
Developer Earns Nearly $1,400 in One Day With iAds - illumin8
http://www.macrumors.com/2010/07/08/developer-earns-nearly-1400-in-one-day-with-iads/
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czhiddy
I imagine this is happening:

1) New iPhone 4 owner downloads a free flashlight app. Plays around with the
one-button interface, gets bored.

2) Notices iAd, clicks on it.

3) Navigates around the ad more than he/she does the app.

I don't see the $1400/day revenue lasting much longer for this developer. If
the user launches the flashlight app in the future, they'll just use the
flashlight and quit. I doubt many people will actually touch the ads when
they're searching for stuff in the dark.

~~~
st3fan
It is all about volume and new iPhone sales. I'm sure it will last. Until
there are 20 other LED Flashlight apps in the store. THAT will kill its
revenues.

~~~
czhiddy
I think as the novelty of iAds wears off, the number of people who view them
in otherwise empty apps will drop significantly. People who use the flashlight
app could care less what was on the screen when all they want is the back to
light up.

Considering implementing an LED flashlight is literally like 20 lines of code
and a few .png files, I'm amused at how many (incredibly shoddily written)
paid versions exist. I wonder what goes through a customer's head as he/she
scrolls through pages of free versions to buy a $0.99 flashlight.

~~~
Hexstream
"I wonder what goes through a customer's head as he/she scrolls through pages
of free versions to buy a $0.99 flashlight."

" _It's infinitely more expensive! It must be infinitely better!!!_ "

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jrockway
$1400/day for applying power to a LED. Well done.

~~~
colinprince
From the macrumors comments:

 _This developer earned $1,400 from serving adds to people who are standing in
the dark holding their iPhone at arm's length so they can use it as a
flashlight. Somehow I don't think the advertisers are getting their money's
worth on that one._

hehe

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billybob
Is this indicative of a trend, or of users going "hey, I've never seen an ad
here before, what's that all about?"

~~~
holman
It's a huge rate, that's for sure. I'm sure it's due to the reasons you
mentioned- these ads will remain viable for some time. The actual rate paid
out is likely not sustainable, though. Same thing happened to AdSense when it
launched- those who got into the private beta in April/May/June were doing
gangbusters until the market settled down after that summer.

~~~
omarchowdhury
Yeah same thing happened with Yahoo's Publisher Network. People were getting
paid $3-8 a click for finance ads on myspace layout websites.

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gojomo
Might this app be winning installs as the first iAd demo -- with its LED
flashlight feature merely an afterthought?

And, are the ads for physical flashlights? Carrots?

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larsberg
That's madness! I was happy when my eCPM would get around $3 back with AdMob
in my old iPhone apps.

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illumin8
Sorry, I just realized this was a duplicate of the original HN post. I believe
it does add to the discussion, however, because I was unable to access the
Dropbox hosted image from work, yet it is compiled clearly in this article
with additional information.

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aresant
In case anybody wants to download the app itself:

[http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftwa...](http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=379753015&mt=8)

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GVRV
Is CTR actually clicking the ad and going to the advertiser's webpage or just
interacting with the ad? If it's just like normal CTR, I don't see how iAds
could result in a better performance. Maybe people like to play the mini-
games, but no one would click through just because they liked the interactive
aspect. The only reason to click through would either be curiosity or actual
interest. Sure there's one developer who earned a jackpot, but what's the
average payout for developers using iAds?

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dminor
So does Apple charge a flat $2/click to all advertisers?

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rmoriz
duplicate of <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1496742>

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simplegeek
Please pardon my ignorance, but what is iAds?

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stingraycharles
iAds is the new mobile advertising platform from Apple.

See: <http://advertising.apple.com/>

~~~
simplegeek
Thanks. Also, apologies I should have Googled that first ;)

