Making Money

OZApps · January 2013

This is not an article on HowTo, but instead is a question or rather a poll in general about the experiences that developer have had in terms of earning from the App Store. While on one had Apple talks about issuing cheques to developers in the tune of millions and how CSR Racing is making over $400,000 a month in in-app purchases and Angry Bird with all of their bird-slinging. On the other end of this spectrum, there are users that have not made much, what is this amount that has been made by developers. Have you even got your annual subscription back?

There have been some developers that have ceased to renew their Apple subscriptions and taken their apps off the Apple App Store.

Your comments...

Please try to place them into - Hobbyist and/or Studio and the amounts (if you want to disclose, you can also provide a range if you want)

moopf · January 2013

I've got two very different experiences, a few years apart. In 2008 I released a game called Hiqup. It was a featured app in the European stores and I made a nice sum off that (around $8000 in total). In August 2011 I released Arthur & Charles Present Create & Play. That's not done very well at all, and I think I made about $100 in total on that. It's a shame as I am still very proud of that app and think it deserved better

tkhnoman · January 2013

Still new in the mobile (iOS), and our team can't even manage to get annual subscription back from our first game, not forget to mention to pay for the assets,
yet now we continue to spend more...

)

ljp1203 · January 2013

@OZApps
This isn't about what I have made, rather then a way to publicize your apps better.

My friend and I haven't released our app onto the app store yet. I'm the coder/financial and he is the designer/advertiser. He had this awesome idea of getting about 10-20 people together and making shirts that showed the logo of our app, what it's available on, the price (which will be free at first to get users to download it, and then a week later, after they tell all their friends, hopefully haha, it will be whatever amount which ours will be $. 99), and a QR Code for the people to scan. We will go to our local mall, which is the biggest in New Jersey, where I live, and we will go for about 5-7 days with the shirts. We will also go to other places and split up so we can broaden our audience!

I also came up with the idea, since I am still in high school, to ask if we can put a banner up on our football field fence to sponsor our school and also to get out there more. It will also have the logo and a QR Code to scan for the students with their smart phones.

Our app will be a travel/social app called Planit, which will allow users to make events with other users privately, such as parties, nights out, etc, and then allow them to chat with each other, set the date, time, location, and friends. So it isn't a game, rather it be for everyday use so that's why we are going with this sort of campaign.

Tell me if you like it, or if you have any other ideas. I thought that this would help everyone on the forum expand their way of advertising/marketing.

Hope this helps!
-Landon

thanhquan1512 · January 2013

@moopf: congratz, 8000USD is a great result. So your app is a paid app?

I am still getting around with Admob and got only 8000 impression after a month. I am thinking of joining other ad networks so we won't put all eggs in one basket (and since admob revenue is not very good).

hgvyas123 · January 2013

it is really too much tough for developers like me to earn through appstore ofcourse i dont have enough knowledge and my games are also not very good still i am happy with my games and i am trying to improve it

about earning my monthly earning is around 400$ from which 70% or even more are coming from android market. Apple appstore is not good for me

thanhquan1512 · January 2013

@hgvyas123: 400 USD a month is my dream target

How many games do you have and how long have you been working with them? Are they free with ads or paid games?

Oh, I much try more, your guys are really tough

hgvyas123 · January 2013

@thanhquan1512 :-

i am working since almost 1 year and 2 or 3 months. i had 6 games in android market and 4 in appstore.

hgvyas123 · January 2013

yes all are free with ads and in last game i am trying iap with no luck so far

OZApps · January 2013

about earning my monthly earning is around 400$ from which 70% or even more are coming from android market. Apple appstore is not good for me

You are making that from just ads? That is pretty impressive then, because $400 could well be the monthly salary in some of the non-western countries.

Would like to hear more from you on your AD strategy.

hgvyas123 · January 2013

@OZApps :-

there is nothing like strategy i am pretty bad in this you might have seen my another post about in app strategy.

i put admob banner ad in all my scenes (no hide) and in some game i had even put the push notification ads users are giving bad rating because of push notification ads so some times i add it later once i have few downloads and rating but i dont care much about this.

thanhquan1512 · January 2013

Do you use airPush to push notification ads? Can you share experience integrating it with Gideros? I am still noob with plugins.

hgvyas123 · January 2013

No i use leadbolt

i had never tried airPush

integrating push notification doesn't need any plugin you have to copy and paste some codes in activity file you will also get one pdf from their site it is very easy. feel free to contact if you want to integrate it.

EDIT :- for the ios you can get plugin from http://www.giderosmobile.com/forum/discussion/1415/ad-plugin#Item_5

unlying · January 2013

@thanhquan1512 I'm using AirPush. It is easy to implement. Just read their SDK and do all like they said. And it works:)

moopf · January 2013

@moopf: congratz, 8000USD is a great result. So your app is a paid app?

It was yes, this is from the time before in-app purchases. The app is no longer available, I think iOS4 broke it and by that point there were so few further sales that I pulled it from sale. Interestingly it works again now since iOS5 but I'd need to update it for retina, iPad and iPhone 5 and it's just not worth the effort now.

MikeHart · January 2013

All together I made 6 USD so far :-) Sold about 6 apps on Android and 4 on IOS. But it isn't available for IOS anymore.

ar2rsawseen · January 2013

Actually our experience is similar to @hgvyas123, while earning about 20$ from ios sales and 30$ from iads in total, earnings from Admob from android markets are measured in couple hundreds, of course sales in android market are not worth mentioning at all.

So Android advertising seems to work the best for us right now.

Might have been better with apple appstore if we released lite version as full with ads, there would have been less sales, but I think we'd gain more from advertising in total, than it is now.

ljp1203 · January 2013

You guys should try my idea above that i posted. I think it only may work if you have a non-game app like i do.

-Landon

plamen · January 2013

So do you think its a matter of signal to noise ratio? Or there is other specific reason..

OZApps · January 2013

just to add another dimension to this discussion, how are the apps priced, does the pricing of the app have a bearing on the revenues?

ar2rsawseen · January 2013

@ljp1203 I think for a traveling/social app your marketing promotion sounds kind of too local.

You should use Bottom-Up marketing strategies, first thinking what your clients could be and where they could hangout. For a travel app, I'd see that these kind of banners and posters should be better applied in for example airports or bars/hangout places.

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