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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

#131

Post by philbarr »

brador wrote: post #55
watmough wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

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?

Sure - and I wrote a blog post about it: http://philbarr.blogspot.com/2011/11/experience-and-lessons-....

End of first week and I've made a full $0.40. Woop!

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

#133

Post by nathanbarry »

lizzard wrote: post #121
Torn wrote: post #10

What 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?

That was my first thought as well. People with disabilities aren't exactly rolling in cash. I think it's great you're not exploiting desperate people to the same extent the people entrenched in the medical-industrial complex are, but imagine... what if you released it much, much cheaper? How many people would you help then? Or even did it as a kickstarter and open-sourced it and put it out for free. Then people with…

I've struggled with this a lot. But ultimately I decided I want to create the best product possible, and charging more helps me do that. If I gave it away for free I wouldn't have the financial ability to focus on it and put in the time to make it better.

Thanks for the feedback.

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

#134

Post by nathanbarry »

erikb wrote: post #130

This kind of story always reads like a financial fail. He should pay himself a normal programmers salary (something around 50k/year for a beginner might be fine, also he is not a beginner, because he knows a lot about presentation and UX design) and THEN calculate his profits. Probably this App is way in the minus. Also you must consider that he just has around 1k customers and all of them on the same plattform. Also…

You are right in a so many ways. From a business perspective it isn't the best model (I am looking for ways to add recurring revenue), I probably made minimum wage if you break down my time, and I don't have many customers.

But here's what I do have: emails from customers every single week saying how what I built is changing the lives of their child. Does anything else matter beyond that?

I'm working on something I care deeply about and am able to still provide for my family while doing it. That's the position I want to be in.

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

#135

Post by roel_v »

lizzard wrote: post #121
Torn wrote: post #10

What 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?

That was my first thought as well. People with disabilities aren't exactly rolling in cash. I think it's great you're not exploiting desperate people to the same extent the people entrenched in the medical-industrial complex are, but imagine... what if you released it much, much cheaper? How many people would you help then? Or even did it as a kickstarter and open-sourced it and put it out for free. Then people with…

"and think about it politically and where you want to make your profits from."

What, do you want him to not make the app at all and work on enterprise software?

Your comment is so short-sighted it annoys me in multiple ways. All this whining about how things that make the lifes of people better should be cheaper cheaper cheaper or free - guess what, if he sold it for 5$ he wouldn't spend any time on developing it further. You don't ask doctors to work for free either, do you? Or otherwise, why don't you take a few months out of your own life to make something that others will find useful?

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

#136

Post by damoncali »

jamesbritt wrote: post #73
qq66 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spotting commercial opportunities is its own skill. Any experienced programmer could have made the v1 of Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, etc... but figuring out that people need that is nontrivial.

Is that how it works, or do lots of people build lots of things, and when a tiny handful of them go big the creators are retroactivley deemed prescient?

A lot of it is that the people build things they know will work (rather than things they think will work) tend to succeed more often. (At least in my own admittedly anecdotal experience) The hard work of research, initial sales and market validation is later retroactively glossed over as "vision" by onlookers.

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

#137

Post by damoncali »

brador wrote: post #55
watmough wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

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?

The first web app I ever built (about 6 years ago) was related to sharing photos of home design and architecture. I got something like 4 signups, and it was free...

Being my first effort, I did everything wrong. Too many features, delayed launching, awful code, unrealistic traffic expectations, fear of billing systems (probably warranted at the time) - pretty much everything.

But... not giving up too easily, I tried selling links on the site. (I had no traffic, so ads were a bust. I figured it might have some SEO value). Turns out that's not a bad niche for that sort of thing, and the site wound up making a few hundred dollars a month in link sales. That has since dried up (across every site on which I've sold links - I think Google is figuring this out), but it was nice that it wasn't a total waste of time, financially speaking.

Every stinker is a step forward.

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

#138

Post by marknutter »

nathanbarry wrote: post #134
erikb wrote: post #130

This kind of story always reads like a financial fail. He should pay himself a normal programmers salary (something around 50k/year for a beginner might be fine, also he is not a beginner, because he knows a lot about presentation and UX design) and THEN calculate his profits. Probably this App is way in the minus. Also you must consider that he just has around 1k customers and all of them on the same plattform. Also…

You are right in a so many ways. From a business perspective it isn't the best model (I am looking for ways to add recurring revenue), I probably made minimum wage if you break down my time, and I don't have many customers. But here's what I do have: emails from customers every single week saying how what I built is changing the lives of their child. Does anything else matter beyond that? I'm working on something I c…

And there really is nothing to fear. You can supplement that income by building apps for other people in their spare time now that you have a valuable skill. There's no reason you can't have it both ways.

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

#140

Post by dextorious »

nupark2 wrote: post #39
k-mcgrady wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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

Good for you. Not having to tolerate micromanagers and pointy haired bosses? Priceless. Also the world is not America. $20,000 can feel more like $100,000 in another country. Tons of competent programmers working 12 hour days, 6 days a week, make like 1400 dollars per month (exc insurance) in my country --if they are lucky.
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