Recommended reading

• ethomaz on the web » No, Microsoft, You Didn’t Do This – I’ve recently come into contact with Microsoft marketing and can confirm it is indeed very heavy handed, but this is incredible!
• Fighting The Wrong Fight « Elia Insider – An fresh perspective on the Android/iPhone debacle

Recommended reading

• The Technium: 1,000 True Fans – A very inspiring piece that suggests that artists and small businesses creating their own products actually only need about 1000 true fans to generate a decent revenue
• Mac & the iPad – Another really interesting and inspiring article about Steve Jobs, it gives an insight into his design process

Check out this detailed account from Streaming Colour about what went into developing Dapple, a top-selling game.  The developer gives a detailed account of the work involved included a week-by-week breakdown covering 27 weeks.

Here is some great advice from the SEOmoz site and their Trifecta tool:

Resources for Improving Blog Posts

• How to Write Great Blog Content – from ProBlogger
• 7 Types of Blog Posts Which Always Seem to Get Links & Traffic – from ProBlogger
• 5 Simple Ways to Open Your Blog Post with a Bang – from Copyblogger
• The Day You Became a Better Writer – from Scott Adams
• Blogging in an Oversaturated Market is Usually a Poor Decision – from SEOmoz

Resources for Bringing Search Traffic to a Blog

• The Blogger’s Guide to Search Engine Optimization – from Aaron Wall
• Wordpress SEO: The Definitive Guide to High Rankings for Your Blog – from Joost De Valk
• How to Deal with Pagination & Duplicate Content – from SEOmoz

Resources for Growing a Blog’s Popularity

• 21 Tactics to Increase Blog Traffic – from SEOmoz
• Blogging Tips for Beginners – from ProBlogger
• The Art of Linkbaiting – from Performancing

I will be adding to this list as I come across good ideas:

1. get a sponsored listing over at  AppStore HQ ($10/wk)
2. How to Market iPhone Apps
3. Introduction to iPhone App Marketing
4. release some of your promo codes on http://promodispenser.com

Thanks to Versatile Monkey for an excellent and in-depth look at the world of Blackberry development, marketing and sales.  Some comparisons to the iPhone world – eye-opening.

Here’s another article by markj which explains how various marketing strategies affected sales of his iPhone app

Here’s are some great ideas on how to market your iPhone project.  Spotted in a LinkedIn group and suggested by Timothy Tripp:

1. Give the apps away to all the review sites and popular iPhone blog sites. You get 50 promo/review keys for each app. Maximize the return on those by putting them in the hands of someone who can get the word out.
2. Try cross-licensing with other non-competing development companies.
3. Offer to give a link to their product page if they reciprocate.
4. If you don’t already have this feature, put a “Send to a friend” button on your apps, then when an existing user taps this generate an email with a link to the AppStore in it.
5. Look into PurpleTalk – a link exchange program with other developers, embedded ad system and community site. This might be exactly what you need to get some low cost exposure.
6. File an enhancement request with Apple asking for them to add many more categories to the app store and limit each app to one category. There are just too many apps in each category to ever hope to be found right now.
7. File an enhancement request with Apple asking them to add an “App Genius” page as the home page of the App Store, that will continuously churn new apps in front of users, customized for that user based on other apps they’ve installed.

Thanks to Kathy Meyer for these tips from LinkedIn:

• Excellent Example of Mobile Marketing Integration into a Multi-Channel Brand Campaign from Marketing with New Technology
• 6 Tips To Get Your App Noticed by Mobile Orchard
• Five Tips For Getting iPhone Reviews by Mobile Orchard
• 34 Sites to Get Your App Noticed