Go to Affordable Dev for your one-stop shop for all your app development needs and tell them Steve sent you. For a limited time, you can save 20% off your next app.
Are you developing a mobile app? Get anything from icons and buttons to your entire mobile app designed at 99designs! You can start your next graphic design project for as low as $199. Visit 99designs.com/Chat and get a $99 Power Pack of services for free.
Today’s guest is a successful indie app developer and host of the Developing Perspective podcast and he talks about how he generates ideas for his apps and how that helps with getting featured by Apple. Also, listen to the clever and unique way he monetizes his latest app with in-app purchases.
Our guest for today is an app developer and a fellow podcaster, David Smith. David hosts the 15-minute action-packed show called Developing Perspective and he opens this episode by walking us a bit on how he records and manages his show.
Highlights of our discussion include:
How his app ideas vary from app to app — sometimes it’s an opportunity and at times it’s an itch that needs to scratching,
How David finds beta testers for his app creations,
The spinning point of letting go of his consulting career what made him turn his gears into the app business,
The strategies he use in naming conventions for search engine optimization, localization and translation services,
Clever tip jars and consumable in app purchases, and
Using social media as marketing and communication tool.
A lot of people over think the initial process where they say they can’t start yet because theydon’t have the ‘hit’ idea yet. David shares to us the opposite — that the best place to start is simply to build something to be able to gain the value of experience. As David states it, putting too much pressure on that first concept is usually counter-productive, so go ahead and build that app!
Go to Affordable Dev for your one-stop shop for all your app development needs and tell them Steve sent you. For a limited time, you can save 20% off your next app.
Are you developing a mobile app? Get anything from icons and buttons to your entire mobile app designed at 99designs! You can start your next graphic design project for as low as $199. Visit 99designs.com/Chat and get a $99 Power Pack of services for free.
Are you looking for another revenue source in the app business? Well today’s guest made nearly 5 digits selling his Flappy Bird reskin and he talks about how you can get started selling source codes. Also, listen to how he finds the which source code to actually build and sell.
You are in for the treat today as we have more than just good discussion to give out in this episode! With me today is Vince Schwartz, the founder of startappyard.com, a company which sells exclusive source codes and gives you the support you need to get started.Vince has put out 3 original apps and 9 reskins in the market so far and is showing no signs of stopping.
Vince graciously shares to us how their Flappy Bird source code generated revenue close to five digits and how he had landed the code and the rights in the first place. Below are the highlights of our discussion:
Getting into the business of selling source codes upon seeing the convenience of having a ready-made code which people can experiment with without having to give up an arm and a leg;
Building codes from scratch to understand and know the codes to support his users and documenting everything to give his products more value;
How he goes about figuring out which app or which code to build;
Not being short-sighted by building a circle, controlling the number of copies of the codes he sells for long term goals;
How he built his clientele through Facebook and how it evolved from there;
The tools he uses for his analytics, how he finds his outsources, and
How he takes negative comments about reskinning and the common misses that reskinners usually make.
The show does not stop here though as Vince is giving away a source code free for Mobile App Chat listeners…wohooo!
But wait..there’s more! Tell us what kind of theme you would put a Flappy Bird source code on and we will give you aude my course to make a flappy bird reskin. Only the best idea will get this gift so get those creative juices flowing!
Go to Affordable Dev for your one-stop shop for all your app development needs and tell them Steve sent you. For a limited time, you can save 20% off your next app.
Are you developing a mobile app? Get anything from icons and buttons to your entire mobile app designed at 99designs! You can start your next graphic design project for as low as $199. Visit 99designs.com/Chat and get a $99 Power Pack of services for free.
In another solo episode, Steve shares his wins and losses from February and also shares the key differences between advice and opinions.
It’s the first Friday of the month and so here I am again hitting the airwaves with my monthly updates still in raw and unfiltered form. This episode is not so solo though as a have a very special guest: Noah Young.
As requested, Noah is back on the show and he talks about his favorite game, Skylanders, and boasted about his game characters Chill, Eye Brawl and…was that Eye Small?
On my end though, I feel I have nothing to boast as I didn’t grow my revenue for last month, didn’t launch any apps and no one signed up for my podcast course (sniff, sniff). In the lighter side though, Mastermind is going really well, 99 Designs and Affordable Dev signed on for Q2 (woohhooo!) and of course, the biggest win of all, I get to spend more time with my family and my little boy.
In this show, I also share how you can make a distinction between advice and opinion and all about my exciting new project: appmasters.co. Listen in and enjoy!
Go to Affordable Dev for your one-stop shop for all your app development needs and tell them Steve sent you. For a limited time, you can save 20% off your next app.
Are you developing a mobile app? Get anything from icons and buttons to your entire mobile app designed at 99designs! You can start your next graphic design project for as low as $199. Visit 99designs.com/Chat and get a $99 Power Pack of services for free.
Are you looking to get press for your app? Well today’s guest was a former reviews editor at The Verge and he tells us what kind of email pitches stood out to him. Also, listen to the reason why you should NOT use Elance or oDesk when looking for your next app developer.
Dann Berg worked as a tech journalist before leaving the industry to work on Novice No Longer full time. He was a staff writer at LAPTOP Magazine and then Reviews Editor at The Verge.
Show Notes
We have an awesome talk today with Dann Berg, a former staff writer at LAPTOP magazine who also worked as a reviews editor at The Verge before we went full time in hosting his podcast, Novice No Longer. With these credentials lined up, Dann is a perfect teacher and mentor for us to learn all about how to get the press that we need to get our products out there.
Before he gives us a tutorial on everything about press, Dann also shares to us the elements of a successful app, how getting out there and having a feel of the market before spending time to make your app can help you with market validation and the non-leading questions you can ask when going about these surveys.
Below are the highlights of our talk today which I recommend that you do not miss:
Very helpful tips on how to create an email which can get the press to notice you:
Have a reason why you are contacting the journalist,
Positioning yourself appropriately,
Set an embargo date if you have not released your app yet, or if it is already out, tie your email with a significant update,
Tell them what makes you different, ask if they want to know more about the product and get them to be a beta tester for a thorough overview of your app,
Personalize. Get to know who you are pitching to and compliment their work,
How to craft catchy headlines,
Drawing perfect mock ups, and
Finding a developer and managing the development process.
We also had a feedback session on my writing as hands-on application of his teaching about creating effective emails so hit play and let’s get some press!
Go to Affordable Dev for your one-stop shop for all your app development needs and tell them Steve sent you. For a limited time, you can save 20% off your next app.
Are you developing a mobile app? Get anything from icons and buttons to your entire mobile app designed at 99designs! You can start your next graphic design project for as low as $199. Visit 99designs.com/Chat and get a $99 Power Pack of services for free.
Do you have a laundry list of to-dos and struggle to prioritize which tasks are the most important? Well today’s guest built a productivity app that allows you to easily see which tasks will have the biggest impact on your life. And Apple even featured it as the Best of 2013. Also, listen to our discussion about app marketing and how to get your app noticed by Apple and the press.
Striving for perfection when it comes to your app design and its functionality takes passion as, just like success, it cannot be done overnight. Our guest for today is Anthony Keane, the founder of Gneo, an app that was picked as Editor’s Choice just after a week of their launch and hailed as one of the best apps for 2013 just two months down the road. Anthony’s zeal to create the best app for his users shines through these recognition’s and can serve as an inspiration for those who are true believers of their work.
Listen in as we cover the following highlights in this episode:
How Anthony’s background as a management consultant in London and Dublin influenced the methodology of organization unique to Gneo and how they decided on this approach,
A discussion about the quadrant of organizing priorities used in this app: managing tasks by level of urgency and importance,
Their unorthodox way of coming up with theirapp designs, from the three main buttons to the secondary features and the popular joystick,plus the functionalities that they were hesitant in letting go of,
How they arrived with their current price point and their approach in getting press, and
Using incubators, bootstrapping the project and how it was working with his spouse.
Anthony’s conviction is something to be envied about and he shares to us where his firm beliefs come from. This could be contagious so listen in as this is a good virus to have.
