Today I would like to spent some time to talk about the question: "How to make money with iPhone apps?"
I know, I know we all know how to do that: Have an idea, make the app, and publish! Apple will pay you 70% of how much they sell, and that is the way. But doing iPhone app development myself I experienced that there are lots of other options you have, and just selling apps might not be the best option.
Option 2) You make an app, and give it away for free, but you include adds from a third party (like Admob or similar services) and for each download or each time your app is used you get a share. And even though this might sound like a nice idea, I have to say that personally I don't like apps that do that, and secondly it means that there is someone more getting a piece from the cake...
Option 3) You have a website? Sure, you know that either adds you sell, or google adsense will allow you to generate profits from traffic routed to your website. So why not make an iPhone app that promotes your site? The drawback is obvious: You might actually loose traffic to your site because now, people start using the app instead of the site. But that fear is not very reasonable, since a bigger community of users is always better, and not every user uses the app alone, most people do a mixture of iPhone app and website.
Option 4) I see this one so often. If you have a product, like a book, or a funny device, or a service, or something you like to promote, you will find more and more apps, that either give you part of the possible content (of a book, or course, or lecture) and make you sell the rest outside of the iPhone. I like this concept a lot, it is very much out of the box, and the apps trying to do this are very creative sometimes, and give me the feeling that there is a life besides the iPhone.
So next time you think about your ideas or promoting a concept, why not make an app for that?
Cheers Arend
While unemployment is still
While unemployment is still on the road of progress, this kind of income generating idea may come in handy. Likewise, you need a business plan: an idea of the developing costs and has some sort of revenue projection. Most important, you need to take in count that if you think your app would sell between 10 and 50 copies per day you probably need to make your projections on a 5 sales/day.
adds
Absolutely!
Your app will sell very low to not at all, until you start making some sort of promotion for it. Without this you will not succeed at all. If you are entirely new to this, I recommend that you have to assume to loose the production cost and see your first project as a test.
Cheers Arend
Arend, Thanks for the great
Arend, Thanks for the great tips. I developed an app but I still need to update a few things before I think it can be successful. After that, full steam ahead. I think one great way to promote your app is through print and online ad spaces. Youtube seems like a good way too. Do you have any tips for promotion?
promotion
Hi,
I have to admit that I am particularly bad ad promotion myself. But you are right about print and webadds. But especially for webadds you have to minimize the cost, and try to be as directed as possible. So choose a game review site if your app is a game for example.
The best result I had was by having a flash demo version paying a few levels with a link to iTunes and the game itself as an app. Works perfectly, but is twice the effort, and it only goes well with simple games of cause.
Or what also works, but I never tried it, but a friend is doing that a lot for his apps is some form of viral marketing. He basically hangs out a lot on internet forums dealing with the content of his app. And what he does is to basically talk about his app. Not necessarily posting links, but just talking. He also gets a lot of qualitative feedback.
Or you try different means of adds. For my BadDriver app, we actually print bumper stickers and distribute them to truck companies. Obviously this kind of marketing is directly on site. This kind of indirect marketing works quite well, I once wore a T-shirt with the Loops Of Zen logo during a weekend I spent in Vegas... the sales actually went up. So I would say be creative!
Cheers Arend