The Path to Appiness!
After two years of developing iOS apps, I’d begun to notice that a major challenge for indie developers involved something so basic, yet so very often overlooked - smart marketing. Without it, their apps end up dying a slow death in the App Store, and most of them felt powerless to do anything about it.
As someone who knew the challenges and obstacles each and every mobile app developer faced, I wanted to do something to change this way or thinking. Inspired by my drive to help others in their quest for total success, I decided to write out my story, bit by bit, as well as detailed step-by-step instructions for app marketing tactics that have helped me turn duds into profitable apps.
Back in September of 2011, I started mapping out my first app, Mustache Bash.
I had no programming experience. Photoshop and Illustrator make me feel like I’m lost in the woods. I am NOT a designer. But I was stubborn enough to keep moving forward, so I hired a designer, and hired a programmer, and scraped together enough cash to start the project. Yes, you read that correctly: I didn’t even have enough money to finish the app at first!
Fast forward to June 2012. I had finished my first app, Mustache Bash, and it had made over $1200 in its first month. I was hoping for more, but was still very excited. I mean, I’d published a friggin’ app. Me. This guy. The guy with no real experience to speak of at the time!
So after borrowing $3000 from friends, I made four more apps. That's when the fun stopped...
Uh-oh.
I’d spent over $8000 to make five apps, I was in debt (and to friends!)
My apps seemed dead in the water and I was confused and unsure of the next step forward to remedy my dilemma.
This uncomfortable situation forced me to start asking some tough questions:
•Why aren’t my apps generating more revenue?
•What if I’ve wasted all this time and effort creating worthless apps?
•How are some indie developers able to make so much money with apps?
•Rather than give up, I decided to start experimenting with small, inexpensive marketing tactics.
For example, I changed my app titles and keywords. I added localizations. I released small app updates. I switched out ad SDKs, and even changed the colors of certain buttons. Slowly but surely, my apps began generating more revenue! The effort was paying off!
My app business stabilized, and one by one, my apps went from the red to the black. Phew!
That’s when I decided to do something to help iOS developers with what I found to be the biggest problem: Marketing! And not just marketing, but Smart Marketing!
Though on some days I was only able to spend fifteen minutes working on the guide, 180 days worth of work adds up. I wrote out my true tale of appiness, as well as step-by-step instructions for the app marketing tactics that have helped me turn duds into profitable apps.
Appiness: An Unusual Guide to Doubling Downloads, Minting Money & Finding Freedom is finally finished. It is an unusual step-by-step, how-to marketing guide available for iOS developers because it gets into brass tacks and tells you now to do stuff. I wrote the guide that I really needed when I first got started.
App developers need to start with a solid foundation—that is, high-quality apps—and then execute a smart marketing plan to help their apps gain visibility, get more downloads, and start making money with apps. Appiness can help you do just that! All you have to do is follow the guide, have the desire to succeed, do the work and refuse to accept failure!
After two years of developing iOS apps, I’d begun to notice that a major challenge for indie developers involved something so basic, yet so very often overlooked - smart marketing. Without it, their apps end up dying a slow death in the App Store, and most of them felt powerless to do anything about it.
As someone who knew the challenges and obstacles each and every mobile app developer faced, I wanted to do something to change this way or thinking. Inspired by my drive to help others in their quest for total success, I decided to write out my story, bit by bit, as well as detailed step-by-step instructions for app marketing tactics that have helped me turn duds into profitable apps.
Back in September of 2011, I started mapping out my first app, Mustache Bash.
I had no programming experience. Photoshop and Illustrator make me feel like I’m lost in the woods. I am NOT a designer. But I was stubborn enough to keep moving forward, so I hired a designer, and hired a programmer, and scraped together enough cash to start the project. Yes, you read that correctly: I didn’t even have enough money to finish the app at first!
Fast forward to June 2012. I had finished my first app, Mustache Bash, and it had made over $1200 in its first month. I was hoping for more, but was still very excited. I mean, I’d published a friggin’ app. Me. This guy. The guy with no real experience to speak of at the time!
So after borrowing $3000 from friends, I made four more apps. That's when the fun stopped...
Uh-oh.
I’d spent over $8000 to make five apps, I was in debt (and to friends!)
My apps seemed dead in the water and I was confused and unsure of the next step forward to remedy my dilemma.
This uncomfortable situation forced me to start asking some tough questions:
•Why aren’t my apps generating more revenue?
•What if I’ve wasted all this time and effort creating worthless apps?
•How are some indie developers able to make so much money with apps?
•Rather than give up, I decided to start experimenting with small, inexpensive marketing tactics.
For example, I changed my app titles and keywords. I added localizations. I released small app updates. I switched out ad SDKs, and even changed the colors of certain buttons. Slowly but surely, my apps began generating more revenue! The effort was paying off!
My app business stabilized, and one by one, my apps went from the red to the black. Phew!
That’s when I decided to do something to help iOS developers with what I found to be the biggest problem: Marketing! And not just marketing, but Smart Marketing!
Though on some days I was only able to spend fifteen minutes working on the guide, 180 days worth of work adds up. I wrote out my true tale of appiness, as well as step-by-step instructions for the app marketing tactics that have helped me turn duds into profitable apps.
Appiness: An Unusual Guide to Doubling Downloads, Minting Money & Finding Freedom is finally finished. It is an unusual step-by-step, how-to marketing guide available for iOS developers because it gets into brass tacks and tells you now to do stuff. I wrote the guide that I really needed when I first got started.
App developers need to start with a solid foundation—that is, high-quality apps—and then execute a smart marketing plan to help their apps gain visibility, get more downloads, and start making money with apps. Appiness can help you do just that! All you have to do is follow the guide, have the desire to succeed, do the work and refuse to accept failure!