Thursday, June 28, 2012

Busy - but will it be worth it?

These last few weeks at work have been extremely stressful - we have found out just how close we really are to losing our jobs. This has pushed me a lot harder with my Android work, although the added stress makes getting home from work and starting working on Android very tiring.

I need to start earning proper money with Android and not these few dollars I am currently earning (this month it look as though my AdSense ad earnings will be back down again...).

I didn't really want to go down the paid app route, as I enjoy the higher downloads of free apps, and as I hardly ever download paid apps, I figured other people wouldn't either. Anyway, I figured I might as well give it a go.



I have spent quite a lot of time learning a few new tricks in Android development, and one of those is learning how to use an Android library project correctly - this means one project is the main 'library project', and other projects reference code in the library - it saves on a lot of repeated code and layouts. I used this method to split the Computer and IT quiz into two version - Free and Pro.

The Computer and IT Quiz Pro now contains all features of the free version (which is still the same), but has the ads removed and additionally has a review mode to review all questions and answers at the end of the quiz. I have put the pro version up for $2.49, but only released the review feature in the app today. Hopefully it will boost my development income but we can only wait and see.

I will keep you up to date on any progress, and will release the June monthly figures/profits too very soon.

Thanks again for reading. Click here for my next post.
Mike.

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Another Lesson in Testing Before Releasing

Computer Quiz Down Again!

We should learn from our mistakes... unfortunately I don't seem to grasp that concept!

I recently released another bad update of Computer and IT Quiz - this time I accidentally copied in the AdMob code twice and so nothing appeared on screen when the quiz was run. A simple enough mistake to make, but the problem is, once again, if I had tested properly before releasing the update, it would never have got out there.

This again shows the importance of thorough testing, even with a minor update, as mistakes may find their way into code you didn't even intend on changing, and here is the result:

Thanks for reading.
My next post is now available here.
Mike.

My First Flash/Adobe Air App for Android

'Make 'em All Red' is released on Google Play

I have just uploaded my first Adobe Air for Android app to Google Play (it may not be visible yet).
The app is a simple puzzle game that was developed very quickly to try out a little of the basic stuff in Flash.
It is a keypad puzzle whereby you light up all the keys/lights on the screen using different light combinations provided by the buttons:

I have not figured out how I should monetise Flash games - it may be a lot more difficult to place ads in there than with Java Android apps, but I will look into this for my next project. 'Make 'em all Red' is free and has no adverts.

I enjoyed learning the very basics of Flash (most of what I learned isn't in this app) - it is a lot less daunting (and a little more fun) than the heavy programming involved in normal Java Android development, and even if it does not become my main development method, I sure I will churn out a few more Flash games and apps along the way!

Thanks for reading,
My next post is now available here
Mike

Monday, June 11, 2012

Using Flash to Develop Android Games and Earn a Living

Hello and welcome back to my blog.

This post will briefly cover two topics - firstly the release of my latest app, Stop Binge Eating, and secondly my new interest in creating Android games using flash animation.

Stop Binge Eating
My newest app is born from my own need, rather than to make money, but I have added a little to it in order to release it to the Google Play Store. It is a very basic app which simply provides a little advise to those who feel they are about to binge eat or have just done so. It also links to a new forum I started which is mainly for users of the app to discuss their binge eating issues.

I only posted the app earlier today so we will have to wait and see if it gets any downloads - it is, after all, very basic.

Using Flash to Develop Games for Android
For a long time I have assumed I would not be able to succeed in the game development side of Android application development, in order to earn a living. Game development is quite complex and time consuming. I had been looking into this recently, however, and discovered how (using the power of Adobe Air for Android), games can be developed very easily with knowledge in Flash (which is much easier than learning graphics programming in my opinion).

Unfortunately, I have little knowledge of Flash, but I am sure I will have lots of fun developing my first game very soon! I will, of course, let you know how it goes very soon.

My next post is now available here.
Thanks for reading,
Mike.

Saturday, June 2, 2012

May 2012 Profits

May 2012 Profits

How has this month been?

This month has seen me getting close to my first goal, and very close to a couple of my secondary goals. 

I have started work on a small app designed around weight loss - it's a very basic app and I designed for myself, rather that to make much money. But of course, once complete it I will release it on the Google Play Store and see how it does.

I also found something interesting which may explain my empty AdMob stats for Simple Calorie Tracker and Earn Money with Android (the app for this blog). I was looking around the AdMob site and noticed all my apps were using the same publisher ID (an ID used to collect stats for each app). So all the stats from all three apps were showing for the Computer and IT Quiz. I have since changed this and we will see how the stats change next month, but for now, here are May's numbers:

May 2012 Profits

Total earnings this month: $4.98 (Last month: $3.09)
Most money earned in a single day: $0.86 (Last month: $0.46)
Maximum ad impressions in a single day: 997 (Last month: 803)
Total ad impressions: 23,217 (Last month: 17,689)
Primary goals met this month: None (close to Goal 1 - earning $1 in a single day (highest was $0.86)
Secondary goals met this month: None (just 2 cents off earning $5 in a single month!)

Next month I will list my other apps in the profits, but there seemed little point in doing so this month.

I am very happy with this months numbers - I know they are not anywhere close to my final target, but it does take a lot of time and effort, and the fact that the numbers have all improved this month is fantastic.

I will have more time this month to put into development and hopefully get another app out before the end of the month, but I will keep you posted.
Mike.