Yeah, free games are hard to sell. I think people naturally assume they aren't worth much. And you can't put them on sale. I wonder if it would give more downloads if I stuck a price on them, so I could put it on sales...
Even if your game is pixelart, avoid use that pixelart font on your sales page.
Bookmark itch.io pages with juicy design, and use them for inspiration. Personally, I'm quite habby with the design of this one: https://kasper-hviid.itch.io/the-shareware-motherlode
Also, don't be humble. Try selling your stuff as aggressively as possible. Like, if you made a mobile game called A Dream of Amber, which has a truly original concept and is totally addictive, try using the flimsiest of excuses to push it into the conversation.
An advice I once heard is that for the hours spent making your game, use half that that much time promoting it. Don't make the mistake of feeling burned out by finally finishing the game, clicking "publish" and then moving on to your next project.
Understand the concept of the marketing tunnel, that is, the way a potential buyer slowly gain more interest in your game. At the top level, he doesn't care about you game at all, he doesn't even know it exist, so you only have a few seconds to make him interested.
- At the top opening state, the potential buyer looks a the front page of itch.io and let his eyes pass over the games available. Here, you have about 0.1 second to make him focus his attention on your games cover image instead of any of the others.
- At the next stage, his eyes are focused on your games banner. Good. You now have about 3 seconds where he skims the art and read the title.
- At the next stage, he may hover his mouse over the cover, to see what pops up.
- At this stage---oh boy---he actually clicks! Once on the sales page, he skims it over, quickly deciding if he want to venture further, or go looking for another game.