Saturday, July 21, 2012

Android - Make Money from Home with Android Apps - Guide for Beginners


What is the purpose of this post?
If you have been following my blog so far, you will know there have been a lot of ups and downs in my efforts to make money from home, indeed to make a living with my Android apps.

My intention is to go through a few of the decisions I had to make before I started this blog, and how I got to where I am now in terms of development. I feel the information will be particularly helpful to those who with to earn a living with their own Android apps, and work from home as a developer.


My Android money making plan
The modern world is full of people who want to make money from home. Some people only dream of it, but nowadays it is common to hear of application developers earning a very good living, right from their laptop at home.

When I first discovered Android, I immediately wanted to become one of those people. I wanted to choose my own working hours, create something of my own that others would enjoy and/or find useful, and most of all earn enough money from it to quit my full time job and take up Android development full time.

I did have to ask myself a couple of questions though before I began devoting time and effort to development:

  1. Am I capable of developing an Android app that will be popular enough to earn money?
  2. Can I make a living with Android apps?
  3. How do I make a living with Android apps?
I will answer these questions with the same answers I told myself.

1. Am I capable of developing an Android app that will be popular enough to earn money?
As with many things, you need a good idea, a lot of time and a lot of patience to be successful. Developing an application starts with a good idea, and I do have them from time to time! If you believe you have a good idea, or you know of something that people need and that they don't already have, then build it.
If there is a weaker alternative available, build on it and make a better version, or a version that is cheaper, and you are onto a winner.

This is just common sense, and it is the strategy I have been and will be using in the future in order to ensure my Android application development business/career is a successful one.

2. Can I make a living with Android apps?
Yes is the simple answer to this question. It has been done numerous times by individuals. My intention is not to become rich. In fact, I can stand to earn a little less than I am earning now in my current full time employment due to expenses driving and parking at work (approx £200/$350 a month fuel and £20/$35 for parking), which is money I would save if I worked from home. Not to mention saving on car maintenance costs ( 1000-1400 miles per month means my car needs plenty of attention!).
One particularly interesting story about an individual who has earned a decent living with Android apps, is that of Edward Kim.
After a lot of research, I decided it is quite possible to earn a living with Android apps.

3. How do I make a living with Android apps?
The process of making money with android apps is quite simple:

  1. Think of an idea
  2. Check if it has been done already
  3. If it is not currently available (or you can build a better version), then develop it
  4. Publish it
  5. Earn money from app sales or in-app advertising
Once you have your idea, spend as much of your time as you can making it as good as possible. A second rate app will not be successful. An app with bugs or a bad interface will not be successful.
If your app is bad, your ratings will be bad, and it's a (cliché alert!) downward spiral to failure.
Build a good app, and people will download it and keep it.

The most important piece of information I can offer to anyone wishing to make a living from Android development.
Patience is a virtue. Don't give up and don't stop improving.
Even if you are only ever making minor improvements to your apps, you are learning new skills, and improving your app even a little, may get you those extra positive ratings.

Thank you for reading.
Mike.

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Firsts Steps to Making Money with Android

Welcome again to my blog.

I recently had the first download of my paid  Computer and IT Quiz Pro  app, and have now decided to have another look at the goals I initially set, to see if any of them have been reached. I have highlighted reached goals in green:


Primary Goals
  1. Earn over $1 in a single day. $2.37 in a single day by sale of Computer and IT Quiz Pro
  2. Earn $10 dollars in a single month.
  3. Earn $30 dollars in a single month.
  4. Earn $50 dollars in a single month.
  5. Earn $100 in a single month.
  6. Earn $500 in a month.
  7. Earn $50 a day/$1500 in a month.
Secondary Goals
  • To earn $5 in a single month (so far this month $4.57, that's the highest so far).
  • To achieve more than 1000 ad impressions in a single day (highest is 964).
  • To achieve 500 active installs for Simple Calorie Tracker/Counter (currently 271).
  • To achieve 2000 active installs for Computer and IT Quiz (currently 1040).
  • Create my first graphical game. Done this - see Make 'em all Red
  • Leave full time employment.
As you can see from above, I have indeed reached two of my goals towards making a living with Android apps. One primary goal (which I am extremely pleased with), and one secondary goal. Naturally both goals are important to me, but achieving the first of my primary goals means I am that one step closer to achieving what I set out to achieve with this project - the live from the profits earned developing apps for Android.

Another plus for today, I found another bug that was causing some crashing issues in the free version of the Computer and IT Quiz app, and have now ironed that out...


And on that positive note, I will end this post.
Thank you for reading.

Mike.

Friday, July 13, 2012

June 2012 Profits

Latest Information on the Spiderdog Android Project
Hello and welcome back - thanks for continuing to read my blog about Earning a Living with Android Apps.



I released a paid version of Computer and IT Quiz PRO in late May. This intention was to boost my earnings and add to the low income I am earning through my Admob ads. Unfortunately, as of yet, I have had no downloads I have now had my first download!

You are probably asking why anyone would pay for Computer and IT Quiz PRO when they can still get Computer and IT Quiz FREE... well, so far the difference is in PRO you can review all your answers at the end, and it does not contain any advertising, so you get a much neater app. I do have some plans for more features, to make the paid version more appealing. Any comments on this would be greatly appreciated.

New App Coming Soon
I have already started work on another app now - it is based on the code for the Computer Quiz, but is a completely different category (not computers). Sorry, I can't give away any more information, but creating the questions is a lot of fun!

I will release the new app as paid, as it is quite specific and there is no quiz the same on the market at present. Hopefully it will get some downloads, but we will see. I will post when it has been released.

June 2012 Profits

Admob earning - $2.24 ($2.19 of which came from Computer and IT Quiz FREE).
Admob ad impressions - 17,851 (17,148 came from Computer and IT Quiz FREE).
Paid app downloads - 0
Paid app earnings - $0.0

These numbers are indeed very low, and as I have devoted all my ad space to advertising my Computer and IT Quiz PRO, next month there will be now ad earnings at all... but, I am still fully intending on earning a living with my Anroid apps, and I will continue working at it until it happens.

My next post is now available here
See you soon.
Mike.