Setting Up Shop
In a move to keep users engaged within the app, NimbleBit opted to embed its own custom "app store" into their games. Tapping the More Games button in its apps displays the NimbleStore screen, which cross-promotes all of its available apps (see Figure 5-10). The nice thing about the NimbleStore is that when tapping an app icon, instead of redirecting the user to the respective page in the App Store, the NimbleStore displays an embedded, custom app page, which allows NimbleBit to tailor its own enhanced sales pitch. Although it offers the usual array of screenshots and detailed app description, it also spotlights a few of its best reviews and a video trailer for the app— something the App Store sorely lacks.
Sky Burger Textropolis
Scoops
Moon Drop Bluebird t'iH'.'l i'it'1
Hanoi
Kyper
CZ23
Spider Harbor Master irräl
- This is casual gaming at its best. 5/5 stars by FingerGaming
Sky Burger has now become my latest addiction and I feel its pull constantly. appVerslty
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Twitter Search
Take Me to the App Store
Sky Burger puts you to work stacking burgers to
Figure 5-10. Tapping the More Games button in one of NimbleBit's games displays its embedded NimbleStore, which cross-promotes its catalog of apps with video trailers and more.
The beauty of the embedded NimbleStore is that it is a remote mini-site displayed in a UlWebView. Not only does this allow NimbleBit to modify the NimbleStore pages at http://rn.nimblebit.com/ without requiring updates to the iPhone games themselves, but it also allows the company to utilize Google Analytics to track which store pages are being accessed by users. According to NimbleBit's statistics, approximately 85 percent of the people who visit the NimbleStore within their apps go on to further explore one of the specific game pages. In only the first nine months, the NimbleStore received a little more than 1.6 million page views and has been responsible for 13,170 game sales!
Having the NimbleStore remotely hosted enables NimbleBit to dynamically alter pricing based on regions and limited-time sale offers. Apple tends to reject apps that display pricing, so I'm not sure how NimbleBit escaped that particular restriction (unless having the pages hosted remotely makes the difference), but just to play it safe, you probably should not list prices in your own cross-promotion efforts.
If someone chooses to buy an app from the NimbleStore, the button sends the user to the iTunes App Store to make the purchase. As any smart iPhone developers should be doing, all redirects to the App Store are iTunes affiliate links, so any time a user purchases one of the games listed in the NimbleStore, NimbleBit makes an affiliate commission. The iTunes Affiliate Program also enables NimbleBit to track the commissions earned, which tells them how many total games are being purchased from NimbleStore leads.
The We Play games listed in the NimbleStore (such as Harbor Master) are not NimbleBit games, so although those specific purchases won't net NimbleBit an App Store royalty, they will earn the company affiliate commissions. So if you don't have enough apps to fill your own embedded mini-store, you can always list some of your favorites apps from other publishers. You'll be supporting your fellow iPhone developers, as well as making a little money yourself from the referrals. I'll be talking more about the iTunes Affiliate Program in Chapter 6.
If you have only a few apps and would rather limit your cross-promotion efforts to your lite version's Info screen where you're currently up-selling the paid version, just be careful not to dilute your marketing message too much. If encouraging users to upgrade to the paid version is your priority, then make sure that any mention of your other apps on that same screen does not upstage the sales pitch for the paid version.
Continue reading here: Mining Additional Revenue with Affiliate Programs
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