application and feature it with Apple. But how quickly this will be obtained and by what efforts, it was completely unclear.
Almost all the major publications that write reviews of the application, provide on their sites the opportunity to advise the application to write a review. I sent requests to many such publications in the hope that all the same, our product stands out against the background of the general mass. A small effect was: they wrote about the app on appadvice.com and 148apps.com. The only obvious thing was that one had to be patient and continue pushing the application constantly.
The situation changed when we released an update (version 1.1), in which we changed the screenshots in the application description and introduced a new functionality - notification of tasks for geo-location (the reminder is triggered when you arrive home, at work, upon arrival in another city, etc.) . Apple introduced an API for such functionality only in iOS 5, and, apparently, therefore, considered our application worth attention and added to the New & Noteworthy section of the Russian and (hurray!) American Appstorov. On the sales chart above, you can see how it instantly affected sales: one day the profit from the application was as much as $ 1,251!
However, sales began to fall rapidly. When the application was moved from New & Noteworthy to What's Hot (also in the Russian and American Appstores), sales decreased by a factor of 2–3.
According to the experience of Pocket Lists, with similar positions in the tops and external conditions (outside Appstor), the American Appstor provides approximately 10-15 times more sales than the Russian one. Not very accurate, but the order is such.
Total sales by country in the first two and a half months:
Sales and positions in Top Paid in the Russian Appstore.
For promotion in the Russian Appstore, I recommend the well-known iphones.ru to many. After the publication of the devstory about the Pocket Lists application, the application has risen to 5th place in the general Russian top and has been there for about 2 days. The cost of the application at the time of publication devstori was set at a minimum - $ 0.99, and the total revenue from sales for the week amounted to about $ 1,100 (1500 application downloads).
I also recommend ordering a review of the application on planetiphone.ru. The reviews they make for money, and in the case of Pocket Lists, the review paid for itself.
Paid reviews on other resources did not bring the desired effect.
The total profit in the American Appstore was three times greater than in the Russian, although efforts to promote the application there were minimal (so far only sent applications for reviews in different editions). Most of the sales in American Appstore were at the time when the application was in New & Noteworthy.

Sales and positions in Top Paid in the American Appstore.
Well, in conclusion, a modest link to the app in Appstore: itunes.apple.com/ru/app/pocket-lists/id482537116?ls=1&mt=8
Price: $ 1.99
The application is developed by a team of two people. I hope my experience will help orient indie developers who are planning to release their own application and do not have large financial resources to push the application to Appstore tops.
First month after release
The application was released on December 1, 2011. It is said that December and Pre-Christmas week is the best time for the release of applications, and that new applications are easier to get to the top. You can probably be guided by this if a massive advertising campaign is planned along with the release, but in our case it was not so.
')
Immediately after appearing in Appstore, the application was lost among others. In the section of the applications of the Productivity category it was not even visible on the first screen when sorting by release date (update). Neither in Featured, nor even in the tops of the application did not appear. Sales in the early days were about $ 10 a day.
The short-term reduction in the cost of the application to zero helped a little (the application could be downloaded for free for one day). In one day, there were about 10,000 downloads, the application went up a bit in the tops, after which for a couple of days sales stayed at around $ 100 a day. However, after another two days, sales returned to $ 10 a day.
The announcement of the application on Habré in “I am promoting” ( http://habrahabr.ru/blogs/i_am_advertising/134204/ ) had no effect on the sales of the application.
Press releases about the application in Russian and English, which I ordered in Ivan PR , paid off in the Russian Appstore, but had no effect outside of RuNet.
The future sales prospects for the application by the end of the month were foggy ... Not depressing, but certainly not the way they wanted. Obviously, to advance to the tops, it is necessary that major blogs write about the application and feature it with Apple. But how quickly this will be obtained and by what efforts, it was completely unclear.
Almost all the major publications that write reviews of the application, provide on their sites the opportunity to advise the application to write a review. I sent requests to many such publications in the hope that all the same, our product stands out against the background of the general mass. A small effect was: they wrote about the app on appadvice.com and 148apps.com. The only obvious thing was that one had to be patient and continue pushing the application constantly.
Second month onwards
The situation changed when we released an update (version 1.1), in which we changed the screenshots in the application description and introduced a new functionality - notification of tasks for geo-location (the reminder is triggered when you arrive home, at work, upon arrival in another city, etc.) . Apple introduced an API for such functionality only in iOS 5, and, apparently, therefore, considered our application worth attention and added to the New & Noteworthy section of the Russian and (hurray!) American Appstorov. On the sales chart above, you can see how it instantly affected sales: one day the profit from the application was as much as $ 1,251!
However, sales began to fall rapidly. When the application was moved from New & Noteworthy to What's Hot (also in the Russian and American Appstores), sales decreased by a factor of 2–3.
According to the experience of Pocket Lists, with similar positions in the tops and external conditions (outside Appstor), the American Appstor provides approximately 10-15 times more sales than the Russian one. Not very accurate, but the order is such.
Total sales by country in the first two and a half months:
Russian Appstore
Sales and positions in Top Paid in the Russian Appstore.
For promotion in the Russian Appstore, I recommend the well-known iphones.ru to many. After the publication of the devstory about the Pocket Lists application, the application has risen to 5th place in the general Russian top and has been there for about 2 days. The cost of the application at the time of publication devstori was set at a minimum - $ 0.99, and the total revenue from sales for the week amounted to about $ 1,100 (1500 application downloads).
I also recommend ordering a review of the application on planetiphone.ru. The reviews they make for money, and in the case of Pocket Lists, the review paid for itself.
Paid reviews on other resources did not bring the desired effect.
American Appstore
The total profit in the American Appstore was three times greater than in the Russian, although efforts to promote the application there were minimal (so far only sent applications for reviews in different editions). Most of the sales in American Appstore were at the time when the application was in New & Noteworthy.
Sales and positions in Top Paid in the American Appstore.
Some tips for developers
- Prepare yourself for the fact that the process of advancement is “ping-pong”: take-off after an article or review, fall, rise-fall, rise-fall ...
- Focus on American Appstor, and the rest will spread by itself.
- Applications in Appstore - like herrings in a barrel. Do not think that your unique app in Appstore is waiting with open arms.
- "I will get to the top, and there will tumble down" works for a maximum of several days.
- If you yourself and your friends do not use the application, then it is unlikely to go to Appstore at all.
- Do not overcharge the application, but focus on the mass.
- It is not enough to do well, you need to do something outstanding. This is the Appstore format.
- Be patient, the first million is always the most difficult.
Well, in conclusion, a modest link to the app in Appstore: itunes.apple.com/ru/app/pocket-lists/id482537116?ls=1&mt=8
Price: $ 1.99
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/138226/
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