Small app developer says hello all

[georeader]

Hi guys. My name is Dave. I live by Syracuse NY. I am a manufacturing engineer by day but at night in my spare time I work on my android app. It's called Georeader. It is a free app for all. It allows anybody to place a message anywhere in the world. When you pass by that area, the phone's text to speech activates and says the message out loud. I have a ton of historical makers in there to hear when you drive by so you don't have to stop.
It has been out about 9-10 months and has about 20K downloads. I have been learning as I go about marketing, what is going well, what is still a challenge to me. The app (more specifically, the app company Georeader LLC) was/is a candidate for the TV show "Shark Tank". I was asked to make an audition tape by them and I sent it in. Still awaiting an answer from them. I certainly don't claim to be any kind of expert about development and certainly not about marketing but I am happy to share my experiences.

 

[scary alien]

Hi guys. My name is Dave. I live by Syracuse NY. I am a manufacturing engineer by day but at night in my spare time I work on my android app. It's called Georeader. It is a free app for all. It allows anybody to place a message anywhere in the world. When you pass by that area, the phone's text to speech activates and says the message out loud. I have a ton of historical makers in there to hear when you drive by so you don't have to stop.
It has been out about 9-10 months and has about 20K downloads. I have been learning as I go about marketing, what is going well, what is still a challenge to me. The app (more specifically, the app company Georeader LLC) was/is a candidate for the TV show "Shark Tank". I was asked to make an audition tape by them and I sent it in. Still awaiting an answer from them. I certainly don't claim to be any kind of expert about development and certainly not about marketing but I am happy to share my experiences.

Hey Dave, welcome to the AndroidForums!

Glad you signed-up .

That's really cool, by the way (^^^), I'll have to check your app out (I've got two apps in the Market, too (well, four if you count the donate versions)) and its been a real experience and learning process.

Be sure to visit this forum, Application Development - Android Forums, and also create an app-announcement thread here, too:

Application Announcements - Android Forums

Cheers!

 

[D-U-R-X]

Welcome to the forums Dave!

Enjoy your stay!!

 

[alostpacket]

woot more devs! welcome to AF!

 

[lunatic59]

Welcome to Android Forums, Dave.

Some people are born to marketing, others have it thrust upon them. Me, I just stepped on a flaming bag of it some kids left on my front porch If you need any pointers, let me know.

 

[georeader]

Hey Dave, welcome to the AndroidForums!

Glad you signed-up .

That's really cool, by the way (^^^), I'll have to check your app out (I've got two apps in the Market, too (well, four if you count the donate versions)) and its been a real experience and learning process.

Be sure to visit this forum, Application Development - Android Forums, and also create an app-announcement thread here, too:

Application Announcements - Android Forums

Cheers!

Thanks everyone. What apps do you have on the market?

 

[scary alien]

Thanks everyone. What apps do you have on the market?

Dave,

Mine are AFV (Android File Verifier) and BattMonX (links for them sometimes show-up in my signature).

By the way, I looked at your GeoReader app...very cool... It would really have come in handy when I was a kid...we traveled all-around the western US and saw a lot of sights and attractions. Excellent, innovative, and unique idea! Kudos to you, sir!

Cheers!

edit: I'll manually link 'em for you:

[App] AFV (Android File Verifier) - file checksum (MD5, SHA1, etc.), signed jar / .zip verifier, and Nandroid backup verification

[App] BattMonX - display battery state via LED indicator & status bar icon

 

[georeader]

I may have been in the car behind you as my family did the exact same thing. Perhaps those youthful trips (unbelted in the back of an Orange Plymouth Duster) influenced me on a subconscious level to have create the app. How did you come up with your application ideas? Did you have a particular situation and you said "Doh, if only I had an app that would"....... or just wanted to share your talent?

 

[scary alien]

I may have been in the car behind you as my family did the exact same thing. Perhaps those youthful trips (unbelted in the back of an Orange Plymouth Duster) influenced me on a subconscious level to have create the app. How did you come up with your application ideas? Did you have a particular situation and you said "Doh, if only I had an app that would"....... or just wanted to share your talent?

LOL, might have been...except we were typically in an orange VW stationwagon (OMG, it was just hideous ). Funny about both being orange vehicles, though .

My AFV app started-out in an earlier incarnation where I wanted to create a utility for my fellow Eris brethren who were rooting their phones and installing and flashing files in custom recovery. It is highly-advisable for folks who do this sort of thing to ensure that the files they will be loading and flashing were whole and uncorrupt. My AFV app gives the ability to calculate various checksums (notable MD5, SHA1, etc.) as well as being able to do an intrinsic jarsigner -verify type of check on signed .zip type files (.zip, .apk, .jar, etc.). This was my first app effort and I wanted to make it freely available to the entire Android community that I very much appreciate being part of.

My BattMonX app was born out of a request by our fellow AF moderator, Steven58, who wondered if someone could write an app to make the LED light-up for our Droid X phones while being charged since this ability was not baked-in by Moto. I've added tons of user-requested features and options to this seemingly simple app, but its been a labor-of-love (most of the time ).

Thanks for asking... I do think that having an idea for a desired app is the hardest part of the whole app-building process.

Cheers and congrats on creating a really cool app yourself!

 

[georeader]

How did/do you market your app? It appears to me that you have achieved a very high percentage of downloads to total "market" (programmers). What are you doing to make folks aware of your apps? I feel am a little stuck in my approach.

 

[Bob Cat]

How did/do you market your app? It appears to me that you have achieved a very high percentage of downloads to total "market" (programmers). What are you doing to make folks aware of your apps? I feel am a little stuck in my approach.

Hey Scary's just Scary.

 

[scary alien]

How did/do you market your app? It appears to me that you have achieved a very high percentage of downloads to total "market" (programmers). What are you doing to make folks aware of your apps? I feel am a little stuck in my approach.

Well, I don't really have a marketing strategy per se (especially given that my apps are free (there are identical donate versions for the folks that want to show their appreciation) and I really created them as a learning opportunity and a means to give back to the Android community.

But I have done a couple of things that has helped gain some exposure:

1) First, I created announcement threads, both here at AF and over at XDA (that has a much bigger member population from what I understand--but XDA is a different breed of cat (no offense, BC ))

2) My apps got "picked up" and had articles written by both a moderator over at XDA and also at Droid-Life.com (very cool for those guys to have done that).

Other than that, its really just been a matter of staying active in the AF community, keeping the app updated, responding to user's requests and feedback both via email and from paying attention to the Market comments.

Hey Scary's just Scary.

LOL...having good friends like Bobcat certainly doesn't hurt either .

Cheers!

(and sorry for the delay in replying...I've been AFK at a wedding for a good bit of the day)

 

[alostpacket]

Thanks everyone. What apps do you have on the market?

My apps are linked in sig

edit: oops forgot sig only appears in 1st post... here are the links:

Apps: BlueMuze | Listables | PocketPermissions

 

[georeader]

Very interesting. My story is similar as my main goal was help every history buff in solving the problem of "What did that sign say?!!! when it comes to roadside historical markers. Much data I was able to collect and compiled was offered for use by others to share and I am eternally grateful. I would like if people use the app as a nice little learning tool and something to make travel less boring. I have been lucky that a few influential folks gave it nice mentions early on to help it move along but I am little unsure of the "Next Steps". It is still a newer app but not longer new enough qualify for some preferential review sites.
One challenge of my app is that I haven't figured out is how to encourage more users to make their own points to contribute to the main database. (I call them Talking Points) . I first thought it wasn't initially clear in the app so I put in a help tutorial on the app itself showing one how to do it. But the percentage of points/users really didn't change much so it tells me that isn't it. It doesn't take long to do, and folks are comfortable with twitter so its not like its a new approach. I am definitively perplexed on what is the key to make this happen. I was thinking of a creating a newsletter using Constant Contact and focusing a section on this feature . Has anyone ever tried this approach (constant contact newsletter) for reaching out to their app audience? What were your opinions on it? Any other free,low cost idea anybody has, I am open to suggestions. BTW, how does one add their app link to the signature?
Dave

 

[alostpacket]

I think giving users "points" or "bonuses" of some kind is the tried and true way of creating a bit of viral incentive. You dont have to go that route of course, and there are some downsides, but it's usually effective from what I can see.

I think you need 25 posts in order to create a sig here. Once you have done that you can go into your user control panel and there should be a link to edit it.

Also, feel free to drop into our app dev forum and continue this post there too

Application Development - Android Forums

hth!