Good news to everyone: From today on, Droid-Blog.net will give away five copies of Jay Van Buitens book Genius Android Marketing: Get Rich by Outsmarting the Android Market.

What can I expect?

I asked Jay to introduce himself and his book, here’s what he wrote:

Background info:
“My name is Jay Van Buiten, I’m from the New York area and I started Android development about 2 years ago. My most successful app is “The File Converter”, which allows you to convert documents and media between different file types. After trying a variety of things in the past 2 years to figure out how to make money and get the word out about my apps, it was amazing how some small things can make a huge difference in your sales – that’s why I decided to write the book.”
Book preview / marketing principles:
“My 4 most important parts of Android Marketing:
Your Title: Your title should very clearly convey exactly what your app does. Your title is most important part of generating potential customers from search keywords, so your title should be almost exactly what you expect most people to search for when they are having a problem that your app solves. Using a word you made up, or that is irrelevant will just hurt your revenue. A simple, relevant, easy to understand title goes a long way.

 

Your Icon: It should stand out. That’s it! Don’t worry about symbolism or whether it fits in with your app’s title – people aren’t analyzing each icon when they are browsing the market. You just need an icon that catches their attention. Personally, I just find a very colorful, good-looking icon online (that is licensed for free commercial use, of course), regardless of whether it has anything to do with my app. The goal of your icon is to get people to stop for a split second and read your app’s title when browsing the market.

 

Your Price: Don’t price it at $0.99! If your app is priced at $0.99, you won’t lose half your customers by charging $1.99. In just about every situation, you’ll make more money at $1.99 or $2.99 than $0.99. The only exception is if there is a very similar competitor’s app who is also charging $0.99. I’ve found for nearly all of my apps that $2.99 is the sweet spot.

 

Your blog outreach email: When emailing blogs for reviews (which you should do, a lot!), give them everything they need to make a great post – and be very clear that you are a developer looking to promote your app. Don’t try to be sneaky and act like a normal user who loves a certain app. Make sure to give the blogger your high-res icon, 4-5 screenshots, your YouTube demo video (which you should have!), and a 1-paragraph or bullet point list of features. Be polite and follow up with the write on Twitter to make sure he gets the message.”

 

I read through the book and think it is a good read that offers some valuable information. I agree on most things he says and to make the good even better: He covers also paid applications which I almost never do on this blog.

How can I participate?

Particpation is easy. Just do one ore more of the following steps:

The rules:

  • There are four ways to enter and each entry method will have one winner, except the comments on this blog which will have two winners.
  • You can enter using all methods but can only win once.
  • Entries will be accepted until 11:59 pm UTC on January 17th, 2012.
  • One winner will be randomly selected for each of the four entry methods (Twitter/Facebook/Google+), except direct comments on this po, at which two winners will be selected.
  • The winners will be announced on January 18th, 2012 on this blog.

 

Good luck, I’m sure you will enjoy this book!