Android: A Hobby or Business?

300 Downloads =]

Just a quick post this time, if the title hasn’t already given it away. I’ve just hit my 300th download. By this I mean 300 paying customers, this doesn’t include downloads that have been refunded within the 15minute “trial” period. Happy times indeed, only 33 more till a third of a thousand ;)

Not long until next months analysis, and so far i’m on target to reach my aim, if things keep progressing. 

As always thanks for reading, and if you are one of these 300 buyers, your a legend. 

Android Monthly Revenue Report #2 - September

Welcome back for the 2nd full month update of my progress in the app store. It will be a short one this time as there isn’t much else new to report. The start to uni left me more busy than I initially anticipated so the other blog posts have taken a little back seat for now. Although they can be expected in the not too distant future, just need to find some time. (The release of Fifa certainly isn’t helping)

Downloads have again remained at a steady rate, slightly more days with just 1 download are occurring, but they’re still slugging in often enough. This month I noticed a lack of downloads in midweek(Tues-Wed-Thurs) compared to the weekend, with the majority of my downloads coming on those days.

There has been no extra feedback reviews this month which is a little disappointing, however no review is better than a bad review I guess. Nobody has complained or raised their disappointment, so that’s a positive I guess. 

Slide Me

Still, yes, still I am waiting for my app to be approved into the SlideMe store, I have sent another e-mail asking if there is anything I can do to speed this process along, yet apart from the automated “message received” email, I have yet to receive an official reply. This is a real shame as I have heard real good things about the store and an extra market place to the Android one is much appreciated. So as soon(if ever) I hear back from them, you guys will be the first to know. Until then, consider my progress with them “pending”.

Game In Progress

So as you are aware I am currently in my final year of University and for my final project I’m working on a game for Android. I will be posting about this shortly but the basic principles is that you control a character at the top of the screen with the accelerometer and you touch the screen to fire bombs on enemies. With a selection of levels, worlds, enemies, achievements, characters and integration with facebook and twitter all looking to be implemented. 

Heres a quick very early development screenshot to keep you all busy:

The Stats

This months standings can be seen below:

Income = £34.41 (-£2.97)

Daily Average = £1.14 (£-0.06)

Position in Cards and Casino: 110 (-61)

Downloads: 86 (-3)

Average Downloads: 2.87 (No change)

Total Downloads: 242/242 Active (100%)

Unfortunately, this month has not followed with an improvement. Slightly worse stats than last month, however they are very similar, so im not too worried by this. However, I will definitely be looking at next month with nervy eyes and hoping for an increase, if not then I shall definitely have to look into doing something to boost the sales. Even if this just means spamming Harry Potter pages ;) 

Aims for next month:

• £40+ Income. (£50 would be fantastic)
• 100 downloads.
• Reclaim position in Top 50 Cards and Casino Paid apps.

Until next time guys, thanks for reading, and feel free to spread your input and experiences.

Android Monthly Revenue Report #1 - August

First things first, apologies for the delay in releasing the first full month update. I have been very busy lately preparing for my final year at Uni, and have just this morning got back from Holiday (Zante). With about 6 hours sleep across the last 60 hours or so, now seems like a perfect time to release this update. I will be heading back to Uni tomorrow morning and I have a few more blog releases planned for upcoming days. One about my reviews and publicity, and the other about the game I am currently working on. So look for those shortly. 

Anyway lets crack on, the report will cover the month of August from the 2nd, until the 2nd of September as this is the time frame between payments.

Downloads have been at a consistent rate, with some days showing 1-2 downloads, and others around the 4-6 amount. As can be seen from the graph below, downloads have pretty much continued at a steady rate with no real large rises or falls. With a fairly similar structure to that of the end of July (before the vertical line).

The app has continued to spread globally with downloads from other European countries (Slovakia, Belguim, Netherlands). The USA still continue to be my largest audience, which isn’t surprising at all considering the size of the market over there. So thanks to any of you Americans reading, another point worth mentioning is the improved exchange rate for the UK to the Dollar at the present. My takings from USA has increased by 3pence per download, which is another £1 for every 33 downloads. 

I’ve received another 3 feedback reviews (two 5 stars and a four star review) for the application, which is very pleasing to know the users are enjoying the application, and one of these was kind enough to leave a positive message. Its the little things like this that can really help applications grow. So if any of you reading have purchased the application (firstly thanks very much), please consider leaving a positive comment and a 5 star rating. 

Slide Me

As a little experiment I also submitted my Harry Potter app into the SlideMe store, which is an alternative or addition to the Android Market place, depending on what suits you. I would love to have had some kind of information to share regarding how my app is doing here, however it is still “To be approved”. Its been a fair few weeks and I have contacted them regarding the progress but have yet to hear back from them, so not sure how this will progress. Hopefully there will be some positive movement in the short future.

The Stats

The first full months standings can be seen below:

Income = £37.38

Daily Average = £1.20

Position in Cards and Casino: 49

Downloads: 89

Average Downloads: 2.87

Total Downloads: 156/149 Active (96%)

Just under £40 for a first month on the store is looking very promising, it is by no means a massive amount but its a productive start and positive income nonetheless. Most importantly there has been no sign of downloads slowing down and they are rolling in at a consistent and steady rate. Once I release more apps into the Market I’m hoping the revenue will continue to expand.

Aims for next month:

• £40+ Income. (£50 would be fantastic)
• 100 downloads.
• Remain in the Top 50 Cards and Casino Paid apps.

As always thanks for reading, stay tuned and feel free to comment. 

100 Downloads..

This week has been a pretty good one for my first app, after 25 days, the Harry Potter Drinking Game has entered the 100-500 downloads category. This means I have been averaging 4 downloads a day which I am certainly satisfied with. Maybe one day the “word of mouth” effect will really kick in and these downloads will rise, but as things are now, its going better than expected.

Amazingly, for about a week my app was listed as the 14th Top Paid for Cards and Casino’s. Considering, the apps above and below mine had thousands more downloads, this really got me thinking what has made it appear so high. 

Although it has dropped a bit since then, it is still around the 30-40 top paid, which is great news. On top of this, at the same time it was also ranked number 81 in the Newly Released Top Paid.
 

The app is definitely moving in the right direction, which is pleasing of course, so onwards and upwards from here. As always, thanks for reading.

Well that went well..

Its been 2 weeks since my application was first released into the Android Marketplace, so lets have a look how things have gone. I wanted to get this post done as close to the 1st of August as possible. This is due to it being the start of a new month, and getting the figures and stats out now will allow for easy comparison for my “1st full month analysis” at a later date.

Once the app was finally submitted into the store, and I had seen it in all its glory on my mobile phone, it was all a matter of waiting for the millions to come rolling in. No, in all seriousness, I had decided, that at least 1 download a day will see me break even in a month or so. So theoretically this was the aim, and what turned out to met with no problems what so ever. Admittedly, my Google Checkout page got its fair share of “refreshes” over the next few days, and it is still the first and last thing I check each day (Is this weird?). 

The beginning..

1 hour and 12 minutes after entering the Market Place, I had made my first £1 as a developer. A sense of optimism was in the air, and a further 5 downloads, totaling 8 for the first day, left me feeling pretty chuffed. Another 7 downloads over the next two days left me sitting pretty with a fiver earned, and 1/3 of the way to breaking even after only 3 days. Things were looking promising. The next few days showed no sign of slowing down (I use this term very loosely might I add) and waking up on the 6th day I was greeted with my first profit. 

The Middle.. (I love Japan)

One thing I most certainly failed to consider was the exchange rates effect of my earnings. Due to other countries having different minimum prices this meant that if my app was purchased from another country I receive slightly more than I would from a UK buyer. The Japanese for instance give me £0.77 for a download, the Aussies £0.68, while the US nets in a respectable £0.62. At no point did I consider my application would go wide world, and this simple matter was overlooked massively on my behalf. 

July 27th saw my worst earnings to date, with only one download to show, however, coincidentally, this was also the day I had planned to release my first minor update. After downloads from abroad, I had decided to translate my application into other languages to further expand my potential user base. So the first update saw German being added to the application.

Unfortunately, this update was too soon since the release which meant that it failed to push the application back into the “Just In” section of the market, however, I received my first download from Germany shortly after. Coincidence? 

A few days later, I also had the application translated into Italian and Spanish, a reducing file size, and a minor graphical update, my third update was submitted to the Market. This was successful in getting into the “Just In” section for both “All Games” and “Cards and Casino”. Although the former was pushed out pretty quickly, however, the latter lasted a few days. 

The End.. (of July)

My 2 weeks of July has evidently lead to much more success than I had hoped, I am by no means making a fortune, but profit is profit at the end of the day. The foundations have been laid for the application and from here it is all about advertising and promoting, and hoping “word of mouth” does me proud. You never know, I might even set up a blog on Tumblr or something similar to promote a little easier..

My standings are as follows: 

• Total income = £25.79 (£10.29 profit),
• 84 downloads/69 active (82%) 

(Bear in mind this chart isn’t yet updated with the 69 installs, but is shows the steady growth atleast)

• Downloads from UK, USA, Canada, Japan, Thailand, Australia, Europe
• 5* reviews,
• Ranked 168 on Top Paid, Cards and Casino’s

Interested in the app?

Check it out here: 

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.testing.harrypotter&feature=apps_topselling_paid

What Next?

There’s a few things on my to do list, most importantly, the Custom rules, and Virtual Deck updates. I will be creating a Tumblr friendly advertisement of the app for people to reblog and spread the word, looking into translating the application into French and Japanese (Translators needed), aswell as keeping you all updated with anything exciting that occurs.

So until next time, Thanks for reading, reblog, like and comment as you please.

“All feedback is good feedback.”

Entering the market..

The 18th of July, is a day I’ll remember for a while. It was then that my “talk” of “one day I will have an app in the store”, actually came around. 10 days prior to this I had first picked up a book on Android development, so although I have 2 years of Java behind me, the learning curve from start to completing and submitting my app was much more pleasant than I originally foresaw. 

  Harry Potter Drinking Game

   Being a student, what better way to first touch the Android market, than by creating a drinking game. The game is simple, it requires a deck of cards and alcohol (or soft drinks for the real rebels :P), and each card that is picked up has a different punishment or rule that is to be conducted. Therefore when it actually came to coding the application, a few chapters of the books, and a couple of internet tutorials gave me enough knowledge to get by with little errors encountered. After I had the coding complete and it was all running smoothly with no “force closes”, I got working on improving the appearance. I used to interact regularly on Graphics forums several years ago (I was about 15/16 at the time), and although my Photoshop levels have deteriorated noticeably they are still at a level that is better than the average programmer. A little more reading around the market place and publishing my app and I was ready to submit. I still had plenty of ideas to incorporate into the app, but the fundamentals were there and these could be added at a later date.

Choices, Choices, Choices..

Arguably the main dilemma facing developers, is the choice between making their application free (with adverts), or putting a price on their work. With so many positives and negatives for either side of the spectrum the decision for me came down to the following:

• How many people are going to actually want this?

The game is massively popular among my friends at uni, Harry Potter has a massive fan base, its quite possible this will have a large appeal. However, getting it out there to the audience is the hard part.

• How long will it take me to recoup the license fee with either option?

Reading the story of another developer, they’ve found that roughly 1000 advert clicks gives just over £1. This is likely to vary massively across applications but its a insightful statistic to be noted. Therefore taking this as an example, if I were to set the app as free with adverts, I will be looking at needing about 16,000 advert clicks before I start turning a profit. With an optimistic 100 clicks a day, I would be looking at about Christmas time, which is a fair while from now. However, charging the minimum possible £0.50, after allowing for Google’s cost, I would be getting about £0.33 per install, and therefore around 40 would be needed.

• How much would I pay for this?

I definitely felt, that with some of the market dominating apps out there (Angry Birds, Cut The Rope etc) available for free, charging anything more than the minimum for the app would be pushing my luck. 

From this, I decided to market the application for £0.50, and hope for 40 downloads. I figured this had a much more realistic chance of occurring, with extra hope coming from a friend who stated “everyone knows some Harry Potter fanatics with 50p they’re itching to get rid of”. 

So ~£15.50 ($25) out of pocket, 10 days older and little excited, I was now an Android Developer. Not a successful one, but one nonetheless. 

A student’s journey with Android..

This blog will be the hub of my Android development, in which I shall be posting my progress and earnings from my apps. Along with any advice and useful information that I stumble upon along the way. A sensible option when starting from scratch I feel is to set myself some goals and aims to (a) monitor my progress, and (b) keep me motivated. Although, the latter isn’t much of a problem at all.

Goals:

• Recover the $25 license fee and start making profit,
• 100 downloads,
• £100 total income,
• 1000 combined downloads,
• £1000 total income.

These are all milestones that I feel are achievable, although maybe a while down the road, achievable nonetheless. The decision to select Android as my development platform over the others available (most notably IOS), was an easy one for me. The fact that for iPhone development, I would not only be entering a much more heavily populated app store, I would require an Apple Mac, but the main deciding factor was the $99 Annual License fee, compared to that of the $25 for life Android one. $99 was a bit out of my budget investment and felt $25 was much more easily achievable. There are of course other contributing factors, such as my preference of Android over Iphone, and that I’m much more experienced programming in Java than C (Albeit my programming is still pretty weak :p ). With all of this aside, down the line in the future, developing and making money on both major platforms is something that does definitely appeal to me and may one day be a possibility.

I did not start this process with money being the sole influence, its more of a pleasant incentive to keep going. I am by no means expecting to be financially stable for the rest of my life after gaining massive success with an app, but the idea of releasing an Application, having it used, enjoyed and talked about all over the world is satisfying enough. Although, gaining a regular (however small) income from downloads will be a lovely bonus as well.  

After a bit of research, I feel that an application or game for any of the platforms, does not always require extreme complexity, more the main difficulty is finding the niche in the market, and building an app to fill this gap.

My initial step was purchasing the following two books, (Sams: Teach Yourself Android and Android Development For Dummies) and looking at a fair few tutorials, and resources available on the internet. I then set up a Website in which I could use for customer feedback, information, contact details and all of the usual stuff a company website is used for. While we are on this topic, I decided to create a Company name to use as an alias in which I could release my applications in the store. After a little brain wave I came up with Wireless Toy Studio’s. After all Apps and games can easily be seen as the next generation of “toys” and they are most certainly wireless. Things get a little bit clever when you realise, Wireless Toy is an anagram of Lewis Storey ;) 

I shall wrap this post up here, with a new update to follow shortly, getting you updated with my first application and how progress has began. From then you can expect regular updates with anything new and exciting I have done or found out about, with a monthly progress review at the start of each month, showing my earnings, downloads, and the effects of any changes or implementations that I have incorporated. If you’re still reading then I hope you will join me again in what I hope will be an exciting and rewarding journey. 

Lewis

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