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$80,000 a Month in App Sales by Outsourcing Everything

mixergy.com

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Re: $80,000 a Month in App Sales by Outsourcing Everything

#81

Post by spitfire »

klochner wrote: post #52

I'm not a marketing expert, so correct me if I'm wrong here ... Let's assume an iphone app gets CPM of about $1 [1,2] So if their first app grossed $100k, that means about 100M impressions. That sounds insanely high to me - 100 impressions each for 1M users? 10 impressions for 10M users? When I then see that they're trying to sell books for $99 a pop so you can cash in on their winning techniques [3], it rings of lat…

If you go to the freetheapps site it is _so_ used-car salesman. When you go to leave the page it has a Javascript popup that begs you to stay with yes/no dialog.

My already very low view of Andrew Warner just got even lower. slimy get-rich-quick guys give me the shivers.

Re: $80,000 a Month in App Sales by Outsourcing Everything

#82

Post by ajg1977 »

rkwz wrote: post #80
ajg1977 wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would recommend you do two things: 1) Create one app to throw-away - something that's simple, useful to you, and which you are confident you can create. Don't worry about there being hundreds of similar apps. This is your Learner app. Get it together in a few weeks and put it on the app store for $1-$2. Make sure you have some "please leave a review / send email" link that makes it a no-brainer for people to give y…

> Launch at $1 for a week, and cut the price to $1 for a week for every update. It does make a difference IME. I see a lot of apps cutting their price to $0 for a few days. Does this technique work? What are the advantages of doing this?

In the early days of the AppStore you could drop your price to $0, then switch to paid, and retain your ranking. Apple quickly quashed this, so perhaps these apps are looking to benefit from word of mouth, or to gain a number of reviews. As I mentioned earlier you need 5-6 reviews before you even get a rating and having more certainly doesn't hurt.

On a similar note, I believe Apple's charts may now be weighted to take price into account, at least in some form. I occasionally play around with app prices to see how sales/revenue/in-app purchases change, and last week I upped the price of one app from $1.99 to $2.99. Sales dropped from ~400 to ~250, but my chart placing was virtually unchanged (I think I dropped once place). I don't believe the ranking is based on sales over a period of days, though it may be a factor, since my ranking does increase/decrease with normal sales fluctuations.

Re: $80,000 a Month in App Sales by Outsourcing Everything

#83

Post by fredBuddemeyer »

TGJ wrote: post #79
mattmanser wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, have fun doing your human exploitation startups. It's not for me, I can't do it. It's just not in me. It's not sour grapes, it's just utter incomprehension on why anyone would spend their life exploiting others. I just don't understand the motivation behind it. I actually do not think it's a perfectly valid way of life, I think it's evil and sociopathic. But that's my opinion and you have yours. Happiness is di…

How is it evil exploiting stupid people? A fool and his money are soon parted are they not?

so is a fool and his potential, however slim.

Re: $80,000 a Month in App Sales by Outsourcing Everything

#84

Post by kranner »

spitfire wrote: post #81
klochner wrote: post #52

I'm not a marketing expert, so correct me if I'm wrong here ... Let's assume an iphone app gets CPM of about $1 [1,2] So if their first app grossed $100k, that means about 100M impressions. That sounds insanely high to me - 100 impressions each for 1M users? 10 impressions for 10M users? When I then see that they're trying to sell books for $99 a pop so you can cash in on their winning techniques [3], it rings of lat…

If you go to the freetheapps site it is _so_ used-car salesman. When you go to leave the page it has a Javascript popup that begs you to stay with yes/no dialog. My already very low view of Andrew Warner just got even lower. slimy get-rich-quick guys give me the shivers.

Freetheapps is not Andrew Warner's site. Mind explaining your low view of the guy?

It seems to me he provides a great resource to the tech entrepreneurship community in Mixergy and hardly deserves to be called a 'slimy get-rich-quick' guy.

Re: $80,000 a Month in App Sales by Outsourcing Everything

#85

Post by muhfuhkuh »

ajg1977 wrote: post #30

I don't know what to think about stories such as these to be honest. My inner entrepreneur says "Wow, great job guys! I wish you every success". My inner software developer winces, and fears, both professionally and personally, that the ever-growing number of such low-quality apps will eventually make it pointless for developers to invest in creating a ConvertBot or Instagram. (FWIW I currently make $15k a month from…

"My inner software developer winces, and fears, both professionally and personally, that the ever-growing number of such low-quality apps will eventually make it pointless for developers to invest in creating a ConvertBot or Instagram."

Gimp, OpenOffice, and Linux didn't hinder the popularity one iota of Photshop, MS Office, and Windows (or OS/X) respectively. In fact, the free stuff augments the consumer need for high(er?)-quality alternatives to the free stuff.

That said, I don't think Dash of Color from FreeTheApps even dented Color Splash, which has been cemented in the top 20 overall paid apps for as long as it's been released. Nor has their FilterFX Free app displaced Hipstamatic.

There is _absolutely_ room for low and high quality apps in the App store, as there is room for quality software applications and repackaged GPL apps ported to Windows sold to people who don't know it's available free. Or, for that matter, the Big Mac and the $25 Kobe beef burger.

Re: $80,000 a Month in App Sales by Outsourcing Everything

#86

Post by chadp »

d_r wrote: post #12

It would be interesting to see more people chime in here about using sites like Elance. Have you had good/bad experiences with this approach? Outsourcing seemed to work great for these guys (good for them!) Is it because the apps were fairly simple, or did they get "lucky" with picking the right developer(s)?

I think outsourcing a simple $2k fart app is workable.

A complex internet service with multiple technologies, web, multiple mobile platforms and your valuable IP is another matter and probably not advisable for outsourcing.

Re: $80,000 a Month in App Sales by Outsourcing Everything

#87

Post by kranner »

solutionyogi wrote: post #67
Psyonic wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe he likes his job?

Doesn't matter if I like my job or not, if I am making 80k/month from my side business, I am definitely going to quit my day job and concentrate on my full business.

There's something to be said for getting out of the house though.

Re: $80,000 a Month in App Sales by Outsourcing Everything

#88

Post by smashing »

mdolon wrote: post #22

Here's a link to the e-book they wrote and mentioned in the interview: http://www.freetheapps.com/create-iphone-apps/ It makes sense that they seemed somewhat reserved at certain points of the interview, they don't want to give away too much and make their e-book less useful.

Did anyone else get a popup trying to leave the webpage?

Re: $80,000 a Month in App Sales by Outsourcing Everything

#90

Post by robryan »

spitfire wrote: post #81
klochner wrote: post #52

I'm not a marketing expert, so correct me if I'm wrong here ... Let's assume an iphone app gets CPM of about $1 [1,2] So if their first app grossed $100k, that means about 100M impressions. That sounds insanely high to me - 100 impressions each for 1M users? 10 impressions for 10M users? When I then see that they're trying to sell books for $99 a pop so you can cash in on their winning techniques [3], it rings of lat…

If you go to the freetheapps site it is _so_ used-car salesman. When you go to leave the page it has a Javascript popup that begs you to stay with yes/no dialog. My already very low view of Andrew Warner just got even lower. slimy get-rich-quick guys give me the shivers.

As mentioned, his primary interest here was that the guys had outsourced every aspect of creating the apps and had created a business doing it. Sure it may not be the most high quality business but it's still interesting to look at by virtue of the success.
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