Why Your App Sucks! 4 Reasons to App Oblivion

You have spent either your time or money in the quest to develop the next great iPhone/iPad or Android app to get rich. Your plan is to join the likes of Rovio Mobile or Backflip Studios with a hit iPhone app that will create an almost never ending revenue stream. But hold on a second, your app isn’t selling, in fact, it appears if no one has even heard of your app because your only experiencing a handful of downloads a day at best ( that is one hand, 5 fingers). Does your app suck. Possibly! Here are apps that I would put in the category of “sucks.” Apps that 1) have no purpose 2) are broke and get hung up in endless memory leaks. 3) crash continuously 4) and those that a normal person cannot figure out how to use. Maybe a little harsh, but you have a small window to make someone a happy customer for paying money for your app. After all what is the best marketing method, word of mouth by a satisfied customer. Here are reasons “why your app sucks.”

1) Your App Name Sucks- If you are making an application that is for example involving baseball, perhaps you should include this in your title. The iTunes App Store and most likely but not for certain the Android Market use a search engine algorithm to provide search results to customers. If I search iTunes for “business cards” in iTunes I will be served up several apps that have the word “business” in their title. While this makes sense it does not make sense if you have created a business card application and you name it “The Connection App.” While there may be a deeper meaning for your app name that is full well if your customers knows what that meaning is, but they don’t. The point is do some keyword research in iTunes or the Android Market for your app’s niche. If it is a cooking application, search cooking applications, cooking, baking, recipes, etc to find the keywords you may want to use for your app.

2) Your App Functionality Sucks Because You Rushed Your App To Market- You were so confident your “kick ass” app was going to rock the iTunes App Store or the Android Market that you cut some corners in the development process to push the app out early. Naturally, once the app hit the market you saw little to no return on your time or money. Stunned you tried to figure out what went wrong when all along you knew deep down you were taking a chance by submitting your app without all the bugs fixed. Take your time and fight the urge to submit your app before it is ready. The consequences could harsh by plummeting your app to the bottom of either app store and worse yet you may incur the wrath of the customer by a flurry of negative reviews. Make sure your app is as good as possible with all advertised functionality working, within reason.

3) You Forgot to Create A Website Thus Your App Sucks Because You Have No Marketing Base of Operations- If your selling an application you should, at a minimum have a basic website, blog, or Squidoo page to hock your wares. You need a base of operations to provide customers, bloggers, press, and others a place to find out about your app. This is also the hub of all your marketing efforts. You should have search engine optimization (SEO) set up for this website to pull potential customers in from Google for the keywords that best fits your app. How about a place for feedback from customers, or complaints, which leads to no customer service if you do not have a website. No customer service or poor customer service equals poor reviews on iTunes and the Android Market and lessens the chances of bloggers looking to review your application. Website can be developed and hosted for less than a few hundred dollars self hosted and in most cases you can even getaway with a free website from the many different blog sites or free websites.

4) Zero Competitive Research on Your Part Caused Your App to Suck- Instead of doing a little fact checking, due diligence, or research you skipped all of that and went right into the development process for your app. Once completed you unfortunately found out that there were about 10 apps that did the same as yours, or you were unable to get the app name you wanted because it had already been taken, long before you thought of your app. These kinds of problems can easily be avoided if you research your app genera. You may find that there is a lack of functionality that can be exploited in your app niche or that it does not make sense to make another tip calculator app since there are about 10 or 20 free ones already developed. Do your research, determine if you should create a totally different app than you intended to.

Don’t sell yourself short and let your app SUCK! Take your time, do it right, build a website, do your research, name your app the best possible name you can to give your app a chance at being found in the iTunes App Store and the Android Market. If you have tips on how to market your iPhone/iPad, or Android app please leave a comment below. Also, if willing please share your app horror story and how your app sucked! Thank you. MV