There was an amazing Article the other day on Google and Blog entitled Making Money in the Android Market. In sum, the blogger mourns the shortsightedness of some Android developers who see fit to flood the market with inane apps, forsaking a chance at a greater payoff over time for the ease of a quick buck. One developer questions how to be expected to make a living through ad income alone.

To the developer talk about in the post, and to all others with the same miserable outlook, we say: Get creative. Get strategy-savvy. We’ll teach you exactly how you can make money, in actionable steps no less.

So here’s the state: It is more complex to monetize in the Android market. This is the case because the Android market lacks the model of in-app purchases, which has worked out so well for Apple. But deduce what? There is a workaround, and it engages strategy:

Create a quality product.

The characteristics of an immense application are constantly in flux, so don’t just turn to what’s at the top of the charts now and mimic them. Take arrogance in your app.

Have a freemium strategy.

The majority of you developers seem to have already taken this advice to heart—for the free app part of the equation. According to Distimo’s August 2010 Report (app store analytics), Google Android Market has the biggest share of free apps available at 60%, versus 29% for iPhone.

 Get downloads; increase your user base.

Do your research: time your sales healthy; know when to go for a price cut, and more significantly, when not to; examine the cause of a surge in interest in your app; react to trends; publish your app across social media channels.

Convert free users to pay; generate revenue.

OPTIMIZE FOR USER EXPERIENCE. We can’t strain this enough. You cannot do this without appropriate analytics. You have to know how the user employs with your apps, both free and paid, and where the user is dropping off. To obtain this level of information, you would need a user-centric funnel that spans from your free app to your paid app. Once you get this information, you can properly place a link in your free app to a paid version. You will then be capable to track this link’s performance, and adjust placement accordingly.

There you have it. The Android market as its position can still be profitable for developers with the right mindset, and with the upward trajectory of the market, is building up to be even more so. Step #5 is to figure out the optimum price for your app. Distimo notes that apps are priced lowest in the Android Market; moreover, the average price of the Top 100 Paid Applications is higher than the Average cost of All Paid Applications ($4.57 vs. $3.23). To most excellent monetize your app, make sure it is priced at its worth (and decide if you’re pricing for maximum downloads or maximum revenue).

Now you have a framework, and rapidly, access to the proper toolkit…developers, its game time. For more info on ApScience, a tool that can help you with item #4, stay tuned for coverage on Apsalar’s launch at DEMO Fall 2010.

Want to start making money from Android Apps? Here’s what not to do

Creating a successful Android app is an objective worth pursuing. If you can create a legitimate hit, then you’ll have a source of passive income that can generate money while you sleep for years to come. What’s more, you’ll have the immense satisfaction of being able to tell people you’re an app developer; and of knowing that something.

You

Created is being used by thousands of people around the world.

There’s no sense quite like seeing someone load up the app you made on their commute to work. But with so much rivalry, how can a person – sans a huge marketing budget – possibly stand out and have a hit? Regrettably, there’s no one answer to that question. Instead then, let’s begin with some of the things you definitely shouldn’t do when you’re getting started

Become Jealously Protective Of Your Idea

The majority people who want to start developing apps will have one ‘idea’ initially. At some point, they get their ‘eureka’ moment and they just know that they’ve staggered onto something that will make them rich and change the world!

The problem is, they don’t know how to program and they aren’t closely great at using Photoshop or marketing themselves. In other words, they require help.

But this is where the catch22 comes in: how do you go about approaching people for assistance without the risk of them running off with your idea and making it for themselves? How do you evade becoming the next Winklevoss story?

As a Developer myself, this is something I encounter frequently. People will often approach me to help them code their app but then decline to tell me what the app is, or even what it involves.

How am I had to tell them whether I can assist if they won’t tell me the nature of the project? How can I give them an uneven quote or any advice? And if they have no knowledge with apps, why would I get a time out of my day to meet them for coffee and sign an NDA?

Even some of my close friends decline to tell me their app ideas for fear that I’ll steal them (I assume??). It’s rather insulting actually!

When it comes to app development, it’s legitimately the execution that trumps the idea. People you discuss your ideas with will either lack the technical know-how to take them, or they’ll have their own projects on the go that they’re more obsessive about (and likely halfway through development with). In other words, no one wants to pinch your idea.

Avoid Taking the Path of Least Resistance

Once you’ve selected a simple app idea for your first project, the next step is to begin making it. Now you’ll be presented with a bunch of options: you can use an app builder, you can utilize Android Studio, you can use Basic4Android, you can use Corona…

All of these are tools and/or IDEs (Independent Development Environments) that make easy the creation of your app’s code. If you’re making a game meanwhile, you might choose to use Unity which streamlines the procedure by providing a ready-made engine and intuitive interface, while handling a batch of the physics and other code for you. Or you can forever outsource the programming to a developer rather than handling everything yourself (more on this in a moment!).

So which is the greatest choice for building your app? That very much depends on the nature of the app, your time frame and your current level of knowledge. But what’s key here is that you take the fastest and least complex route. Don’t be a snob about tools that create things easier.

If you’re making a game for example, then using Unity will keep you a huge amount of time and the end result will be much more professional than if you’d done it all yourself. That’s because the physics engine in Unity has been created by a team of professionals and advanced over several years – unless you can competitor that amount of time and experience, then their physics engine will forever be better than one you build. And seeing as it’s ready to ‘play’, it really doesn’t make any sense to make life harder for you. Even using a basic app builder is fine if your app only needs to convey information.

For those of you well-known with web design, this is the equivalent of building your own website from scrape versus using WordPress. WordPress, like Unity or certain app builders, will let you to build something more professional in a fraction of the time.

Conclusion:

If you’re creating an app purely out of love/for the fun of it then you can disregard everything I just said. This article applies to those of you who want to begin earning money from apps. If you’re looking to build this into a business so you can exit the rat race, or if you plan on supplementing your current profits, then you should focus on ROI. That means assessing the risk against the possible profit to be made and it means finding ways to reduce your overheads – both economical and time-wise.

Try not to get take away with app ideas that will change the world. You’re far more likely to make money from something simple and easy and there’s nothing wrong with that. For every Mark Zuckerberg, there are countless people who get rich from gardening apps or fancy calculators.

And the best part about this business model is that it’s extremely repeatable. If the initial app doesn’t make a splash, just rinse and repeat. It’s a lot of fun and you’ll learn as you go. If throw sufficient ideas at the wall – as long as they’re ideas you consider in – eventually, something will stick!

Do you want to build an Android app for your business?, At DeveloperOnRent we provide dedicated Android app developers for hire You can rent our developers for monthly, weekly, and hourly with the week of free trial.

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