[kishorenc]

You might have already thought of the following, but here is a couple of ways:

1. Offer a lite version which is free, and try marketing that and leveraging on those users to upgrade to a paid app

2. Approach iPhone app review sites and pitch the app to them for a review. (you might also consider advertising in these app review sites to begin with and to gauge the initial response)

I agree with you that blowing away your hard earned money on a big marketing spree might not be a wise decision. So, starting off with a smaller site and watching the initial reactions would give you more confidence on what to do next.

All the best :)

[sambeau]

Thanks for taking the time.

I'm slightly wary of a free lite version, at least at first, as people who get things for free tend to be more inclined to leave a bad review.

I also think that, having spent a year of my life on this that it deserves customers who want it and are willing to pay for it.

[kishorenc]

"I'm slightly wary of a free lite version, at least at first, as people who get things for free tend to be more inclined to leave a bad review."

If someone were to take his/her time to post a review - it has to be something very extreme - either should absolutely hate the app or really love it. From the reviews I have seen on the app store, it's actually people who paid for an app and didn't like it who make a fuss..

I guess at the end of the day, there is no easy way about this. If you want leads, you need to either have a free version which will allow more people to try it and hence convert, or else put in the advertising to go for the paid customers. It's a situation that's quite similar to what I am facing too, but there is no easy way out of it. The viral loop doesn't occur always :)

[sambeau]

I've been trying to find the blog post (with figures) that showed that people who pay more for an app tend to rate it higher but I can't find it sadly, so take that with a pinch of salt.

I had thought it was on the taptaptap blog.

However, as an ex live comedy promoter I know from experience that if you let people in free they never laugh as much and are far likelier to be the ones that heckle. This seemed to be the case even if they were a fan.

Physical/monetary buy-in correlates very strongly with emotional buy-in.