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My First Year in the App Store

trevormckendrick.com

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Re: My First Year in the App Store

#61

Post by Felix21 »

andrewljohnson wrote: post #22

Whenever anyone complains to me that its hard to make money on software, and/or the App Store is rigged, I always tell them I think anyone can make a living by making a bible app. You don't even have to be the best one, just pretty good, and iterate - it's the canonical product that you know has a big audience, willing buyers, and poor competition on the low end of the market. Case proven by this guy! The next time y…

Perhaps the best thing about this is that you released a "good enough" (not PERFECT) first product.

Too many people don't try because they don't have the resources to make their apps as awesome as they want it to be right out of the gate.

Just get it out there. If people find it useful it'll gain traction and you'll get the resources you need to make it awesome.

Re: My First Year in the App Store

#62

Post by trevmckendrick »

Felix21 wrote: post #61
andrewljohnson wrote: post #22

Whenever anyone complains to me that its hard to make money on software, and/or the App Store is rigged, I always tell them I think anyone can make a living by making a bible app. You don't even have to be the best one, just pretty good, and iterate - it's the canonical product that you know has a big audience, willing buyers, and poor competition on the low end of the market. Case proven by this guy! The next time y…

Perhaps the best thing about this is that you released a "good enough" (not PERFECT) first product. Too many people don't try because they don't have the resources to make their apps as awesome as they want it to be right out of the gate. Just get it out there. If people find it useful it'll gain traction and you'll get the resources you need to make it awesome.

+100

Re: My First Year in the App Store

#63

Post by zerr »

Felix21 wrote: post #60
zerr wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but what about those "lucky" developers who live in countries where selling apps is not available in both - apple appstore and google play markets? Are there any other channels for selling apps? I "Ask HN"-ed this but didn't get much attention...

Why not make a web app? and make it responsive for mobile users? Or have a friend in say the UK submit it for you

Got your point, but web app is a different story. I want to simply put the paid app on the app store.

The thing is, it is not only for the submission, but one needs to have, for instance, address, bank account... So you would have to ask your friend quite often, which is not comfortable and scalable.

EDIT: @ambiate - Sorry, didn't get your question, could you please clarify.

Re: My First Year in the App Store

#64

Post by trevmckendrick »

monkey_slap wrote: post #56
ronyeh wrote: post #53

Congrats on the success! Can you share a link to your app? Also, do you think the only way to get discovered (for indie devs) is to pick app ideas that will match nicely to keywords that users search for? If you don't have a marketing budget, is there any other way to get discovered?

I'm going to be doing a similar writeup as my app launches in 2 weeks. I've got a small budget. All the design+dev was me, but I'm spending about $300-$400 on marketing. We'll see how that goes. If anything I believe you should be spending more on marketing nowadays. There's no real way, at least to my knowledge, to search for a niche hole with keywords. I do, however, like to think of an app idea and then spend an h…

I agree it's hard to do really detailed research similar to, say, the Google Keyword Tool. It's mostly a gut check. "Does this have a lot of competition? Does this keyword appear to get a lot of searches?"

What's your app name?

Re: My First Year in the App Store

#66

Post by ambiate »

zerr wrote: post #63
Felix21 wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not make a web app? and make it responsive for mobile users? Or have a friend in say the UK submit it for you

Got your point, but web app is a different story. I want to simply put the paid app on the app store. The thing is, it is not only for the submission, but one needs to have, for instance, address, bank account... So you would have to ask your friend quite often, which is not comfortable and scalable. EDIT: @ambiate - Sorry, didn't get your question, could you please clarify.

Are you telling me there is a market for laundering apps from the app store?

Re: My First Year in the App Store

#67

Post by ujsfdo »

trevmckendrick wrote: post #29
schrodinger wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you develop it yourself, or outsource it?

I did the initial mockups by hand and some of the debugging. Other than that all outsourced.

Would you care to throw the offshore team some love by posting who they are? I have a web service and would love to use them if it cost $500.

Re: My First Year in the App Store

#68

Post by speedyapoc »

Very surprised by that type of revenue. What kind of marketing did you put into it?

Without marketing, my first app on the store went as follows:

> The next morning (and literally every day since) I woke up and first thing checked my email for that magical message from AppFigures. My total day one net sales? $0.70. Admittedly not very much.

Re: My First Year in the App Store

#69

Post by victorhn »

zerr wrote: post #54
andrewljohnson wrote: post #22

Whenever anyone complains to me that its hard to make money on software, and/or the App Store is rigged, I always tell them I think anyone can make a living by making a bible app. You don't even have to be the best one, just pretty good, and iterate - it's the canonical product that you know has a big audience, willing buyers, and poor competition on the low end of the market. Case proven by this guy! The next time y…

Yes, but what about those "lucky" developers who live in countries where selling apps is not available in both - apple appstore and google play markets? Are there any other channels for selling apps? I "Ask HN"-ed this but didn't get much attention...

Is there a site where i can see what countries this is not available? (i googled but found nothing)
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