A good designer can score on the Appstore even if he is a novice programmer. Unfortunately that's not true for good programmers that suck at design.
How I Made $19,000 on the App Store While Learning to Code
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Re: How I Made $19,000 on the App Store While Learning to Code
#32I have a similar non-technical background (UX/design) and was curious how you were able to not get frustrated and outsource the development work rather than doing it yourself. If I was in the same position, I would get too restless and want it built right away. Any advice on how you got through that situation? Thanks.
Re: How I Made $19,000 on the App Store While Learning to Code
#33A good designer can score on the Appstore even if he is a novice programmer. Unfortunately that's not true for good programmers that suck at design.
Here is my simple design advice if you don't know how to design:
* Use the provided UI elements, they look great.
* Choose a primary color and an accent color, don't get carried away.
* Make sure everything lines up. Choose a number (10 pts) and align everything off of that. Aligning your UI elements will go a very long ways to make everything look good.
* If you have paragraphs of text set the line height to around 1.5 (depending on the font).
* The only thing provided by Apple that is Ugly is the UIButtons. Draw a simple, clean button or ask someone to make one for you.
If you follow these simple ideas you can make a pretty good looking application without knowing how to design.
Re: How I Made $19,000 on the App Store While Learning to Code
#34I want to see you super -succeed, and in a lot of ways you already have succeeded. The most important part is not that you made $19,000 while teaching yourself how to code, but that you are actually making the world a better place. I would angel fund this idea (if I had the money) the minute I would read gives a voice to anyone who cannot speak . I would venture fund your product that minute I would read replaces a $…
Re: How I Made $19,000 on the App Store While Learning to Code
#35What made you decide on the $199 price point? Additionally, do you think the $199 price point might it out of reach for a lot of people who would benefit from the app but who have tights budgets?
I struggled a lot with how to price it. Initially I didn't think I would sell very many because I underestimated the size of the market. Because of the low volume I was going to price it at $99, but the speech language pathologists I talked to said that people were so used to paying so much, that $99 was too low. There are definitely people who can't afford it, but this price allows me to spend more time on developme…
I believe I have seen you do so on reddit quite a while back. :)
You're doing great work and I am extremely happy for you.
Re: How I Made $19,000 on the App Store While Learning to Code
#36A good designer can score on the Appstore even if he is a novice programmer. Unfortunately that's not true for good programmers that suck at design.
A well-designed, but poorly coded site is going to do a lot better (generally), than a well coded, but poorly designed site.
This is why I'm trying so hard to level my design skills.
Re: How I Made $19,000 on the App Store While Learning to Code
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
I struggled a lot with how to price it. Initially I didn't think I would sell very many because I underestimated the size of the market. Because of the low volume I was going to price it at $99, but the speech language pathologists I talked to said that people were so used to paying so much, that $99 was too low. There are definitely people who can't afford it, but this price allows me to spend more time on developme…
> Also I do give away a fair number of copies. I believe I have seen you do so on reddit quite a while back. :) You're doing great work and I am extremely happy for you.
Re: How I Made $19,000 on the App Store While Learning to Code
#38Re: How I Made $19,000 on the App Store While Learning to Code
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
Keep in mind -- $20k over 10 months is a pretty low return on the investment involved in an application. Perhaps the revenue will trend upwards ... but if we put our team on an application like this and only saw $20k in revenue in 10 months , we'd be out of business.
For 1 guy coding alone that is a good return. $2000 per month doing something you enjoy and that is changing peoples lives is great. It might not be the kind of project a team or company would take on because their main goal is profit but for an individual it is great.
Re: How I Made $19,000 on the App Store While Learning to Code
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
He made something people want. That trumps programming excellence.
Totally get it. I'm very happy for him, and I'm fully aware of why I only made $190 :) As the parent of an autistic child, I'm really happy that app authors like this can disrupt entrenched and overpriced industries and make tech like this available to a lot more people. Someone will eventually compete with him too (App Stores totally grease the wheels for competition) and then consumers will benefit even more.