How a B4A developer made £15,000 from an Android app

lemonisdead

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Yes Luca, I knew it was not your app. I was congratulating, Adam :)

In 2058... I should be younger enough to congratulate you and install your app on my LazerDroidProOfTheFuture ;)
 
treehousefrog

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Hey guys! That's me :) Thanks for sharing the link and for the congrats! And good luck with your app Luca!

The money actually came from this app and from the various different versions: I made a phone version and two 'split screen versions'. The 15,000 was a total from all that. But yeah it was before tax!

The sales have really slowed down now on all versions of the app sadly, but I'm currently working on a launcher with the YouTuber 'ColdfusTion' if any of you know his stuff? Here's a link:


He's fantastic at design and has really come up with something cool, so fingers crossed that one will be another hit :)
 
IanMc

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That is so inspirational! Welldone Adam!

I am thinking that Google Subscriptions is the way to go because you make one app, you sell it for one price, people buy it once then sales die down.

We need a way to build up our businesses so if you make an app and give it away for free you'll get lots of downloads but people can subscribe for a dollar to get the extra functionality and a dollar is not going to break the bank.

Of course that dollar only lasts for one month but that's plenty of time for the users to decide if they want to keep on subscribing and you can do a special offer, a year for ten dollars.

I'd love to hear your views on the idea (I'm sure lots of people are already doing it).

I expect many will think that a dollar per month, no-ones going to fall for that but they already have the app installed and its right there in the menu so maybe they will.

When the subscription runs out it just reverts to free mode, they can still use it, subscribe at any time, subscriptions accumulate etc.

If the app turns out to be a success then the next stage when you next update the app is to have the server that takes the subscription payments to not be Google Subscriptions to shake yourself loose from them stealing 30% of your hard work :)

I think the secret to success is a series of hooks, firstly you hooked them into installing your app because it was free, then you hooked them into subscribing for a dollar for a month to try out the extras, then your extras are so good that they continually subscribe or go for the one year ten dollar option.

So we all become hookers :)
 
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canalrun

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I've been trying to come up with a solution that follows this methodology for long time. I agree a subscription approach makes sense. In the USA we have recurring billing that automatically charge to the credit card at some interval (monthly, quarterly, yearly). I don't know if the UK allows this.

Some companies use recurring billing hoping that the customer will forget that he's paying for subscription. Others say "Cancel any time", but then make it impossible to contact support to cancel.

When I tried something like this couple years ago Google had just come out with subscriptions and the recurring charge capability was limited in some way – I forget how exactly.

I always run in to the same two same problems:
1) Finding and owning the rights to the content, or having the functionality that someone is willing to pay for on a recurring basis.
2) Promotion. Making people aware that the app exists.

When I mention paying for an app to people I frequently get the response, "There is no way I would pay for an app".

Otherwise, I wish I could find something to sell on a subscription basis.

Barry.
 
LucaMs

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This type of discourse has been addressed many times. (yuck, sorry for "our" bad English).

I think we should investigate the methods used by big SWHs.

Some of us should "do the mole" ("fare la talpa" I hope it makes sense in English) in swh that have produced successful apps and study their business strategies.


Two other options:
a) stop thinking about being able to have success with the sale of an app that has cost us blood.
b) "So we all become hookers" (#9)
 
canalrun

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LucaMs said:
This type of discourse has been addressed many times. (yuck, sorry for "our" bad English).

I think we should investigate the methods used by big SWHs.

Some of us should "do the mole" ("fare la talpa" I hope it makes sense in English) in swh that have produced successful apps and study their business strategies.
Click to expand...

I'm guilty of starting a few of those discourse threads. I am intrigued by the business aspects of app development. I'll make an attempt to start "doing the mole" by quoting some of the points from Adam's article. My hope is to initiate a discussion – I don't claim to know that this is what makes the world spin. I include some of my observations below – $0.02.

1) "My app was selling for $1.20 at the time – about 70p – and 40p of that I would keep after Google took their cut. x50 and that would be £20 for the day."
2) "What really made the difference this time though was the idea behind the app itself."
2.1) "... but I landed here on an app concept that people were looking for a lot but which there was currently no competition for."
2.2) "Then Samsung started releasing phones with split-screen functionality which only increased the amount of people searching for something similar and finding their way to my app."
2.3) "So I was fortunate enough to fill a need to such an extent that my app was almost an ‘event’ rather than just ‘another app’ and that it could promote itself."
2.4 "It’s also worth noting that this idea wasn’t so much a ‘light bulb moment’ as a gradual progression."
3) "Tip: Make the name of your app something that people are going to search and something that is self explanatory."
4) "Another Tip: Don’t give your app away for free. Ads make barely any money for apps unless your app is Angry Birds."
5) "This led to me making hundreds of little tweaks that really weren’t necessary and in some cases driving away users. I also definitely could have polished the app a little more before releasing it."
6) "I also should have made some effort to market the app."
Click to expand...

1) That level of sales would make me happy.
2) I think the idea is key. His app solves a real problem many people were experiencing. At the time there was no competition.
4) I go back and forth on whether free with advertising versus paid is better, but for advertising to work a high volume of users is required. If I can scale up the volume of users five or 10 times on several apps I have, the earnings from ads would be more satisfactory. People have said to me, "There is no way I would pay for an app."
3 and 6) When I tell people about some of my apps, they usually say, "ooh, that's a good idea" (maybe they're just being polite) and one friend actually came to me and said, "I found one of your apps. It's useful." I think getting people to know that an app even exists is a huge problem.

Barry.
 
LucaMs

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I did not mean to say that this is a subject uninteresting, quite the contrary.

I meant to say that I do not think we have found the best solution.

Finding the unique and revolutionary idea can happen to a person of 1,000,000 every 10 years, I'm afraid.

In the Italian forum, one our friend, UDG, explains that he does not know at Google Play, while developing and being expert (this is my addition).
He sells a service related to its app, a subscription; the cost of the app is relatively important.

His apps are highly customized, so he does not sell through Google Play.
However, the concept of selling a subscription is interesting; moreover it rend useless any illegal copy of the app.
 
canalrun

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I agree with all of this.

Selling or licensing a customized app to a specific user (A database app to a company for example) where the user can quantify the usefulness of the app is a good solution.

I also like the idea of subscriptions. These can generate recurring income. I look at the features that enticed me subscribe to computer related products over the years. Additional features provided to subscribers and regularly updated content influenced my decision to subscribe. The subscription logic can be defeated, but providing regular app updates with changes to the subscription logic and new features can make using an older, defeated version unappealing.

Relying on ad generated income works to some extent. It is recurring income, but requires a significant number of users to be worthwhile.

Selling an app out-right only generates a single income event, but that single event may be greater than the cumulative income for that single user's contribution of ad generated income. The logic for enforcing sold copies of an app can be defeated, but again updated versions with additional features can make using a defeated copy not worthwhile.

Hacked (or defeated) versions of an app can be thought of as free advertising. Somebody who gets hold of a defeated copy might purchase the newer version to get it's additional features.

Barry.
 
S

susu

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Congratulations Adam!

My B4A apps made more than $100,000 just by showing ads (it took about 3 years). Last month, Google deleted my account for sh!tty reason. So I'll take a rest before I come back to battle field.
 
canalrun

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Congrats! I'd consider that a solid Win.

What type of apps where these? Educational, games, tools, business-oriented, something else?

Who was your target audience? Child or teen educational, young adult, older adult?
 
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susu

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My highest revenue from a Media/Entertainment app. It's unique at the time I publish it. It got more than 2 million downloads until the day Google kill my account. My target is everyone and they're almost from my country. I only had one option is using ads to make money because Google didn't allow we sell app from my country (they just support my country a few months ago).
 
I

Inman

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Did Google kill your Admob/Adsense account or Android developer account?
 
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susu

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I used Admob in my apps about 1 year then Google warn me that Admob can't be serve ads in 1 app anymore. I changed to another ad network and it worked great. Last month they sent me 2 emails at once then killed my developer account immediately. Surprisingly, my Admob account still works, I even can use Admob in 2 apps that never published to Google Play.
 
Computersmith64

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susu said:
I used Admob in my apps about 1 year then Google warn me that Admob can't be serve ads in 1 app anymore. I changed to another ad network and it worked great. Last month they sent me 2 emails at once then killed my developer account immediately. Surprisingly, my Admob account still works, I even can use Admob in 2 apps that never published to Google Play.
Click to expand...
So this is a bit of a worry. Why did they kill your developer account? Also, why did they tell you that you can't use AdMob in your app any more? The reason it concerns me is that I switched my apps to AdMob in May & since then have made over $25K from ads. I'd be really bummed if they decided to kill either my AdMob or developer accounts - so I'm interested to know what reasons they give for this.

Thanks - Colin.
 
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