how should i reach out to get featured? the "reach out to use via the forum" isn't exactly clear?

Well, having beers with Alpha Monkey doesn't work. Done it a few times, but then again, Garmin bought the beer.     Meeting people at the Summit was nice!

I think some of it may be posting on social media.  And as far as hero images, you specify those for your app in the store, so you really don't attach them, unless you're thinking about posting on Instagram or something.

but te guide says reach out to us via the forums? anyway, i'll fix the hero images

I think you may be referring to the post from early last year, which was about the time the Connect IQ app was first introduced, and that was when hero images first appeared on the main screen, and they were looking for apps with hero images.

I could be wrong.

yes, but you can still get those. on discord i found a guy who just got that arround a month ago. i deleted my discord account, so i can't ask exactly how he did it thoug

sadf said:

on discord i found a guy who just got that arround a month ago

That could have been me. ;)

Check this out: twitter.com/.../1273632571146989569

There is a forum thread that is linked in the tweet.

And... while I am very grateful to have had my VPacer DF featured (5x more downloads in two weeks than the previous nine months https://twitter.com/GdcSoft/status/1289844681111568386?s=20 ) I don't think I did anything special other than to have a hero image and a DF that was actually a good idea.  

(ETA: Though I did start a thread very similar to this one when @CIQMonkeyC tweeted back in June.)

jim_m_58 said:

some of it may be posting on social media

I also admit to doing this a bit. https://twitter.com/GdcSoft

I now have 11 followers.

Oh, yeah. In base 1024 that would be like 1025. #glossesOverBase10ConventionsInWesternCivilisations

There's more than twitter, there are also face book groups for some devices, some by some devs (yes I have one), etc.

Look at actiface for example - ~2m downloads last I looked.  NoFirills,~1.5m

Getting noticed was easier when CIQ began, as there wasn't that much in the store, but that was 5 years ago.  I've seen there are things that can turn users off - like charging for apps/limited functionality unless they pay.  Why pay when it's often easy to find something that's similar that's free?  That's why I stick with the "if you like it, buy me a cold drink" model.

jim_m_58 said:

That's why I stick with the "if you like it, buy me a cold drink" model.

I agree in principle, but I also have a wife.

The truth is, the culture in Garmin is different to the culture in other wearable communities.

But from a dev making any money point of view, there has to be a better way. And without devs making any money, there is also no long-term dev community.

While I abhor the watch face spam that came about as a result of a more commercial ethos in other wearable families, I also sigh with despair at the assumption that somebody can spend over a grand on a nice watch and then balk at the idea of a developer getting three measly dollars for something that does something that is otherwise unavailable.

I got into this because it is fun to build things. Unless there is a way to make it pay, I will get out of it again. 

jim_m_58 said:

Look at actiface for example - ~2m downloads last I looked.  NoFirills,~1.5m

Downloads != use.

One of the things that I discovered when moving from "buy me a cold one" to "pay me if you want to keep using it" is that the number of downloads is utterly unrelated to any other metric.

For example, when I was on a "buy me a cold one" model, I was frustrated at seeing 100-150 downloads per day, a rake of 5* reviews, and general good karma... but averaging less than a cold one every couple of months.

So I moved that app to paid and the downloads barely shifted (they did go down, but nowhere near as much as I would have expected). The difference was that I now had a metric for how many of those who downloaded actually used the app. That doesn't mean I made n downloads x y dollars. 

A slightly humbling statistics for you to do with as you will: (much) less than a third of people who download the app even start it.

When you remember that only a percentage of users will get as far as the end of a trial, and only a percentage of those will fall in love enough to buy it...

I have downloaded about a gazillion different products, many of which are products I had a genuine interest in, and not even opened them once. Another couple of million products I downloaded out of interest... just to see...

The 2 million plus downloads of a WF that has been there 5 years could mean simply that it has been there a long time. Obviously, it is working for the developers if they are still developing and updating the apps, but out of those 2 million downloads, the number still installed and the number who got value out of it will be much, much smaller.

100% disagree.

If you are in this to make money, find another device or hobby.

As far as a "long term dev community" go back to the oldest threads in the forum.  Trust me, you'll see familiar names!

There was a case here a few years back where someone released of app that required payments, and about a week later, someone else released a very similar app that was free.

The free app is still around, the one that was charged for, long gone.

You might get by with charging, but that can be based on how well you are known and your reputation, and that includes the length of time the app has been around.  Charging for an initial release does not attract users!

Some of the kpay folks just make me laugh for example, where if they have a free trial at all, I've seen it's only good for an hour!  That's nuts!