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Ask HN: How much recurring income do you generate, and from what?

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Re: Ask HN: How much recurring income do you generate, and from what?

#111
post #50

Between $1450 and $1650 a month from ads on Android apps. One app does about $1100 a month, another does $325 and the rest collectively maybe $150.

Do you think ads are a better way to make money than charging for the app?

It depends on the app, the needs and desires of the development team etc.

I do not focus on game apps, but when I did a few the ad click through rate was very low for them. So if I was doing games, I might look for a different revenue model. Pay apps, freemium etc.

It depends on the specific app. Some are better with an ad based revenue model, some are better when sold. European car navigation apps used to sell well. On the other hand, some simple flashlight apps with ads have also done well. So you can make money either way, and which way depends on the circumstances.

I should also say I have seen some new developers release their first app as paid and they make few if any sales. Unless you already have existing business knowledge of a specific area, for most new Android developers, they are usually better off releasing their first app quickly and for free.

Re: Ask HN: How much recurring income do you generate, and from what?

#112
$2000/month from free Android apps.

I just copied existing apps on android like Logo Quiz, 4 pics 1 word etc. that were number 1 in the play store. Just took 24h to rebuild this apps, since they're quite simple. Did that around 10 times.

Admob makes $500/month, Airpush $1,500/month.

However, Google just shut down Airpush push notifications, so the latter is now gone. ha.

Re: Ask HN: How much recurring income do you generate, and from what?

#113
post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I use adblock too - even on my own site ;) I was thinking maybe I would make a tunes.io android app and sell it for a buck just to see what happens.

I'll tell you what will happen. I would pay for it! tunes.io is great!

Thanks! Tell your friends ;)

Re: Ask HN: How much recurring income do you generate, and from what?

#115

I make between 5-10k a month on my apps and book. (It depends on the season. Summer and Christmas are best.) http://buildanappbusiness.com/ https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/30-south-llc/id331245760

Your book site uses the same theme as an old book of mine no longer selling! Nice landing page though isn't it? :) Also, my latest book sells nowhere near that amount. How are you marketing if you don't mind me asking?

The book is actually a tiny portion of those sales. I'm one of those rare guys that makes money off the thing the book is about and not that much teaching people about it. It does make some though so I include it in the calculations.

Mostly I haven't done much marketing for it outside of my blog so far. I've been toying with some other ideas for it, but I haven't really had the time to devote to it. Mostly it's just a side project I've had fun with.

Re: Ask HN: How much recurring income do you generate, and from what?

#116

I've made about $3k a month in semi-passive income from my codecanyon portfolio in 2013. I call it semi-passive income because I have to spend some time on support each day, but it usually doesn't take more than 30 minutes. EDIT: My portfolio http://codecanyon.net/user/23andwalnut/portfolio

I sell on codecanyon as well though only make around $300 a month right now. I have almost the same number of items as you do yet can't seem to get the visibility. Do you have any tips you can share? Also, completely agree about the semi-passive! Lots of questions to deal with daily.

In my experience quality sells. Quality code. Quality feature set. And most importantly, quality design. I think a lot of items on codecanyon neglect the design aspect and therefore don't sell as much as they could.

Also, I've been somewhat lucky in that almost all of my items have been featured. This probably has something to due with how much time I spend on design - at least 40% of my total development time is design. Feel free to email me with a link to your portfolio if you want some specific pointers...

Re: Ask HN: How much recurring income do you generate, and from what?

#117
post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Telling people that you should blog makes it actually less likely that you will actually do it. Read that on some psychology website once. ;)

Anyone recognize this phenomenon by name or have a link?

most people are familiar with this notion due to this post: http://sivers.org/zipit

tl;dr “Symbolic Self-Completion"

Re: Ask HN: How much recurring income do you generate, and from what?

#118
post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Telling people that you should blog makes it actually less likely that you will actually do it. Read that on some psychology website once. ;)

Anyone recognize this phenomenon by name or have a link?

http://sivers.org/zipit

Also a TED Talk by the same guy: http://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_keep_your_goals_to_you...

Re: Ask HN: How much recurring income do you generate, and from what?

#120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am also wondering about this. I have an app selling at $0.99 and make a couple hundred per month in sales. It's hard for me to project how much ad revenue I could make, especially since I don't know how many additional people would use it if it were free.

Is your app for Android or iOS?

Both iOS and Android.
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