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Making yourself findable and getting your app noticed is one of the things that takes time and effort to get picked up. Your app does not make itself findable, if it only was that easy... You have to do this yourself. But this is also the fun part of the whole process, because of the responses you get from people (and if you mail them back, it’s also good for the trust you build etc etc).
It also means committing yourself a couple of days after you did your initial release to submitting your application to sites that talk about or review AIR apps, list online start-ups, write on your own blog if you have one, write guest blog posts. Anything to get your word out there.
I have noticed that news in the Flash (and Flex) community gets picked up really fast by other sources, which is a big plus.
There are a couple of sites you can get your application showcased; here is a list I use regularly:
Applications:
- Refreshing Apps - Flex and Flash, AIR in general, reviews and showcase of your app.
- FeedMyApp - . They list cool new applications per country and globally.
- Flex.org - Submit link only if you created your app in flex
- Adobe Showcase Submissions - Try to talk to a Adobe employee before submitting, that's always in your favour.
- Adobe AIR Marketplace - they want your app! Adobe is really eager to get the coolest app in their market place (because with your app they dont have content.) And they are still giving away one year developer certificates (from Thawte) worth $300!
- Adobe Feeds - Takes a really long time to get approved, but once you get listed here, you get loads of traffic (of course only if you entice people with what you write...)
People:
- Ask 'big names' to talk about your product. If you know big names in the industry, it helps getting your app out there. My high school teacher used to tell me ‘it’s not what you know, but who you know' . I used to hate him for saying that, but he was right.
Blogs:
Post to technical blogs like;
If your app or start-up is so unique it might help mailing the people at Springwise; they've got a tremendously network of influential people and followers.
Events:
Talking in User Groups -- What you could do is start speaking at events, for instance at Adobe user groups. The hard part about this is that it might sound like a pitch. Some user groups have a power hour, here you can pitch your product or application.
If you want to do a pitch you can also sign up for the 5 minute start-up pitch from Ryan Carson from Carsonified events (http://www.carsonified.com/events)
“...This is the end my friend, thank you for calling...”
Like the old saying by Lao Tzu: “Give a Man a Fish, Feed Him For a Day. Teach a Man to Fish, Feed Him For a Lifetime”.
I hope with this article I have inspired you to create. I have given you all the tools and information you need to make your AIR application a grand success! So stop thinking about creating the next big thing, go do it!
Branding 101 for Developers - Part 1 of 4
Branding 101 for Developers - Part 2 of 4
Branding 101 for Developers - Part 3 of 4
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Hey Sidney,
Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts with branding and how you feel it affects/impacts developers.
Firstly I have to say I was a little disappointed with how things ended up with your article(s). IMO I was hoping for more, by way of relevance to developers, and ultimately found that you tended to drift (somewhat aimlessly) from topic to topic with little, to no, cohesion, or connection, as to the relationship between branding and application developers.
Comments such as “If you want your application to be a success make sure it does not look like something a developer designed” whilst vaguely true (at an extremely high level), ultimately show a lack of understanding of the true benchmarks of a successful application (something far deeper than design alone – the basis of your ‘wax on, wax off’ section)
You also seem to confuse branding and marketing – A quick look over at Wikipedia shows that a Brand is “a name or trademark connected with a product or producer” we can therefore deduce that ‘branding’ relates to the creation/establishment of said brand. Marketing, on the other hand, is a “communications-based process through which individuals and communities are informed or persuaded that existing and newly-identified needs and wants may be satisfied by the products and services of others” - as you can see, they are 2 completely different things – yet you seem to confuse the 2, swinging blindly from topic to topic with no clear distinction/differentiation.
Also, given your article is titled “Branding 101 for Developers” - I’m intrigued why you didn’t discuss topics such as:
Whilst I certainly don’t claim to be an expert in either of these area’s (branding or application development), I have been directly involved in both, for a number of years (15 at last count). As such, I had hoped for something more meaningful in regards to the title/subject.
Cheers
Matt Voerman
Hey Matt,
When I read your "somewhat blunt" response here I was grabbed by your mention of so called "Rich Branded Applications" since that is a new term for me. I looked up your examples and found the Harley Davidson one rather easily, the others seem to have died or are just more difficult to find.
When looking at this app, I could not really see why this is a "Rich Branded Applications" instead of just another "Rich Internet Application". For example when you look at the Sony Ericsson product selector RIA (http://www.sonyericsson.com/cws/products/mobilephones?lc=en&cc=gb), would you call this a RIA or an RBA?
A quick Google query for "Rich Branded Application" showed me only comments from you on other posts on the internet, perhaps you can point me to a more wildly used term which explains what you are talking about in a bit more detail?
I believe this is a really interesting area so if you have more examples displaying this difference then please post these here.
Apologies if I came across as being blunt - it was definitely not my intention and I meant no malice.
When I was referring to rich branded applications, I realised afterwards that they're also called branded applications (of which you can find plenty of info/examples on if you Google the term)
The guys over at Teknision (http://www.teknision.com) have been leaders in this space for a number of years.
FWIW here's the mini example - http://www.miniusa.com/404.html#/build/configurator/minis-m
Hope that helps
Matt
More than true with the lazyness Sidney :-)
Sidney, we're the same type kind of guy; i prefer 1 effective hard work than 100 not very effective little works
Hi Sidney,
I would like to know if there is a place where I can find statistical data about commercial AIR applications, how much they have been sold etc.
I do a little market research, I would like to know if it is a good choice to build AIR apps, are they popular, do people sell a lot of application copies?
Regards,
Mirza