This post is specifically for app and game developers. Ladies and gentlemen, let's peek behind the editorial curtain for a bit. Here at Android Police, each writer sifts through hundreds of emails every day. A good portion of these are from people trying to promote an app, game, or service. Someone at AP reads each and every one of them, but to be perfectly honest, it's impossible for us to follow up on all of them. If you want to make your app stand out, you need to make a good first impression.
Enter Presskit. This service helps you add an effective promotional page to your website without going to an expensive PR firm. It's not exactly the last word in self-promotion, but the tools and presentation are much better than those available on the Google Play Store. Even better, they're designed to be fast: any developer who knows their craft should be able to put together a Presskit page in under an hour.
Presskit lets you build pages for your own company or developer profile, and its simple pages put the most immediate features up front, so press types like us can get the information we need in a snap. (Regular users can also check out Presskit pages for quick access to developer websites, international pricing, alternate app store links, et cetera.) There are sections for embedded videos and screenshots, awards, high-quality logo and icon downloads, easy contact integration, Promoter and Google Analytics features, and more. For a good example of an effective Presskit page, check out Dead End - a game which scored a full Android Police writeup.
Here's the best part: Presskit is free. If you already have your images and videos, all you need to do is upload a file to your website via FTP and edit a few lines of text, which any developer should be able to do in their sleep. And since Presskit lives on your webserver, you have complete control over the formatting and content, and you won't have to worry about the service shutting down in six months or so. Using Presskit won't get you an automatic Android Police writeup, but it will let us know that you're serious about your app or game.
This isn't an advertisement, it's just our way of letting developers know about a great tool. Use Presskit if you want to promote a new app. It's awesome, and it makes your job and ours easier.
- We've got a contact page for being contacted. We also have specific Android Police accounts on all major social networks. Don't try to flag down a writer on Twitter or Google+ via their personal accounts. That's rude.
- Do not try to contact one of our writers via a direct message if you don't already know them, because there's no quicker way to make sure we'll ignore you.
- If we don't reply to your first email, don't take it personally - like I said earlier, we just get too many emails a day to respond to everyone.
- Don't send us two emails (or three, or four, or five, or six - yes, we get those every once in a while). We read your first one, and sending the same info again is just spam.
- The best way to get our attention is to make an app or game that's unique and/or high-quality. If you want to tell us about your Flappy Bird Clone, go ahead, but don't expect us (or anyone else) to be excited.
We don't expect developers to be masters of promotion, but if you follow these tips, you'll be doing better than a lot of professionals who try to contact us.