Novice No Longer – Dann Berg
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About the Episode
Are you looking to get press for your app? Well today’s guest was a former reviews editor at The Verge and he tells us what kind of email pitches stood out to him. Also, listen to the reason why you should NOT use Elance or oDesk when looking for your next app developer.
Dann Berg worked as a tech journalist before leaving the industry to work on Novice No Longer full time. He was a staff writer at LAPTOP Magazine and then Reviews Editor at The Verge.
Show Notes
We have an awesome talk today with Dann Berg, a former staff writer at LAPTOP magazine who also worked as a reviews editor at The Verge before we went full time in hosting his podcast, Novice No Longer. With these credentials lined up, Dann is a perfect teacher and mentor for us to learn all about how to get the press that we need to get our products out there.
Before he gives us a tutorial on everything about press, Dann also shares to us the elements of a successful app, how getting out there and having a feel of the market before spending time to make your app can help you with market validation and the non-leading questions you can ask when going about these surveys.
Below are the highlights of our talk today which I recommend that you do not miss:
- Very helpful tips on how to create an email which can get the press to notice you:
- Have a reason why you are contacting the journalist,
- Positioning yourself appropriately,
- Set an embargo date if you have not released your app yet, or if it is already out, tie your email with a significant update,
- Tell them what makes you different, ask if they want to know more about the product and get them to be a beta tester for a thorough overview of your app,
- Personalize. Get to know who you are pitching to and compliment their work,
- How to craft catchy headlines,
- Drawing perfect mock ups, and
- Finding a developer and managing the development process.
We also had a feedback session on my writing as hands-on application of his teaching about creating effective emails so hit play and let’s get some press!
Show Mentions
– App: Reader Tracker
– App: Watcher Tracker: (iTunes)
– CodeCanyon.net
– Free Book
– Fav app: Threes: (iTunes)