Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by senko 5415 days ago
There's no dislike; there's thousands of apps and app authors out there; the tech blogs are overrun with people pitching their apps; you need to stand above the crowd - and not by trying to shout more, but by being outstanding in some way; as for the marketing part, here's a classic article: http://blogs.balsamiq.com/product/2008/08/05/startup-marketi...

There's a number of ways you can market your app: submit to app directories, use AdMob and other ad platforms, "sell" a compelling story involving your app (see kreci's series of "independent developer progress update" articles, he posts them regularly), etc.

Sorry if this is a bit harsh, but: you seem to think venture funding is a way to raise your visibility - which is partly true, but if you can't get the blogs to write about you, how do you plan to get people to write you cheques? Also, unless your app is truly groundbreaking and has potential to grow into something much more (eg what Rovio did with Angry Birds), is there really a point in trying to get funding?

2 comments

Features of my app:

a)It only presents you textonly version of any article (Only content)

b) Less data usage for users as the content is cached on my servers (Only necessary content would be displayed..No need to load images,css etc.,)

c) Less hosting costs for website owners (Again content is cached on my site)

d)No need for RSS feed, just enter the url --->Click on article ---> start reading

It's bit like readability..The basic difference between mine and readability is you need to input a url for readability whereas for mine it's not..You don't need RSS feed for reading articles,Enter any site's url and you can read only the content from articles,Here is a couple of screenshots for TechCrunch (It displays only the content of the article)

https://www.gstatic.com/android/market/com.spacenext.textonl... https://ssl.gstatic.com/android/market/com.spacenext.textonl...

When I am saving data usage for users and giving them a good interface to read articles on mobile phones (android) why shouldn't I get a pitch?

If you need try it out here https://market.android.com/details?id=com.spacenext.textonly...

It works with most of the sites(80%) except the sites which have been coded badly...

unless your app is truly groundbreaking and has potential to grow into something much more (eg what Rovio did with Angry Birds), is there really a point in trying to get funding?

Exactly. How is this app different/better than the many great Android RSS reader apps out there. What sort of business model could you build around your app? Text-based ads? I think venture capitalists and tech bloggers alike would ask these questions before giving you the time of day.

It's not a RSS reader..It displays a list of articles from a site and once you click on article it would display only the content of the article..I have already listed the reasons above

Main features:Less data usage,Low load times for users,easier to read content

Business model 1:I am going to let website publishers display their textlink ads in between the paragraphs of an article (They would have their own links) My revenue stream: A link in the list of articles as well as a link at the top of article

Business Model 2:A single link between the paragraphs by revenue sharing between the publisher and myself

It's not a RSS reader

I know it's not an RSS reader...my question is why would I use this app instead of just using an RSS reader. I'm not going to browse Engadget or TechCrunch on a text browser if I just want to read the articles...that's what their RSS feeds are for, and there are some very nice apps for reading them.

It's not a RSS Reader/Text Browser..It's somethingt hing like Readability/Instapaper which would just display content of any article..(The problem here is I don't know by what name I should refer my app :D)

The apps you are referring to may do it only for certain sites with RSS feeds but not for all sites..That's where the difference between mine and others

This app gives you a readability experience for all websites(Just displaying the content of an article)

First it would display list of articles ---> Then Choose a article ---> Displays only the content of an article