Today I want to talk about what I would do if I was starting over again and I had $1000 to spend.
1. Become obsessed with learning and information. Be immersed in the app world and learn everything.
I would dive into blogs, books, Facebook communities and be active as I possibly could. I was constantly providing feedback and helping other people. I was commenting on posts, replying to tweets, emailing people who were sending newsletters.
2. Get an app in the store for as little money as I possibly could.
I need to go from no apps to one app in the app store. I’ll try to get the first $100 – $120 to get in the app store. There are template sites out there. You just change the graphics and make it your own.
3. Find an obsessed audience.
Find a community of people completely obsessed with some topic. One example is dog owners or pet owners. These people tend to be completely obsessed with their pets. I would learn everything I could about these people who are going to download my app.
4. Understand this audience and what they need.
Not just find the audience but like all the Facebook pages that they like, look through the comments, talk to them in private groups. I’d find out what books they read, what they’re spending their money on. I’ll learn everything I could about them with the end goal of asking them, “Hey, what is something that you wish you have?” Or, more importantly, “What is something that you need for this particular obsession?”
5. Put together a strategy of how do I take this simple app and morph it into something that the audience really wants.
I try to find the people who want the app and then give them something that’s basic enough that they then can come back to me and say, “You know, this is okay, but I wish it had…” Or, “You know, it’s not that good because it doesn’t have…”
Once I have that, the rest is pretty straightforward. Then you just keep on updating your app, conversion rates, getting downloads. But I wouldn’t care about algorithm and getting it all perfect. All I would care about is: Does this obsessive community like my app enough to download it and to potentially pay money for it?
That 5-step system is much less than $1,000. The real exercise is in continuing to listen to your audience, improving your app and getting more people to see your app. The feedback you receive will determine your strategy.
And for anyone out there that’s just getting started, the first thing I encourage you to do is get information. Read the blog. If you really want to up your game and get some structure, join the Bluecloud App Formula which is part of our workshop. It’ll get you the education you always wanted in less than 30 days.
This is the future of the app business and this is how real things happen.
See ya!
Carter
I’m gonna get started on my first app today by buying a template but I just don’t get how I modify the template to make it unique
@Austin – Awesome! From an operational standpoint, if you don’t know how to code you can hire someone to do that. From a “what should I do” standpoint, the best move is to go through the app store and find competitors. Look at their reviews and you’ll see people telling you exactly what they want. This course lays out a pretty good blueprint for doing this: http://learn.bluecloudsolutions.com/p/auto-app-idea-generator
Actionable information others are charging for. Thanks Carter!
@Leo – thanks for reading!
Always great info . You better believe I am taking notes
@Georgi – Thanks!
This is awesome…. deep & honest in the same time, love it big time, Carter. Thx for keep sharing with us 🙂
Some really good advice here – testing the market with minimal investment is always key!