Hello everyone! I know it's been a very long time since I have posted anything. The truth is, Android development has kind of come to a halt for me at this point. I am very knowledgeable and would still like to continue making apps but I have found it's a very underpaid job. It is extremely difficult to make any significant amount of money on Android apps. That's why I made this blog, in hopes that it would help others who are struggling to make it in the app business. The hardest part is that over 75% of the money made on apps is from Apple but the Android market is by far the largest app market in the world. Android is mostly all free though. I have come to find that the best way to make money is from ads (or in-app purchasing) but I haven't tried that yet. Ads are the number one way people make money off Android apps though. There is no doubt in my mind. When you play an app half the time you click on annoying ads by accident but who the hell forks over the cash for in-app purchases? Probably about the same amount of people willing to fork over money for an app in the first place (which isn't very many people when you are dealing with Android.) I have always hoped that someday I could make Android development a success. I have no start-up money and nobody to help me create the apps. It is simply me, trying to make a little bit of money on the side. It's hard to do without resources. That's why I am hoping some of the resources listed in my previous posts will help others out in making their dreams come true. I also hope that people will want to return the favor and help me out in return. Please leave any comments about any great knowledge in the app business. I don't do iOS. That shit's way too expensive. Android only! Please comment, make suggestions, leave tips, etc. I also have an idea to turn this blog into an app. Does anyone think that would be helpful in any way? If so, I will probably do it. If not, it's not worth my time. I know people are reading this blog but this blog doesn't make me a dime even with ads. I honestly don't even know if the ads are worth it on here. AdSense is not very lucrative. I am making much more off my apps and even that is an extremely tiny amount. I know you all need help with getting started in this business and I'm still learning as well. Please keep that in mind and try to leave helpful suggestions for me and other readers of this blog. Thank you. Have a wonderful night!
Showing posts with label apps. Show all posts
Showing posts with label apps. Show all posts
Saturday, May 25, 2013
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
The New Apptimizer Tool From AppBrain
This is a screenshot of the Apptimizer tool from AppBrain. I have to go. Check out appbrain.com/apptimizer for more info.
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Promoting Your Android App Part 2
As we have seen, there a literally dozens of ways to promote an app. Some of the ways we have talked about so far are: mass distribution (through many stores), promoting your app in forums, creating a website, hosting your app on fileshares, distributing apps as torrents, and starting a blog. We have also talked a wee bit about social sharing, but today I'd like to talk about that a little bit more. The importance of social sharing is phenomenal when it comes to marketing your apps. The other day, my brother in-law came over and told my wife and I that some girl made a video of herself playing our game on Facebook. Sometimes, we tend to overlook some of the obvious things: start a Fan Page, etc. What I am saying is, you really SHOULD have a fan page for your business, at least, and maybe even a few for individual apps. Creating a Facebook fan page can be huge for business. You can find out more about fan pages here: https://www.facebook.com/pages. Another, possibly even more powerful than Facebook pages, useful tool is Google+/Google Pages. Create a page on Google+, you won't regret it. You can even link it to your Blogger account so when you blog it automatically gets posted to your page. More information about Google+ Pages can be found here: https://plus.google.com/u/0/pages/manage. Also, if you are trying to make it big in Android, you shouldn't spend all your free time blogging about developing. Haha. Jk. Anyway, some other things you should consider are: posting links to Digg, Reddit, Delicious, Pinterest, RebelMouse, Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Blogger, etc. One more thing I'd like to mention, which of course most of you have probably heard of, is cross-promotion. One of the BEST ways to promote your app (or anything for that matter) for free, is to exchange advertising for advertising, of course, our good friends at TapForTap can surely help you out with that. I will write an article about them later. They deserve it, if you haven't seen it yet, check out TapForTap, now. There is also a Mega-Post of all android/r/ developer's apps on Reddit, which can be found here: http://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/rdfdn/megapost_of_all_apps_created_by_randroid/
Links For Promoting Android Apps
http://gplus.to (shortlinks for google pages)
Sunday, September 9, 2012
5 Reasons To Use AppLift
If you haven't heard of it yet, where have you been? Everyone knows about AppBrain by now right? How could you not? Well, if you haven't go check it out now http://www.appbrain.com/, otherwise continue reading. So, I'm assuming we've all heard of AppBrain at this point, but what you might not know, or maybe you just don't know that much about it yet, is the AppLift SDK. The AppLift SDK is an amazingly powerful set of tools for your android apps. Here's why:
#1. Track your downloads - Track your downloads across all markets, stores, even fileshares, personal websites, you name it; all in one place. Once you have integrated the AppLift SDK, which requires merely importing the .jar file, adding it to your build path, adding an activity and a few permissions and slapping in one measly command in your java file and your all set; then you can track all of your downloads on 50 different markets (or however many you're on) without having to go from website to website, dashboard to dashboard, logging in over, and over, just to check your stats... and then try to do what? Write them all down and add them all up? Are you freakin' kidding me? No way! AppBrain is essential to keeping track of your download progress and so, so easy to integrate. Get it.
#2. Monetize your app - There are many ways to monetize your app now, one of them being AppLift. Their interstitials, I'd say, beat their banners for sure, however their banners can be integrated with AdMob which, of course, is always a plus. One of the great things about their ads is also that they have a nice selection of apps for users to choose from, many of them being pretty decent games. Putting their interstitials in your game at various intervals has proven to be the best way to get revenue for me so far.
#3. Use remote settings - This should probably be #2 on my list, but I haven't really used this feature to it's full potential, yet. AppBrain's remote settings feature allows you to set values as strings in your developer dashboard and retrieve them for use in your app. This is such a fantastic feature they offer and so easy to use. You can set custom messages that you can change daily in your dashboard on all your apps across all markets without even releasing an update. There are, literally, thousands of ways you could make use of this feature. This one is definitely worth getting.
#4. View detailed statistics - The charts for AppBrain's reports are awesome. There are graphs of daily downloads for each game. They also have ad reports and stats. Another thing hey show is your active users for the day and the percentage increased (or decreased) from the week prior. It's great to see how many downloads you get on each app, each day, along with the number of active users. It also shows total installs for the day among all apps and total revenue from AppBrain. Basically, the statistics in the AppBrain dashboard are more detailed than any others I've seen.
#5. Integrate with AdMob - I know I already said this earlier, but this deserves to have it's own section on the top 5 reasons to use AppLift. You can show AppBrain banners using AdMob, including them in your rotation of regular banners. Integrating with AdMob is everything. Seriously, if you are using one ad network for banners, you're doing it wrong; get AdMob and throw in several different ad networks. That way you get better rotation and better variety. The best part is, you can just watch how your apps are doing and adjust AdMob accordingly. Thus, you can make adjustments to your app without releasing updates. AdMob is another great thing. Maybe I should write the top 5 reasons to use AdMob. Anyway, I'll leave it at that. Get AppBrain AppLift SDK.
Get it here:: https://developers.appbrain.com/info/sdk
#1. Track your downloads - Track your downloads across all markets, stores, even fileshares, personal websites, you name it; all in one place. Once you have integrated the AppLift SDK, which requires merely importing the .jar file, adding it to your build path, adding an activity and a few permissions and slapping in one measly command in your java file and your all set; then you can track all of your downloads on 50 different markets (or however many you're on) without having to go from website to website, dashboard to dashboard, logging in over, and over, just to check your stats... and then try to do what? Write them all down and add them all up? Are you freakin' kidding me? No way! AppBrain is essential to keeping track of your download progress and so, so easy to integrate. Get it.
#2. Monetize your app - There are many ways to monetize your app now, one of them being AppLift. Their interstitials, I'd say, beat their banners for sure, however their banners can be integrated with AdMob which, of course, is always a plus. One of the great things about their ads is also that they have a nice selection of apps for users to choose from, many of them being pretty decent games. Putting their interstitials in your game at various intervals has proven to be the best way to get revenue for me so far.
#3. Use remote settings - This should probably be #2 on my list, but I haven't really used this feature to it's full potential, yet. AppBrain's remote settings feature allows you to set values as strings in your developer dashboard and retrieve them for use in your app. This is such a fantastic feature they offer and so easy to use. You can set custom messages that you can change daily in your dashboard on all your apps across all markets without even releasing an update. There are, literally, thousands of ways you could make use of this feature. This one is definitely worth getting.
#4. View detailed statistics - The charts for AppBrain's reports are awesome. There are graphs of daily downloads for each game. They also have ad reports and stats. Another thing hey show is your active users for the day and the percentage increased (or decreased) from the week prior. It's great to see how many downloads you get on each app, each day, along with the number of active users. It also shows total installs for the day among all apps and total revenue from AppBrain. Basically, the statistics in the AppBrain dashboard are more detailed than any others I've seen.
#5. Integrate with AdMob - I know I already said this earlier, but this deserves to have it's own section on the top 5 reasons to use AppLift. You can show AppBrain banners using AdMob, including them in your rotation of regular banners. Integrating with AdMob is everything. Seriously, if you are using one ad network for banners, you're doing it wrong; get AdMob and throw in several different ad networks. That way you get better rotation and better variety. The best part is, you can just watch how your apps are doing and adjust AdMob accordingly. Thus, you can make adjustments to your app without releasing updates. AdMob is another great thing. Maybe I should write the top 5 reasons to use AdMob. Anyway, I'll leave it at that. Get AppBrain AppLift SDK.
Get it here:: https://developers.appbrain.com/info/sdk
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