Update for Ibuildapp Previous Blog Posting

Dear Fellow Novice App Builders with ibuldapp,

Previously, I had talked about not being able to insert an image and type over it in the software for ibuildapp.com and that is true as I understand the software as it works on this date in September of 2012.  What I was aiming for was a screen that looked like this:

Quite a daunting task this would be to create 20 images like the one to the right for each of entry in  "The Perfect Husband App". 

 So, if you're asking, why don't you just use a background color and insert a small image with your text, you would be about 1000 miles ahead of me.  So that just occured to me this morning, and if it hadn't occured to you, you might try this for your "quotation" app or other interesting "ibuildapp app."  The image on the right is the labor-intensive way of creating a colorful page in ibuildapp.

 

In the "Let's eat out tonight"  screen to the left,  just one image imbedded on a page with color.  It certainly cuts down on hours of work, and I think if I intersperse these pages with the other more "beautiful" screens, it will satisfy the customers. 

And by the way, speaking of customers, don't be disappointed if you have NONE.  Unless you have an "Angry Birds" app or a boat-load of money, promoting your creation for thousands of downloads will be difficult.  After I finish pretty-ing-up my app this weekend, I'm going to create a facebook business page for it and take out a facebook ad.  We'll see where that goes. 

By the way, if you are kind of heart, I sure could use some positive reviews of my app at the googleplay.com store.  Search for it with the "the" as in "The Perfect Husband App" or just click here.  It's only a 99 cents.

Cheerio for now.  Let me hear from you.  This is all very exciting, albeit a tad frustrating, but onward we go. 

Ideas for Promoting a Contest?

I actually wrote this about a month ago, but it has some information you, as a fellow publisher trying to promote your ebooks might like to mull over. Again, this is in keeping with my favorite quote from despair.com:  "Maybe the sole purpose of my existence is to serve as a warning to others."

(originally written sometime in Sept. 2012)

Well, on this journey together, perhaps you've had a successful contest to promote your book because mine isn't going as smashing-ly as I had hoped. How did I get this crazy contest concept spinning in my cranium?  I was actually looking around for websites that parents might go to find books for their children and what should I find, but the  the AMAZING Reading Rockets website.  Clicking around,  I was instantly attracted to those little boxes that tell you there's a youtube video on this site.  The videos posted at Reading Rockets had adorable pictures begging one to click onto even more adorable videos.  Never being one to want to re-invent the wheel, I thought:  "I can have a children's video contest, too!"  I'll run a google ad and ask for video re-enactments of my ebook, "Lucky, the Left-Pawed Puppy" and voila', hundreds of entries will come tumbling out my email inbox.  I worked really hard on contest's webpage, purchased just the right prizes, set the deadline to coincide with International Left-Handers day (August 13) since Lucky is left-pawed, listed it on Facebook, Twitter, updated my facebook business page and on and on.  Result:  NOT ONE ENTRY so far. 

So I went to the place where I post some essays and articles, hubpages.com and learned this much at least:

1.  Never charge an entry fee.  (So my requirement that parents purchase the download-able, narrated ebook for $3.99 so that their child could actually ACT OUT the Lucky story on video was apparently too much to hope for).  I have since offered a FREE download.  The cost of the prizes that I thought would be covered? You guessed it.  I changed my goal from earning money to earning name recognition.  iii !

2.  Don't ask for a video to be made unless the prize is REALLY big.  After contemplating that advice, I changed my submission requirements to INCLUDE:  a drawing, a song on an mp3 file, a written little summary or report of "Lucky, the Left-Pawed Puppy" or ANY creative way of re-telling Lucky's story.

Update on the contest:  I never did get ONE response to all that hard work.  If anyone has any promotional ideas, be a sport and pass them along this way.