Don’t be fooled by the price of the apps on the app store; it takes months to develop some of those 99 cent apps, while others could be done within a few days. It all depends on the specific application requirements. Let us try to break this down further. I will illustrate with examples so that you can decide where you stand.
 

Simple Apps

If you are thinking of a simple application that only does a single function, you are probably talking a few days. We developed one for a client, where the app just blurts out a funny (and obnoxious) comment on pressing a button. It also had a time delay built into it, so that you can push the button, and have enough time to walk up to someone. Client provided all the audio files, we just had to build the navigation and functionality. This took about 40 hrs.
 

We had another client that wanted a app that works like a mini brochure or website. The app had a splash screen with their logo on it, with multiple menus (like services, gallery, contact etc). The gallery had about 10 images that could be flicked thru, with an info button with details on each image. The contact page had email/call buttons, along with contact info. This app took about 100 hrs to develop.
 

As you can see, both these apps are mainly navigational. So the cost is low.
 

Mid-level Apps

These are the apps in which there is some some level of graphics, animation, server side technology or complex navigation involved. For example, we developed an App for a UK based client, for the tracking of feeding, diaper changes and all the other fun stuff involved with a baby. This also included the ability to take pics and file them with comments into the app. While this app was mostly navigation, as some of you might know, it babies are time consuming. So was this app, given all the various screens and databases we had to build. It took about 200 hrs to complete this application.
 

We developed another app that assists tourists using the GPS functionality within the iphone. But this app had a very ingenious way of taking advantage of content available on the web. This app is not published yet, so I can’t give away too many details, but this blog will be updated at a later date with more details on this app. Moral of this story – 150 hrs.
 

Complex Apps

Now, here is another app that involves kids. This app draws various shapes on the screen in random locations, and asks toddlers to touch a shape. If they answer correctly, it offers them a sticker that they can pick from a sheet and add to their sticker board. It leads them with voice prompts also. As simple as this app looked (and it was sold for 99 cents), it took about 400 hrs to complete this app. If you have animation, you better have money!
 

Another client wanted a social networking, location based dating app (it was more of a instant hook-up rather than dating). We had to maintain user profiles, pics etc on the server side, and streamline the app for optimal performance. This one took almost 6 months of work.
 

Alternate Approach

Don’t be entirely discouraged. If your idea is not as dependent on native iphone functionality (like GPS etc), and it is something that can be developed entirely on the web (which proves that it is independent of iphone functionality), there may be some creative ways of developing apps on the cheap. Something to think about.

Unlike in the past, today we have many interesting link building techniques. Originally link popularity campaigns involved sending hundreds of mails to website owners in an effort to get their attention and to get a back link from their website. You had to either pay for the one-way link or you will hadd to add your link partner’s website link in your website (link exchange). Getting links from websites with good page rank has been one of the most difficult tasks if not an expensive one. Today, that is not the case anymore. There are number of ways of getting one way links to your website.

 
Directory Submissions

One of the easiest ways of getting one-way permanent links to your website is through directory submissions. You can submit your website to popular directories in the relevant categories with the appropriate keywords.
 
There are two types of directory submissions one is free directory submission and the other type is paid directory submissions. When you submit your website to directories, you will be able to get good quality back links to your website for relevant keywords. You will also be able to work on deep linking that is getting links not only for the homepage of your website but also for your inner pages. It is very important to have a balanced link count for all the pages of your website to get balanced ranking in the search engines. There are hundreds of directories to which you can submit your website. Submitting to directories will also help you get targeted traffic to your website.
 
Social Bookmarking

Social bookmarking is becoming increasingly popular link building as well as search marketing strategy. You will be able to build your online reputation by making use of social bookmarking. Here again you get double advantage of getting good online visibility as well as getting good backlinks from websites with good PR. All the links obtained in the above two methods are one-way, permanent links.
 

Search Engine Submissions

If you want to ensure that your website gets good traffic, then you need to make sure that your website is indexed by the search engines. When it comes to search engines, most of just know the top three search engines namely Google, Yahoo and Bing/MSN. These three search engines have a search market of around 80 to 85%. The remaining search market is shared by hundreds of other search engines.
 
All the top search engines are sophisticated enough to track your website as long as you have a link in an already indexed website. However not all search engines are capable of indexing your website automatically. To ensure that all the search engines index your websites, you will have to tell them about your website which is done through search engine submissions.
 
Like I said at the beginning of this series, these are all necessary steps in SEO, but not sufficient to get you to the top. Think of this as the foundation before you start implementing more sophisticated SEO strategies.
 
 

Today almost all the search engines consider back links as one of the most important criterion for assessing the importance of a website. So you must start looking at powerful link building strategies that are capable of brining you the desired results.
 

Article Submission

This is one of the most successful link building strategies that helps your website get good quality contextual links. Article submission also drives quality traffic to your website from the article directories. Article submission involves writing of keyword rich, interesting and informative articles that are relevant to your website, products and services. Well written articles should be submitted to top article directories with link to your website in the author resource box.
 

Article directories receive hundreds of visitors each day who look for information on various topics, products and services. You will be able to tap on the potential of these visitors. Added to that, when you post your articles in content rich article directories, you will be able to get your links from pages with good PR. This will enhance your ranking further. As search engines love fresh content, they frequently visit the article directories and your links will get indexed fast. This is by far one of the best ways of building your online popularity. Article submission gives you permanent one-way links to your website.
 

Squidoo Lens

This is relatively a newer concept in link building and online search marketing. Squidoo lens allows you to create single page websites called lenses and publish them online for free at Squidoolens.com. You will be able to write just about anything in these lenses and also have live links to your website. Squidoo lenses allow you to create tags for your lens and this makes your back link count grow faster than any other link building method. All the pages with the same tags are automatically linked and this enhances your link power. The number of links from your Squidoo lens continues to grow.
 

Press Releases

This is yet another most powerful way of driving traffic to your website. If you need quick traffic to your website, then press release is the ideal way to go. You will be able to get you press releases indexed fast by the search engines when they are submitted to the right newsrooms. You will be able to get a lot of prospective traffic to your website through the press releases.

1)      To Market or Promote Something

A fantastic way to market or promote yourself or your business, product or service is through blogging.

2)      To Establish Yourself as a Credible Expert

Are you a professional? Do you have many years of experience and knowledge in law? Healthcare? Advertising? Non-profit management? And etc? Well the Blogsphere is the best way for you to establish your credibility as an expert in that field.

3)      To Stay Active or Knowledgeable in a Field or Topic

The frequency of blogging contributes to the partial success of your blog. Ideally, one should blog daily or weekly (monthly too). Your audience will love to hear about what you have to say about in regards to the current events or your matters related to your field.

4)      To Make Money

Having a blog can help you generate revenue. It can increase leads, donors/investors, and clients! With hard work and commitment, your thoughts and frequency will increase revenue generation if you are a business.

5)      To Increase Your Search Engine Ranks (To be Found)

The purpose behind a website is generate awareness for your audience.. Why settle for 5 -10 when you can get 100+ more a day visitors? A blog allow users to generate new content (static websites alone do not). Search Engines LOVE new content. New content in the perspective of Search Engines (Google, AOL, Yahoo, and Bing) help determine how important your website is on the web. The more your blog, the more hits you get, the higher the ranking.  It is that simple and that valuable.

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In this blog, I am going to list items that could be covered with relative ease and describe them in short. I will follow up with subsequent blogs that cover these items in more detail. One key principle to understand is that search engines use backlinks to your site as a measure of its importance and credibility. So most of SEO revolves around increasing your backlinks, and thus your pagerank. Here is an article Pagerank for dummies, that explains pagerank in very simple terms.

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 Directory Submissions

Directories are websites which list quality sites in various categories. So submissions to these directories can give you quality one way back links for your website as well as some related traffic. The value of those backlinks will largely depend on the pagerank  (PR) of those sites, so you should aim to get your site listed in high PR directories, even if it means paying. And don’t forget DMOZ.

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Social Bookmarking

Submitting your site manually with social bookmarking sites like Digg, blogthis!, orkut, and twitter etc will give you backlinks from high PR sites, eventually help elevate your pagerank.

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Search Engine Submission

If your site has not been listed on the major search engines, then have them submitted. You can do it manually, or use a service to get your site submitted. It is fairly cheap.

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 Article Submission

Google and other major search engines have decided to go content-centric; the more places you have your content, you get more PR juice from being backlinked from those sites, and you can also generate more traffic. So write articles that are relevant to your website, and submit them to article directories.

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Squidoo Lens

You can create a lens on Squidoo and link it back to your site. Automatic links get generated for your lens based on your tags. Since Squidoo is a high PR site, search engines like google like Squidoo lenses, and it will help your site get indexed faster.

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Press Release

It is not uncommon that you end up on a press release when you search for obscure companies. That is because, though the search engines do not deem the company and its website important enough, they latched onto a press release because it was carried by a major newswire. So therein lies your opportunity.

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Alexa Toolbar

A number of search engines like to use Alexa ranking to determine your site popularity. So you may have some tuning opportunities using Alexa.

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In my subsequent articles, I will go over each of these topics in more detail.

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Alexa rank has become a popular yardstick to measure the value of your website. Webmasters, advertisers and ad networks use your blog’s Alexa rank to determine your PR juice.

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In this article, I will talk about one easy way to improve your Alexa ranking. This is not a method that will game the system and improve your rank, so beware.

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A lot of people don’t seem to realize that Alexa rank is based on the number visits to your site from users who have Alexa toobar installed on their browser. So if you think majority of users to your site don’t have a good reason to have a Alexa toolbar installed, then you are not getting any credit for those visits! It may not be fair, but that is a topic for another day.

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So how do you make sure that you get credit for these visits? Make Alexa aware of these visits by putting an Alexa rank widget on your website. You can get a widget for your website from http://www.alexa.com/siteowners/widgets. You could pick any one of the three:

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Alexa Traffic Widget

Alexa Status Widget

Alexa Rank Widget

 
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Now, you may not want put this badge on your website because your rank is not something to crow about, or purely for aesthetic reasons. They certainly could have made those badges look better! Anyways, the solution would be to keep include the badge in the footer of your pages, but keep it hidden using CSS (use class property display : none). You can go to our homepage www.remotetiger.com and view the source to see an example.
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1. Number of links from other pages to your page
2. The pagerank of those other pages
3. The total number of links from those other pages, apart from the link to your page

Let us consider an analogy for each of the above items.
 
Number of links from other pages to your page

Let us say I need to get references for a job, the more references I can get, the more credible I will look. Similarly, being linked by a lot of other pages will increase your pagerank.
 
The pagerank of those other pages

A reference from Jack Welch will carry a lot more weight than a reference from one of my buddies. Similarly, a link from a renowned site (authority site as they like to call it) will carry a lot more weight than from a no-name website.
 
The total number of links from those other pages, apart from the link to your page

Let us say that it is commonly known that Jack Welch gives a reference to anyone that emails him. He probably gave thousands of references, in which case, his reference may not carry as much weight. Similarly, a renowned or authority site that grants tons of links to other pages cannot pass on much weight to your site.
 
So what should you aim for?

Get as many links as possible from various sites with high pageranks. And the best way to get links is to have relevant and good content. If you produce the content, people will come. Of course, you will also have to do some legwork to spread your content around for SEO.