Here’s how I got over 100 “pay for” apps for free on my iPad (and counting)

Ever since I got my iPad 3 months ago I have been meaning to make my first purchase at the iTunes store – but haven’t got to doing that though.  Mainly due to the fact that I don’t really know how to do it – can I pay with credit card or PayPal or what?  The answer is probably both…

So, how did I get over 100 “pay for” apps onto my iPad for free?  Well, I’ve waited for “price drops” – that’s when the apps go from say $0.99 to free for a day or two (or sometimes more).  No, I don’t trawl through all the free apps in the iTunes store each day… I found 3 apps that do it for me:
In the order that I use them:
AppZapp HD
AppShopper
Appsfire

I then use the apps to filter and show the “Now free” apps.  I spot the really good apps by the star ratings, and the number of comments (in brackets), and the number of alerts that other people have set in the app.

(Remember to get your US iTunes account otherwise some of these apps won’t be downloadable)

Here are some examples of how I use the 3 apps:
In AppZapp: use the “Now free” view and look for the listed free apps to see which ones you fancy that have lots of comments and stars
In AppZapp: use the “Top lists” view then select the “Most alerts” list, then scan that list for free apps.

If an app that you really like isn’t free (yet) then add it to your “Watchlist” and use AppZapp’s “My AppZapp” view to monitor them.

In AppShopper: use the “Top 200” view and tick the “Free” and “Change (Biggest rise)” options to list apps that you might want to download.

In Appsfire: go to the “Deals” tab and look at the “Now free” list.

With a bit of patience and monitoring of these 3 apps daily, your collection of paid apps will slowly grow like mine has ;)