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How I Made $19,000 on the App Store While Learning to Code

nathanbarry.com

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Re: How I Made $19,000 on the App Store While Learning to Code

#61

Post by smackfu »

DeusExMachina wrote: post #42
newobj wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

May I ask you why, being an experienced developer with an autistic child that know the actual state of the industry, you overlooked this opportunity? It's a genuine question, because I do it all the times as well and then, when I realize it to late, I wonder why I didn't think about it in the first place. I would like to know if there is a pattern or something.

I think it would become more obvious if you are actually writing a check for a $X000 piece of equipment, and thinking "my iPad could do this".

Re: How I Made $19,000 on the App Store While Learning to Code

#62

Post by wallflower »

nathanbarry wrote: post #44
nathanbarry wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe. Though Apple gives you a lot of tools to help you make good (though simple) looking applications. UIKit is pretty detailed. 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…

Also, a programmer who can't design is able to release an ugly, but functional application. A designer who can't program will only make a beautiful but useless design. In this case I think the programmer has the advantage. Though my philosophy is to learn both.

> Though my philosophy is to learn both.

How many of your friends are designers or artists?

Re: How I Made $19,000 on the App Store While Learning to Code

#63

Post by [deleted] »

watmough wrote: post #45
nathanbarry wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it makes you feel any better I wrote another simple app and have only made $15 from it.

My HP-41C has made maybe $5 so far. ROFL! edit: Just adding the name in case anyone wants to buy it; Calc41C. The source is up on github.com/watmough

[deleted]

Re: How I Made $19,000 on the App Store While Learning to Code

#64

Post by gawker »

Congratulations Nathan! I'm extremely encouraged to hear about your success - especially since it's an application that addresses a real need and helps create value in society. I'm really inspired that you can do good in this world and make some money at the same time. Thanks so much!

Re: How I Made $19,000 on the App Store While Learning to Code

#65

Post by wanorris »

_delirium wrote: post #58
matwood wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only $190? I made about $1k with a small learning app I put up. The goal was just to recoup the developer fee and it made more than that. I still get $5-$10 from Apple deposited in my account every so often :)

$190 is probably even high for an "average" app. Plenty of $1 apps languish with sales that round to zero. Either they're no good, or they have too much competition, or they have insufficient marketing so nobody knows they exist, or they got unlucky somehow (bad choice of name, who knows).

Actually rather than being unlucky, I think it would be more correct to say that they failed to get lucky somehow. In the absence of doing something right (promotion, naming, hitting a niche at the right time, having other successful apps by the same developer) or getting lucky (being featured by Apple or a blog, etc.), I expect the natural state of an app is to have sales that round to zero.

With hundreds of thousands of apps in the App Store, it's not much different from building a random website and expecting people to somehow just show up.

Re: How I Made $19,000 on the App Store While Learning to Code

#66

Post by brador »

wallflower wrote: post #59
brador wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You may laugh, but this is exactly the type of story we need to hear more about to balance the super hype around apps. Yeah, you could hit gold, but with a random roll you're much more likely to fire a dud. Anyone else with a crap-app story?

It is not a crap-app story per se, but I and many other developers I know have made all of our money from client work, not a dollar from the app store. Since we manage the provisioning etc. for the client and walk them through the initial paperwork, no one ever knows who built the (admittedly sometimes faddy) app. We do build our own apps but just for fun and personal use.

Serious question, if I outsource my app idea to be made elsewhere through a freelanceer or agency, should I be worried? How would I protect myself here? NDA?

Re: How I Made $19,000 on the App Store While Learning to Code

#67

Post by pkamb »

nathanbarry wrote: post #37
robflynn wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Yeah, that was me. That Reddit thread was a lot of fun.

Link? What subreddit did you post on?

Re: How I Made $19,000 on the App Store While Learning to Code

#68

Post by wallflower »

brador wrote: post #66
wallflower wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is not a crap-app story per se, but I and many other developers I know have made all of our money from client work, not a dollar from the app store. Since we manage the provisioning etc. for the client and walk them through the initial paperwork, no one ever knows who built the (admittedly sometimes faddy) app. We do build our own apps but just for fun and personal use.

Serious question, if I outsource my app idea to be made elsewhere through a freelanceer or agency, should I be worried? How would I protect myself here? NDA?

Trust is important. Go with your instinct (this is why a face to face meeting, if only initially, is so important - you cannot evaluate someone virtually, the nuances get airbrushed over). Basically, if we were to screw a client, the grapevine would know. Relationships are everything and that is why we get work that others could do 80 to 90 percent of.

We do sign NDAs from time to time. But really most of those NDAs are to protect the client from us revealing we did the work.

Truly unique ideas, you will need to build your own trusted network. And sell the developers on the idea (they will not commit just for money, you want to capture their heart).

Re: How I Made $19,000 on the App Store While Learning to Code

#69

Post by Mike_Nelson »

k-mcgrady wrote: post #46
nupark2 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Our average individual software engineer salary is around $10k/month, not factoring in insurance, payroll taxes, office space expenses, etc.

But he is working on your terms. It's a choice between working at home, without a boss, on anything you like. Or working for someone, on a specific project or piece of code. Also, I doubt you would pay a guy just getting started learning objective-c $10k/month :)

if you do pay $10k/month for entry level skills my email is....

:P

Re: How I Made $19,000 on the App Store While Learning to Code

#70

Post by baconner »

newobj wrote: post #17

Reminds me, I should write my own story of how I made $190 on the App Store while exercising 15 years of coding experience.

I said almost the exact same thing in December when my first android app only made $150 in 5 months.

Hang in there. I took that as education time, improved my marketing and added a new app, and now its more like 350/m avg. Its no business but not bad for a few weekends building apps I wanted for myself.

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