Dave Glover gave attendees packing a room at Microsoft's TechEd Australia conference ten tips for making more money from Windows Phone applications. Here they are in a nutshell, with additional comments from Nick Randolph, developer and proprietor of Built to Roam (which was involved in the design or development of various Windows Phone apps including ninemsn, Aussie Radio, Domain.com.au, and The Melbourne Coffee Review).
1. Using the Trial API to provide a trial version of the app - which can be limited by time or features - results, on average, in 70 times more downloads and 7x more revenue. The downside, according to Mr Randolph, is that your app won't appear in the 'free' section of the Windows Phone Store (formerly the Windows Phone Marketplace), so there is still an argument for releasing a free cut-down version as a 'taster' for the paid app.
2. Use a Live tile, because the top 50 apps are 3.7 times more likely to include this feature. Mr Randolph went even further, and advised developers to user secondary tiles as well, as that make an app more visible on people's phones, which helps draw attention to it.
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4. Use Ad Control with location to deliver targeted advertising, as geographically relevant ads are worth more money. An observation from the floor was that users can be turned off by apps that request access to location just to deliver advertising, but Mr Randolph noted that it is possible to deliver ads only when the app is in trial mode, or to offer an in-app purchase to turn ads off.
5. Faithfully adopt the Metro interface (yes, Mr Glover owes a dollar to the 'swear jar'). Why? Metro apps are understandably more likely to be featured in the Windows Phone Store. Mr Randolph said this was justifiable as people like apps that fit their platform (ask any OS X or iOS user). "Pay a lot of attention to what the core built-in apps do," he advised.
