The press release sounds almost, almost too good to believe: "Travel writers and website owners can now get their own apps published and sold in Apple's App Store, free of charge and without any efforts. The app can be available for sale as quickly as in 3 weeks.
"You receive an amazing 50% of all net sales proceeds for your apps. GuideGecko's best apps sell 200 and more copies every month.
"All you need to do is provide GuideGecko with your content, e.g. as a Word file or directly from your website. GuideGecko enters the content into their system and publishes the bespoke app in Apple's App Store. You do not need to do anything else. Everything in the app is hand-made to ensure top quality. This limited promotion is open to blogs and websites with at least 500 daily visitors, and available for the first 10 clients only.
"Writers who don't have a website with 500+ visitors can also publish their own apps for free with GuideGecko. You just write your articles and upload photos directly on GuideGecko's website. Once done, your app will be selling within a few days."
Anyone have any experience with GuideGecko?
Replies
Thanks, Ed, for sharing this.
To clarify Kim's post, GuideGecko will continue to offer 50% royalty of net proceeds. This is unlimited, and higher than anyone else I know.
The new and "limited offer" is that we now even enter the content for your app. Thus, you don't have to do any work to get your app published in the iPhone App Store - for free, and within 3 weeks. More details are on http://www.guidegecko.com/publish. And yes, we also publish eBooks and websites, for more than a year now (all optional, without the need to update the content).
@ Evelyn: We produce native iPhone apps and publish them to the Apple's iTunes App Store. Can you let me know more about what you call "Apple's new rules" and where you heard about that? This can't be true - we have published city apps just recently, long after April.
@ Kim: Would you be interested in sharing/benchmarking app marketing strategies? Rather than competing, we could cooperate for the benefit of writers!
I am currently preparing an article to answer the most frequent app questions (e.g., "how much can I sell", "is it worth the effort"). If you post your questions on http://www.guidegecko.com/im-preparing-an-article-please-tell-me-yo..., I will try my best to answer based on our stats and experience.
To all that have already applied to make an app - I will try to get back to you personally by today.
Cheers, and happy app making!
Daniel
--
Daniel Quadt, Ph.D.
Founder, www.GuideGecko.com
As I used to say in my previous life as a consumer reporter for WABC TV Eyewitness News -- if an offer sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
I don't know any more about this offer than what you've written here, likely from the same email I received from GeckoGuide. But I do know that Apple's new rules -- as of April 2011 -- require all new apps to be countries or country-sized regions. New local apps will be shifted from the primary iTunes listing to Apple's iBooks site, which is -- itself-- an app.
Methinks that will have serious impact on sales of new apps.
Luckily, my own NYC app -- for Sutro -- is grandfathered under the old rules. The new rules have prompted me to put on the back-burner two more apps I had agreed to write for Sutro. Shameless plug -- New York City Free and Frugal has just been renamed NYC on the Cheap (same as my website, www.nyconthecheap), and a new updated app version went live last week.
My advice to anybody contemplating writing an app -- for Sutro, GuideGecko, or via one of the for-purchase write-your-own-app templates -- is to figure out (or figure in) how much time you will be spending on your own marketing, above and beyond the time it takes to research and write.
And I would absolutely ask GuideGecko exactly how and where your app will be listed. Liz says app, Mike says e-book. There's a difference.
No need to put your other apps in the back burner, Evelyn. Details via email or phone anytime, if you'd like.
It is true that the "limited promotion" of "50% of all net sales proceeds" from GuideGecko comes out to be 5% higher than Sutro's current royalty. With the emphasis on current :-)
We are also in beta with a web template that will convert app content into standalone websites => i.e. write once (using our authoring tool) and publish on multiple platforms. The best thing about that? You don't have to update your content for two separate products. And the royalty for the web income stream will be 60% to authors since Apple is not involved and getting the 30% they get through iTunes.
And congrats on your PCH hotel app coming to fruition, Mike! Hope it sells like hotcakes!!
--Kim, Acquisitions Editor @ Sutro.
> Liz says app, Mike says e-book. There's a difference.
I said they turned our existing ebook into an app.
Yes, we just worked with GuideGecko to turn our guide to Pacific Coast Highway hotels from an ebook into an app. The work involved was negligible on our part, the people there were a delight to deal with, and we're very pleased with the sales.
http://www.pacific-coast-highway-travel.com/Pacific_Coast_Highway_H...Hi Ed,
Thank you for sharing this.
I'm going to look into this - I have two apps, both in final stages.
Liz Palmer
Wine and Travel Writer