作者：Jovan Johnson

虽然各种网站陆续发表了“发布手机应用的最佳方法”，然而其中包含的大多数建议都不够明确。比如，最近Distimo就苹果App Store发表的博文，分析了所有付费及免费应用晋升到前25榜单所需的下载量。能进入这些榜单当然很有帮助，我们还应该考虑其它多项策略。以下列出其中几项：

Mobile-apps(from itnewsafrica.com)

重视社区平台

大多数开发者只能从他们最杰出的应用中获得大约5000美元的收入。不考虑创意人员和程序员的因素，你还需要一场促使游戏成为热作的有效营销活动。除了Google+，Facebook以及Twitter，你的潜在用户还会在哪里消磨时间呢？这需要你投入一些精力去探索那些具有影响力的网站、博客甚至是论坛，也许，你的用户正在那里交流想法、创意和评论。你也可以在营销专家、PR公司（比如Novy PR）或者实习生的帮助下，节省挖掘资源的时间。如果你无法找到合适的网站、论坛或者社区，你可能需要重新思考你的应用是否真的有市场。

找到社区后，你就需要建立起官方形象。找到推广渠道，回答其它用户的问题，讨论应用的功能，寻求反馈。你的这些投入可能会带来推荐、下载和评级。Gamasutra提供了非常有效且免费的博客资源——其中包括了见多识广的评论家和大量的参与机会。

虽然使用社交媒介是一项明智的举措，但是在社交媒介平台上讨论应用并非营销计划的中心部分。如果你的团队只是一家新公司，你可能不会有足够的追随者——而这却是成功发行作品的一个重要元素。

了解对手

熟悉你的竞争对手不仅可以为你创造价值，也是决定发行成败的要素之一。下载对手的应用进行研究，了解他们的强项和弱项。根据他们的强项考虑是否增添和改进你的应用，但要避免功能累赘现象——要抵制山寨，如果你确实需要借用他人的创意，请先确定自己已经有了合适的法律顾问。记住：创意不受保护；只有形成固定文本的想法才会得到保护。

同时，评估大众对竞争对手产品的反响也是明智之举。仔细筛选博客及用户评价（包括批评和建议）。反省他们的过错，这样你就可以开发出一款优秀的应用。

甚至在前期制作开始前，你就要熟悉对手的应用，这种熟悉度可以引导你进行竞争性分析，确定你的目标市场，了解相关的媒介销售渠道。

正确的定价策略

在计划发生应用的过程中，你需早点确定盈利方式。在开发前了解获利渠道至关重要，因为这涉及到功能、营销和后期发行的内容编写。

时下流行的销售方式是采用免费模式，那样玩家在试用后会为你招来更多的用户。86%的应用下载量来自免费产品，因此对用户的使用权收费会限制产品曝光率。当然，你不能忽略了回收成本、创造收益的欲望。付费应用可以稳定创收，新闻媒体也更关注这类产品——这也是为何Rovio要以0.99美元的价格出售《Amazing Alex》的iPhone和iPod touch版本，而将高清版本（iPad）定价为2.99美元的原因之一。

当然，免费增值的商业模式也有它本身的优势。这种方法允许用户免费下载及“试行”你的应用。对于追求全面体验的用户，他们可以通过内部应用购买附加内容。你可以提供不同版本的升级包——每个升级包都需要付费，或者推出一套统一定价的完整升级包。

免费增值方式可以提高游戏的下载量，推进游戏在App Store相关类别中的排名，甚至会产生收益。随着你的应用逐渐盛行，它会获得更多的下载量，甚至会成为热作！

印象深刻的预告片必不可少

一些潜在用户应该想知道他们能从你的应用获得什么。一段预告视频不仅是展示应用的最佳工具，也可以吸引你的潜在用户。理想情况下，你的预告片应该要让用户产生期待，至少是让他们产生兴趣。

这段预告视频应有高质量的声效。如果你想使用自己没有的音乐或声音效果——无论是通过声音库，还是录音带持有者和发行商/作者/作词家的许可，都要确保自己得到正当的授权。如果你想在预告视频中呈现叙事内容，那么你需要聘请演员。如果你无法请到演员，有一种划算的办法是使用字幕来代替声音（使用不带声音或者带声音的字幕都是可取的）。

制作预告片时，记住以下七项原则：

1.留下悬念：一部30秒的预告片已经足够长了，千万别考验观众的耐心。

2.内容要与应用相关：你的预告片应突出与应用直接相关的内容——不要从头到尾都在谈论你那靠近海滨的工作室！

3.亮点：展示你应用中的两三个最佳特色——比如玩法、视觉设计、音乐或者物理效果。

4.花费：表明你的应用是否需要付费。

5.发行情况：视频中应呈现应用运行的平台（Android或iOS）及固定发行日期。

6.基本信息：确保信息中包含你的应用标题、网站链接、下载链接，以及同所有社交网络资料相关的链接。

7.合同：不要忘记与帮你制作预告片的所有工作人员（游戏邦注：例如演员、音乐人、制作人）执行所有必要的协议（包括聘任和任务文档）

搜集反馈

积极用户的反馈能推进下载量。至今，只有亚马逊Appstore能够基于用户的购买习惯提供建议。这表明，你需要销售量和反馈来提升应用的排名。

不能一味要求用户提供反馈，而要在应用内设置链接，那样用户就能便捷地进入反馈页面。你可以在用户享受应用的30分钟后固定出现一个提示，或者触发某项相关评价功能。

为鼓励反馈，你应为给予反馈的用户提供附加内容。不要一直要求积极反馈；你应该不想因为误导用户而成为FTC或者是律师的调查对象。同样，不要找“托儿”提供反馈（即要求员工、朋友和家人帮你写评论，吹捧你的应用是他们见过的最棒的）；因为这并不是典型用户会提供的反馈，这种伎俩马上就会被人识破。

总结

淘金热已经结束。如果你想突出自己的应用，那你需要做好准备，接受生活的挑战。这表明，开发应用需要大量的前期制作，投入精力进行市场调查，吸引各地用户以及合理的定价策略。优秀的游戏被市场埋没很正常，平庸的游戏成为热品也并非奇闻。关键是不要忘记你的终极目标：向大众传递独一无二的应用，以便几个月的艰苦工作能够获得回报。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

App Best Practices: Follow the Leader

by Jovan Johnson

While a variety of sites have put forth “mobile app best practices,” most of these recommendations are vague at best. Distimo’s recent blog post on Apple’s App Store, for example, clarifies the number of downloads necessary to make the top 25 list for the paid and free versions of all app categories. Making such lists is helpful, but there are many other successful strategies to consider. Here are just a few:

Community Matters

The numbers are grim: Most developers gross $5,000 or less from their best, most polished apps. Creative genius and programming chops aside, what you really need is an effective marketing campaign to land a hit. Apart from Google+, Facebook and Twitter, where exactly do your prospective customers spend their time? Invest some energy to explore influential web sites, blogs and even forums where your audience exchanges thoughts, ideas and reviews. You can also save some time by seeking the assistance of a marketing professional, PR firm (like Novy PR), or intern. If you can’t find a suitable web site, forum or community anywhere, you may need to reevaluate whether a market for your app actually exists.

Once you find your community, work on establishing an official presence. Find a way to contribute. Respond to other people’s questions, discuss your app’s features, and ask for feedback. (Avoid asking people to download your app, which could mark you as a “spammer.”) Your involvement may lead to recommendations, downloads, and ratings. Gamasutra is a very effective (and free) resource for blogging–with informed commenters and plenty of opportunities for engagement.

While it is wise to capitalize on social media, talking about your app on social media platforms should not be the central part of your marketing plan. If your business is new, it’s unlikely that you’ll have enough followers–a strong component of a successful launch.

Know Your Foe

Becoming familiar with your competitors will not only provide value, but could be the difference between success and failure. Download and study competing apps to get a feel for their strengths and weaknesses. Consider adding and improving your app based on these strengths, but avoid feature creep—and resist being a “copycat”; if you’re tempted to borrow others’ ideas, be sure to hire legal (app) counsel to guide you in the right direction. Remember: Ideas cannot be protected; only the fixed expression of ideas can be protected.

It’s also wise to gauge the public’s response to your competitors. Sift through both blog and customer reviews for criticism and suggestions. Learn from their mistakes so that you develop a superior app.

You should be familiar with your competitor’s apps before even going into pre-production; this familiarity will allow you conduct a competitive analysis, know your target market, and become informed of associated media outlets.

The Price is Right

You should determine your monetization approach early in the app planning process. Knowing how to make money from an app before development starts is crucial because it will define features, marketing, and post-launch content creation.

A popular alternative is to give your app away so that players can try it and come back for more. Eighty-six percent of app downloads are free, so charging customers for access will limit your exposure. That said, you shouldn’t ignore the desire to recoup your costs and make a profit. Paid apps generate steady revenue and are considered more worthy of attention by the press–one reason why Rovio sells Amazing Alex for $0.99 for iPhone and iPod touch and prices the HD version at $2.99 (iPad).

Of course, the freemium business model does have its advantages. This approach lets users download and “test drive” your app for free with access to the core game. Those interested in the full experience can pay for additional content through In-App Purchases (IAP). You can offer different upgrade packages–each requiring a payment–or a full set of upgrades for one price.

The freemium approach can increase your game’s download figures, help it climb the charts in the associated App Store category, and even generate revenue. As your app continues to rise in popularity, it will get more downloads and even snowball into a hit!

Memorable Trailers are a Must

Potential customers should know what they can expect from your app. A trailer is a great tool to show what your app does, but it also lures in potential customers. Ideally, your trailer should build anticipation. At a minimum, it should generate interest.

The trailer should have studio quality sound. Make sure you have the proper license if you use music or sound effects that you do not own—whether through a sound library or permission from the sound recording owner and publisher/songwriter/composer. You should hire an actor if you want your trailer narrated. If you can’t afford to hire an actor, a cost-effective alternative is to use captions instead of voice. (Using captions with or without voice is recommended, since it allows for audio accessibility compliance.)

Keep these seven ideas in mind when developing your trailer:

1.Leave the viewer wanting more: A 30-second trailer is long enough. Don’t test viewers’ patience.

2.Focus on your app: With few exceptions, your trailer should focus on material relating directly to your app (preferably in game)–not on talking heads or footage from your awesome beachfront studio!

3.Highlights: Show your app’s two or three best features—such as gameplay, visual style, music or physics.

4.Cost: Clarify whether or not consumers will have to pay for your app.

5.Availability: Platform (Android/iOS) and a solid release date should be included. (If you can’t say “February 2013” say “Q1 2013.”)

6.Basic info: Be sure to include your app’s title, website URL, download URL, and links to all social networking profiles. (These can be shown as annotations on YouTube.)

7.Contracts: Don’t forget to execute all necessary agreements (including work for hire and assignment documents) with everyone (e.g., actors, musicians, producer) who helped create your trailer.

Lust for Feedback
Positive user feedback helps drive downloads. To date, only the Amazon Appstore provides suggestions based on purchase habits. This means you need sales and feedback to move up to the top of the list.

Instead of asking users to provide feedback, make it easy for users by linking your feedback page within your app. Include a prompt timed to appear after a player enjoys your app for 30 minutes or whether certain features are triggered (e.g., multiplayer).

To encourage feedback, provide additional content for those who provide it. Do not require positive feedback; you don’t want to become targeted by the FTC or an aggressive attorney for misleading consumers. Similarly, don’t engage in “astroturfing” (asking employees, friends, and family members to write reviews saying that your app is the greatest thing they’ve ever seen); not only is this misleading since they aren’t typical consumers, but it screams desperation–and people can smell this from miles away!

In Closing

The gold rush is over. If you want your app to stand out, you’ll need to prepare yourself for the fight of your life. This means allowing for plenty of pre-production, investing in market research, engaging your audience wherever they are, and pricing your app properly. It’s not uncommon for great games to vanish into thin air–or for mediocre games to become hits. The key is to never lose sight of the end goal: Deliver a unique app to the masses and reap the rewards of months of hard work!

*I’d like to thank Sabrina Narain for helping me revise and add to this article.（source:gamasutra）