I would prefer a dev be confident in the value and price of their app than to constantly be changing it. In my personal experience, most devs that are constantly meddling with the price have an app that's barely worth 99c on their hands.
The other thing it possibly indicates is that they change the price frequently to show up in apps like AppShopper as having a reduced price, which I find to be shady practice as well typically only done by mediocre devs.
It's just one of those respectability things, like reasonable in-app purchases. I won't use or respect your app if you don't respect me as a user, and charging $12 for an app one day, 99c the next and $5 the day after that isn't respecting me.
Obviously this is all my own personal opinion and experience, but I don't think I'm the only one out there who feels this way.
- Use appfigures.com and appannie.com to track your sales and rankings. They provide much nicer reports than those provided by Apple. Also, they'll tell you if reviews come in, and even translate them for you. I'm personally addicted to the hourly ranking updates from AppFigures.
- Never stop promoting. Do something (even if it's something small) every day to raise awareness. Getting on the front page of Hacker News is an excellent start! But don't stop there.
- Get a 'press kit' of screenshots and descriptions to send to popular app review sites and tech writers etc. Many will ignore you, but the hits are worth it. A great review in AppAdvice completely turned around my app's fortunes.
- Don't bother with AdWords - at least at the start. Generally the price per click and the conversion rates won't support the revenue you would get from an app sale. Some people spend big on AdWords to push their rankings, but that's not a reliable way to make money.
- Expriment with pricing. Price changes are quick and easy to make. Don't be afraid to raise your price. You might be pleasantly surprised by the result. And if it doesn't work out, you can lower it again. I found I got fewer cranky reviews when my price was higher. but YMMV.
- Continue writing honest reports about your app's progress. We see so many news items about huge successes and huge failures, it's a good corrective to see how a 'normal' app fares.
- Work on your next app. I just launched my second app in the store and while I'm still not making enough to live on, it's great to get twice as much money coming in.
- Have fun. Building something of your own and selling it is great. You might start resenting your day jobs, though.