I didn’t do any product enhancement for the past week focusing mostly on marketing (plus I got sick, and wanted to watch netflix but that’s a different story) . I got about 500 likes on the app so far. The last 20 likes are from India, I got them by using Amazon Mechanical Turk and setting up a HIT that asks users to like the application then sending me their names and befriending them. I could confirm if they liked the app and paid them 5c . It’s a really great deal since facebook ad click costs about 75c and doesn’t guarantee a like. This way when user likes the app all their friends see it. For some reason mTurk disabled my HITS after about 20 saying I broke their policy not sure if it’s against policy to pay for likes or for users to send me their names but there goes that idea.
I also set up facebook ads which for some reason don’t like my app icon saying that it breaks their policy. I had to switch the icon with a picture that I use on my app page that I bought from shutterstock . Ads are expansive way to get users but it’s also a good way to test out what advertisement phrases generates more clicks. I separated the campaign into 3 parts:
1. Advertise to non app users using varies different slogans to see which one is most effective.
2. Advertise to non app users who’s friends are users using the sponsored stories. These will show up as ads that says that your friend has used the app or liked the app.
3. Advertise to current users about product enhancements.
Facebook Marketing team has a deal now that they give $50 and help you with advertisement if you are willing to spend $50 a day for 28 days. I might take them up on the offer soon, let’s see how my approach works.
The main breakthrough came when I realized that partnering with other sites will have the most impact. Number one example is Amazon that I already use their widgets and get affiliated fee if somebody buys, but if I can partner with them somehow and they can help in advertising that will be a huge success. In return I can give them exclusive rights to the categories. I know it’s a long reach but it’s worth a try, I looked up all my contacts and found out one person that works in Amazon in brand management team and reached out to her. Also other companies might work like Spotify for music, barnes and nobles for books, netflix for videos, … I think if I can get one partner then others will come. To get a partner I must show that the product has a big reach of users are that using it on a daily basis. Which brings me all the way around to the beginning. 
For now I need to improve the product and already have a list of features that I want to implement next, I will work on those and worry about marketing after that.
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