My story thus far (3 apps, 1 dollar earned) - What should I do?

my account for context:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=Best%20Games%20Studios

Hi! I just found this community and this seems to be something I’m in dire need of. So far I have 3 apps created in Unity3D on google play, and I use admob banners and chartboost interstitials. I earned like 35 cents this month on chartboost and a similar amount on admob. Now, the apps are not “clash of clans” but they aren’t crappy either, and I’ve seen way worse apps earn fortunes. I definitely seem to be doing something wrong. I just realized that there are so many different stores.

So my question: What should I do to get these apps to bring in the $$? My current plan is to add revmob ads to all of them since chartboost doesn’t seem to be supported except in google play/amazon, and to upload them to as many app stores as possible? Is this a decent plan of action or should I modify this somehow? Thanks in advance!

I think your focus should be put on increasing visibility, getting more users to download and play the apps. For what i can see, they don´t look bad, should get more downloads. May i ask you how much time and $$$ did it take you to make the unicorn games?

Games are so hit and miss if you don’t market them…

This is scary… Your icons are good in my opinion. I’d put the gameplay screenshots at the beginning, and I would write longer description with more keywords.
I don’t know what could I advise you… I’m scared of finishing my own game. I’ll definitely spend some $100’s on paid advertising of my game when I’m done, just to get into 1 - 5k downloads range so I won’t be angry at myself that I spent full year on development and have 50 - 100 downloads total.

Checked em out. Games aren’t bad but could use some work. Difficulty especially for the unicorn games are WAY too easy. Try and make it more challenging. Personally, I wouldn’t recommend revmob, didn’t have a good experience with them.
Lastly, you basically just need exposure. Post on other forums, tell friends, maybe even put some money up and start a campaign
Good luck

Hello,

My procedure is that I create a very basic app that is ad supported. I keep it simple because out of 50+ apps I have on the various stores, maybe 5 make actual revenue worth talking about. Even at that, my revenue per month floats between $750 and $1400.

If the app creates decent downloads, I put more time into the app and release a new version. You can tell within a few weeks.

There is no rhyme or reason as to what is successfully. I’ve written apps that I was sure would be a hit and they have done nothing. Then I’ve written really dumb apps (in an hour or so) that generate 100+ downloads per day.

Good luck.

“Ukraine War: Angry Terrorists”, are you serious about this name of the game? :confused:

Sure! The first pony game tool I think 2-3 days of my time and zero dollars (My “real” work is being a Unity3D developer :slight_smile: ) - I used a pre-existing pony model which I modified to avoid it looking too copyright-infringmenty, and got some unity3d assets for the trees/obstacles, coded for a while and voila! The second game took like a day - I more or less added a horn to make it a unicorn , modified the UI, changed the colors.

EDIT: also the 25$ for a google play dev account

Thanks for your reply! What do you use instead of revmob and how is it better?

Initially it was “Zona Ato: Donetsk Airport”, but that got like zero downloads, so I had to change it

Hi guys! I have some progress. After some time, a bit of uploading to other stores (SlideMe, currently pending approval in LG, Samsung), some screenshots tweaking, google-translate for 20-ish languages, and waiting, I am beginning to get some income. Currently I am earning like 1-2$ a day, which I consider pretty decent for a start. I am still using Admob and Chartboost. I also tried Vungle and it’s great, but seems “I was using it wrong” - I think it’s best to use such services just to “get coins”, where as I was using it to “unlock levels” and users don’t seem too keen on that. The “breadwinner” was my Pony app, and I have just today switched the Unicorn app (which has many more users) to that same method ( admob banners, chartboost/admob interstitials during the loading, game overs)


EDIT: removed the second screenshot for now, thanks johna!

I think with the changes I made to the Unicorn app I should get like 5$ a day soon. I have some questions:

Anyone have experience with taxes in Europe (especially Lithuania) when it comes to one-man operations for getting money from ads? Can you give me a brief overview?

remove yurixxxxxxxx login name from the second screenshot…

Registruoji individualią veiklą, gauni visą reikalingą info, susimoki mokesčius.

hi DBC! I just arrived in lithuania a few months ago so don’t yet speak lithuanian. google translate:

Keep a record of the activities of an individual, you get all the necessary info, pay taxes.

I understand that I should record how much I earned and pay the taxes for that. My question is more of the steps I need to register (where do I go, what do I register as and all of the small details like that). Thanks in advance!

Oh sorry, i thought you are lithuanian. You should obtain individual activity certificate from state tax inspectorate (i’ve done it over the internet, didn’t even have to go anywhere) and then after the year ends, declare your income and pay taxes. I don’t know what’s your status in Lithuania so i can’t guarantee that it will go smooth for you. The total proportion of all taxes for you is gonna be 23.63 % (and additional small monthly health care tax but you only pay it if you don’t have a regular job). It is possible to reduce the tax, depending on what types of individual activity you run. Expenses - you can choose simplified option where 30% of your income are treated as expenses and you don’t have to submit any proof (no need to collect receipts etc). I am yet to pay my taxes for last year, so i don’t know everything to the last detail, but if you have any futher questions i will gladly answer them if i can.

Thanks! This is very helpful! Yes, some follow up questions:

  1. Where do I register for this online? I went to http://www.vmi.lt/en and tried to find it there but it wasn’t too “self-explanatory”
  2. Do I pay at the end of the regular year or a year after registering?

But the general “idea” that I got is that it seems to be that it’s pretty laid back and that I just register and pay them taxes once a year.
Thanks agan!

EDIT: I did find this:
http://www.vmi.lt/cms/documents/10174/8243165/TAX+PROCEDURES+AT+THE+STATE+TAX+INSPECTORATE.pdf/d4f3206b-b56f-46d7-b0b2-777fabf3005a

I will have to read that, but I still couldn’t find the “electronic registration”

  1. Go vmi.lt, click “EN” for english version, then click “My STI” and then log in (choose your lithuanian bank account as external system).
  2. AFTER the end of a calendar year (for 2015 income you can/should pay taxes until 2016 May).

I am creating my first Android game too, struggling with performance optimisations atm :slight_smile:

On the topic of earnings, things are now looking much better and in the last several days I made 6-7 dollars per day (gradually rising from 6 to 7 per day). My target is to make even more apps so I can have more than around 35 dollars per day (how much I make per day now as a unity3d programmer). Even a month ago this seemed like a far away goal, as was making a few cents per day on average, but now this seems to be more and more something near-term. Hopefully in the future I will look back at this as a humble “starting point,” but even now things are going very well indeed, much faster then I anticipated.

  1. Go vmi.lt, click “EN” for english version, then click “My STI” and then log in (choose your lithuanian bank account as external system).
  2. AFTER the end of a calendar year (for 2015 income you can/should pay taxes until 2016 May).

I am creating my first Android game too, struggling with performance optimisations atm :slight_smile:

Thanks man! I should be getting my residence permit soon so then I can start the whole Lithuanian bank account thing. Are you using Unity3D? If so maybe I can give some advice regarding optimizations.

So, I’ve passed an important milestone! While last month I earned around a dollar, after “letting the games ferment” for a bit, this month I already got more than 100$ on admob alone (my chartboost is now around 18$ total). The games seem to bring in around 6-10$ per day on admob. On chartboost it is way less stable - I can get 0$ for a few days, then 2-4$, then again 0$ for several days. Still, I am very satisfied with the current results and am definitely encouraged to make more games. If I can make 100$ per month for a few weekend’s worth of work, I can do a few more weekends and earn hundreds more per month. This is addictive.