What it takes to Succeed

I’m trying to write an article on what it takes to succeed in the app market. Here’s some of my thoughts, and this is all from my own experience. The bigger players with a large DAU count may have more wisdom to add. Please feel free to add your thoughts.

You need one or more of these things to succeed in the app market. If you have an unoriginal app/game in which competition is high, you will need B and C to even stand a chance. Also, social media can help, but if you don’t already have a huge following, you’ll be wasting your time…

A) An innovative, unique, or revolutionary app/game and LOTS of luck (i.e. if someone reputable posts for you on Reddit/YouTube/etc., you’re probably in the money)
B) Lots of money for advertising campaigns like Pay-Per-Install(PPI) through Facebook/Tapjoy/Appbrain, etc. to get up in the top charts. At a PPI cost of $.20, which is pretty low for an install, you’d need to drop a minimum of $2000/day to maintain a top 50 ranking. My head spins just thinking about what it would cost to maintain the #1 position. Anyhow, the good news is that once you get in the top rankings you’ll start getting tons of organic installs meaning you can start to ween yourself off the payed downloads.
C) Good ASO. Just like in the web search engine world, people tend to find their apps through search most of the time. You miss this, and you’ll miss a ton of opportunities to get downloads. Additionally, I have yet to see any studies on this, but I think offering your app description in multiple languages would boost downloads immensely.

In one line I would say from experience:
It takes 1 year, excellent android/java programming skills and 100 apps/games to earn $250 daily.

Eeek! That’s a whole lot of apps. What kind of apps/games are you releasing?

All kinds of apps. I try to cover everything that is possible with android. Credit goes to my 7.5 years (pls read the edit below) of java expertise in full time job.

Edit: Its going to be 8 years on 3rd July and 10th July is my last day on my full time job

Nice. You have a link to to one of your best apps?

OMG ! 7.5 java experience … Impressed

Could you Share Your Java Experience on Youtube Channel :rolleyes:

sure, once I get rid of my full time job on 10th July, I am all in for gaining as well sharing knowledge

Hard work and dedication, that’s what it takes to succeed.

Nice my friend :). I have 10 years with Java and two with android. Sometimes I think to get out from my full job. But I,m affraid with Google, because we never know when we will have a banned account or banned app. Are you affraid of that?

Yes you are right. You got to spread the risk. Android should be just one part of earnings.

How many apps do you have live right now?

Ok I think your A B C points are valid but according to me they come after this point: have launched previous apps on the market from which you can redirect your users to your new app. houseads from similar theme apps is probably the most efficient acquisition and it’s free. If you are new to the market, it is going to be extremely difficult unless you spend tons of money and build your reputation from scratch, or unless you are super lucky with a reddit post (flappy birds)
Just my 2 cents!

Well, depends from person to person, I’m lucky enough to make 600/day consistently, [2 yrs Java/Android] and 3 Apps :slight_smile:

600/day is impressive:) Games or Apps?

I make apps for image processing, basically editors! :slight_smile:

So I have to say good job:)

We have the same ammount of posts, I hope we will have the same revenue soon;)

Great, you might be the first person here who earns a lot on apps and not on games. :slight_smile:

I actually make majority from apps as well, I tried games and it didn’t really work, I will sick to apps :slight_smile:

Do you have some thoughts on the google play “top new” rankings in different countries? How much installs more or less to expect daily when the app is in the top 10 new free in the production category? Our app (Real Plan) is placed in the top new free production in india (places 9-12) for couple of days now and the install rate is really small. On the other hand, install rate from adds (appbrain) is quite good I think (400 impressions generates 1 install on average).