3 Tips That Might Get You Featured In The App Store

Read on for three goodies that I’ve picked up here at the excellent 360i|Dev Conference that’ll help you get Apple’s attention and, if you’re lucky, will get you showcased in the App Store.

The first two come from Matt Drance, the well-known now-indie one-time Apple iPhone evangelist:

Apply for an Apple Design Award. If your app is brilliant, beautiful and showcases the platform submitting it for consideration is a great way to put it onto Apple’s radar. It’s okay that you probably won’t win — paraphrasing Matt: there’s a huge range of spectacular apps that fall short of the ADA pinnacle. But, your app will be seen by Apple employees who may fall in love with the app and start showing it around inside Apple.

Position your app so that it tell’s a story that emphasizes something on Apple’s push list, specifically something in the latest SDKs or — even better — something from the Featured Content section of the iPhone Dev Center. Matt provided a great example: 3.1 features the new camera SDK. If your app uses it to put a Groucho Marx mustache over someone’s top lip Apple won’t take notice, but if it demonstrates the new hotness, Augmented Reality, they might take note.

Target Apple Employees With Facebook Ads The third tip to get Apple’s attention comes from Mark Johnson by way of Noel Llopis. Noel thought Apple might do a Mothers’ Day feature highlighting apps for mom. Noel’s Flower Garden app would’ve made a great item. On Mark’s suggestion, Noel purchased pay-per-click ads on Facebook that specifically targeted Apple employees in Cupertino. The clicks weren’t cheap — around half a dollar per click — but they were only shown to people who work at Apple. Genius!