There's this lingering myth about app store charts. The myth pertains to a magical "line", some sort of tipping point, over which all your download problems go away.<p>This myth is patently false.<p>From what I've seen with apps ranked anywhere from #1 to #5000, the organic download boost from being in the Top 50 is minuscule. It's not self sustaining. It's not magical. And it certainly doesn't make your problems go away.<p>As this article points out, the number of downloads you need to rank higher in the app store grows exponentially. What it doesn't point out is that organic download growth from ranking higher grows linearly. That means it gets harder and harder to keep your position in the app store unless you support those downloads somehow.<p>How can apps maintain their app store ranking? All the big co's do the following (starting with the most effective):<p>* Big ad spend<p>* Aggressive cross promotion<p>* Purchasing incentivized installs<p>* App store search optimization<p>* App Store features<p>Now, the story is a little different when you look at the top grossing chart. The reason for this should be obvious - the more money you make, the more you can dump in to ads. More ads means more users means more revenue. None of this is by accident - these companies understand their user acquisition channels extremely well and are constantly looking for new opportunities to spend.<p>A little more info: How people discover apps by type -
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