Tips: Make Money from Mobile Apps

1. Tips: Make Money from Mobile Apps Nikola Mihaylov, Senior SDET, Microsoft Making enough from 1 app to live in a small studio somewhere in Texas

2. Disclaimer The views expressed in this presentation are the views of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of Microsoft Corporation.

3. Fantasia Painter

4. Goal • By the end of this presentation you should know some tips that could increase your app revenue by 10-30% of more (4x for me)

5. Sell an idea first: get diehard fans • “A screen that can be anything” vs “tablet with 8GB RAM” • “Paint like a pro, even if newbie” vs “32 brushes and 100 effects”

6. Always Be Honest With Users Actual valid responses: • “I won’t add feature XX ever, here’s why” • “I’m sorry, but I will not develop for Android” (a hard cut) • “It sucks when you can’t save a picture. I’m so sorry for the issue. Thank you so much for reporting it” • “I was thinking I could fix it, but I’m a slacker” vs“We’ll think about improving this in a future version of our app” • “I’m working on this as a hobby, and I don’t have time for 95% of feature requests. Yours is # 998 on the list”

7. Feature development: Question Everything • Do I need a save button? • NO: “please rate our app, you’ve used it for 2 days already!” • NO!! “Never show this option again” option • Would you like to read the above line again? • 80% of time goes to usability testing: • Find a random person at home, the hallway, or the cinema • Give them the app, say “can you paint my pretty face?” (or another common task) • Observe and don’t talk! (100% of the time) • Don’t make faces

8. Admit failure fast -> • Even if you’re 99% done with a feature • If the ratings are low, it’s your fault • If someone is unhappy with your app, it’s your fault • An issue: Anything that didn’t match the user’s expectation

9. Fact: You compete with everything • Windows Phone • iPhone • Android • TV • Kindle • Grocery shopping? • Sleep? • Human-to-human communication (“having a life”)?

10. Complementary wins over competitive • Designing apps on limited resources (time, budget, skills) • Large companies can outcode you, outperform you and outskill you • Win by having a unique core set of features that are hard to copy • Partnership • Agility

11. Paid vs Ad-free? Case Study • Free app: 4.5 times more money than paid • Free app: lower rating by 0.2 (out of 5 stars) • Free app: downloaded 10 times more • Raise of price from $2 to $6 dropped the rating by 1.5 stars

12. How did I market my app? Speculation: most article writers (for money) are lazy? (or they like free money) • Write a self-praising press release • Send it to as many phone sites as possible (top 30)

13. Summary • Sell an idea • Don’t take it personal • Be complementary and partnershiply

14. Suggestions for existing app owners • Listen to the next talk • Update your app store description, facebook page to sell an idea • Reply to all of your pending feedback emails • Cut features that don’t add value to users • Ask 2 random people to try a task with the app

15. The End Get my app here: http://fantasiapainter.com If you want 