Trying and Buying

Not every app I make is popular. That may be hard to believe, but it's true. Some things I think people will like just don't gain any traction, and languish in obscurity.

When that happens, there are two things I've done to try to boost sales (or get any sales at all): 1)I put out a stripped-down, free version with annoying popups that ask users to buy the full version. 2)I set the app to Try & Buy. They seem to have approximately the same efficacy. The free version will get downloaded many more times than the Try & Buy version, but the total adoption numbers for the full versions of the apps seem to end up about the same.

Putting out a free version is simple, but (in the past, and possibly still today) the Try & Buy system on BlackBerry App World is a bit broken. So, here are some tips to get people Trying & Buying:

1)Start your app as Try & Buy app rather than switching an existing app.
This isn't strictly necessary, but if you know you're going to go the Try & Buy route, it can make things a bit easier.

2)Be wary of your version numbers
There have been problems with users being able to upgrade to the full version without paying, or downloading the paid version and getting the trial. Make sure your full version has a higher version number than your trial all the way down to the packaging level.

3)Mind the check boxes
You need a trial version and a full version, and you need to make sure App World knows which is which. When I uploaded my first Try & Buy app, I didn't notice that there was a box labelled "Is this a trial version?" or something to that effect, and I screwed things up and had to do some repackaging and reuploading.

4)Have a link inside your app
Make sure your trial version has an obvious link to your full version in it. I use a big red button that says "Upgrade" You can link directly to your app in App World by using an URL that looks something like this: appworld://content/67275 Linking to the app's page on the web will also work, but brings up the browser first and is not quite as elegant.

5)Test if for yourself
After your app goes live, be sure to download the trial version and test uploading to the full version. If it doesn't work, take the app down immediately and try to figure out why. Nothing's worse than people who want to give you money being unable to do so.