5. About me - 2009
Worked for a major printer
manufacturer for 12 years
Feb 2009: “routine”
meeting with boss
Downsizing announced
New house, new mortgage.
March 27: Last day at work
March 28th: Third child
born
April 2009:
“Outplacement”
counseling
6. What should I do?
Get a new “real” job
Do contracting
Consulting
My true passion:
“Become a successful online
business owner”.
7. Nathan in 2010
Reeducation through the Trade ACT
Enrolled in University of San Francisco’s Internet
Marketing program
Developing an app on a new operating system called
Android
First launched to the market June 2010.
Started at about 5 sales a day; I was aiming for ~56.
Paid zero taxes AND got a refund.
8. Nathan in 2011
Saw app rise to the top of the
“Travel and Local” category paid
apps in January.
(Took a screenshot)
App featured in Android Market in
July 2011
In December, survived a
competitive threat from a publicly
traded company that wanted me
out of business
Paid taxes
9. Nathan in 2012
Still just one app – but it is a fulltime endeavor
Making some revenue through in app purchases
Still haven’t taken a “real” job.
10. No, it’s not just visualizing yourself surrounded by money.
12. What is he worried about?
•Ideas
•Research
•Development
•Quality
•Publishing
•Tech Support
•Marketing
•Improvements
•Content creation
•Business Deals
13. Your Biggest Obstacle to Success.
True or False?
Since your time is free, you can save a
lot of money/overhead by doing most
everything yourself.
14. Your Biggest Obstacle to Success.
Myth: Since your time is free, you can save a
lot of money/overhead by doing most
everything yourself.
Fact: Your time is probably your
biggest
expense, therefore, anything you
*do not* do yourself will likely save
you money.
15. What is your time truly worth?
What if you have a day job?
My house
What if you don’t have any
income?
In December 2010, I got a call
Easy commute
from several recruiters
The job was not in San Francisco.
The job was not in Portland Nice
Android
It was three miles away. Job
I wasn’t available. . .
Columbia River
16. So... do you need an office building
and some venture capital?
17. What if you’re just a guy in a
corner office with a view?
18. College
Is this spam? Educated, English
Speaking, Industrious
people are *anxious* to
work for you for $2.50
an hour.
Meh?
19.
20.
21. Hiring People
For the small businessman, usually means outsourcing
Is it easier to:
Get a contract from a spec and get competitive bids? (ie
elance,Odesk,etc)
Hire a part time freelancer? (ie Odesk,etc)
OR
Hire someone fulltime?
What would you have them do?
22. What could you hire someone to
do?
Eugie Rogelone
Tech support
Graphics specialist
Help Guides
Icons
Jaimie, Hashir
Experienced Android
Layouts
Developers Video production
Daniel Zoraya
Intern
Content writer
Tools and server programming
Article Marketer
Jennifer Joyce
Beginning Android Developer Armae
TBH Linkbuilder
QA
Enrico
GIS Specialist
23. Let’s start with a graphics person
You want to look for vector graphics
Everyone in the Philippines takes Photoshop in
college; look for Illustrator, others
Other skills: video production, 3D, css
They can learn
Android icon standards
Patch 9 files
Prototype layouts
Have them send you an email report each day
Pay them via Paypal mass pay
24. OnlineJobs.ph
About $325/month
Adobe
Illustrator
Video
Animations
27. Starts with an audience
Who are the potential customers?
What are they looking for?
28. What do they buy now?
Ex: Garmin’s outdoor/fitness division had sales of
$400 million last year
29. Marketing funnel for Android Apps
Android Activations 500,000 per day
AUDIENCE Potentially interested in outdoor (1%?) 5000
(target market) navigation on a phone
PROSPECT Know about your app (from ??? Market Listing
Market listing/website) ~600 website
LEAD Have tried your free app 800
CUSTOMER Have paid for something (paid 100
app, in app purchase)
EVANGELIST Will recommend your app, rate, 5
and share
LOYALIST Will buy more stuff from you 3
(other apps, in app purchase)
32. My Perspective
In November 2009, apps had 255 char descriptions and
search was very primitive.
From my narrow perspective,
Windows Mobile was on its way out; iPhone was
big, Android was a rising star
iPhone had five or so apps that did what I wanted to do
Android had zero (or so I thought)
Static analysis is insufficient
By the time of release, there were three, including one
publicly traded company (or so I thought)
Now? Maybe 500. Some are free. Some are Open Source
33. What to do?
Make up your mind that you *will* ship a product.
Look for positive examples in your target market.
34. The Top Grossing Apps
Look in the top 200
Emulate success!
See what is similar or
parallels
39. Do you want to be at the top?
Factors (search, list)
Total number of downloads/sales
Recent number of downloads/sales
Active Install Percentage
Number of ratings
Average rating
Number of comments
Keywords in Title
Keywords in description –front loaded.
40. Search Result
What will get them to click through?
•App Icon
•Star Rating
•Title (branded vs keyword)
•Company name
•On web:
•Two sentences of description
•Number of comments (1028)
•Category
41. Getting an install: what do they see
Web Market Phone Market
Promotional Image Screen Shots
Screen shots One paragraph of description
Youtube Video (promotional) What’s new
One paragraph of description Rating breakdown
Rating breakdown 3 reviews
3 reviews
42. Android Market Image (inside tips)
Aesthetic guidelines
1024x500px
No white backgrounds
No basic advertisements
No obvious screen shots of the
App in use
Must be eye catching; vivid yet
understated
Text Requirements:
Branding, App Name, Tagline
(optional) – if the promotion is
around a specific holiday or
event, that can be reflected in
the imagery as well
43. Comment myths and facts: true or
false?
A free app will naturally get better ratings and
reviews, because user expectations are lower.
A good app can reasonably avoid getting negative
comments.
If you make fixes and improvements, users will come back
to update their rating.
Users can easily see past three recent comments from
people who obviously have an attitude problem.
Anyone who finds fault with your app must have unrealistic
expectations or a defective world view.
You can get good comments by getting the “right” people to
comment.
44. Comment myths and facts: true or
false?
A free app will naturally get better ratings and
reviews, because user expectations are lower. FALSE
A good app can reasonably avoid getting negative
comments. FALSE
If you make fixes and improvements, users will come back
to update their rating. FALSE
Users can easily see past three recent comments from
people who obviously have an attitude problem. FALSE
Anyone who finds fault with your app must have unrealistic
expectations or a defective world view. TRUE.
You can get good comments by getting the “right” people to
comment. TRUE
45. How perspective changes:
remember the target market
Maps slow, ugly, and out Better than a $400 piece
of date of hardware!
Other apps better and Best maps for the
free outdoors
Eats battery Saved my friend’s life!
46. What about alternative App Stores
I get an email every day about a new
one.
Mostly a waste of time.
Amazon gets about 2% of my sales on
Android Market.
Most are much less than that.
47.
48. How can you engage the right
people?
Have a weekly
email newsletter.
Subscribe users of
your app
Can use
autoresponders
MailChimp example
49. What can you cover in a weekly
newsletter?
New features you just put out
Response to comments in the Market
News and topics of interest for your target customer
Ask users to take action:
Leave a comment in the Market
Respond to an important survey
See and comment on your YouTube Video
Like your fan page on Facebook
Etc.
It also serves as a reminder to buy.
51. Other ways to interact
Social Media
Facebook
Twitter
In app messages
AppsFire, others
52.
53. How does a helpdesk make you
money?
Without With
5000 support requests a year 5000 support requests a year.
10 minutes average to handle 1 min to handle each one
each one. Hire someone to handle at
About 20 full time weeks. least half of them
Once you have 2.5 apps, you About 1 full time week
won’t be doing anything but
answering email
55. What can you do with a helpdesk?
The most common question:
“I got a new phone / rebuilt my old one. How do I get
my app back?”
Can you:
Have a page about a common task – with pictures
Send the ten most common answers in the autoresponse
Have macros that answer those common questions and
insert links to those pages.
58. Keyword Research
A keyword is generally a multi word phrase
You want keywords that:
Are RELEVANT to your product
Have lots of TRAFFIC
Are ATTAINABLE.
60. Attainable: The Top Ten
Do any spammers contact you and tell you they can get
you into the *second* page of Google?
61. An Optimized Page ..
Mentions the phrase (ie Android Topo Maps)
In the url
In the <title> tag
In the <meta Description> tag
In an <h1> tag
In the first sentence
In the first sentence of the last paragraph
2-3 times in between the first and last parag
Has about 250-750 words (ave 500).
That’s all!
62. Getting links
The most creative part of How can you get them?
internet marketing Article Marketing
The best links: Social Media
Have keywords in the Guest blogging
link (anchor text) Get app reviews
Are from “important” Press Release
websites Directories
Are from relevant
Look for what links your
websites
competitor has
Have traffic
64. Rinse and Repeat
Establish a blog with wordpress
Add a post every day
Get some links
At the end of a year, you will have 200+ keywords in
the first page of Google.
67. How can you make videos?
IPEVO 2
Webcam on a stick
Made for imaging
documents.
68. How else can you make videos?
Screencastomatic
Emulator Screencast
Stock photos
Slide shows.
Parody of Hitler movie –
new subtitles
3D After Effects rendering
Cartoon from xtranormal
70. Get views and traffic
YouTube is a social network.
Get your newsletter subscribers to watch and
comment
Find friends
Find subscribers
Consider tools like TubeToolbox.
72. Tube ToolBox
•Find similar videos
and interested users
by keyword
•Collect them into
lists
•Send them a video
you made
•Invite them to
comment or friend.
73. What and how often?
Videos can: How often?
Be instructional for your Once a week would not
product. be overkill.
Discuss concepts related
to your product
Be fun
They should always:
Target keywords
74.
75. Action items for you . . .
Hire someone.
Figure out your marketing funnel
Optimize for keyword search in Android Market
Start an email newsletter
Encourage the right people to comment and buy
Start a HelpDesk
Write and link up one web page a day
Create and promote a video every week
Use some helpful tools
To get links, go to:
http://eepurl.com/d9tZj