The Magic Formula For Getting Your App Featured By Apple

It’s the dream of pretty much everyone who has worked on an app to get an app featured by Apple. By now I’m sure we’ve all heard the stories of ridiculous profits that can be earned within a few days.

Now the problem is, how does Apple choose which apps are featured? I’ve seen absolute junk get featured in the Canadian app store while some brilliant apps seem to get glanced over. So unfortunately, no matter what luck definitely seems to be the biggest factor in the formula for getting your apps featured in the magic formula.

All that being said I read an interesting article from one developer who was able to get their app featured by Apple, a game known as Alienz which was able to reach the top 100 strategy and arcade game categories of the app store earning them nearly $2k in a week.

Here’s a quick summary of the formula they came up with:

Presentation – Definitely looks are the most important factor that you can actually control.
Uniqueness – The author emphasizes this, and it seems to be a factor, but I have seen a lot of rehashed stuff get featured so I’m not too sure about this one.
Time of release – Interesting stuff here.. definitely seems like on some days Apple has slimmer pickings on some days as opposed to others. Their suggestion is not to get your app listed right after the weekend if you want to get featured.
Make The App Paid – According to the author Apple typically only features free apps by big publishers.
Get Mentioned By The Big Sites – Apple seems to favor apps featured on big sites by Engadget (I would say though that these are usually only quality apps anyways