PreCentral.net

Update: we're gonna stick this up at the top of the site for awhile, there's been a ton of news and we want to make sure developers don't miss this!

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We wanted to end today's develop-o-rama on a high note - so here it is: next weekend we're going to launch the PreCentral Featured Apps program! As a webOS user, it's increasingly hard to find the good apps. As a developer, it's increasingly hard to get your app noticed. We're hoping we can help with both of those problems.

It's simple, really: we'll be spotlighting apps on the sidebar and in our main blog feed on a much more regular basis. You'll see screenshots of our favorite apps and apps from developers who care about our readers in our webOS App Gallery.

If you're a webOS user - stay tuned, we're launching in a week or so. If you're a webOS developer - read on to learn how to enroll in the PreCentral Featured Apps program. Oh, one other thing - we don't want your money, we just want to help promote your apps. The program, it's free.

What is The PreCentral Featured Apps program?

Simply put, we want to offer developers free tools to promote their apps on PreCentral.net. We will be spotlighting apps chosen by our editorial team in the sidebar, in the blog, and at the top of our App Galleries. PreCentral is the #1 place to reach webOS users - we want to share that with you. Our philosophy: helping developers helps our readers.

On sidebar and blog, we'll be picking and choosing the apps based on what we like and what we think our readers will like. However, simply by enrolling in the program and claiming your apps you'll be featured in a special section in the App Galleries and you'll have the ability to add extra notes, links, and the like to your apps in our gallery. There's only so much you can fit in the App Catalog description, but if you want to say more, this could be a good option for you.

We'll also have permanent listing of the apps we've chosen and of all the apps from developers who sign up.

Multiple Ways for Developers to Engage PreCentral readers

1. Get in the PreCentral Featured App Program. This is the new hotness - more on it below.
2. Start a Developer Forum. Want a place to talk with our members directly but don't want hassle with your own forum? Our Developer forums are a pretty darned good place for that. Just ask for it on our contact form
3. Submit homebrew apps to the PreCentral Repository. If you're just looking to use our repository to showcase your app, that's simple. Just hit up our contact form and ask to get Homebrew Dev Access. We'll send instructions.

Enroll in the program

To get started, all you need to do is head over to our contact form and do three things

1. Select "Enroll in PreCentral Featured Apps"
2. Tell us who you are - we need your PreCentral username
3. Claim your apps by including links to them from the PreCentral App Gallery. Official Apps, Beta Apps, Web Dist. Apps, and Homebrew Apps all qualify.

Once that's done we'll set you up with your apps so you can do a few things right away:

1. If you like, add extra developer notes to your app for display in our gallery. It's a great place for your old changelogs, support notes for users, or whatever else you can think of.
2. Opt-in to the 'Friends of PreCentral' listings to have your app and a small message (under 200 characters) added to the special section we're setting up in the App Gallery.
3. Nominate your app for getting featured on the main sidebar and in the blog as a featured app.

Straight up: the interface for all this won't be perfect, but it'll get the job done and we'll be giving you a link to a nice video explaining how it all works.

How do I know my app will be featured?

Harsh reality: no guarantees. Since we're not charging for this and since we're selecting apps by hand, don't be unhappy if it takes us a little while to get to your app or even if we don't feature it at all. That said, there are definitely a few things you can do to increase your chances.

• Make a great app! (duh)
• Engage PreCentral members. Be active in the forums. Help out users with bugs. Be cool.
• Ask PC members to rate your app. We have ratings in our App Gallery separate from the App Catalog ratings. Apps with high user ratings here are more likely to get noticed. (In the future we may enable user voting on apps, but that'll be awhile)
• Don't go spamming us with requests (serious turn off). If your extra developer notes and your App Catalog description do a good job of explaining why your app rocks, we'll notice.
• If you are going to be having a special promotion, a sale, or a major upgrade, please do be sure to let us know!

That, friends, is the long of it. More ways to communicate with PreCentral readers. Two different ways to get your app noticed.