So by the end of Part 1, you have you team, you have your logistics sorted, you have meticulously identified your market and created your product with that market in mind. Yes?

Good. Now it is time to sell.

But whooooah there! Sell? We were never taught how to sell! Uni never had any lectures on selling? We thought you just submitted your game and because it is so awesome, people will buy it?

Yep. Thats the impression the media give isn’t it? Dead easy this making a fortune from games lark. I don’t need to remind you that the media report on stories that people will read (so they can sell ads) and people want to read about a spotty 13 year old who licensed some tech from someone, created an awful app and then sold it to BigCorp for £1m a few months later (that had dodgy written all the way through it imo!). People don’t want to read about the hundred, or rather thousands of companies who don’t even break even on their game costs.

Lets be honest, unless you are lucky (yep, luck plays a MASSIVE part), have managed to secure a strong license or brand or have a load of money to run a good enough CPI ad campaign that can get your into the charts in the first day or two (think $10,000 per day minimum) then your game/app/whatever isn’t going to make you millions.

But you have still created it so lets sell it. Do your press pack, individually contact writers who may write for places that could be interested in your game – give them the link to your press pack. Create strong metadata for the stores, have great screenshots and make sure you put the best one first (iOS may only see one screenshot on your App Store page on device), have an awesome icon which reflects your title — and make sure the title of your game will work effectively on the stores.

Notice how I said storeS there? You are not just developing for iOS are you? Are you? REALLY???? WHY???? You are aware that iOS has less than 20% of the smartphone market? You are aware that other platforms are catching up in terms of revenue spend on them? You are aware that if you develop for as many platforms as possible, you have the best chance of getting a return? You are aware that multi-platform gives you the best opportunity of licensing your title out to different stores/portals/bundles whatever? Sure, they won’t set you up in Bermuda but a few grand here and a few grand there will soon add up.

So you are doing multi platform, good. Get it onto the stores and push it out to as many people as you can. Get them to download and play, even if only for 10 minutes. Get them to rate and give you a proper review. You can’t do that because they have to pay for it? You are charging for your game? /sigh

Do everything you can to get good ratings and reviews. Interact with your customers on your games Facebook page (you do have one don’t you?). Reward them for sharing your content and getting more people playing. Don’t worry about conversion or IAP, the key thing initially is to generate numbers and build up your reviews and ratings.

Anyway, now you are on iOS and Play take a look around at Kindle and Nook. I used to laugh at Nook with our non-existent sales on the platform then suddenly it took off and Nook is our second best revenue stream now. Look at the different carrier stores around the world to make deals, look at creating a HTML5 version to license to the major web gaming portals – again you can make a few grand here and there. See if you can push your free content onto non-gaming areas to generate more awareness. Our games are present on restaurant terminals in the US – we make nothing from it but generate new users who download after enjoying playing whilst waiting for their ribs to be served.

Continually support your product. Release updates and fix bugs. Give your customers what they want. See if you can rebrand or retheme your game to get better search results.

If you follow all this, you are guaranteed to have the average 0.01% change of making your millions. Just remember me when you do – mine is a latte with no sugar.