Category: Apps

A special app has now been released in the hopes of helping to track down child predators.

The federal government has now released a new app that is meant to expand the mobile marketing that it is capable of achieving in order to help to locate child predators who are being sought in order to bring them to criminal prosecution.

The app is called “Operation Predator” and makes it simple to make reports of suspected local issues.

The app is focused on using mobile marketing to spread the word about people who are already being sought, as well as to make it easier for the public to be able to make a report of potential child exploitation that is going on in their own communities. This will allow the public to be able to work with the Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) special agents from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to be able to identify and find people who are suspected of being child predators.

This mobile marketing campaign and app are also meant to help to protect victims from further abuse.

By downloading this mobile marketing app, the American public can use it to make a direct phone call to the HSI tip line, can make an online submission of a tip, can help to identify some of the suspects on the most wanted lists, can read about the most recent arrests and investigations that are currently underway, and can receive alerts when there are new suspects being sought.

This is a new form of mobile marketing from ICE and could potentially pave the way for other organizations and other countries to use smartphones and apps for similar purposes. The acting Director of ICE, John Sandweg, explained that “When children are being sexually abused and exploited, it’s a race against the clock to rescue the child and bring the predator to justice.” He added that “These investigations are one of our highest priorities, and in today’s world, we need to be technologically savvy and innovative in our approach.”

Mobile marketing has the unique ability to reach people no matter where they are or what time it may be. This app helps to take advantage of the fact that the public won’t be required to watch a certain news program or read a specific news paper, or even actively seek out the information on a website in order to receive it.

When we go about building apps we often approach the process very differently to building a website. When building a website we tend to identify the market first that we want to cater to and think about what a good niche would be to work in. From there we then go about designing a site and coming up with content and then finally monetising the site.

With an app on the other hand, we tend to start instead with an idea. This will be something that hits us when we’re in the shower, or when we’re going through a mundane task and we realise that an app could help us to do it better. While this might result in an end product that’s useful or that interests us, what it doesn’t guarantee is that we’ll have any sales or that it will be successful.

So if you’re serious about making money from mobile apps, you may want to start thinking about the process from another angle and starting with the niche. And a great niche to pick? That’s the health niche – something which has a universal appeal and which everyone can relate. Health is something that’s important to us and so it’s something that most of us are willing to spend money on too.

But how do you make a successful app in the health niche that will sell and that you’ll be able to market? Read on for some advice that can help you get off to a good start…

Be Professional

The appearance of your app is incredibly important at the best of times, but even moreso when you create a health app. When people look to an app for health advice, they are looking for information that they can trust and rely on to ensure that it helps to improve their condition rather than worsen it. To this end you should make sure that your app looks highly professional and you should spend time and money on the UI. If that means paying a professional to create your icons then that will be money well spent.

Think Outside the Box

The health niche is a very fertile niche and one that can be very profitable – but it is also a very overcrowded market and there are a lot of other apps out there for you to compete with. The secret is to think outside the box and to think about all the different areas of health.

A health and fitness app for instance won’t get much attention, but if you can hit on a particular form of new exercise (like HIT workouts), or if you can cater to a particular demographic (fitness for busy Mums) then you can help to set your app apart and thus improve your USP. You can even create a single app and then release various different iterations.

Health from a medical perspective is also useful, whether you want to educate your customers on the human body, or help them identify particular illnesses and there are many particular sub-niches to approach here.

Follow these guidelines, be creative and you will find that the health niche is the perfect one for selling apps.

Byline:

Today’s feature contributor Nancy Baker is a freelance blogger who is currently working at Heart Smart CPR, a firm offering CPR Classes in Austin Texas. She is very passionate about her work and she also volunteers at the local community centre every week. You can also catch up with her on Twitter @Nancy Baker.