I have been looking around to this forum for few weeks now and I would like to participate and share with you my progress as an android app dev.
I have released 2 apps yet, and I am working on a third one on my spare time (I am a student).
I spent a lot of time developing my first app (probably 1 - 2 month), I was learning from scratch and I did not had a lot of time and motivation for it. The true is when I was looking at this forum, before releasing my first app, I thought I will get some download even without marketing. Well in reality my first app got 3 downloads in 25 days I know it is a very crappy app but I did not expect that little download.
I spent to much time on this project for a poor result
----------------- Second App -------------------
After I release my first app, it only took me 2 days to create and publish a second one. Developing a game was a lot quicker. It is a copy of another game that was in the top ranked.
I got 10 downloads in 21 days without any advertising.
My first objective is to earn $10 a day from my apps but I do not plan to put ads yet because I don t have enough download.
I think if I do some advertising in facebook, forums etc … I will get some download that will help my game rank better and then gives more download.
The think is I do not want to spend time advertising for a game that I do not feel have the potential to earn money.
If you have some advice, feel free
Now I am in the rail of mobile development, I hope I will be able to earn some bucks with it !!!
Advices are big topic. You should browse through the forum and read many topics. Before I released my first app I’ve read whole forum. That’s right - everything. Of course I didn’t read threads which can’t help me understand process to make milions:)
This is the struggle of being an Android programmer.
In all seriousness, I think that is, on average, expected. Very few people release a hit app right away. I’ve found that as time goes on (assuming you actually put in the effort to make apps and improve), the development process becomes faster and smoother. Thus resulting in cleaner, better functioning apps, in a less amount of time. I should warn you, that by no means am I a financially successful app developer. At least not yet.
But I do feel like I am constantly learning and improving, both the quality of my apps (and programming), as well as learning how to make an app that actually makes money. And I think that’s what is important. I’ve read a few stories of people on here that were in the same position as you; they struggled at first. But they stuck with it and they began to make enough money where it has impacted their lives in a positive manner. I’m still on that grind.
This is such a vast subject, and I could go on-and-on. But this is my 2 cents.
P.S. I’m a student also. I’ve had a few apps on the Google Play store for 12-13 months now. However, I only spent about ~1 month to make them (when I initially released them slightly over a year ago) and only just resumed developing again about ~1 month ago. So I have maybe 2-3 months experience total. Since I started getting back at it, I’ve made tremendous progress and can’t wait to see where I’ll end up in the future.
I call that process ‘slacking off’ and ‘wasting time’. Some people know it as ‘procrastinating’, since you would end up f*cking around instead of working. IMO he should start (well, he already is) working and search for the questions as they pop up. @Carb0, I have only checked the screenshots and I mean no offense, but they look awful. Change the colours to prettier (candy-like) ones - check Dots: A game about connecting to see what I mean. Also, on “Color Run” raise the brightness of the background, so the cubes that people can jump on will be easier to see.
Really? Carb0 has no idea how the app and Google Play world looks like. Noone knows it at the beginning. You know what is waste of time? Spending months on developing an app and releasing it without any knowledge. Congratulations, you just wasted a couple of months. Of course you learned programming and developing, that’s right. You can now develop next, much better and much higher quality app, publish it on GP without any knowledge and observe how you are getting 5 downloads per day.
Also, asking for help like “I have no idea, please help” is also waste of time - our time. This things are pretty well described in the forum. @Carb0
In conclusion.
-learn how to develop a good app by simply programming
-have a good idea
-make it look nice
-learn how to promote it, what you can do to improve keywords etc by simply studying this forum and articles in the internet.
-do everything togheter as I did. You can make an app and when you are tired read some threads and articles. I do it for a lot of time and still don’t know everything. This topic is big.
-don’t listen to programmer
Aletrnativly you can listen to programmer and:
-change screens (and watch how you app gets 2x more downloads. Is it big number? Yes if you aim at 50 downloads per month. Don’t get me wrong, screens are really important but you also missed some foundations)
-change brightness of the background (good looking app is also important BUT - read my comment above)
-don’t “waste time” on reading good advices on this forum (and develop app after app with 50 downloads per month)
I know it is a very crappy app but I did not expect that little download.
