Chapter 8

Publishing, Distributing, Monetizing, and

Promoting Applications
Signing and Publishing android app
Android applications are distributed as Android package files (.APK).
To be installed on a device it needs to be signed. This is done before
distributing the app or release it for use.
To sign an app
JDK includes the Keytool and Jarsigner command-line tools which are
necessary to create a new keystore/signing certificate
Alternatively, you can use the Generate signed bundle/apk wizard
Importance of Signing Certificate
It is a means of identifying the authenticity of application updates, and
applying inter-process security boundaries between installed applications.
If you lose your certificate, you would need to create a new listing, losing
all the reviews, ratings, and comments associated with your previous
package, as well as making it impossible to provide updates to the existing
users of your application
Follow the steps mentioned on the handout to sign and publish your app
Distribute android app
One of the advantages of Android’s open ecosystem is the
freedom to publish and distribute your applications
The most common and popular distribution channel for
android apps is Google Play
But you are also free to distribute your applications using
alternative markets(including the Amazon App Store,
GetJar, Mobogenie, SlideME, F-Droid and carrier-specific
stores), your own website, social media, or any other
distribution channel
When you distribute your app make sure that
application package name is unique. Because it is used as
unique identifiers for each application
The filename of your APK does not have to be unique
because it will be discarded during the installation process
Monetizing android app
Android enables you to monetize your applications using whatever
mechanism you choose
If you choose to distribute and monetize your applications using
Google Play, three options are available:
Paid applications — Charge users an upfront fee before they download
and install your application.
Free applications with In-App Billing (IAB) — Make the download
and installation of the application free, but charge within the application
for virtual goods, upgrades, and other value-adds.(More effective)
Advertising-supported applications — Distribute the application for
free, and monetize it by displaying advertising.
If you want to monetize your app in google play using either of the
first two options
You should have a merchant account and you are responsible for any
legal or taxation obligations associated with the sale of your application
the revenue split between google and the developer is 30/70 respectively.
If you want to monetize your application using in-app
advertising
You are required to set up advertising within your
application:(it may vary asper the ad providers)
Create a publisher account.
Download and install the associated ads SDK.
Update your Fragment or Activity layouts to include an ad banner.
In many cases, developers have chosen to offer a paid
alternative (either using up-front payment or IAB) to allow
users to eliminate ad banners from their applications.
Application Marketing and Promotion Strategy
1st step- provide the full set of high-quality assets for your Google Play
listing
marketing and promotion strategies vary widely depending on your goals and
budget, here are some of the most effective techniques to consider:
Offline cross promotion —offline presence (such as a stores or branches),
or a large media presence (such as within newspapers, magazines, or on TV),
these increases awareness and help to ensure users trust the download.
Online cross promotion — if you have a website, promoting your
application through direct links to Google Play can be an effective way to
drive downloads.
Third-party promotion — Distributing a promotional video on YouTube
and leveraging social networks, blogs, press releases, and online review
sites can help you provide positive word of mouth.
Online advertising — Online advertising using in-app ad networks (such
as AdMob) or traditional search-based advertising (such as Google
AdWords) can drive significant impressions and downloads for your
application.
Application Launch Strategy
Ratings and reviews can have a significant impact on your
application’s ranking in category lists and within Google Play search
results. Poor launch will have impact on it.
Here are some of the strategies you can use to ensure a successful
launch:
Iterate on features not quality - A poorly implemented but feature-rich
application will receive worse reviews than a well-polished application
that doesn’t do everything. Ensure each release is of the same high
quality, adding new features as part of each release. Similarly, each
release should be more polished and stable than the last.
Create high quality Google Play assets - The first impression your
application makes is through its appearance in Google Play. Create assets
that represent the quality of your application.
Be honest and descriptive - Disappointed users who find your
application is not as it was described are likely to uninstall it, rate it
poorly, and leave negative comments.
Promotion with in Google Play
In addition to the effect of reviews, no of downloads and installs, Google
Play editorial team uses several criteria to highlight high quality
applications and categorize them as Featured.
Featured applications receiving priority placement in Google Play.
 The criteria mentioned above are not publicly available, but some of the
general criteria associated with featured application includes:
High quality and innovative - featured applications in Google Play act as a
showcase for the platform. So that it should be useful and innovative.
A high degree of fit-and-finish - include all the requisite promotional assets,
while the applications themselves have few bugs and a high quality UI.
Broad device and platform support - typically support a broad range of
device types and platform versions, including both handsets and tablets.
Use of newly released features - should offer an opportunity for the Google
Play team to highlight those new features to reviewers and early adopters.
Consistency with the platform user experience - provide a convincing user
experience that is consistent with the UI and interaction models offered by the
Android platform.
Analytics and Referral Tracking
Mobile application analytics packages are effective tools for you to better
understand who is using your application and how they are using.
Example Google Analytics and Flurry.
can help you to
discover bugs, prioritize your feature list and make objective decisions on where
to focus your development resources
Using these tools you can track three types of data within your application:
User analytics -Understand the geographic locations and language settings,
Internet connections speed, screen sizes and resolutions, and the display
orientation of your app users. So that it help you to prioritize translation
efforts, optimize layout and assets for different screen sizes and resolutions.
Application usage patterns – during integrating analytics the first step is to
record each Activity. This will help you understand the way your application is
being used, optimize workflows and better understand how well the
assumptions you made during design match actual usage.
Exception tracking - In addition to printing an error, post each unique exception
thrown using your analytics. This will help you to see if there are particular
devices, locations, or usage patterns that lead to particular exceptions.