Comments on: Practice Log published https://blog.chadweisshaar.com/2012/02/15/practice-log-published/ Sun, 23 Mar 2014 18:58:33 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.3 By: Torque 2D goes open source « Assistant to the Lounge-About https://blog.chadweisshaar.com/2012/02/15/practice-log-published/#comment-91 Sun, 23 Mar 2014 18:58:33 +0000 http://gator3305.temp.domains/~cweissha/blog/?p=75#comment-91 […] computer programming, when you make an application like the PracticeLog. You are using all of the built-in tools of the C# programming language and Windows graphics […]

]]> By: Practice Log Webapp « Assistant to the Lounge-About https://blog.chadweisshaar.com/2012/02/15/practice-log-published/#comment-26 Wed, 29 Feb 2012 04:45:09 +0000 http://gator3305.temp.domains/~cweissha/blog/?p=75#comment-26 […] have spent the last couple days working on my Practice Log application. I make the website for downloading the application nicer looking, wrote some […]

]]> By: Chad Weisshaar https://blog.chadweisshaar.com/2012/02/15/practice-log-published/#comment-23 Mon, 20 Feb 2012 16:43:01 +0000 http://gator3305.temp.domains/~cweissha/blog/?p=75#comment-23 Thanks for the suggestions.
I’d guess that you are right about the name and keywords. I went back to the developer console for the practice log and didn’t see a way to setup keywords, but I did modify the description to use a bigger variety of terms to describe the software. I mentioned the possibility of using it for job/work time and mentioned the 10000 hours. The 10K hours is a perfect match since the windows app even shows the projected date when you will hit the 10000 hour mark. Job/work tracking is a bit of a stretch though. It could really only work if you have a single project/charge number to track. And in that case, you should probably just be using excel anyway.
I have always had a dislike of the marketing aspect of software development. All my other work has been completely free. I have never charged or advertised. The MediaDB had an Amazon affiliate link on it, but then Amazon canceled that program in Colorado. So this is the first software I have released where I could make any money.
I am still planning to make some usability improvements to the app, and I want to make a pro mode that replaces the ad with a statistic or two. Once that is done, I’ll try contacting to 10K hours people and music teachers.

]]> By: lucas https://blog.chadweisshaar.com/2012/02/15/practice-log-published/#comment-21 Mon, 20 Feb 2012 05:05:47 +0000 http://gator3305.temp.domains/~cweissha/blog/?p=75#comment-21 I don’t know much about Android Marketplace optimization, but I suspect you could get some significant download improvements from optimizing the name of the app, along with the keywords you use to describe it.

I can easily see this app being used as a virtual timesheet system (a la getharvest.com, etc.).

It might also be fun to play with a keyword tool to look at the average search volume of different keywords around your tool and see what niches might yield the best results (with the least competition!):

https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

The market around time tracking for freelancers / business is probably pretty over saturated, but there might be some interesting niche markets out there you haven’t thought of yet.

I definitely think that positioning it around the 10,000 hours to becoming an expert theory would bear fruit as well. That idea seems to really be gaining traction amongst the greater populace, and the best way to market it might be to do some “bum marketing” in and around forums that people hang out and discuss those ideas. You could even email it to someone like this and try to get him to share your free app with his followers (or ask him what improvements you might make to get him to use it regularly):

http://thedanplan.com/theplan.php
http://www.tampabay.com/features/can-a-complete-novice-become-a-golf-pro-with-10000-hours-of-practice/1159357

I’ve always heard that whenever you build something you should try to spend 10x the development time attempting to market it and gain traction before you give up. That’s a cringe worthy thought for most developers, but I think it’s probably a reasonable goal. An easy way to do that would be to try to get one quality link towards your landing page (or the android marketplace) every day. Then after 30 days or so, see what this results in analytics wise. If you start to see other inbound links that you didn’t create, then you know you have something people are interested in.

Anyways – just some random thoughts – hope they’re helpful!

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