Lots of businesses successfully leverage SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Compared to other marketing activities SEO is cost-effective and measurable. Attach Google Analytics or other analytics tool to the web site and you get a good understanding of how the marketing budget is spent. Visits, time on page, forms filled and products purchased, you can track it all and more. The value of an SEO campaign may already be determined based on these data. That’s what marketing managers or business owners should do. Additionally, and most importantly, you should compare to the competition to make sure that campaign is doing well. Luckily there is a way to do so by comparing ROI on SEO budgets with alternative ROI you can get on the same budgets potentially spent on PPC.

Some explanation for non-seo folks: PPC (Pay Per Click) allows you to immediately run ads displayed on selected keyword searches but lasts only while you pay. SEO is more of a long-term investment. You hire an SEO agency and invest for some time by paying their retainer fees unless the web site shows up high enough in search engines to cover SEO bills and ultimately bring solid ROI. There is always an option to invest $5,000/month in PPC and get 1,000 visitors to the site (figures vary depending on the cost per click) or hire a SEO agency for $2,000 and get same 1,000 visits half a year after they start working, or 10,000 visits or 100. That’s all about numbers (read economics).

The economics of SEO is very simple yet fundamental. Here is an example:

Say a client engaged an SEO agency to promote his/her web site. After 6 months of work on the site the SEO agency got to the point when it’s delivering 5,000 visits to the web site per month. The monthly bill from the agency is $2,000. Now check the cost of traffic for those particular industry keywords in Google AdWords. Say it is $5 per click. That means if you were to purchase those 5,000 visits you would be paying $25,000 per month. Granted $2,000 monthly bill from the agency is a very cost-effective marketing.

Change numbers a little bit and you will understand why so many SEO agencies don’t deliver or the contracts get terminated. Say the agency delivers 2,000 visits to the site monthly but the industry is not that competitive. Cost per click in Google AdWords is $0.5 for that particular industry. It means that client could purchase the same number of visits for $1,000, risk-free, no investment. But the $2,000 monthly bill becomes unreasonable.

As you see, this is a very simple yet effective method. Two cooperating parties may quickly determine if their cooperation is beneficial. In order to determine the efficiency of an individual SEO campaign, SEO agencies or their customers have to multiply the number of visits delivered from search engines to the site by the average cost-per-click, which is common for a particular industry. If the ROI on SEO is at least 2 fold more than that of a PPC campaign then everyone may be sure that this contract is mutually beneficial and will last long. Otherwise there is no point in SEO because the client could purchase traffic from Google avoiding making and investment and taking a risk.

Posted in SEO, internet marketing | 1 Comment »

Earlier today Apple activated a new product page layout which you can check on iTunes.

As you can see on the screenshot, the new pages look much nicer. Instead of being text-heavy Apple is focusing users attention on screenshots of an iPhone application as well as additional information such as reviews. Instead of just one app screenshot being shown, there are now 3.

iPhone developers should immediately adjust to this change. Now that the emphasis is clearly on the first few sentences of the description, developers should be more concise in describing their apps, since that’s all that shown by default. If you click the “…more” link, the area will expand to show all the text, but again, that’s not the default look anymore. Also make sure that first 3 screenshots should make user interested and understand the idea of the application.

I was always advocating the importance of an app icon – it visually represens the application and should be the first factor influencing users decision to click on the app title to learn more. With the latest change the icon became even more important factor since it’s bigger in display size now.

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Most of the first-time iPhone app developers believe they can release the app for free and profit from built-in ads. Here is our verdict: if you app is being downloaded less than 2000 times per day it’s not even worth spending time signing up for the ad network program and installing the code. You start earning $10 per day from ads if you have 2000+ daily downloads, or – if you already installed stats tracking software – 20.000+ daily impressions.

To figure out why start-up developers are so upbeat about their well-doing, you only have to take a look at the figures being mentioned by the main iPhone ad networks. A year ago, for example, Admob cited $30 CPM brand ads suggesting it being the minimum CPM. Likewise, Medialets were proudly introducing their Dockers ads which brought in around $20-30 CPM. And now with pretty tough competition on the advertising market Admob still talks about amazingly high average CPM figures ranging from $12 to $14.

Let’s turn to more realistic figures. The truth is that average ads networks presently pay about 50 cents CPM for the ads. It means that if a thousand of people have seen the ad it will bring you as much as $0.50. Where are those mythical $30 CPM ads that will make you rich? There’re but marketing ploys to attract app developers.

To get an unbiased view ask experienced developers who have been in business for a while. Bo Wang’s Galaxy Impact – a highly popular ad supported application with an army of more than 160,000 fans brought in $0.23 CMP profit. Other app developers cite $0.50-$2 CPM maximum. Average add supported app will scarcely make its developer stinking rich.

Actually, it’s not only about marketing tricks. The fill rate is another main contributor to the misleading statistics. Even if there’s that notorious $30 CPM ad, it’s not likely to be displayed on your app permanently. Quite the opposite, as remnant ad inventory will be shown most of the time.

Moreover, it’s no wonder that any ad network is interested in the great amount of app developers. Now you can understand why they pitch editors and journalists with success stories and real-life examples of developers becoming millionaires by means of high CPM ads. The info they mention in their interviews is mostly abnormal cases rather than regular stuff. Once again, pure marketing fluff.

I don’t intend to accuse ad networks of being deceitful or dishonest, no way. I just want to call all would-be app developers to be wise, empirical, and savvy. Always do your calculations basing on real figures and statistics. Lack of circumspection will leave you with nothing.

Now if you have solid downloads on the iPhone App and want to earn some launch money there we would recommend you sign up with www.adwhirl.com – this ad solution allows you to add the biggest ad networks on the fly and it displays the most high-paying ads automatically. What’s more important is that you can upload your own ads which might be very useful if you want to cross-promote your other apps.

Tags: iphome development, iphone ad networks, iphone app development
Posted in iphone development, mobile development | 1 Comment »

If you are reading this you should know that Nokia opened their own App Store called OVI and is accepting developers to publish their applications. In this article we address typical situation when a customer has an idea of the Nokia applications and hires us as a development vendor. The customer will need to open a few accounts in order to sign and publish the application developed. Here is the instruction:

1. Open the developer account at OVI and get it approved. Enter banking information as well as other corporate info as prompted. Only companies will be accepted! In user management area create a ‘developer’ login and pass to developer.

2. Apply for TC TrustCenter Publisher ID here: (cost $200).

3. Once the publisher ID is obtained you need to get certificate and the key out of it. Follow the instructions or ask the developers for help. We know that this procedure is hard for the first-time.

4. Register with SymbianSigned and purchase 1 Express Signed certificate by logging into the account there. Pass the account information to developer. This web site is used for signing applications by Symbian. Please note that Express Signed is the cheapest signing option, the most appropriate way is Certified Signed where a 3rd party test house is performing the testing of the applications for the fee ranging $350-550. Express Signed certificate is generated on the fly with Symbian checking selected applications on a later date. Should Express Signed certificate be revoked the company should sign the 2 following applications using Certified Signed option. *Disclaimer: as a developers we recommend the client to use Certified Signed option and get the app fully tested by a test house selected by Nokia (there are hundreds of supported devices with a variety of software and options). Should you want to save on those fees, we can use Express Signing option but do not guarantee 100% compliance with all the Nokia tests and thus Express Signing certificate note being revoked.

Useful resources:

- Symbian signing guide
- Online Flash Packager for creating .sis out of .swf file and signing it (for Flash Lite apps only)
- Symbian guide on testing applications
- Test the app on a remote Nokia phones
- Sample archive for submission for Symbian Signed
- Advanced Nokia phones feature comparison matrix
- Talk to other developers on Nokia forum

Should you have questions regarding the getting started or signing of the application – feel free to ask in comments.

Tags: ovi developers, ovi development, ovi publishers, publishing on ovi
Posted in mobile development, outsourcing | 1 Comment »

Sometime in early August Apple added extra field in the app description – ‘Keywords’. It is designed so applications could be located in search by keywords specified by a developer. Once a developer adds keywords to the field ‘keywords’, words contained in the ‘description’ field becomes excluded from the search index. Only keywords, app name and developer name can be searched. And you can not change ‘keywords’ and ‘application name’ until the next update.

The smart move for those who had keyword-rich descriptions was not to add ‘keywords’ at all. The ‘description’ would continue being indexed and show up in searches thus driving additional sales.

Today, 3rd of Sept, one month later, we see that Apple removed ‘description’ from search for ALL apps, either having ‘keywords’ or not. It was expected and was only a matter of time. Should you notice other AppStore behavior do let us know in comments. Our take it will soon be confirmed by the official news. Add the keywords to the app asap! Keywords in the description don’t work any more.

P.S. If you are still not aware – don’t add competitor app names as the keywords. Apple will not let those in, you will spend 15-25 days waiting for approval only to discover this.

Tags: appstore marketing, iphone app marketing
Posted in iphone development | No Comments »

If you have apps developed for iPhone but think your chances are not high on the AppStore or the platform is not much suitable in itself (e.g. you want to create business-oriented applications) chances are you are considering developing / porting apps for BlackBerry. Want to get more insight on the platform? Here is an inspiring and very detailed read on the topic.

Tags: blackberry development, developing for blackberry
Posted in mobile development | No Comments »

Sometimes iPhone apps get rejected by Apple due to not appropriate ratings set during submission. In this case Apple asks the developer to ‘to resubmit your binary and rate your application appropriately’. There is a catch though. If you do this – you will not be able to change application ratings (those will be non-editable). So don’t fall into the confusion: change the ratings before resubmitting the binary. If you did followed Apple’s advice and submitted the binary first – reject it, change ratings and upload again. It took me 20 minutes to figure this out so I wanted to share the experience with the rest of the world. Hopefully Apple will fix their email template soon.

Tags: iphone development
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Catching up on recent new stories and publications about projects developed by our game development and iPhone development arm – Apalon together with Resistor Productions.

http://games.venturebeat.com/2009/07/13/resistor-products-unites-facebook-and-web-site-gamers-in-disciple-online-game/ Disciple role-playing game debuts Facebook version

http://www.pcworld.com/article/167415/sexy_iphone_app_funds_a_startup.html Sexy iPhone App Funds a Startup

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=%2Fc%2Fa%2F2009%2F07%2F04%2FBUM618ID57.DTL&type=business SFGate interviews Toby Batton

http://www.usatoday.com/life/lifestyle/2009-07-14-free-online-games_N.htm USAToday covers Disciple

http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2009/fortune/0907/gallery.dumbest_iphone_apps.fortune/8.html Drunk Sniper iPhone app made it to the TOP10 dumbest apps according to CNNMoney

Tags: facebook application development, game development, iphone development
Posted in flash, game development, iphone development | No Comments »

We are getting questions about types of content restricted for publishing at Nokia Ovi Store. The list compiled by Nokia is below:

Here are some examples of prohibited content:

* Content that is neither free or using Nokia’s billing platform
* Copyrighted material you are not authorized to use
* Pornography, nudity, or sexually explicit material
* Promotes graphic or gratuitous violence
* Ethnic propaganda or other offensive material which attacks or demeans a group or an individual
* Disparaging governments or politicians
* Media showing minors in an exploitative or abusive light
* Displays cruelty to animals
* Shows distressing content
* Encourages illegal, dangerous or harmful activities
* Files that contain viruses or harmful code
* Linking to websites that contain illegal or inappropriate material

Tags: nokia ovi development, nokia ovi store
Posted in mobile development, outsourcing | No Comments »

I gave the test to admob yesterday by spending $100 on ads that show up on iPhone and iPod Touch devices within apps that have admob code. The ad was shown 280.000 time and got 2.000 click ($0.05 per click). Now guess what?! It ended up with 5-10 app sales (based on analogy with previous sales). Which means we got less then $10 revenue for $100 spent on $0.99 priced application. My opinion – don’t bother spending $ on it.

I might publish the feedback on other iPhone app marketing methods in future if I see an interest among readership.

Tags: admob, iphone app marketing, iphone app promotion
Posted in iphone development | No Comments »