First off, reality check.
Very few apps make real—if any—money. There are two key reasons for this: 1. Competition: Tens of thousands of apps have been created and more are released daily. Working through the muddle of options and being noticed is difficult. 2. Price: The majority of apps are available for free, and many are them are quite useful. This has made it increasingly difficult to get customers to pay for an app. And even if you sell an app, your marketplace will receive a commission on each sale. That means you need to sell a ton of product to earn real money. You should absolutely think twice before spending substantial cash creating an app, because recouping your investment is far from a sure thing. But if you are ready and committed: First, you must be clear about what app you’d like to create. Ideally, the app should compliment your business or reflect your unique abilities and/or interests. It is crucially important to understand your audience, what they can most benefit from, and deliver desired content via preferred learning modes. Three proven ways to start include: • Determining your client’s needs. • Researching existing apps serving this market. • Drafting your plan. Internet Prophets: The World's Leading Experts Reveal How to Profit Online by Steve Olsher The first point is self-explanatory. The second may seem basic, but it’s surprising how many skim past this step with a mere cursory glance, only to find out after significant time and resources have been expended that a more sophisticated tool exists. Do not be afraid to identify competitive products that may thwart your plans. Successful entrepreneurs embrace similar products and focus on what they can do better and more effectively. The third point is essential. You want to strategize and formulate your vision before the clock begins ticking. Thinking on someone else’s dime is not only expensive, but also unnecessary. Instead, brainstorm with partners, friends, and other trusted sources and create and refine an outline of how the product will look and how it will work. Unless you have money to burn, start the fire with the kindling of your efforts and let the professionals toss in the heavy logs. Finding A Programmer With your idea formalized, the next step is identifying a suitable programmer to bring the concept to fruition. There are multiple options. FREE Numerous free development options exist. However, it’s important to note that in app-land, you really do get what you pay for. That said, if giving things a test run before fully committing is your preference, consider the following: • Sencha: Sencha.com/Touch • AppMakr: AppMakr.com • Free iPhone App Maker: FreeIphoneAppMaker.com • Free Android App Maker: FreeAndroidAppMaker.com Each enables you to create a functional app which can be a great tool for creating a working prototype and begin securing feedback. The downside to free is that, once your name and brand is associated with the app you’ve put forth, an impression has been made and there’s no turning back. If the app’s functionality, appearance, or value is minimal, the consumer will tie this directly to you. Make 100% sure the app is fully representative of the impression you want to make before hitting the “release” button. Minimize costs to produce your app A fully functional, cost-effective app can be built for less than $5,000. Many capable developers have the ability to create a professional looking product that represents your brand and image well. Three sites are solid resources to consider when searching for a developer: • ELance: Elance.com • ODesk: oDesk.com • Freelancer: Freelancer.com Each enables you to provide various criteria such as developer location, experience, and total budget. Talent, of course, varies so be sure to check references and ratings. The caliber of developers available can be outstanding as many have salaried positions and moonlight to make extra cash. Ask for examples of their work and, contrary to popular belief, do not be afraid to select the lowest bid. HIGH-END Developing a full-blown, highly robust app can be prohibitively expensive. It is not unusual for companies to spend upwards of $1 million to create an app with virtually every bell and whistle. Such apps typically involve detailed, interactive components and move far beyond the options offered by template-oriented products. For most, developing a high-end app is not an option. When it is, there are multiple companies who are more than capable of delivering per your specifications. Internet Prophets: The World's Leading Experts Reveal How to Profit Online by Steve Olsher How to monetize your app Not every app is created to generate income. Many companies seek to spread goodwill and garner exposure by giving their apps away for free. This is not unusual as thousands of firms implement this approach. If generating awareness is the core objective, the app typically serves the singular purpose of being a digital brochure. If the plan is to monetize your efforts, there are three proven tactics to consider. 1. Sell It! Fees typically range from .99 to $2.99 with more robust apps costing significantly more, such as VIPorbit’s Business version which sells for $9.99 on the iPhone and $19.99 for the iPad. While seemingly expensive, the robust functionality ofVIPorbit is equivalent to desktop software that can cost significantly more. Additionally, it is available at your fingertips 24/7, which no desktop software can claim. For example, Sage ACT! was recently available for $466.99.…on sale! 2. Sell Ads Within Your App In similar fashion to AdSense, Google’s AdMob.com has made it extraordinarily simple to place ads on your app via their proprietary platform. AdMob “allows earnings to be generated by placing targeted ads based on the site’s content and users.” Additional options include Greystripe.com and Smaato.com. Revenue is directly tied to traffic. Therefore, as more ads are shown, income will increase accordingly. And, while a significant number of views and clicks are required before more than just pocket change will be generated, each provides a reasonable opportunity to offset a portion of development costs. 3. Offer A “Light” Version And Encourage Upgrading This strategy can be very effective. VIPorbit offers a free “light” version, as do thousands of other apps. The free version typically provides customers with a solid user experience, but refrains from allowing access to many key components. In consumer product marketing, this is often referred to as sampling, whereby a taste is offered to whet the consumer’s appetite and, hopefully, leads to the product being purchased. Remember: • Modern technology has largely killed the intimacy associated with developing tangible rapport with vendors, clients and even, employees. • Few apps make real money due to competition and price. • Ideally, your app should compliment your business or reflect your unique abilities and/or interests. • It is crucially important to understand your audience, what they can most benefit from, and deliver desired content via preferred learning modes. • Over 300,000 apps were developed between 2008 and 2010, translating to an astonishing 10.9B downloads. • By the end of 2011, more than 25 percent of mobile web users reported owning no other device to access the Internet. • Apps can be lucrative but must be viewed as a component of the overall marketing/branding mix. Internet Prophets: The World's Leading Experts Reveal How to Profit Online by Steve Olsher Speak through your work
Understand: your work is the single greatest means at your disposal for expressing your social intelligence. By being efficient and detail oriented in what you do, you demonstrate that you are thinking of the group at large and advancing its cause. By making what you write or present clear and easy to follow, you show your care for the audience or public at large. By involving other people in your projects and gracefully accepting their feedback, you reveal your comfort with the group dynamic. Work that is solid also protects you from the political conniving and malevolence of others—it is hard to argue with the results you produce. If you are experiencing the pressures of political maneuvering within the group, do not lose your head and become consumed with all of the pettiness. By remaining focused and speaking socially through your work, you will both continue to raise your skill level and stand out among all the others who make a lot of noise but produce nothing. Mastery by Robert Greene The goal of such early contact with customers is not to gain definitive answers. Instead, it is to clarify at a basic, coarse level that we understand our potential customer and what problems they have. With that understanding, we can craft a customer archetype, a brief document that seeks to humanize the proposed target customer. This archetype is an essential guide for product development and ensures that the daily prioritization decisions that every product team must make are aligned with the customer to whom the company aims to appeal.
No amount of design can anticipate the many complexities of bringing a product to life in the real world. The problem with most entrepreneurs’ plans is generally not that they don’t follow sound strategic principles but that the facts upon which they are based are wrong. Unfortunately, most of these errors cannot be detected at the whiteboard because they depend on the subtle interactions between products and customers. The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses by Eric Ries But you should think of fear as an acronym: Forget Everything About Reality.
The truth is you can seldom predict what will happen when you embark on a new path. No matter how many scenarios you envision, chances are things won’t go as well as hoped for or as poorly as feared. The question is: Do you want to exclusively consume the creations of others, or will you dare to become a creator? Internet Prophets: The World's Leading Experts Reveal How to Profit Online by Steve Olsher Mike did everything in his power to build wealth while freeing up time to enjoy it. He developed a powerful mantra upon which he bases his career and lifestyle choices. In a word, his philosophy can be summed up as F.A.S.T.: • F = Fun: Without fun and excitement, work quickly becomes stale. People tend to spend more time at work than anywhere else. Mike insists on creating not only profitable endeavors, but also an environment where both he and his employees relish working because it gives them satisfaction, fulfillment, contentment, and happiness. • A = Automation: Technology has made it much easier to create products and deliver them to customers. Mike is a huge proponent of taking full advantage of available tools, ranging from automated webinars and teleseminars to pre-loaded social media messages and press releases. If your business isn’t structured to churn cash while you sleep, you’re doing yourself and your company a disservice. • S = Scalability: You want to create products and services that have the ability to serve the masses without needing to engage in customization. Mike develops each new offer with this in mind. Doing so enables him to sell the same item to thousands of people. This is one of the key tenets the successful use to create wealth. • T = Time-Freeing Ability: One of the tremendous strengths of the Internet is its ability to make things happen in the blink of an eye. If a product is downloadable, it can be provided within seconds of a customer ordering it. And if the product is physical, the confirmation and details of the order can be delivered to the customer within moments…and the automated process of fulfilling an order may begin just as quickly. Internet Prophets: The World's Leading Experts Reveal How to Profit Online by Steve Olsher Trollope managed to produce forty-seven novels and sixteen other books by dint of an unvarying early-morning writing session. In his Autobiography, Trollope described his composition methods at Waltham Cross, England, where he lived for twelve years. For most of that time he was also employed as a civil servant at the General Post Office, a career he began in 1834 and did not resign until thirty-three years later, when he had already published more than two dozen books.
Daily Rituals: How Artists Work by Mason Currey Trollope's daily ritual was; It was my practice to be at my table every morning at 5.30 A.M.; and it was also my practice to allow myself no mercy. An old groom, whose business it was to call me, and to whom I paid £5 a year extra for the duty, allowed himself no mercy. During all those years at Waltham Cross he never was once late with the coffee which it was his duty to bring me. I do not know that I ought not to feel that I owe more to him than to any one else for the success I have had. By beginning at that hour I could complete my literary work before I dressed for breakfast. All those I think who have lived as literary men,—working daily as literary labourers,—will agree with me that three hours a day will produce as much as a man ought to write. But then, he should so have trained himself that he shall be able to work continuously during those three hours,—so have tutored his mind that it shall not be necessary for him to sit nibbling his pen, and gazing at the wall before him, till he shall have found the words with which he wants to express his ideas. It had at this time become my custom,—and is still my custom, though of late I have become a little lenient of myself,—to write with my watch before me, and to require of myself 250 words every quarter of an hour. I have found that the 250 words have been forthcoming as regularly as my watch went. But my three hours were not devoted entirely to writing. I always began my task by reading the work of the day before, an operation which would take me half an hour, and which consisted chiefly in weighing with my ear the sound of the words and phrases.… This division of time allowed me to produce over ten pages of an ordinary novel volume a day, and if kept up through ten months, would have given as its results three novels of three volumes each in the year;—the precise amount which so greatly acerbated the publisher in Paternoster Row, and which must at any rate be felt to be quite as much as the novel-readers of the world can want from the hands of one man. If he completed a novel before his three hours were up, Trollope would take out a fresh sheet of paper and immediately begin the next one. Daily Rituals: How Artists Work by Mason Currey What differentiates the success stories from the failures is that the successful entrepreneurs had the foresight, the ability, and the tools to discover which parts of their plans were working brilliantly and which were misguided, and adapt their strategies accordingly.
Numbers tell a compelling story, but I always remind entrepreneurs that metrics are people, too. No matter how many intermediaries lie between a company and its customers, at the end of the day, Customers are breathing, thinking, buying individuals. Their behavior is measurable and changeable. Even when one is selling to large institutions, as in a business-to-business model, it helps to remember that those businesses are made up of individuals. All successful sales models depend on breaking down the monolithic view of organizations into the disparate people that make them up. The goal of such early contact with customers is not to gain definitive answers. Instead, it is to clarify at a basic, coarse level that we understand our potential customer and what problems they have. With that understanding, we can craft a customer archetype, a brief document that seeks to humanize the proposed target customer. This archetype is an essential guide for product development and ensures that the daily prioritization decisions that every product team must make are aligned with the customer to whom the company aims to appeal. The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses by Eric Ries The book’s title is Daily Rituals, but my focus in writing it was really people’s routines. The word connotes ordinariness and even a lack of thought; to follow a routine is to be on autopilot. But one’s daily routine is also a choice, or a whole series of choices. In the right hands, it can be a finely calibrated mechanism for taking advantage of a range of limited resources: time (the most limited resource of all) as well as willpower, self-discipline, optimism. A solid routine fosters a well-worn groove for one’s mental energies and helps stave off the tyranny of moods. This was one of William James’s favorite subjects. He thought you wanted to put part of your life on autopilot; by forming good habits, he said, we can “free our minds to advance to really interesting fields of action.”
Writing it, I often thought of a line from a letter Kafka sent to his beloved Felice Bauer in 1912. Frustrated by his cramped living situation and his deadening day job, he complained, “time is short, my strength is limited, the office is a horror, the apartment is noisy, and if a pleasant, straightforward life is not possible then one must try to wriggle through by subtle maneuvers.” Poor Kafka! But then who among us can expect to live a pleasant, straightforward life? “A modern stoic,” he observed, “knows that the surest way to discipline passion is to discipline time: decide what you want or ought to do during the day, then always do it at exactly the same moment every day, and passion will give you no trouble.” Daily Rituals: How Artists Work by Mason Currey The mountain reminded me that races are not run all at once, that the only way to survive an ultra was piece by piece.
I had improved myself as a skier by reading, so I read. And what I discovered was bushido, the culture of ancient Japanese warriors, who espoused courage, simplicity, honor, and self-sacrifice. According to bushido, the best mind for the battlefield—or the race—is that of emptiness, or an empty mind. This doesn’t mean sleepiness or inattention; the bushido concept of emptiness is more like that rush of surprise and expansiveness you get under an ice-cold waterfall. The empty mind is a dominant mind. It can draw other minds into its rhythm, the way a vacuum sucks up dirt or the way the person on the bottom of a seesaw controls the person on the top. When I hear a runner say he “runs his own race,” what I hear is bushido. Bushido is letting go of the past and the future and focusing on the moment. As Thoreau, an American practitioner (though he probably didn’t realize it) of bushido and a pretty good distance walker himself, wrote, “Our life is frittered away by detail. An honest man has hardly need to count more than his ten fingers . . . simplicity, simplicity, simplicity.” I created my own bushido exercises. I stood in icy rivers to strengthen my mind’s control over my body. I sat cross-legged and meditated, visualizing my breath, focusing. Another part of bushido is mastery of the martial arts, an intensely concentrated study of one’s craft. My craft was running, and as I climbed those northwest mountains, I tried to do so with extreme focus. It’s easy to shut your brain off when you’re running long distances, and sometimes it’s necessary, but I stayed plugged in. I concentrated on running a particular section harder, on picking up speed downhill while I rested my heart and lungs. Eat and Run: My Unlikely Journey to Ultramarathon Greatness by Scott Jurek, Steve Friedman A guy I met a while back used to be a drug dealer in another country, a long time ago, back when he was a young man, (He as since gone into IT which makes a twisted sense).
We were talking about pricing strategies, and he told me that he had back in the day, the best way to know when his pricing is right where it should be and he knew that he was cutting the best deal when selling. First off, we all agree that pricing is not an easy thing to do for most of us. People have all kinds of theories about how to set pricing, and how they know when they have the right price to still sell yet make the most profit. Every system feels like guess work, and no one ever says they had it perfect, but this system made sense. Some people just care to match what others are charging, basically match the market, but that is dangerous, because you don't have a system or a methodology, and what is the difference between you and the competitor? If he has better margins than you, your business is in trouble. You need to know what the customer is willing pay, and to do that, you have to know and think like your customer. Other businesses price just below others in the market, again, dangerous, as it just gets you those customers that care only about price, which means that you will lose them easily when someone else has a lower price. This is not a long term strategy. Works if your margins are better than everyone else's margins, but I wouldn't bank on it, as there is always someone out there who will compete. Any time your strategy is to be smarter than everyone else, you have a problem. There is always someone smarter than you out there. Trust me, someone is always willing to give them a lower price. You just end up in a price war that no one wins. There are theories of how to price, but the key to remember is that price is fluid, and that what you are selling on changes in value depending on who you sell to and their situation. How your customer views the product and how he uses it, and your customer's individual situation determines that customer's price. The cookie cutter one price fits all model doesn't work, and it just leaves money on the table. Which leads us back to the drug dealer. My friend told me that he always asked questions about his customers, and he knows their history, their likes and dislikes, which considering what he was doing was illegal back then, was a smart play. You only do business with other people you know well and trust, and he told me that when he discussed price, he asked them what was going on, what they were doing, and by that, got an idea where their mind was at, and then gave them a price, always slightly higher than what he felt was the market. He would sell the convenience factor, remind them of the trust between them, as the customer didn't want to keep looking, and the customer sure didn't want to have to find a new source, which is a time consuming process, and in this case, also might possibly be something that could get you put in jail. My friend said when he gave a price, if they took it right then, he knew he had priced too low. He was really happy when they hesitate and then say they have to think about it, and then they hang up. I ask him, you are happy you lost them? He said, I didn't lose that, I am happy because that is what you want, to know that the price you quote to them is close enough to make them want to buy right then, but just over what they wanted to pay, so that they say they have to think about it. Then they call up twenty minutes later and take the deal. When that happens, you know you got the most money you could out of that transaction. PS. Another point of the story, there are business lessons everywhere, listen to everyone. I do. Drop me a note, say hello. D Recording Your First Podcast
When getting started, don’t worry about fancy gadgets. You can purchase the necessary equipment for less than $100. Once your podcast gains traction and popularity, you can opt to upgrade. To create a high-quality sounding podcast, follow these seven simple steps: 1. Buy a USB microphone and plug it into your computer. Jason (Internet Business Mastery) recommends the Snowball from Blue Microphones, which is an affordable, high-quality USB microphone. To learn more and/or purchase the Snowball Microphone, visit EZ.com/snowball or use your mobile device to scan the QR code to the left. 2. Download Audacity or other software to record and edit your audio files. Audacity is a free recording and editing program you can download at Audacity.sourceforge.net. Even with Jason’s success, he still uses Audacity, proving it’s absolutely possible to record high-quality podcasts without dropping an arm and a leg to do so. Once you’ve completed steps 1 and 2, you actually have everything you need to record your first podcast. If you’re the star of the show, click Audacity’s record button, talk into the mic, play some music, and you’re good to go. If you want to take things to the next level, bring on guests and/or co-hosts. Unless they’re in the room with you, though, proceed to Step 3. 3. Use Skype and/or other software to connect with others and record conversations. If you’re going to have guests from around the country and/or the world, you want to be able to connect with them inexpensively. A popular favorite is Skype (Skype.com). Next, you need software to record your conversations. For a PC, Jason recommends Pamela (Pamela.biz/en), SuperTinTin (Supertintin.com) or Vodburner (Vodburner.com); and for a Mac, Call Recorder (Ecamm.com/mac/callrecorder) or Audio Hijack (Rogueamoeba.com/audiohijackpro). After the conversation is recorded, you’ll need to import the audio into Audacity and edit it, removing delays and other nonessential elements. Getting the hang of this may take a little while; but once you learn how, it’s easy. 4. Condense your audio file by converting it to MP3. When you’re finished editing in Audacity, you’ll have a large .WAV file. You’ll typically want to condense it to a more manageable size. The best way is to convert it to the MP3 format. For example, a 100MB WAV file will shrink to around 10MB as an MP3. Two recommended programs for doing this are WAV To MP3 Converter (WavToMP3Converter.com) and ConverterLite (ConverterLite.com). 5. Create album artwork to represent your brand. Don’t ignore this crucial step. When people listen to your podcast the album artwork and podcast description will be displayed throughout the show, so it really makes an impact. 6. Upload your podcast to an audio hosting site. Jason recommends using Liberated Syndication (LibSyn.com) as your host for two key reasons: • You can subscribe for as little as $5 per month, which provides up to 250MB of storage. • LibSyn.com offers upgrade packages to easily handle your bandwidth and upload growth. 7. Get your podcast listed on iTunes, YouTube, and other sites. While iTunes.com and YouTube.com are the most famous directories of podcasts, there are many other sites where you’ll also want your podcast to be listed. Use Google to find directories that are a solid fit for your topic. With these seven steps in place, you’re now in the podcast business. Internet Prophets: The World's Leading Experts Reveal How to Profit Online by Steve Olsher |
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Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.” |