“If you get confused, listen to the music play.” – The Grateful Dead

I was on a run the other day and came up with this idea, one that I believe would be a million dollar app if done correctly, so please steal this as soon as possible, go make it, and become a millionaire. Then invite me to your party.

Imagine “Draw Something” for music, but way more fun.

A bit of background regarding my music experience – I was a DJ in high school and loved every minute of it. I would DJ lots of the school dances and got hired to do private parties. For the past three years, I’ve had a music blog that sends out songs every Friday morning to loyal followers and I LOVE doing it. All the freshest new tracks from blogs around the web served right to your inbox. The creativity fuels me, the beats drive me (especially while building app empires).

In 2006, I had the once in a lifetime opportunity to go to the Bonnaroo Music Festival and build a sculpture with John Bisbee, a genius of which I can only describe as a real life magician. I slept in a tent for a few weeks and drank bourbon as freely as bottled water, surrounded by creativity, blazing sun, and music. Oh man, so much music.

When the festival started and I was able to step away from my projects, my buddy and I ended up in Center-Roo, or the main area where the concerts and activities happened. It was about 9pm and we strolled by a tent that glowed with life and pulsed with a strange, yet hypnotic energy. As we walked closer we saw something completely out of this world – 500 people wearing Bose noise cancelling headphones rocking out…

…to no music.

And I mean full on dance party. People going absolutely nuts – sweating, eyes closed, the whole deal. Everyone was woven together by some intangible silk, a pulsing, yet hidden force. Then I saw it – the DJ.

He towered above everyone else, wearing the same headphones, and commanded this army of freedom seekers. His entire system was not plugged into an obtuse sound system, but a low output FM transmitter. He was a live radio station with a listener base of 500.

And I couldn’t hear a thing.

Literally hundreds of people glued to their headphones, waiting on every track that was going to come on next. The dancers were in their own world, engaging for hours with whatever the DJ served up.

Naturally, I made my way through the line of people waiting to get involved and was handed a pair of the forbidden headphones. I put them on and felt an electricity run through me. I once was blind and now I see.

Everything seemed to now make sense. Everyone who saw me gave me a look of “Yes – you understand now. You’re part of our community. You belong here.” It was awesome. SO awesome. Every once in a while I would remove the headphones and see the audacity of what we were doing. It felt like nothing I’d ever been a part of.

I’ve since re-lived that disco memory with my buddy and talked to a few others who have experienced similar musical journeys. There is something so special about combining music, dancing, and a feeling of camaraderie. Conversations have come up that talk about how great it would be to re-create that experience, but it always falls short because of logistics, cost, or equipment.

More importantly, being able to feel like we were all a part of something that was special – an exclusivity that was anything but exclusive. It all seemed impossible to re-create.

That is, until now.

Transmitting Love – The Power Of The Collective Community

Before I get into this, a few AWESOME resources to check out that have provided plenty of inspiration behind this.

Turntable.fm – probably the closest working model to what I’m talking about. They have a great iPhone app already and a growing community. Basically you select a “room” and DJs (users) select music to play. If they play great music, people give them props and they get popular. Kind of an organic DJ showcase.

Songza – Songza is the brainchild of some musical geniuses, one of which I went to Bowdoin College with. It’s like Pandora but built on   playlists generated by real people who have awesome taste in music. It will put your Pandora listening to shame, and is one of my most used iPhone apps.

So, back to the subject at hand.

Imagine an iPhone app that doesn’t necessarily cater to the users as much as it caters to the DJs or the people making the music. Instead of trying to get lots of downloads and make your money on the oceans of people loading your app and displaying ads, you create the most epic way for a DJ to send an invite to their 250 followers with the subject line “Want to be a part of my silent disco?”

As a marketer, the most important and gorgeous asset in business is leverage. The ability to turn 1 into 100 without all the leg work is a dream come true. This is why having 500 semi-popular DJs, in my opinion, makes this app more valuable than the 50,000 regular users they will bring you. Those DJs have armies of followers and they will market this app like you never could.

This app would be created for a DJ in order to give them a tool that they could use to throw a party at a fraction of the cost of a sound system. The possibilities are endless:

• An on-site silent disco – Djs work with an event space to be live and in person while everyone jams on their iPhone headphones. Cool, creative, and a PR dream.
• A virtual dance party – the DJ spins from his condo at 11pm PST and everyone who wants to be a part can plug in from anywhere they want, worldwide. You could probably even charge for entry using in-app purchases.
• A marketing tool – push notifications, emails, and text messages about new tracks/events/remixes.

You’re selling DJs a marketing AND a distribution channel via the #1 engagement platform out there. That is unprecedented. Never been done.

And is worth more money than I can imagine. Here’s why:

Prove Engagement and You Have A Blank Check

There might be some ways to make money here and there in an app like this – selling features, “leasing” air time, charging admissions, etc, but it’s not going to be a million bucks, at least not any time soon.The overhead alone is going to be pretty steep with hosting and database bandwidth, most likely coming off of an Amazon S3 rack somewhere.

The value is in the engagement.

I’m working with a few companies that are big event promoters – thousands of events every year. The budgets for these campaigns can exceed $300M. You know what the biggest question is?

How do they KNOW that they’re reaching consumers at the events?

When people are milling around at these events, how does a brand know that they’re seeing their liquor bottle or banner at the wall? What sort of music is being played? Answer is: they don’t know…and they spend millions of dollars on it.

There is this big hole in the market which spans every industry…including the music industry. These guys are like everyone else, looking for the next way to engage users and get their brands into the heads (and ears) of the right people.

Now imagine you have this Silent Disco app that’s being used by hundreds, if not thousands of DJs (and others) around the world who have the ability to market and broadcast to their customer base. You actually have a few hundred thousand users by now because all those DJs told everyone they knew to download it so that they could join in on this awesome platform.

You see where this is going?

Licensing, white-labeling, or outright selling this app to a DJ equipment company or record label would probably take less than 20 minutes. The app could feature a brand’s products, record labels could send out “Recommended by you favorite DJ” push notifications that give free downloads of new bands they’re trying to promote, sponsored parties that require “checking in” with your app to turn the music on.

My point is that the money is in the engagement, not necessarily in the app. You don’t have to have a million SALES to make a million, you just need to prove a million dollars’ worth of value to someone who can buy it.

I’ll Come To Your Silent Disco If You Steal My Idea

Not even kidding. I’ll plug in and tune out if anyone out there wants to get serious about this. Any takers? Maybe Trey Smith? Ha.

Catch you later,

Carter

“Beg, steal, or borrow.” – Ray LaMontagne

Believe it or not, one of the top keyword groups that hits my site deals with how to build an app like Angry Birds. Everyone wants to know how to build a game that’s going to be fun, addictive, and wildly successful. Wouldn’t it be great if there was a simple template that allowed you to create your own Angry Birds?

I thought I’d write a quick post and let you all know what your options are. It’s not pretty, but it’s possible.

1. Outsource to Elance

Check out these screen shots I took this morning right off the network. Note the descriptions.

I’ve seen dozens of proposal requests like this all the way up to “Angry Birds Clone.” The proposal amounts for these ranged from $4,000 – $8,000. Almost all bids were from off-shore firms. You’ll notice that most of these descriptions are pretty short and generic, asking for a “fun, addictive” game and just assuming that the rest will fall into place.

If you’ve read my Ebook, you’ll know that this is NOT the way to go about this. There needs to be so much more detail to be able to properly build a game like this. Think about all the questions – what are the characters? How many levels? What do the levels look like? Maybe these will be answered along the way, but it’s VERY sketchy to expect someone who can barely speak English to give you a solid price on a project without asking any specifics.

So – Elance is a great way to do it, but don’t do what these people are doing. Get very specific, ask for iOS and Android developers with a strong gaming background, and say “I’ll send you the full scope of work through a Private Message if you ask for it.” This will weed out all the firms that just send back a generic message when they see an iOS job request come up.

2. GameSalad

GameSalad is one of those AppMakr type websites that promises the ability to build apps with little to no programming experience. They focus on games instead of news feed apps and have proprietary software to build the games,  meaning they have their own Xcode-type interface.

I downloaded GameSalad a few weeks ago and messed around with a full template (which you need to re-design) to see how easy it was. It’s pretty much the same conclusion as AppMakr, but requires a bit more training in using the software. Here’s the YouTube video from the developer showing what these templates will look like in action. Cost? $80.

I want to say again – you’ll have to re-design this game. That’s not a small project. You can actually buy design templates within GameSalad, but it’s still going to be an investment of time.

3. Angry Birds Source Code Clone

A clone is a copy of the game that someone makes by emulating all parts of the game. You’d be amazed at how many “clones” there are out there, just Google something like “Angry Birds Clone” and you’ll see thousands of results. Here’s the first result that came up – a product that was built in 36 hours by a Corona Developer (Corona is a coding platform that you can build games in).

http://developer.anscamobile.com/code/ghosts-vs-monsters

This is going to be raw code, so you’ll need a developer to help you if you can’t read programming. The upside is that it’s open source (free). There are some basic licensing agreements which mean that you’ll have to re-design the game to make it your own.

What I Would Do

Of these three options, I would outsource to Elance and build it from the ground up. I would expect to spend about $20,000 on something like this and would do everything I could to copy the physics and game play, but completely separate myself from the Angry Birds brand. I would invest just as much money into the design as I did into the development so that the characters, enemies, and backgrounds were fun and engaging. I’d do something that had some sort of dichotomy – cats vs dogs, democrats vs republicans, something catchy.

The most important part of this exercise is in the details. It’s the smoothness by which the objects fly, the way the structures topple over ever so slightly based on gravity that looks real. Details are what make games look professional or not.

From a marketing standpoint, I would create a free version and a paid version. The free version would have 10 levels and iAds, the paid version would have 50 levels and no ads. I’d build a website, YouTube video, and social media accounts.

Overall, I wouldn’t do a game like this unless I had $20-25,000 to spend because otherwise it would be just another game that’s KIND of good and not the kind of game that you tell your friend about. The above three options will give you a good idea of how to get started if you’re interested.

As always, good luck! If anyone has another idea for the list, leave a comment and I’ll add it.

Carter

“Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will.” – George Bernard Shaw

93% perspiration, 6% electricity, 4% evaporation, and 2% butterscotch ripple.

Or so says Willy Wonka when describing the process of invention.

I just got an email from Adobe, the makers of Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, and countless other amazing programs letting me know that they are releasing Creative Suite 6 (CS6) in a few weeks. It made me reflect on the past two years and realize how integral these programs have been for getting Bluecloud to where it is today.

In short, they have allowed me to take my ideas and turn them into working realities. I became an inventor using these programs which in turn opened up doors I never knew existed.

If you’ve read my ebook (sign up on the right if you haven’t) you’ll see that I start the entire app process with the idea. Your idea is the most brilliant and wonderful thing you have – in your mind it’s perfect in every way and it rightly should be. It is simple and complex at the same time, it makes sense, it inspires awe and magic….everything. Ideas are the currency of the spirit and are the foundation from which all greatness is ever achieved.

WHAM! Enter reality. After you’ve had a chance to wax poetically about how you have the next Angry Birds, Draw Something, and Fruit Ninja built into one app, you realize that there is no way to get your vision out of your head. You can describe it and talk about it, but you see people’s eyes glaze over after 10 seconds. That’s frustrating. I know because I’ve been there…and I’m still there when I try to talk to people about some of the visions I have for apps. Talk is cheap.

A lot of people assume that the process of pulling and idea from your brain is mechanical in nature, that the only way to be successful is to have an amazing mind map and blueprint of every possible permutation the app could generate. And in a lot of ways that’s correct – there is nothing more important and more valuable than a document that you can hand to a developer that explains everything you want the app to do.

But how do you explain how you want the app to make the user feel?

How do you convey that sense of beauty to someone with a mind map?

Answer – you can’t. The breaking down of your idea to actions is the #1 way to create an awesome functional experience. But it’s not the entire story.

I’m writing this blog post because I’ve started to appreciate how important design is when undertaking the app process. I got an email from a reader the other day that struck a chord – there are a lot of people that want to get in the app game and are SO focused on the programming side of things, they lose the essence of success. The post I wrote about AppMakr helped me realize that there is a lot more to getting started with apps than the programming. The design is just as important for long term wins and is often much more tangible than learning to program.

So I’m making a case for everyone out there who wants to get in the app game to take a moment and re-focus for a second, to stop looking at the mountain of Xcode training and start thinking about the path to design. This is exactly how I’ve build my app business…and how I’m taking it well beyond my expectations.

How Photoshop Was Pivotal For Me

In the last two years, I’ve released a bunch of different apps. Some are jokes, some are money makers. Some were just tests that I have since terminated. The common thread between all of these, however, is that I had my hand in all of them.

As many of you know from reading this blog, I taught myself Xcode and Objective-C from nothing more than a web background, but I still hire out nearly all of my development work. I also taught myself Photoshop when I was in high school, making fake Absolut ads for my friends and using the program to create gradients on designs, something that was only for the professionals before Photoshop came along (believe it or not).

I had experience making four or five apps from 2008-2010 and used Photoshop to create screen shots and buttons. Before I started Bluecloud, I worked for an internet startup and went from managing the images on the website to managing the entire internet marketing side of the company. I am not lying when I say this – using Photoshop was the most valuable skill I ever had. I was one of three people in the company that could create nice looking email templates, update the website graphics, and create banners. I was able to build PowerPoint presentations that weren’t just spreadsheets pasted into tabs.

Most importantly, I learned how to take my ideas and put them on display for the world to see.

In October of 2011, I released my first major app, Alpha Combat. I had some help from designers and developers, but I managed all the deliverables and spent about 300 hours of my own time on it.

As you can see in the picture, there are a LOT of moving parts. Imagine if I had to go back to the designers every single time and say “can you tweak this?” or “I was really hoping you could make it a darker green.” I would have gone insane and the app would have suffered. Most importantly, it would have added time and money to the project. Because I could edit in photoshop, I was able to send the designers ideas I had using real design files and then edit files they sent me. It was awesome.

Another app I designed was BarSkillz, done entirely in Photoshop. I used some stock photography and put it together in a way that made it all work. That’s the beauty of it all – you don’t have to be a designer, you just need to be able to put designs together. Check out iStockPhoto or GraphicRiver to see what I mean. You don’t have to start from scratch – you can just modify amazing and cost effective designs that people are putting out every day for you.

The reason Photoshop is so important is because it allowed me to hand a developer a blueprint of the entire app functionality (X -> Y, etc) as well as a look and feel I was shooting for. Imagine if I went to a developer and said “I want to make a bartnending game where you make cocktails.” Do you think they would ever come back with something that looked cool and had the edge I was looking for? Yeah right.

I’ve saved thousands of dollars using Photoshop for my apps. The biggest benefit has been the ability to control my frustration and timeline – by being able to put something into a graphic format and modify existing files, I suddenly became a partner to the developers and EVERYTHING was better.

Photoshop gave me the ability to create apps without ever touching the programming side of the project.

App Elements That Will Always Need Your Love

You may look at this and say to yourself, “But I don’t want to be a designer. I don’t want to get full in with that side of things. I’m not even creative!” All those things are very good to know about yourself and you’re right – you might not be the one who builds the app’s design from the ground up. But here’s a list of assets that no matter what, you’re going to want to be able to modify.

1. Icon

Chances are your designer will send you an icon file that’s a layered PSD (photoshop format) and then a series of PNG files that are sized for all your needs – 512px for the iTunes Store, 114px for the Retina, etc.

Oops! You just realized that you want to change one tiny thing on the icon. Or you want to see how it looks with a blue border. Or with a different color. Imagine the liberation of being able to do all this on your own, then re-save on your own time?

The icon is one of the elements that is crucial in the publishing side of the process (often left up to the user aka YOU) and gives you the ability to update that without having to go through someone else. I actually did a release of Alpha Combat that only updated the icon.

2. Screen Shots

I just finished up a new game that will be live next week called Coconut Craze. It’s a fun, Fruit Ninja type game. The initial screen shot is on the left. The “photoshopped” screen shot is on the right.

Another benefit is that changing your screen shots can be a great way to test conversion. Sometimes having well designed screen shots can give you a big boost in downloads. You can control this whenever you want – it’s easy to update the images in iTunes Connect.

3. Your Website

When you upload your app you have to specify a website for the users to go to if they want to learn more or contact you for support. Some developers just put up a blank page or something really lame. Imagine if you now had the ability to upload something well designed? You can advertise this website to reviewers and make yourself look uber-professional.

Here’s the one I built for my apps that took me about an hour – Bluecloud Mobile. Basic WordPress template with some photoshop work. Boom. Done.

There are lots of other small little pieces that can always use some image work, specifically the presentation to the developers and testing out fonts, but you’ll see what I mean when you start working on it.

The Layers of Photoshop CS6 – Why It Is So Awesome

This quick blurb is less about the app process and more about how awesome the new CS6 is. They’ve taken some of the most powerful functionality in the world and baked it down for anyone to use. Here’s an example of what CS6 offers – mind blowing functionality as easy to do as changing font on some text. This is amazing.

I feel like the guy giving that presentation is about to start laughing at the end because realizes how ridiculous that program is

Getting Started With Photoshop

What’s nice about Photoshop is that it’s been around for a lonngggg time and has hundreds of websites dedicated to teaching people how to use it. Most of these tutorials are all video based so that you can follow along with the guide and learn as you go. Some of the best resources you can use are:

YouTube – search Photoshop tutorials and you’ll see what I mean. One of the best places to start for beginners – free and rich with information.

Tuts Plus – part of the larger Envato network that specializes in taking professional design and delivering it to all skill levels.

Photoshop Lady – with a signature style, the Photoshop Lady is widely regarded as one of the best places to hone your skills.

Free iPhone Icon Template Set – here’s a link to a full PSD file of every size icon you’ll ever need for an iPhone.

Free iPhone Retina Photoshop Set – if you ever want to do professional mockups or use iPhone/iOS elements in a design, this is for you.

Free iPad Retina Photoshop Set – same thing for iPad

Final Thoughts

Photoshop is a great tool. It has saved me lots of money and given me a way to build apps without doing any real programming. These skills have given me independence and autonomy in an industry that is not native to me, and for that, I am forever grateful.

But beyond the left brained, executional and rational reasons for loving Photoshop, the most important is the way it’s helped me think. Working on creative aspects of the app project, I’m forced to see things in a new way and to push myself to create something even better. Even if I’m not trying to come up with new ideas, the byproduct of designing seems to be one that spawns new energy. Simply receiving designs from someone else allows us all to very easily just say “that’s good enough” and paste it into the Xcode project. Mediocrity doesn’t make anyone happy, so please don’t succumb to it.

Sometimes I stop and take a break from a two hour Photoshop session and look at what I just created and it feels awesome. It’s almost overwhelming to feel like you’re taking the vision you have in your mind and turning it into a reality. I begin to see the entirety of it all and that’s exciting. What Photoshop has given me is a way to take what’s in my head and share it with the world.

If you’re looking to get started with apps, I cannot recommend this program any higher.

Take It For A Spin

CS6 comes out May 7th but you can check out the features by clicking the button below. Definitely browse around, check out Photoshop and all the other programs they offer and see if that’s right for you.

Grab Adobe Photoshop and Start Designing Your Next App!

In the meantime, keep rocking! Leave a comment if you have any thoughts or questions about Photoshop (or any other awesome programs you use, for that matter).

Carter

“As I said, men value their independence in a weird way, above practically everything.” – George Weinberg

Build Me Up, Buttercup

Just as the internet did, the app market is beginning to cater to people that see the potential. There are thousands of people looking for a way to get started (especially on the cheap) without any programming, design, or marketing experience. They have an idea and want to make it a reality.

Similarly, a lot of companies want to have an app that they can point people to but don’t want to invest into something expensive. It can be as simple as a news feed app – they just want a presence in the app world.

Because of this clear demand in the market, companies have sprung up that allow people with no coding experience to build an app themselves. The service offering is a smooth, easy integration that will get anyone an app for free.

I decided to do a little research myself and signed up for one of these services that advertises themselves as the “No experience needed!” type deals. They sell the uber-simpleness of their offering and how a caveman can do it. I wanted to see where these companies were at and how they navigated the complex world of app creation and app publishing.

More importantly, I wanted to be able to provide objective insight for everyone reading this blog who’s wondering if this is a good idea.

So, I signed up for www.appmakr.com – probably the biggest player out there right now. I’m going to talk about three separate pieces of this experience – the build, the publishing, and the ROI.

Here’s what happened.

THE BUILD

When you start building your app, this is how the interface is going to look (after all info is added). I chose to do a Triathlon News app because the triathlon market is WIDE open for apps (someone go steal that idea and make an awesome triathlon app – you will make a ton of money.) I used the Add Another Tab area (PURPLE BOX) to add RSS feeds and some photo feeds. You can see the “preview” of your app on the right side in real-time, a nice bonus.

What this is doing is taking the RSS feed and parsing it into an easy to read format on the phone. These can be blog posts or news articles coming off of the main website. They have a nice RSS search engine built in so it really is easy find the RSS feed of choice. You have a few other options as you can see (Photo Album, Post message tab, etc) and I used the photo album for the Flickr Feed. It’s good to mix it up so that Apple will approve your app, otherwise they’re going to say it doesn’t have enough functionality to qualify as an app.

This took me a total of about 20 minutes to do. You will need to create an icon and a header image (seen above). They have a Google Image search that you can use to make a quick and dirty version, just be careful about using images that are on the open internet. I’d recommend making those yourself if you know how to use Photoshop, or just keep it simple and plain.

The rest of the Build experience was pretty easy – App Info refers to things like the meta description and keywords. You’ll use this all again in your iTunes account when you upload, it’s more for record keeping and if you pass the job off the Appmakr (more on this later).

The Monetize tab is where it gets weird, which I’ll talk about in a second. It gives you the option of leasing the app for $79/mo in exchange for full ownership of the ads and having total control over the app….sort of.

So – the build side of things is actually pretty sweet. You can get up and running very little time and ready to publish your app.

Unfortunately, that’s where the headaches start.

PUBLISHING

I’m not going to get into a “how to publish apps on appmakr” type post, but I will say this: I’m a pretty seasoned iPhone app publisher and it took me a few tries to get this right. I spent about 4 hours going from start to finish, getting everything lined up correctly.What that translates into someone with no experience is hard to say.

Looking back, it’s not as complicated as I originally thought, but they don’t make it terribly easy for the lay person to do it. If you’ve never gone through the entire publishing process, especially with a third party, this is going to be a BIG investment of time. You basically need to have Appmakr create the permission slip for you to publish the app and use their Push Notification services. This allows you to upload their software build of your app into your own iTunes account.

They have a wizard that helps and good step by step instructions, but you still need a working knowledge of iTunes Connect, provisioning profiles, push notifications, App IDs, and certificates. I had a hard time understanding that the Private Key I had for my developer certificate had to be re-done so that I could grant AppMakr access. If that sounds French to you, imagine trying to actually do this all yourself

What Appmakr does offer, however, is a service that will do this all for you and then seamlessly integrate into your account. I think it costs a couple hundred bucks.

Once you get everything locked an loaded into your developer profile, you’ll submit it to the app store and wait a week for it to be reviewed.

RETURN ON INVESTMENT

Here’s where it gets a little tricky. The biggest offering of these sites like Appmakr is that it’s free and easy to use. And it is – it cost me nothing to build this app and submit it to the store. They put ads into the app which is how they make money.

The trick is for apps like this, you need to make them free to get any sizable download numbers (which will make you zero money, but will make Appmakr some) or you have to charge for the app which will maybe make you a few bucks a week.

What Appmakr does is offer you a $79/month per app service that gives you full control of the app – you get the ad revenue and can build the app as many different times as you’d like.

But – I can hardly imagine anyone makes more than $79/month off of a news type app that Appmakr puts out. There might be some that are superlative and can break that barrier, but I doubt it.

I released my Triathlon News App free and had about 60 downloads, then 30 the next day, then smoothed out at 1o or so. Then I made it paid and I’ve had 4 downloads in about a week.

Bottom line – you won’t make much money off of these apps. If you just want an app for your blog or for your business, then it’s actually not a bad gig. You can point people to the app and get extra traffic.

None Shall Pass

In the last 6-12 months Apple has seriously tightened their belts on the app review process. They are keeping a much closer watch on people submitting apps that are just news feeds or uber-simple apps that are essentially templated out. This is the language they use for Rejection reason 12.3:

” We found that the experience your app provides is not sufficiently different from browsing a content aggregator web site, as required by the App Store Review Guidelines.

While your app may facilitate access to content from a range of web sites, even when including features such as Push Notifications, the experience it provides is not significantly different from using Safari. Such apps do not include enough native iOS functionality to be appropriate for the App Store.

We encourage you to review your app concept and evaluate whether you can incorporate additional features to enhance the user experience. “

Similarly, you may see Rejection reason 10.6 which states:

“We found the user interface of your app is not of sufficient quality to be appropriate for the App Store. Apps that provide a poor user experience are not in compliance with the App Store Review Guidelines.

We have found that your app does not take advantage of the iOS platform. It would be appropriate to add iOS specific UI and functionality rather than displaying just text and feed views.

Please evaluate whether you can make the necessary revisions to improve the user experience of your app. “

I have submitted about 5 apps that I made on AppMakr, all of which scored very high on the “Likely to be Approved” scale and keep getting these messages back.

What you can see happening here is that Apple is moving about 2 months behind these template sites to make sure the functionality is unique and great. Appmakr is going 200mph in order to add more functionality like Sharing on FB, Twitter, Email along with dozens of other bells and whistles. It’s a very tough game to be in because the market is constantly evolving.

I’m telling you this because there is a very real possibility that your app is going to get rejected from the store – these apps are by no means a sure thing.

The ability to have a template that is easy to update and can have a high guarantee of approval is a gold mine in the app market – you can product hundreds of apps that are loaded with Ads, creating both a fleet of money makers and a terrific barometer of market demand. That’s exactly what Amish Shah is doing with The App Code and something I’m working on in my spare time.

Hope this helps! Please leave a comment if you have had experience with AppMakr or any other service like it.

Carter

“I make my living by giving away great products.” – Mark Roberts

Give It Away, Give It Away, Give It Away Now

I’ve been getting a fair amount of emails and questions about a widely disregarded topic – how do free apps make money? It deserves attention given that free apps clearly trump paid in terms of download numbers. The trick is to figure out how to capitalize on those new users.

You need to leverage the free download numbers to create a better revenue stream than a paid app.

I personally do this with almost all my apps. I find that when I have them priced at $0.99 I make a little less money than I do from in-app purchases when it’s free. The other difference is that I get about 10x the download number when it’s free. That opens up a whole new set of tools I can use to make money and leverage myself.

Without further ado, let’s talk about the ways you can make money when your app is free.

1. The Freemium Upsell

This  requires having a second version of your app that’s paid. Typically you’ll see this as the “Lite” and “Regular” or “HD” versions of an app, paired together. The free app will have a link that a user can click that drives them to the iTunes store on their phone.

It’s kind of a feeder system – users can download your free app and get a sense of what you have to offer, then they can easily purchase the full version (which will have lots more functionality and game play.)

The other piece of the freemium model is….

2. In-App Purchases

In-app purchases allow users to unlock features or purchase more of something, maybe coins in a game like Tap Zoo or gold in a game like Infinity Blade. In fact, 6 of the top 10 grossing apps in 2011 were free – they were able to use in-app purchases so well that they drove millions of dollars in sales, even though the app was free.

When you build an app, you can set IAP (in-app purchases) to be a one time purchase (I want to unlock this feature) or an ongoing option (I want to purchase 20 coins for $0.99), meaning you can purchase that over and over again. You can easily start racking up enormous amounts of revenue with the second, but you also need an incredible app that can justify it.

In-app purchases can also be subscriptions if you were in the market of news feeds. The Newsstand functionality within the Apple framework allows you to set up an in-app purchase that will automatically charge every month. One idea I’ve had for Bluecloud is to sell a premium membership through an app – members pay $2.99 a month and have access to exclusive blog posts and other information only available to members. Someday

3. Ads

Oh ads. What a love/hate relationship I have with ads. The bottom line is they work but require a sizable amount of traffic to make it worth your while. When you start getting traffic, it can be a terrific (and consistent) revenue source.

The biggest two ad networks are iAds and Admob – the first being Apple and the second being Google. I’ve talked to a lot of developers and most agree that iAds pay out better. Typically it’s a pretty small CPM (cost per thousand impressions) that’s under a dollar and a CPC (cost per click) that can be a few bucks.

If you’re looking to make money, you can expect to make around $2 if you get 100 downloads. That’s just a ballpark figure based on my own experience and can vary widely based on how many people click on your ad.

I did a quick experiment with a basic open source tic tac toe game to see if it would make any money with ads. I skinned the app with Zombies and other weird stuff to see if I could get some downloads. I installed the iAd framework and let it rip. Since I released it, I’ve had 157 downloads which has translates into $1.88.

You may think those are small numbers, but actually they’re not horrible. For other games I get a few hundred downloads a day and make zero money sometimes. Some make $120 a day. It all depends on the ads you get served up and the amount of people that click.

So – it’s good to have ads in the game and they can make you money. Just be ready to market the hell out of your app.

4. CPI Networks (Cost Per Install)

Cost per install is a relatively new marketing mechanism and is the mobile equivalent to CPA (cost per acquisition) in the web marketing world. CPI is exactly what it sounds like – you pay per install that you get. Examples of this are Playhaven and Chartboost – they are third parties that have software you install into your app.

You’ll often see this as a “pop-up” in games and apps, prompting you to look at another game and “Get It Now.” Those apps are dynamically served based on what app you have yourself.

I’ve talked to a few networks about their pricing and it ranges from $0.80-$3.00. This means that if you want to promote your app, you will pay Playhaven this amount every time someon installs your game. This actually works out to be a better deal than most developers report on advertising networks (often report 0.3% CTR with translates into a $15 CPI). $3 is cheaper than $15. Rocket science.

On the other side of that, I get about $1 per install through Playhaven. So – a developer wants to promote their app and will pay $3 to have a new user install it on their device. If I can provide that installation, I get paid $1 of that. It’s actually good money and very consistent (unlike in-app purchases). It’s directly proportional to my download numbers and grows as your user base grows.

There are tons of CPI companies popping up these days and be sure to let your developer know you want to incorporate them. They’re not too difficult to add onto a game or app, but is helpful to discuss early on.

5. Sponsorship

Landing a sponsor is a great way to make money on your free app. The money is up front and you gain brand credibility with your audience.

The deals typically go like this: you approach a company and say “I have this app idea, I’ve got the plan, etc etc and I will white label it for $XXX.”

OR

“I built this app a few months ago and it has 50,000 downloads. I will update the graphics with your brand for $XXX”

And so on. It can take a little while to get the right match and a company that is forward thinking enough to realize how powerful the mobile platform is, but it can work.

What’s even more compelling than the sponsor’s money is their marketing horsepower. They most likely have a website with good traffic, email newsletters, and social media. If they sponsor your app, chances are they’ll be happy to promote it for you. That’s great value.

I am personally working on a few deals like this and will write more about them when I lock a few things down.

This list covers almost everything you can do to make money on free apps. If I missed anything important, please let me know!

“Intellectual property has the shelf life of a banana.” – Bill Gates

I was watching Shark Tank the other day and I got fired up.

The sharks were being pitched by a guy who was trying to sell them a patent and the intellectual property (IP) of a clothing technology called Technology Enabled Clothing but not letting them touch his $5M/yr business. Things got heated about the issue of IP and how it plays out in America today.

The capitalist icon shark, Kevin O’Leary defended the IP argument, saying that’s what makes America great. Another shark, Mark Cuban, exploded, saying this is exactly what is screwing American business – guys like Scott Jordan who own TEC file a patent then make all their money going around and killing small businesses that accidentally use his very obtuse technology patent.

I’m here to make a stand and give Mark Cuban a high five – effort and passion should be what drive this country, not litigation and imaginary restrictions.

Trust me, I’m a capitalist and a businessman, but I believe in creating value in certain ways. And instead of whining about it, I’m doing something about it.

Take My Ideas and Go Make A Million

As often as I can, I’m going to blog about ideas I have in the app, web, and marketing world. I’m going to do my best to lay it all out there, from start to finish, in hopes that any hungry business person takes that idea and makes millions of dollars. I’ll never ask for a penny or a shred of recognition. These ideas will sometimes be off the wall and sometimes be pretty straightforward. No matter what, they’ll be ideas that I believe in and would do myself if I had 200 more hours a week.

One thing I will promise you is that I will never, ever put anyone else’s idea up here unless they say it’s OK.

I urge you to comment on these posts with questions and point out all the holes in my ideas so that we can eventually create something that’s a winning idea.

And on that note, here’s an idea for you to chew on….

Application Arbitrage: Insider Trading 3.0

Ever wondered out how you can make money on the gold rush of apps? Better yet, ever wonder how you could make money without owning an app, developing an app, or knowing anything about apps? Well, then this model is for you.

Check out this company – http://www.appbackr.com/ and peruse what they’re doing. Like others out there, they’re creating a wholesale market for apps in order to help developers offset the steep cost of development by creating a margin for the investor in the order of 25-60%.

An example:

ABC Apps just spent 6 months developing this awesome iPhone app. It cost them $50,000 and they’re running out of money. They need to get some money fast so that they can start marketing the app.

Enter Johnny the Investor. Johnny will give ABC Apps $5,000 today in exchange for a set number of app copies, say 5,000, and will purchase them for $0.70 on the dollar. When those apps are then sold on the open market (Apple), Johnny gets the full retail price of $0.99 for every copy he “owns.” Johnny makes 29% on each app, thus making about $1,500 on his investment.

That’s the appbackr model. It’s working – lots of people are doing this and there is a large growth model in tact. Please note that in this example I didn’t take into account fees from Apple and Appbackr for simplicity sake.

The bottom line is that you can invest in apps using this system.

Great. Hooray.

The problem is….it takes a long time to get your money back. Unless you’re the first investor, good luck with the return. You’re out a ton of money and just sitting on your hands until a risky investment pays off.

Control The Market, Make Millions

One of the most most blinding economic principles of markets in today’s world is that they are imperfect. There is lag, emotion, and countless other factors that impact supply and demand. In pretty much all wholesale markets, the only way to bridge the gap is to perform marketing. Duh.

But what if you controlled both? What if you controlled both the supply AND the demand? What if you could purchase 5,000 DVDs at wholesale price and then unload those 5,000 DVDs the very same day at retail price the way WalMart does?

Well, then you would be as rich as you could imagine. And guess what? NO ONE IS DOING THIS FOR APPS.

There are hundreds of websites out there getting hundreds of thousands of monthly visitors looking for apps. They’re looking for new games, utilities, whatever. Apple made it easy to build these sites by delivering a clean RSS feed out of their store and everyone capitalized on it. A few examples are:

http://iphoneapplicationlist.com/apps/
http://www.appolicious.com/

And so on. Start doing reviews and your traffic increases and you make money. You’d be amazed at how quickly you can get traffic to these sites.

So let’s say you build one of these sites that focuses on Arcade Games for the iPhone. You focus all your energy on that site, getting all the correct RSS data and building reviews and getting the site rocking and rolling. Your traffic increases and you are kicking butt in SEO. You tag all your app links with Apple affiliate coding so that you’re making enough money to break even. You then start building in a marketing funnel with featured apps, email marketing, and targeted traffic direction.

This website funnel has one purpose – drive downloads of ONE app. More specifically, an Arcade Game. Everyone who comes to your site will want to download the app you’re promoting.

Now you have a website that’s humming along with 3-5,000 visitors a week and you’ve got everything in place. I know I glazed over a lot of the details of going from zero to 3,000 visits a week, but that’s another post.

Buy Low, Sell High

You see where I’m going with this? You now have a supply (developers) and controlled demand (a website that will guarantee you downloads of an app that you choose). You can go to developers and purchase a few thousand copies of their app, then turn around and tag your entire website to feature that one app. You sell all copies in 2 days and make a handsome margin.

Then you take the above model and template it across every app category, creating a colossus of a link wheel that drives all investments you have.

You then become a hedge fund for apps that is disguised as an iPhone app marketing firm. You approach developers, tell them you can guarantee them 5,000 downloads in a week AND you’ll pay them to let you do it. You’re PAYING developers to get them downloads! Amazing.

So there you go – a wholesale model that’s 100% legal and has zero competition. I came up with this while swimming the other day and have only had a chance to run it by a few people, so please comment below and give me your thoughts.

And for goodness sakes, STEAL THIS IDEA!!!

Lots more to come,

Carter

P.S. Also, someone please buy www.tecnologyenabledclothing.com and every other misspelling and teach that guy a lesson in web marketing.

“But quality of work can be expected only through personal satisfaction, dedication and enjoyment. In our profession, precision and perfection are not a dispensable luxury, but a simple necessity.” – Niklaus Wirth

Something Like a Phenomenon

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last few weeks, you’ve seen Draw Something firmly entrenched at the top of both the Paid and Free app store charts. This app is described as “pictionary for the iPhone” and works by having one person draw while the other person guesses what that drawing is. The app launched in early February and has already garnered 20+ Million downloads, which is more than Four Square and almost as many as Instagram. That’s legit.

What’s even more legit is the fact that they’re pulling in six figures.

A day.

Yup – they’re doing $100,000+ in revenue every 24 hours. This is some serious cash and this game is riding a tidal wave of viral sharing.

Why this app? Why did Draw Something take off in a way that is shattering all records to date? What’s so special about this that no one else has? Here’s my take on it.

Sick-if-i-cation - the process of taking a great idea and making it even sicker

In my previous blog posts and in my ebook I talk a lot about the difference between being first to market/protecting your idea vs taking an existing idea and being the best. I’m very much on the side of the fence that is all about greatness and being the best, which is exactly what the folks over at OMGPOP (creators of Draw Something) did. They took Pictionary, the family friendly household game and made it that much better. They put it in the palm of your hand. The designs for Draw Something are vibrant and engaging, playing nicely between comic goofiness and seriously developed game play.

They took Pictionary and made it awesome.

If they had skimped on the development and design of this, the app would be just another game. It would never have achieved that tipping point that brought the success it has seen. This, in my opinion, is the #1 reason why they are winning so hard.

Wahhh….Play With Meeeee!

You can play Angry Birds until you’re blue in the face all by yourself, but you can’t play Draw Something unless you have someone else. We’re all social creatures and, given the choice, would rather play with people we know than with total strangers. This basic psychology brings with it a powerful marketing mechanism – the “word of mouth” effect.

The CEO of OMGPOP said that they supplemented the launch with some paid marketing and advertising on their own company website. This drove approximately 40,000 downloads. The rest is history – the word of mouth took over and things went totally hog wild, exploding to millions of users in a matter of weeks.

Guess what drove that word of mouth marketing? The first 40,000 people sitting around with their friends saying “hey, download this app so that we can play together.”

Currency-ya

Incorporating a currency system into your app is the #1 way, hands down, to make insane amounts of money. Look at the Top Grossing apps and you’ll see what I mean – they’re either currency based games, gambling, or at the top of the Paid Apps list. A strong currency model + downloads = massive revenue.

Draw Something built in a fun currency system that actually makes sense. You enhance your game play options by being able to purchase additional colors or subtract letters from the choices. It’s inviting and appeals to anyone playing the game.

Having a strong revenue stream from an app that has this kind of widespread appeal is incredible hard to do, and these guys nailed it.

Incentivized Social Media

When you boot up Draw Something, you have to put in your email address or your Facebook information. You’re “in” their system with a username and are free to start cranking out drawings as you see fit. When you start to make drawings and playing the game, you’ll notice how easy it is to share the drawing on Twitter and others.

More importantly, you’ll see how fun it is to share these drawings.

Personally, I think that there is a huge point to be made that these drawings are done with your friends or other people. These are not just funny sketches someone made on a basic drawing app – they are usually funny and made both people laugh or connect in some other way. It feels much more like a light and fun process to upload a picture you made from playing with someone than it does to upload something you made yourself. It’s just a great case study for determining what people are likely to upload.

Diesel Power

I think it needs to be said that this app functions like a bullet train. It is amazing to interact with – the flow, the integrations, the seamless experience of beautifully written code. It can handle millions of people playing the app, creating almost 3,000 drawings a second, without ever missing a beat. The whole app has 40 people dedicated to keeping it up and running and it shows. The app is unstoppable.

How Much Does It Cost To Make An App Like Draw Something?

If you’re on this blog, chances are you’ve read the blog post I wrote about the cost of building an app and are saying to yourself, “You know, I’d like an app that makes $100,000 a day. I wonder how much it would cost to build Draw Something?” Well, I would ballpark this costing at least $200K to do it the right way.

With a project of this magnitude, you’ll want to work with a power house development shop that can handle all aspects of the process – planning, design, development, testing, publishing, marketing. You’ll need to come up with an idea that is equally titanic as “Pictionary for iPhone” and will need at least 10 months to block off.

Impossible? Heck no, but it’s a huge project. This is not something I would ever outsource – I would want to partner with the best of the best.

Perfection is Greatness

I would call this a perfect app because of how successful it became on nothing more than it’s impeccable planning and execution. It combined winning business logic with fun….and then some. Instagram is awesome, but it doesn’t have a solid revenue model yet. Draw Something is for anyone, taps into all markets, and gets money from anyone playing it.

OMGPOP – kudos to you.

Carter

A Whole New World – Shiny, Shimmering, Splendid

I thought I should write a quick post on the iPad 3 release in relation to how it impacts anyone developing an app for the iPad. My heart goes out to all of you who were about to release your new app and now have to re-do the high resolution set. But hey, so it goes.

The most important and immediate impact for developers is the change in resolution – 2048×1536 pixels – which is exactly twice the current iPad resolution. We’ve seen this before with the iPhone when the iPhone 4 came out – you now had to include a set of files that had a suffix of “@2x” in order to serve up the correct images.

An example being the iPhone 3G would use “enemy1.png” and the iPhone 4 would use “enemy1@2x.png” to display the same image, the latter being twice the resolution.

Get @2x Me, Son

A lot of developers actually planned for this and included a series of retina graphics into their app before the iPad 3 came out so that it would be ready. The only downside is file size of the app, but for iPad apps, you’re pretty much assured that someone’s going to be using Wifi to download apps (on the iPhone an app over 20MB requires wifi to download, not just 3G).

WHAT THIS MEANS TO YOU:

If you’re designing or developing an app, make sure you’re starting at the top resolution size and scaling down when you save your graphics. This will save you loads of time in the long run.

Other cool features of the new iPad are the 5MP camera, video capabilities, microphone and 4G compatibility. 1GB of RAM and blazing processors – this thing can rip. In the next few months we’re going to see some AWESOME new apps – can’t wait!

Seeing the Bigger and Greater Picture with iPad 3

Many predictions came out even before iPad 3 was launched. Many were curious and excited on the new features that Apple has integrated on the newest version of iPad. Some even wrote their predictions in magazines and blogs since they could not hide their excitement on Apple’s latest product. Finally, after months of guesses from the public, Apple recently launched the newest addition to the iPad family—the iPad 3. This version boasts of a better and higher resolution making it superior compared to other mobile devices.

Apple claims that iPad 3 has “the best display ever on a mobile device.” This is definitely something new, and makes the iPad experience even better than before. The Retina display of this new iPad has 2048 by 1536 resolution with the same 9.7-inch display. This means 44 percent greater saturation of color compared to the previous version. Users will surely be amazed with its 3.1 million pixels, which is a million more than the usual HD television one can see in the market today.

Even before Apple formally launched iPad 3, many gadget enthusiasts predicted that Apple will offer a unit with better resolution. And true enough, this is the highlight of the new iPad. Millions of pixels are now packed in a very small display. To have a better picture on why it is way better than others, try to imagine netbooks people use today—normally netbooks have 10.1 – 11.6 inch display with screen resolution of 1366 x 768. In addition, try to consider Android Honeycomb tablets that normally have a resolution of 1280 x 800 in 10.1-inch displays. Lastly, consider the previous version of iPad as well. It only has 1024 x 768 display resolution.

The latest version of iPad is well-designed to create a display with excellent pixels. Everything in here appears crystal clear. The team behind the newest tablet has brought pixels levels higher than the previous model resulting to a technological breakthrough.

Apple coined “Retina screen” to describe the latest version of the tablet. While the display has beefed up resolution, some apps remain outdates so there are letters that appear smeared and blurry. But the burden of upgrading is on the site of the apps developers. Perhaps, these developers still need time to cope with the changes Apple has made.

And do you know that the new iPad costs almost the same as the previous one? For $499, users can get an iPad unit with 16 gig storage memory. This actually the same storage memory that iPad 2 offers. With this, some critics claim that Apple should have offered 8 gig more of memory since the prices of the memory chips used became significantly cheaper.

Astounding iSight Camera and HD Video Recording

The 5-megapixel iSight camera, meanwhile, comes with a backside illumination sensor that is capable of taking high quality pictures regardless of the lighting condition. It can work perfectly even with sunlight or candlelight as light source of the subject. The camera also has autofocus, tap to focus and tap to set exposure features. With this, every photo taken using the iSight camera is of topnotch quality since users need less effort in coming up with a great shot. It also has a built-in face detection function that has the ability to balance exposure and focus.

As for the video recording aspect, iPad 3 can record HD video in full 1080p. The same camera allows users to capture every candid moment that is worth capturing. The camera has an automatic video stabilization function so expect no shakes while recording the video.

While higher number may not always mean improved or better experience and quality in the context of gadget specifications, users can see apparent benefits out of using the new iPad. For one, the higher the pixel in a given display, the higher the pixel density one can have. It means things look very smooth on the display. This is not just about the photos or videos, but on other aspects such as fonts, icons and other elements present on the gadget.

With the resolution of the latest iPad, it means Apple may put icons on each Home screen without worrying too much on text readability. For users, this brings a lot of advantages, especially for those who love reading books, web pages or magazine through this tablet.

A Look into the Design and Interface

Aside from the high-end resolution that the new iPad is known for, it also comes with a different design compared to the previous one. The latest version is thicker and a bit heavier than iPad 2. It has curved edges and a scratch-proof glass.

iPad 3 employs iOS5.1, which is something different to that of iPad 2. Interestingly, the home screen of the tablet has a similar layout with that of an iPhone. The exception is that there are bigger icons for the downloaded apps. Users have the freedom to fill the home screen with many apps that can fit in. Swiping from one screen to another is easier with iPad 3. Even if users have loads of programs present, iPad 3 can still work well. One will surely enjoy touching the silky smooth screen.

iPad 3 also has a dock at the display’s bottom that is capable of holding up to 6 regular-sized apps. This is actually more than the four apps that an iPhone can hold.

The OS of iPad 3 actually does not give too much in terms of additional features on the interface. Apple, however, has learned from Google Android so they included a notifications bar that users can access by swiping down from top to bottom of the display.

Assessing the Battery Life and CPU Performance

Commendable perhaps that Apple managed to maintain the battery life. On the average, an iPad battery can last for up to 10 hours. The new iPad is thicker and heavier compared to iPad 2, which means there might be adjustments on the battery. The new iPad’s looks bigger, and may take more time to get fully charged. Some users have claimed that iPad 3 runs hotter than the previous one.  Some users claimed that iPad 3 seems to drain faster compared to iPad 2.

As for the CPU of the new iPad, it is quite similar to iPad 2. It utilizes the dual-core set-up that is the same with iPad 2.

The graphics performance of the new iPad GPU made a lot of noise online. For one, the GPU of the iPad 3 is deemed very fast. Also, many got confused on the context of the term “quad core”. Lastly, Apple claims that the current iPad GPU is four times faster than the GPY of Tegra 3—which is the fastest chip for the platform.

With such features, iPad 3 still works fine with those who love to play games using this gadget. The battery life, however, can be a major issue—which is normal in any other gadget used for playing games.

Is it worth the upgrade?

Many techies perhaps expected more from the new iPad. Many wanted a big leap from iPad 2. In reality, however, we have to go through a series of process before getting a better and much improved version that can level up our expectations. For this iPad upgrade, Apple decided to focus on a few elements, especially the screen resolution and image/video quality.  For sure, photography enthusiasts would love to have the new iPad because of the amazing capabilities of the camera. Reviewing the taken photos is also something to look forward to given the improved resolution of the display.

The relevance of the latest features actually depends on one’s usage. This could be a positive thing for some, but may not be significant enough for certain group of iPad users.

If you are after the HD display, improved camera and LTE modem, then the new iPad is made for you. It is dubbed as one of the best, if not the best, tablet that one can have. Given the improvements on the resolution and camera, it is definitely a mobile device superior that its current counterparts in the market. Even the previous versions of iPad are sometimes tagged as its competitors leaving some gadget users confused and overwhelmed.

The rule of thumb is to assess your own needs and preferences in using gadgets such as iPad. If you think you do not use it that much in taking videos and photos or viewing images, then might as well settle with the existing iPad 2 if you already have one. Perhaps this explains why some iPad 2 owners opted to just wait for another version to see if the changes mean bigger leap for the device.

For sure, Apple will come up with another improved version that may offer more than just high resolution display and camera. Technology is ever-changing, and Apple has constantly changed its offerings according to the in-demand features of their users.

“However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results” – Winston Churchill

The Key Word is Keyword

This is a follow up to the last post I wrote about the Great Icon Experiment and how I realized that just updating the icon and screen shots were not enough to bring me to the next level. Tragic, I suppose, but it did leave me with one more variable to test – the keywords. I did change the name of the app to start with an A, but I honestly can’t imagine that’s such a huge game changer. As a reminder, I changed my keywords from:

arcade

TO

alien invaders,space wars,space invaders,super laser,alien,atari,space ace,cows in space,mr space

My goal here was to capitalize not on the keyword volume of people looking for a fun game, but ride the wave of all the other popular games out there where people are spending thousands of dollars on marketing.

And ohhh man did it work.

The 258% Payoff

The first is the old game’s first week. The second is the new game’s first week.

No – that’s not photoshopped – that’s just the biggest difference I have ever seen after making such a small change. That’s literally ALL I DID. Same game, same graphics.

What’s even more fun about this is that it looks like the Alien Combat app is starting to level off around 5o downloads a day – that’s legit! I’ve even made a handful of sales off this new app, which is just a huge bonus. The delta ended up being 258% when I updated my keywords. Not bad for a two hour project

Keyword Research? More Like A Popularity Poll

I’m developing a theory that I hope becomes one of those tangible resource that everyone can look to for hard evidence – the App Store is NOT Google and should not be treated it as such. People don’t search for “cool arcade game about aliens” but the do search for all those awesome games they see ads for or read a review about. Keyword research for the app store should pivot off the following question:

What apps are getting a lot of downloads that are similar to mine?

The chart on the right explains this. Your keyword research should be all about finding games or apps that are hugely popular (measured by number of reviews) and have very little competition. What I mean by competition is when you type in the name of that app into iTunes, there are not 200 other apps that come up. Check out MetalStorm as an example – it has 5+ Million users…and no competition. Well, except Alpha Combat

When you put these names in as your keywords, you pop up for those app searches. This is NOT as easy as it sounds, as finding these apps is just as big of a process as doing research for Google.

Update Your App and Join the Party

Believe it or not, Apple now lets you update your keywords other than your initial launch – when you create an update, you can change everything in the meta data.

What does that mean to you all you app owners out there? It means you can easily test this out yourself. Release an update that “fixes some small bugs” or whatever and actually just update the keywords. Let that run for a few weeks and see if there is a change for you too.

All I know is that a 258% increase just because of keywords is not something I would ever ignore.

Keep rocking! I also want to say thank you to everyone who has left comments, emailed, and signed up for the newsletter. I’m glad there are people out there getting some benefit from this info. LOTS more to come!

Carter

“Yesterday’s failures are today’s seeds.” – Martha McCormick

I Con Do It!

For the past 6 months and for the next 200 months, I plan on uncovering as much information as I possibly can about the abyss of the iTunes store and app marketplace. There is seemingly no clear path to success the way there is on the web (yet) and I am going to continue to experiment until I find out what the hell is going on. This latest project was designed to see what the delta on an icon and screenshots were for downloads and conversion rates.

Quick Background

I built the Oscar app using the exact same gaming engine as Alpha Combat but with a completely new look and feel. Cartooney, retro, and simple – but used virtually the same meta description (not keywords). It’s actually a lot of fun to play and I thought for sure it would get me some good downloads and revenue. I did none of the external marketing I did for Alpha Combat, including a dedicated website, YouTube video, paid reviews on app review sites, and a handful of other things.

The app launched as a free app and I was giddy to see how it performed. Take a look:

Um – yeah, not that great. Like – horrible actually. So, instead of getting down, I made a list of what could possibly be causing such an epic failure which what is seemingly a fun spin on a winning business model. Things that could cause this problem, controlling for the Alpha Combat elements:

1. Icon
2. Screen shots (essentially the graphics)
3. Keywords
4. Name
5. External marketing

The keywords and name change would require a deletion of the app and the external marketing is much larger test than what I was willing to put in, so the obvious answer was to update the icon and screen shots.

Make Me Beautiful So People Love Me

I hired my go-to designer out of Eastern Europe to whip up some hot new graphics for me. I needed a new icon and screen shots. I sent him a bunch of examples, explicit instructions, and let him run with it for a week. Here’s what we came back with:

A definite improvement, at least for $150. I was stoked. Next step was to release an update with this new found aweseomeness and start booking tickets to Hong Kong for a long weekend celebration. Umm….yeah not quite. Here’s what happened when I released the update:

On that first day I took a big sigh of relief – finally! I was going to back in Alpha Combat world where the money poured like candy and the schnozberries tasted like schnozberries. The problem, however, is that this new improved conversion rate didn’t trickle down beyond those that already had the app. The new icon and screen shots were appealing to people who saw them, but no one was seeing them. Ugh.

Remember the Titans – Keywords Crush It In App Land

After a few weeks of depression and retro induced panic, I snapped out of it all and gave the app a serious audit. What is going on? Why does Alpha Combat bury this app on raw downloads and eyeballs? I was looking through my iTunes Connect dashboard and reviewing all the data I had put in for the Oscar app and had a jaw dropping moment – there was only one keyword there: “arcade”

Well, great. At least now I have a better idea of why this is not doing anything for me. So here’s what I did to get going on that.

I deleted the app from the app store (which is why you probably can’t find it if you’re searching right now) and erased all it’s data. I took the Xcode project and updated all the necessary data, graphics, GameCenter, and in-app purchase data to reflect a new binary upload. I changed the name to Alien Combat – Galactic Space Invasion for two reasons – keywords and the fact that it starts with the letter “A.” Then I added the following keywords (you’re allowed 100 characters):

alien invaders,space wars,space invaders,super laser,alien,atari,space ace,cows in space,mr space

Notice that all those keywords are HIGH VOLUME GAMES and not generic keywords. I have a theory that one of the biggest reasons why Alpha Combat is killing it is because I put in MetalStorm as the primary keyword – type that in to the app store search and you’ll see why I get so many downloads – the icon looks just like MetalStorm and I just ride all their marketing horsepower. Who knows if this is the truth, but you’ll see that in Alpha Combat, the second highest “Customers also bought” game is MetalStorm. Go figure.

Waiting Is The Hardest Part

Now I wait a week to see what this sort of update will do for the overall volume of the game. In summary, here are the biggest takeaways from this experiment:

1. Icons and screenshots INCREASE CONVERSION – a greater percentage of people that see the app will download the app
2. Icons and screenshots do NOTHING FOR INCREASING EYEBALLS – they do very little for getting more visits to your page and getting in front of people

So, this experiment is slowly turning into a question of how to get lots of people looking at the app, then converting them with awesome graphics. I’ll definitely report on this as the info comes in.

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See ya!

Carter