We launched it on Facebook, Kongregate, and Armor Games.
Only one in a million products can truly spread on their own (minecraft, reddit, google...). The rest are often really good products, that can make money, but require unique ways to get users. For us, this meant giving up a percentage of revenue in order to get promoted on various platforms.
One thing is certain - it is nearly impossible to launch an effective web game by itself on a stand-alone site. Our game makes money, but there's no way we can get any decent return on marketing investment if we tried to roll our own. The traffic we received from posting the game on reddit was totally insignificant compared to the traffic we received from partnering with websites that already have users.
I haven't launched any "applications" recently. But I don't think it's much different. Most engineers severely underestimate the importance of proper marketing and user acquisition. If your entire plan is to launch a product website, post it on reddit and hacker news, and see where it goes from there, it's not going to work. This doesn't necessarily mean your product is not viable!
I would recommend not just launching a website and hoping it gets traction. Consider porting whatever you're building to multiple platforms, and consider all of the app stores that you can put your product on. They will promote your product for a percentage of the revenue. And don't feel bad about giving up that percentage - they're providing a valuable service. They're doing the marketing for you.
Thanks for the candid reply! What I am working now at the moment is using LinkedIn as the authentication mechanism and adds a lot of value to LinkedIn users.
I am thinking that getting the word on LinkedIn via posts and "likes" from my own extended network may be the way to go with this app.
We launched it on Facebook, Kongregate, and Armor Games.
Only one in a million products can truly spread on their own (minecraft, reddit, google...). The rest are often really good products, that can make money, but require unique ways to get users. For us, this meant giving up a percentage of revenue in order to get promoted on various platforms.
One thing is certain - it is nearly impossible to launch an effective web game by itself on a stand-alone site. Our game makes money, but there's no way we can get any decent return on marketing investment if we tried to roll our own. The traffic we received from posting the game on reddit was totally insignificant compared to the traffic we received from partnering with websites that already have users.
I haven't launched any "applications" recently. But I don't think it's much different. Most engineers severely underestimate the importance of proper marketing and user acquisition. If your entire plan is to launch a product website, post it on reddit and hacker news, and see where it goes from there, it's not going to work. This doesn't necessarily mean your product is not viable!
I would recommend not just launching a website and hoping it gets traction. Consider porting whatever you're building to multiple platforms, and consider all of the app stores that you can put your product on. They will promote your product for a percentage of the revenue. And don't feel bad about giving up that percentage - they're providing a valuable service. They're doing the marketing for you.