Wrote my first android game... what are the best ways to promote it?
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I wrote my first game and published it to the Google Play store a couple weeks ago (a word game, but one that I think is a bit different than others out there). Since I'm a solo developer I'm wondering what the best way to get the word out about the app and promote it to drive downloads. I've submitted it to a few review sites and plan to do some more but it looks like most review sites push for a paid review and it sounds like free submissions to those sites probably won't get reviewed. I've put out the word among my friends and on Facebook, but what are some suggestions for other places where I can promote my app without spamming message boards? For example, I didn't want to just put up a post on this site promoting my game since I don't see a message board that seems appropriate for that without seeming like I'm spamming the site. The game is free (trying the ad-supported method first but I'll probably put out a paid no-ad version later) so I don't have a budget for promotions, but I've considered a very small investment (no more than $25) into a Facebook or AdMob campaign just to see what the results would be. If the results for that turned out to be promising I'd consider expanding that. Any opinions about that or suggestions for sites I could post info about the game or other things I could try?
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I wrote my first game and published it to the Google Play store a couple weeks ago (a word game, but one that I think is a bit different than others out there). Since I'm a solo developer I'm wondering what the best way to get the word out about the app and promote it to drive downloads. I've submitted it to a few review sites and plan to do some more but it looks like most review sites push for a paid review and it sounds like free submissions to those sites probably won't get reviewed. I've put out the word among my friends and on Facebook, but what are some suggestions for other places where I can promote my app without spamming message boards? For example, I didn't want to just put up a post on this site promoting my game since I don't see a message board that seems appropriate for that without seeming like I'm spamming the site. The game is free (trying the ad-supported method first but I'll probably put out a paid no-ad version later) so I don't have a budget for promotions, but I've considered a very small investment (no more than $25) into a Facebook or AdMob campaign just to see what the results would be. If the results for that turned out to be promising I'd consider expanding that. Any opinions about that or suggestions for sites I could post info about the game or other things I could try?
I am really close to releasing my app so I understand to a certain extent what you are going through. I have been doing much research in this area reading articles dealing with business models to see how this gets approached. There are many, many articles out there, but not neccessarily relating to android or mobile applications that could prove insightful to you. This may not answer your question completely, but I hope some of these articles could point you in the proper direction. Also, if you find some avenues that work for you would you be willing to write about it? I would love to read what worked for you and what didn't. MSDN: how my simple game got 800k downloads on windows store and windows phone[^] Gamasutra: chasing the whale[^] I hope this helps. Good luck! :)