Pixels and graphics and coding (oh my!)

It's Friday at 6pm and I want to throw my computer out the window! I have been so wrapped up in pixels and graphics and coding that I have missed an entire day of sunshine.

Not to worry though. There's just enough left to catch a beautiful sunset. A phone call to my family who is far away, moments with my family near to me, and then it's bedtime. It's so funny, working on Bedtime Bunny Tales I am immersed in a dreamland all day. But it doesn't make my own sleep any less precious.

In fact, bedtime really is a respite from planning and typing. It's the minutes in between wake and sleep that my brain refuels.

It's my hope that Bedtime Bunny Tales does that for your little one, and you too! So here's to the sunset! And dreams!

Bedtime Bunny Tales...so beautiful!

I may be biased...but I just can't wait for you to see our book. Sam and his partner have been diligently working on the images. They are so cute and cuddly that your kids are just going to flip when they see them! We are including so many extras...like blowing into the speaker to extinguish the candle, and touching the windows in the tree house to turn off the lights. It's amazing. The picture to the right is a far off view of grandpa bunny's house at night.

Speaking of night...I want to talk about one of our central themes to Bedtime Bunny Tales...bedtime!! I remember when I was a kid...bedtime wasn't so peaceful. It was usually a fight amongst my parents and myself. I wanted to stay up late and watch television...my dad insisted that I go to bed and get some rest. Yes...this was when I was a little older...probably ten, but my sister has this problem with her 4 year old. He doesn't want to leave the party! That's the beauty of BTBT's, it is THE party. We are hoping that kids just can't wait to go to bed, because they get to have so much fun interacting with the characters!

Ok...so, I do believe there are other factors other than our book that will help you get your kiddo to sleep and one big one I take straight from the Dog Whisperer, Caesar Milan.
Wear them out!!! Exercise them!!!
He's talking about our four legged friend...but I think his advice applies here too.
Before you can train a k-9 it is of the utmost importance to run them until their nervous energy ceases...or at least diminishes. You can't get them to concentrate unless they are too tired to think about playing!

Try it...I think you'll agree.

Until next time.

Update on Promotion and all things Bunny Tales!

So...I believe the promotion was a success. If you didn't read the post below...we offered our game Hop 2 It, to everyone reading the blog "Freebies 4 Mom" free for five days. We received almost 17-hundred downloads in the first day...almost 800 the second and we'll see what happens by the end of the week. It's all about spreading the word concerning Bedtime Bunny and every time it's downloaded www.bedtimebunnytales.com shows up at the bottom.

So...now to Bedtime Bunny Tales. Since I started writing this blog...I had the independent app developer in mind. After meeting with the marketing guru last week she reminded me of my audience...moms! What was I doing? So...now I'm trying to revamp everything...and it's really difficult. I can't seem to take a step back and re-organize. I guess I'm just going to start talking about mom stuff...kid stuff...bunny stuff!

Sorry if you've been reading and want to know more when it comes to developing apps...but this is a learning process! Email me and I'll help you with whatever you are having trouble with. I love sharing knowledge...and let my mistakes keep you from doing the same.

Anyway...I want to say farewell to my app developer friends and hello to my mommy friends. It's Bunny Tale time!

Freebies 4 Mom...and for you!

Good afternoon! So...I can safely say, we are now live with Freebies 4 Mom. If you are a mom...or frankly anyone who likes a deal...she's got them! I found her on Facebook and then approached her about our iPad2 give away. At the moment we are giving away Hop 2 It....the video game.

And now a word from our sponsor...or, just me.

Freebies 4 Mom rocks. She constantly updates her site with free stuff...from a code for a blockbuster movie to a coupon for Tide. If you are the bargain looking kind...look no further. I was happy to find out she is extremely easy to work with and very on top of her game. We exchanged emails a couple of times and then voila...she posted our ad. Nice working with people who know their stuff!

I am also happy to report she will be handling our iPad2 give away. She already has a system...so we wont' have to worry about picking the winner...she'll do it randomly.

I think teamwork is a good thing...how about you?


http://www.facebook.com/Freebies4Mom

New ideas....

As you know...we are new to the app development world and new to the blogging world too! Seems like a double whammy, but on the bright side, if a pro see's your work and offers their suggestion (even if it is really pity), I'm all ears!

So, this morning I met up with a couple marketing guru's for a walk on the beach. Pretty good way to have a business meeting, if I do say so myself. Anyway...this post is more for me than anyone-it's my way of jotting down my notes from our get together...and hopefully, it will help you too.

1. Niche marketing is key. I thought I knew my market-moms! That's not too difficult to figure out...but within that huge market there is a small, more intertwined group that could help us propel our app forward...way better than a very broad group. So, I have an idea-now I need to implement.

2. What's unique about our app? Market that unique quality...again within your niche market.

3. Run my advertising campaign from facebook. That's another obvious thing...but the way it's done is anything but obvious...at least to me. My friend offered some suggestions like watching a webinar or attending a conference. If I find anything good I'll let you know.

4. Now for the piece of advice I was kinda bummed to hear, but I'm very grateful to know...my blog has got to change. I am talking to other developers and small business peeps, but really my focus should be the mommies who will buy our product. Good lesson.

Thanks for reading!

Marketing and Cleaning-the life of an app creator!

Sam and I are both the CEO,CFO and just this morning I added another title, CCE. You haven't heard of such a title??? Well, let me enlighten you. CCE is Cleaning Crew Extraordinaire. Yes, when you are the owner of such a fancy office...you have to have a corresponding title. After all we do work from our garage...

Now on to some really good stuff...

I was pleasantly surprised as I fished through my friend's FB posts and discovered Sean, our music guy (see picture below), was featured in the Bucyrus Telegraph, not in just a little column, he was on the front page! You go Sean! Click below for the article


http://www.bucyrustelegraphforum.com/article/20110425/NEWS01/104250303/Bucyrus-HQ-worldwide-clientele-digital-musician



Also, I discovered a couple really basic things All independent app producers should know.

1. Make sure your description in the App store conveys the right message. I noticed that our sales were lagging, so I changed the paragraph to "Easter App" and sales went straight back up. This morning I changed it back to a more generic, "counting game", since the holiday is over and we might just get some interest from the article in the paper.

2. Send out press releases on anyone and everyone who helped you put your app together. Send out more press releases when you hit milestones. I sent out several and only one was picked up, but I think I may still be able to salvage a couple more. Regardless, send them...you never know.

3. Corporate Sponsorship. As you know, I'm always talking about marketing. Well, I read somewhere that you can build an exclusive corporate sponsorship for your app and immediately my wheels began turning. I'll update you if it works...but it sounds good! You would benefit from all of their advertisement...and if it's a big profitable company, and you have an app that fits their model...you may be featured in one or more of their commercials. Like I said, I'll keep ya posted.

Until next time.

Happy Computer Day!

Today is going to be a good day. Yesterday, Sam had to do an operation on his computer...as you can tell by the picture below. He worked all day fixing the beast and voila, he now has a new machine. He changed out the hard drives and reworked everything, something that literally boggles my mind, anyway...he's happy and I'm happy he's happy!

We now have a completion date on the book...looks like mid July...but I'm probably going to add a couple weeks onto that...just to make certain. I am going to try and find someone from Apple who will help us with some events. Our kick-off is going to take place in Savannah, Georgia, where Sam went to Art school and I'm planning a techno/art/book making event. Like I've said before, marketing, marketing and more marketing.

Speaking of marketing...our own Sean Beeson was just recently interviewed by his hometown paper about Hop 2 It and the part he played in producing the music. Have you listened to the music on the game? It's awesome...he's awesome...really. He has composed a lot of different scores for a lot of different projects and we are just glad he decided to help us with our endeavor! You'll hear his music on the book too...stay tuned!