Gaming Apple's App Store

Mobile app analytics start-up Flurry is building a business helping iPhone developers get "discovered" in Apple's App Store. Its tips for developers range from promoting other apps within an app to getting as many users as possible to rate and review an app. (See "Making iPhone Apps Pay.")

If those tactics don't work, there are always other tricks. One involves inserting popular keywords into the product descriptions included in every App Store listing. A developer could write that Britney Spears was an inspiration for his app, for instance, or posit that his game is "just as fun" as top-selling game "Tap Tap Revenge." Think of it as search engine optimization for the App Store.

One example: a new game called Crazy Hotdogs that asks players to grill and sell hot dogs for a crowd of exacting, impatient customers. In the game's App Store product description, publisher Com2uS posits that fans of other time management and point-and-tap games such as Bejeweled, Diner Dash, Sally's Salon and Chocolate Shop Frenzy will like Crazy Hotdogs.

The upshot? When people search for Bejeweled or Diner Dash, both of which rank in the App Store's top 100 paid games and were created by other publishers, Crazy Hotdogs may pop up, too.

Peter Farago, Flurry's vice president of marketing, says the firm hasn't measured the strategy's success, but believes it's effective since most consumers rely on the App Store's search function to find apps. Farago adds, "By smartly picking keywords, a developer can get his product discovered more easily."