1 million downloads,1st app,within 8 momths.0$ spent on ads.[Links Updated]

Hello guys I wrote a post here 5 months ago,about how I got 100,000 downloads within first 3 months.
Now I will explain it in a better way on how I reached one million within 8 months.
I have added a lot of stuff to it.
I will tell you my mind set,my routine my strategy,everything.

One fine day,I thought of investing my time into apps.
After learning on how money is made via apps,I reallized a general purpose app with more user engagement will earn me more money than a niche app.
Yes games can earn you a shit load of money but the average life span of a game is very small. And there are so many games out there that getting attention of the users is very tough.
And I don’t believe in getting lucky,I think none of us do. I think It’s better to buy a lottery ticket than to hope that your first game will become a hit.
Do you know the flappy bird game was his 42nd game?He had been into developing games for 8 yrs.Imagine that !!

So after thinking for some time,I thought my first app would be a music player or an audio player.
When you search for a music player/ audio player on the playstore,more than 300 results appear.
I am pretty sure there are more than 1000 music player/ audio player on the playstore.
Scroll down to 50th music player / audio player ,even it would show 1million downloads.
You know what it signifies?It signifies that people try out the music player / audio player a lot. A good sign !!
What most of the music players / audio players lack?A good UI,

So these two things were my ways of getting downloads.

A good UI

A general purpose app

During the days I was developing the app,I used to read blogs while in bed,before going to sleep.
The blogs were Business,entrepreneurship apps etc. And I developed a habbit of NEVER EVER giving up on something ,if I BELIEVED it worked !!
Believe me when I say it,I DON’T GIVE UP !!

It was my first app and since I was just a 20yrd old student(I still am a 21 yr student) ,I didn’t had any money to advertise.
However I managed some money for other things like screenshots ,video,website icon etc etc from

  1. The selling point for my app was the UI/UX. And for me the presentation was everything. I knew I was short on budget,and I wanted to convert every click into a download (i mean there is a high probability that if a person clicks on the link,he may not download it because of poor screenshots)
    So good,professional looking screenshots were important so for that I needed a photoshop professional.
    (although I designed the app myself,I wasn’t very good at photoshop) so I hired a guy from freelancing websites.

Now I asked around the rates for an icon. It came out to be 20$
There are a limited number of repitions a person would make for 20$
I thought the best way to get as many ideas for the icon would be by holding a contest for 40$(double of the normal rates)
Now the price I set was 40$ and not the normal rate(20$),the reason is,it seems like an opportunity for people that they can earn more than they usually do.
So they put in the extra effort.I got about 60-80 ideas for the music player/ audio player ,I didn’t like any of them.I awarded the contest to the freelancer on a condition that he will be making more repitions for me.

Here is the freelancer guy i hired for icon,screenshots etc etc
https://www.freelancer.com/u/jcasco.html

I paid the guy 50$ for 5 screenshots. Now you can get even better rates for screenshots from fiverr.com
It is highly unlikely that u will get some one good, for the icon from fiverr,but get your screenshots done from fiverr,it will be cheaper.

I then hired a guy for the video.
Now if you don’t know how most of the videos are made,you may end up paying 150-400$
there are websites from where you can buy templates for virtually everything. Videohive.net is a website i got my template from.
So I purchased a 25$ template,hired a guy for 40$ to do the changes to it.(His fees was 20$ ,i offered him 20 extra so that he doesn’t say anything when i ask him to do many repitions,He made atleast 10 reptitions before submitting the final video)
So the whole video was done for 65$
Here is teh guy whom i hired for the video
https://www.facebook.com/edvinas.janusauskis?fref=ts
His rates have increased now.

2 I got fake facebook likes(40,000 likes for 40$ people are real but they don’t come to know when they liked the page,there are scripts for fake facebook likes) as I thought it can be used as an audience,but turns out it was a waste,as facebook has changed it algorithms,and a post’s visibility only increases if it gets enough momentum(i.e comments and likes).And it is quite obvious that no one would be interested in a post from a page which they never liked themselves.
The post never reached 40,000 people which was my intended target.

  1. I wrote the description,optimized for ASO.There are websites for SEO (or ASO ,app store optimization)like sensor tower which can be used for figuring out which keyword to use.
    Here are the general rules of ASO

A keyword should be 5 times in the description.

Put the keyword in the name

Put the keyword in the package name.

  1. I Added 1000+ friends on facebook from my college before the launch

  2. I launched the app.

  3. I gave credit to those people on how they were so supportive and accepted our random friend requests and then sneaked in the download link with very pretty images.People like to take credits for no reason ,just like they want to feel good and superior and want to be a part of something, without any reason,I just exploited it.

  4. The early downloads and reviews were quite important

  5. They reviewed and downloaded.About 200-300 of them.

  6. Just after I launched it,I changed my schedule and started sleeping 9 hrs in 2 days .i.e 4.5 hrs a day,with 3 hrs of sleeping shifts.
    i searched for lists of websites which review android apps.Sent them a copy pasted message and often making intentional mistakes while typing the subject like “Android ‘ApP’ Review”,to get their attention as you are not the only one sending them emails. we tried to make it look as professional as we could.But tried to keep the message friendly.I posted them 100 each day.
    Here is the list if you want to use it
    https://www.dropbox.com/sh/rskjnqn2ai70v4g/AACGfKZAqVsIu0vcMCnYPb7ca?dl=0

  7. Posting on facebook groups.The post here doesn’t have to be professional and the screenshots should not look professional,if they are
    ,(these screenshots were differnt from the ones one the app page) you will give an impression that your app comes from a company and it won’t appear as a personal request but like an advertisement, which you don’t want.I posted them 100 each day. Got about 2000 downloads from such posts.
    Don’t forget to make stories. No one wants to listen about your organization etc etc,but instead tell them a story.Very little about the app,but focus more on how your app looks,beleieve me,it works.

  8. Sending messages to youtubers to review it. Go to their about page and you might find an email ,or you might even find a message button.
    This is what i used to do,
    Target keywords like “android apps” “android” “technology” “android app review” “best apps”
    Search these keywords on youtube and sort the results by channels and open them up and drop a message.
    Believe me when I say this, THERE IS NOT EVEN A SINGLE CHANNEL(which appeared when i searched the above) WHICH DIDNT RECEIVE MY COPY PASTE TEMPLATE.
    That’s right,I didn’t even spare a single channel.
    Your message shouldn’t be longer than 4-5 lines.
    This used to be my content.
    "Hi would you be interested in making a review video for my app?
    This is my app link
    https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=bitsie.playmee.musicplayer.free
    It is a music player / audio player,and what’s different about is the UI. It is something which you wouldn’t have seen before.
    Regards,
    Ankit.
    [email protected]

Then posting on their new videos ,asking people to try it and asking the channel owner to review it. I posted them 100 each day or maybe more.
I even posted on new videos of PEWDIEPIE etc etc so that people can see it.I targeted all the famous people’s videos,becuase they get millions of videos.
I knew if i get a few hundred upvotes,my app would get ten thousands of likes.
Sadly I haven’t come across a way to get likes on my comments.
Please let me know if you know how to.

  1. Posting on reddit,forums, qoura etc.Got about 300 downloads from there

I did this for 20 days.
Got about 15,000 downloads within the first 20 days.
Yes even after trying so much,all i got was 15,000 installs within 20 days.(or 30,dont remember)

I really was exhausted and i knew I needed a more sustainable way of getting downloads. I was getting 300-400 installs a day and I knew I won’t reach my target with so less number of installs a day.
So i started experimenting a lot. Like I used to spam on quora,and realized how it can improve the ranks.
I started targeting good keywords and my main source of downloads is ranking within top 10 for the keyword “music player”
I have achieved a rank in 20’s for all the main keywords like audio player,mp3 player,player etc etc

These days my app gets 9000-12,000 downloads a day
and earns me anywhere between 120$ -150$
There is still a long way to go,but I know I will be there.
I also offer my aso Services at 1500$/month if you are interested.You will see results within a week.
My skype is : facebook.ankit.ishu.7

Even if you don’t want to buy my services,
hit me up for a chat on facebook !! I am always ready to help a fellow developer
https://www.facebook.com/ankit.ishu.7