

Bootstrapping a $30k profit/month company from our internship earnings (Part 4) - n9com
http://blog.fiplab.com/70617419

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scottchin
Really enjoyed these posts/discussion. Here are the HN discussions to the
first three parts of this series:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2955214> (Part 1)

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2965929> (Part 2)

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2978598> (Part 3)

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adamjernst
Good for these guys for having hustle, working hard, and making a product
people want.

Still, I can't help but think these "Facetab for Facebook" apps are kind of
scammy; it's basically squatting on Facebook's name on the App Store. Try
taking "Facebook" out of the app's title (leaving it in the description) and
see how sales do. Overall, I'm conflicted.

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n9com
Thanks for your comment.

Actually, when the app was No.1 overall on the App Store, it was just called
'FaceTab' - as evident in the screenshots on the blog post itself. We only
added 'for Facebook' to the name in version 2.0 in response to competition.

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muhfuhkuh
I listened to the App Teardown[1] podcast the Fiplab team started with Colin
Plamondon (of "Free Books" app and HN fame), and it drills down on some of the
basics of App store marketing. Good supplement to this series!

[1]<http://www.appteardown.com>

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twakefield
The new age street market merchants. If you don't hustle, you don't make it.
My favorite quote of the post:

"The App Store is a most vicious yet glorious technological battlefield, where
your apps are your soldiers. One can either moan, shut shop and disappear when
their soldiers are hit, or one can ruthlessly battle it out till the end with
every last one of them."

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fjordan
I'd like to hear more about the development of these applications. Any chance
you'll provide an interview with your developer?

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pkamb
Do you have any advice/insight into picking a category for your app? I've
noticed that some of the rarer categories are pretty dead... is the easier
path to the top-10 more advantageous than a 'properly' categorized app? How
much leeway does Apple give you in picking a category?

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n9com
It's all about visibility so try to pick a related category that is popular.
Apple are pretty flexible with what category you place your app.

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leon_
Interesting what a huge difference the category makes. In the US-music
category it's enough to sell ~15 copies/day to enter the top 5.

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phil
That's not true.

The #5 paid app in US Music right now is I Am T-Pain, which is the 116th most
popular paid app overall.

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muhfuhkuh
And at this point in the app stores evolution, that ranking is worth at least
500 sales a day and that's going on older sales-to-rank data.

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n9com
pretty sure Leon_ is talking about the Mac App Store, not iOS.

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leon_
Yes. I forgot to mention that as the original submission is about the Mac App
Store.

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ahoyhere
Great read. As somebody else said: yay for hustle.

What I wonder is if these guys have a contingency plan for when this
particular app fad dies out. With consumer-facing apps especially, this seems
like a huge danger.

