

How I Went From 0 to $50k on the App Store(s) - clarky07
http://www.entrelife.com/2012/05/how-i-went-from-0-to-50k-on-app-stores.html

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pkteison
I really like the 'I tried this, I tried that, here's why and what I was
thinking and what I concluded and also this went wrong' approach. Just wish it
also discussed the marketing side of things, but maybe that's another post.

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clarky07
I probably should have included more on the marketing side. It probably
deserves another post, but the short version is I didn't include it because
nothing I've tried really contributed to much of the success.

I mentioned it a bit in the article, but from my experience and that of many
devs I've talked with the best money spent is on design. Put the money you
planned on spending on marketing into the best designer you can afford.

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jakejake
Cool, interesting to see some numbers from a simple app like a battery app.
I've been curious about that especially after seeing some like flashlight apps
for $0.99 but with tens of thousands of reviews. I tell myself that I don't
want to bother releasing an app like that since I perceive them of little
value. But if it is getting good reviews and also manages to make one indie
developer a lot of money then they must be doing something right.

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ja27
Great job so far. I'm doing something similar - building a full-time income
from the app store(s) - but I'm only two months into it.

Are you considering raising the price on Debt Snowball+? It seems like it
gives enough value to support a $1.99 or $2.99 price without cutting sales so
much that you'd earn less.

Have you thought about packing some more keywords into the app name, like
"Debt Snowball+ - Pay off your debt faster"? Maybe that would help climb above
the other apps in that niche.

I don't know if you considered "envelope" and "envelopes" as keywords. Not
sure how much traffic they get, but it looks like your competitors use them.

I like the screenshot graphics. Hadn't thought of tilting the phone like that.

I like the targeting of micro niches separately by having essentially the same
core GPS app built and marketed for different purposes.

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tseabrooks
Apple has started rejecting apps for packing keywords into app names.

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ja27
I know but the app store is full of apps with a short description after the
actual short name. They've allowed all of mine. Just keep it short and
reasonable and it's a way to get more keywords in.

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nanijoe
What does the 50k refer to ? Money or downloads? How long did it take to
achieve this? Thanks for the post btw

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clarky07
Money. $50,000 in 1 year. Edited title to reflect that it is $

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zafriedman
Just out of curiosity, how does your battery app make $50 a month?

EDIT: Just finished reading the whole thing and I have some additional
questions:

You don't talk much about customer development, at least not directly. Does
this mean that in your experience you've found that reviews in the App Store
are a good enough proxy for soliciting customer feedback? Or did you just
leave that part out for one reason or another?

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clarky07
If you are asking in general, I have no idea. lol. If you are asking specific
monetization there is a paid app for .99 and a free app with ads in it. Most
of that is from the ads in the free app.

If I wanted to I could probably redo the graphics now and actually make
significantly more. There are a few apps that do the same thing that make some
real money. I just did this a test when I was first learning about the app
store and I don't find it to be interesting so haven't put any time or money
into it. I just find it interesting that it still gets downloaded every day
and makes enough money in a month for a decent meal :-)

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bignoggins
good stuff. always good to hear other app success stories.

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robot
Debt Snowball UI looks very good. Who did the UI design?

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clarky07
Thanks. My design partner did a great job with it.

<http://www.slimkiwi.com/>

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dmragone
Maybe I missed it, but what is the axis on your chart?

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clarky07
dollars per day. I left out the specific numbers, but you can get an idea from
the total.

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yashchandra
Thanks. This is awesome.

