
Help HN: The Exhaustive List of App Monetization Methods (w/Links!!) - Terpaholic
Post is too big to fit into the text box so I'll put it in the comments :)
======
creativeone
Tap2print (<http://www.tap2print.com>) Custom API to allow for printing and
fulfillment of almost anything from content in your app.

------
Terpaholic
I had difficulty monetizing my app and gathered a lot of links I think might
be useful to other people. Let's build the best list of ways to monetize apps!
I'll update this list regularly with info from the comments.

 _Categories_

 _Free To User_

1) Ad Networks (Banner Ads)

2) Affiliate and CPA (Pay When User Installs Other App)

 _Cost To User_

3) Paid Apps (Charge upfront for the app)

4) In-App-Purchase Approaches (Currency, Unlocking Features, Freemium)

5) Subscription (Recurring Data Updates, SAAS)

 _Misc_

6) Facebook

7) Sponsors (Dedicated advertisers)

8) Email Lists (Alternative monetization method)

9) Merchandise (Works if the app has strong characters)

10) ?? Coming Soon ??

 _1\. Ad Networks_

Please share your experiences so this can become an ordered list with the best
at the top.

1) TapJoy (<http://developers.tapjoy.com/boost-your-revenue/>)

2) AdMob (<http://www.google.com/ads/admob/>)

3) iAds (<http://advertising.apple.com/developers/>)

4) Adfonic (<http://adfonic.com/mobile-advertising-services/publishers/>)

5) Smaato (<http://www.smaato.com/developers/>)

6) InMobi (<http://www.inmobi.com/developers/>)

7) LeadBolt (<http://www.leadbolt.com/developers.php>)

8) Millenial Media (<http://www.millennialmedia.com/monetize/>)

9) MobYD (<http://www.mobyd.com/Developers>)

10) Trademob (<http://www.trademob.com/>)

11) Madvertise (<http://madvertise.com/en/>)

12) BuzzCity (<http://www.buzzcity.com/f/pubdev>)

13) AdModa (<http://www.admoda.com/?page_id=26>)

14) Mojiva ([http://www.mojiva.com/mobile-advertising/monetize-your-
mobil...](http://www.mojiva.com/mobile-advertising/monetize-your-mobile-app))

15) Hunt Mobile Ads (<http://www.huntmads.com/soy-un-developer>)

16) Greystripe (<http://www.greystripe.com/>)

17) Madhouse (<http://www.madhouse.cn/en/>)

18) Jumptap (<http://www.jumptap.com/developers/>)

19) Mobile Theory (<http://mobiletheory.com/developers/>)

20) Microsoft Mobile Advertising (<http://advertising.microsoft.com/mobile>)

21) xAd (<http://www.xad.com/publisher>)

22) YP (AT&T) (<http://corporate.yp.com/>)

23) Tapgage (<http://www.tapgage.com/>)

24) Aditic (<http://www.aditic.com/index.php/en/publishers.html>)

25) iPhone Alliance (<http://www.iphonealliance.com/>)

26) Mobclix (<http://www.mobclix.com/developers-faqs.html>)

27) Vdopia (<http://mobile.vdopia.com/>)

28) Zumobi (<http://www.zumobi.com/>)

 _2\. Affiliate / CPA Networks_

1) MobPartner (<http://www.mobpartner.com/en>)

2) Sponsormob (<http://www.sponsormob.com/en/publishers/>)

3) Vizu (<http://www.vizu.com/index.htm>)

 _3\. Paid Apps_

1) The user pays upfront for the full app, usually at $0.99 or $1.99.

2) It has been shown that price and revenue do not always correlate precisely
and you should experiment with various price points. Anchor it with the
highest price point and put it on various levels of discount to test out
sales.

 _4\. In App Purchase (IAP) Approaches_

1) Currency - Have a virtual currency used to buy boosters and perform other
actions. The user can earn currency in-game or purchase more via IAP for
faster results. Examples: Farmville's currency

2) Energy - The user gets a certain amount of actions per energy, and the
energy replenishes at a certain rate. Items can be used to replenish the
energy, and the items can be bought via currency funded via IAP.

3) Unlocking Features - Have premium features such as extra levels or
assistance unlockable via IAP. Examples: Angry Birds's Eagle

4) Chips - Another take on currency, for casino type games. Examples: Zynga's
Poker

5) Freemium - Similar to unlocking features, except the basic app is always
free

6) Subscription - Covered in section 5, can be paid for via IAP or externally
(such as Dropbox)

 _5\. Subscription_

1) Live Data Feed - Have the user pay a monthly fee in return for up to date
data (Newspaper subscriptions, Manazine subscriptions, Stock Ticker Data)

2) Pay Per Data Usage - Have the user pay a recurring fee depending on how
much they use (Examples: Dropbox)

3) Software As a Service - Pay for usage of the software as-you-go. I haven't
seen a full SAAS mobile app yet but I think TaskRabbit is a close example.

 _6\. Facebook_

1)Facebook Approved Ad
Providers(<http://developers.facebook.com/adproviders/>)

2)Facebook Currency Purchases (Example: FarmVille)

 _7\. Sponsors_

1) This involves finding third party sponsors and placing them individually in
the app. Example: You have an app about tennis, and instead of placing ad-
network ads you find a tennis racket retailer willing to pay you $X per month
or $Y per click through to their site

 _8\. Email Lists_

1) Promote Paid Products - Get paid on traffic/conversion or promote your own
paid products

2) Drive Traffic to a Website for Conversions/Ad revenue

 _9\. Merchandise_

1) Angry Birds has plushies and other merchandise

2) Imgur has shirts

3) Starcrafts turned a YouTube video series into t-shirts and plushies with
memorable characters

4) Sell other people's merchandise for affiliate sales (Special version of
category 2, Affiliate networks)Sources and Useful Articles:

<http://mobithinking.com/mobile-ad-network-guide>

[http://www.seekomega.com/2010/12/a-comprehensive-
comparison-...](http://www.seekomega.com/2010/12/a-comprehensive-comparison-
guide-to-mobile-advertising-networks-infographic/)

[http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5112939/what-is-the-
best-...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5112939/what-is-the-best-way-to-
monetize-facebook-app)

[http://onlineincometeacher.com/money/30-ways-your-website-
ca...](http://onlineincometeacher.com/money/30-ways-your-website-can-earn-you-
money/)

[http://www.business2community.com/blogging/how-to-
monetize-y...](http://www.business2community.com/blogging/how-to-monetize-
your-site-50-ways-0246733)

~~~
Ologn
With regards to mobile ad networks, I've always found this link handy for
Android:

<http://www.appbrain.com/stats/libraries/ad>

Particularly the percent of installs part as opposed to the percent of apps
part.

Right now on that metric the top ad networks in order are Admob, then
Millennial Media, then Inmobi, then Tapjoy. I use the first three, and have
gotten multiple checks from Admob and MM.

One thing to watch is ad fill rates. Millennial Media and Inmobi have decent
ad fill rates for certain countries, and poor ones for other. Admob has good
fill rates for all countries I have seen. Admob mediation allows you to dole
out ads by country, so that you don't send ads to a network with low fill
rates for a particular country. Adwhirl is another mediation service owned by
Google - it allows for backfill (if one service has no ads, try to load ads
from another service). Google wants people to migrate from Adwhirl to Admob
mediation, but Admob mediation has no backfill.

I have a number of non-game apps with various fill rates - usually around 1%,
give or take 0.5%. I put out some games a few months ago, and their click-
through rates were all bad - less than 0.5%. As Admob looks at apps as a
whole, this poor performance began pulling down the fill rates of my apps with
good CTR. I now just advertise my other apps on (most of) my games.

Really, Admob, MM and Inmobi ruled the field until Tapjoy started breaking
out. Tapjoy has an interesting model, which work well with games which offer
freemium points and the like. Back when I tried (a few months ago) their SDK
install methodology for Android was way behind the simplicity of Admob, MM or
Inmobi. Add to this that my games were mostly C++, and that I'd have to re-
write them if possible to use a freemium model (otherwise why use Tapjoy, I'd
just use one of the other three), I passed on using Tapjoy for now and went on
to other things. Others working with other game models seem happier with
Tapjoy though. They have to make their install easier though. I don't have
time to muck for days with half-assed SDKs when the return on doing so is so
uncertain.

~~~
Terpaholic
Thanks! Great to know your experience with them. I can't edit the original
post any longer (Didn't know that you could only edit for X amount of time)
but I will try to recompile it all periodically and republish it or put it on
a website where I can edit it in-place.

You mention the fill rate was around 1% - this meant that 1% of the time there
were ads to display? Isn't that quite low? What should we expect and aim for?

