How do you guys promote your apps ?
Do you happen to know any forum, places where it could be a great idea to promote your app?
The main issue is that as soon as people begin sharing here what has worked for them it will soon no longer work because umpteen dozen (hundreds?) of others will begin using the same forums and other places to post about their new games as well. There is always only a limited amount of space available “to be seen” at any marketing source the same way there are only so many games seen at the app stores and other game markets. When few people put their games there those places are very effective. When they become flooded they become much less effective.
I think many people don’t get this really but it is the truth and why all of these tons and tons of games being made is not a good thing. Say, for example, there is a site out there where you can get your game listed for free and you do that. They get a lot of traffic and you end up getting 10 downloads every day. So you share that on here. A week passes and you wonder why you are now only getting 1 download per day. You check the site to see if your game is still listed. Hmm… it seems to be there sometimes and not other times. Ah now you see what is happening. There are about 10 different games being alternately shown now in the spot where once only your game was shows. Your game is now getting 1/10th of the exposure of what it was getting.
Another common thing… So, you find another site. For sake of simplicity say the same thing. A lot of traffic you are back to 10 downloads per day again from this new one plus 1 from the last one. 11 total. Ah progress! You are happy. You share this new site on here. A week passes and your downloads drop down to 1 again. You check the site. Hmm… your game does not seem to be there at all. But there are now 3 other games all stacked on top of each other in the spot that used to show your game banner. You contact the site owner and they write back "yeah sorry it is very strange but about a week after you contacted me I was contacted by over 50 people asking me to put their games on my site. I can only show so many so I decided to just accept 3 of them and I figured if people want to be listed on my site this bad I better charge. So I now show only the 3 highest bidders. If you want your game back on right now it will cost $1 per day. This is how bidding wars happen and why ultimately this stuff comes down to whoever is willing to spend the most money wins.
Of course, you can get creative and maybe come up with some new stuff that will work great. But once you share it there are now dozens (and I think actually hundreds and maybe even thousands) of people will copy it within a week thereby completely destroying the effectiveness.
I know this does not really help much but it is important to keep in mind. For actual help I would say think out of the box. Search. Find ways to market your games. When you find something that works keep it to yourself. Because even though you do it will only be a matter of time before others stumble upon it too. Best to ride it as long as you can.
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That is also a legitimate strategy.
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For sure. I am focusing on building games now “undercover” lol. When I launch I budgeted $600 per month for marketing. May need to increase but from previous experience I can make some noise with that amount.
There is also the obvious. Put a link in your signature. If someone actively looking for your app can’t find it, what hope do you have with finding strangers?
Sad truth 
@divinosk8 Maybe you should contact review websites. Some people are willing to review a game for cheap…or even for free. 
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I am asking for
I don t know any review sites. That s what I am asking for :))
Listen, you can’t rely on help from forums or anyone when it comes to selling your game. Everyone is your competitor. This is however, information that is on google should you try hard enough to investigate.
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I have thought about this often and still no clear solution presents itself. Sure a person could start a new site promoting games but again there are just too damn many of them being made to do any good. Same for starting a paper Indy game mag. It would be a fun project to throw money at and grow over time but still the sheer number of games being released would make it a nightmare digging through all of the crap and it would only be helpful for a few people in the form of paid ads (which ultimately benefits the same people again).
The best thing that can happen is for the market to collapse. Like the 80s Great Video Game Crash. That would be like hitting a reset switch on the Indy market. Until that time I will just give it some thought from time to time. But the flaw is inherit in our media itself. Whether app markets, review sites, search engine results or whatever… the amount of results listed is only a tiny fraction of what is out there so most games remain buried forever.
Maybe that is the way it should be and money itself should determine who wins. I dunno.
Indie market will no longer reset in my view. The bubble burst ages ago. What happens now is because there’s tools like Unity and big money to be made, those that do make big money either via kickstarter or by great fortune, tend to expand into premium indie.
Premium indie is generally as high quality a small studio will get, and they’ll have staff and plenty of money to throw around. These guys either stay where they are, get bought and absorbed into AAA or become AAA.
So to sum up: the golden age is past, but for the fortunate (I don’t use the word lucky here) few, they’ll just go up the ladder. The other 99% will die out and be replaced by yet more indies in this bucket of crabs industry.
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And I think that the deplorable state of the mobile game industry right now is because someone once bragged about the amount of money they were able to make on mobile.
I think it’s pretty clear now that the insane numbers of mobile game developers is not due to high demand for mobile games, it’s because everyone thinks they’ll be the lucky-ones to get rich.
So, my advice of the day - if you know a secret formula, keep it to yourself, if you get rich, don’t brag about it.
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The key reason for the market saturation is the low entrance barrier. With tools like Unity and the various App stores any one can get an app up and running in a very short time period. So people do.
Unity still makes a profit off of licencing and the app store regardless of how much money developers make. As long as you sell some copies the App stores also make a profit. So there will be a key driver for people who make tools to keep doing so. And once the tool is set up, it costs very little to keep adding new aps.
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It never changes. Sell shovels to the miners.
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Spot on! I think about this often. I truly think there is as much and perhaps more of a market for game dev tools than there is for games themselves these days.
The amount of people making games is so insane at this point it is hard to imagine there even being a demand for games at least in general. Just the iPhone market for example… if nobody ever made another game for the iPhone from this point on… a person would need to download and play three dozen games every day for the next 25 years just to try all of the games currently available. That is the scope of this gold rush insanity.
And with 185 new iPhone games being released per day (currently and probably still growing) you can add that number on to the other and see that players would need to download and play 220 different games every single day to try them all. In such a market I can see no demand for games. I mean sure I imagine there is some demand but in contrast to the ridiculous supply there might as well be none. These numbers just blow my mind. Especially when I remember reading the “big news” when the app store hit like 3,000 games total a few years ago.
I am glad I made sure to get a great job that I really enjoy. I do this stuff for fun just as I have for the past 30 years. Occasionally I think about doing it as a business and for that I would definitely allocate $500+ per month for marketing. But I often think why bother? It’s not only the huge amount of games making it so there is really no need for most people to make even more. It is also that the huge number of games have driven prices down into the dirt so much it is hardly even worth putting forth the time and energy to do it.
But my view is not all negative. Make games for FUN for ENJOYMENT. That is a great reason to make games.
For money a person needs to be smarter. As you said sell the shovels in this new gold rush. Or look for other problems all of these games are causing. One thing would be marketing for the developers. Another would be a trusted review source for the gamers. Most people do not have the time nor desire to try out hundreds of games every day. There is always something that IS needed. So even if more games are not needed the sheer number of games out there as well as the number of people making more and more of them are creating other opportunities. Those are the places where the money will be made.
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On that note, check out my YouTube tutorials for the new UI system linked in my signature. 
Its worth noting that these videos have made 100 times the revenue my game Pond Wars has made. From a technical ability and time perspective making the videos was a piece of cake compared to the game. Before everybody rushes off to make you tube videos I should point out that the hourly rate is still measured in cents per hour. The total revenue from YouTube and games might just be enough to buy me a hamburger. And a cheap fast food one at that, I couldn’t even get close to a restaurant.
I’m only a hobbyist, so I’ve put very little effort into marketing my products beyond posts on these forums. For me making games is more about the fun of making games, and showing off to my friends and family that I am smart enough to make games. (psst, please no one point out to them how easy it is with Unity). I’m not intending to make this into a career or even a significant income stream. But I click the monetisation button just in case I accidently produce a viral hit, I’d be totally kicking myself if a game of mine had a million plays and I hadn’t turned on monetisation.
If you are planning to make this a career then you are far better off working for an AAA or an established indie for a few years. Learn the tricks of the trade. Get the contacts. Then strike out on your own.
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LOL! That you felt it was important to include this (“before everybody rushes off to make videos”) says it all really. Great stuff.
Really just trying to pre-empt the competition
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http://www.pixelprospector.com/the-big-list-of-indie-game-marketing/
Look through the articles on gamasutra. Check out indiedb, dodistribute, dopresskit, etc.
As previously stated, google.
good luck