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Indy 500: 4 years as indie (app) developerDIOGO [email protected]@DVD_PT
• Indie App developer (ImaginationOverflow)
• Freelancer
• Game Developer (wannabe)
• Teacher (wannabe) at ISEL
@dvd_pthttp://blog.imaginationoverflow.com
Agenda• The process
• Technical aspect
• Marketing & Users
• Making Money
• The numbers
• Tips
The Process1. Idea
2. Research
3. Naming and Branding
4. Development
5. Testing
6. Release
7. jmp 4.
Inception
Research
Initial Marketing andBranding
AppDevelopment
BetaTesting
AppLaunch
Maintenance
FeatureEnhancements
BetaTesting
AppUpdate
The Process - Idea• A necessity
• Something cool
• Technical challenging
The Process - Research• Can it be done?
• Can it be built?
• Am I motivated?
• Are there enough users to justify building it?
• What is the competition?
• CAN IT MAKE MONEY?
The Process - Naming and Branding• Social presence, twitter, facebook, domain, etc
• Name, should be something related to its purpose• Should contain 1 search keyword
• Iconography• Consistent in all mediums• Visual appealing
The Process - Development• Design centric
• UI first, code after
• User experience > (code quality + feature count)
• Code is not importantTaken from http://goo.gl/h3p3X
The Process - Testing• Beta test program
• Offer your testers something
• Unit Tests
• Development Tests
The Process - Release• Choose the release date carefully
• Let the press (Blogs, sites, forums) test your app first
• Make soft launches
Technical aspect• Architecture
• Codebase
• Localisation
Technical aspect - Architecture
Technical aspect - Codebase• Make your app a set of Micro services
• Storage• Settings• Navigation• Error handling• etc
• Reuse as much code as possible
• DRY (Don’t repeat yourself)
Technical aspect - Localisation• Always support multiple languages
• No magic or explicit strings
Marketing and Users• Know the media
• Users
• Analytics
Marketing and Users – the media• Create a relationship with the media
• Know trend setters
• Press Kits
• Press releases
Marketing and Users – Users• Feedback Channels
• Store Review replies
• Media Comments
• Treat them like princesses
• Act quickly
Marketing and Users – Analytics (1)
• Track and get familiar with:• Retention• Churn rate• User Lifetime Value (LTV)• Average Revenue per user (ARPU)
• Vanity (Motivation) metrics:• Downloads• Sessions• Clicks
• Know the when, what and how.
Marketing and Users – Analytics (2)
Example:
How many users click on the Unlock Features and how many actually purchase something?
0.3%
Purchases By Events0.0003%
Purchases on View12%
Income +/- 507€
Marketing and Users – Analytics (3)Issue: Low click rate on the unlock features:Possible Causes:
◦ User don’t know it exists◦ User doesn’t need to acquire anything for it’s regular usage
Possible Solutions• Create a better call to action.• Use periodic popups• Add more premium features
Admitting1% clicks
Purchases on View12%
Income +/- 1576€
Making Money • Premium
• Freemium
• Ad Supported
• Subscription
Making Money – The choice• How many times will your users open the app everyday
• How long will the users stay on the app
• What kind of content are your giving your users
• What kind of feature set is your app going to have
• The platform that you are targeting.
Making Money – Our ChoicePremium + Freemium (Ads + In App Purchases)
Advantages◦ Two apps on the market, double the visibility◦ Three sources of income, Ads, IAPs, Direct Sales
Disadvantages◦ Store ranks divided◦ User confusion◦ Harder to manager
The numbers• Vanity
◦ Downloads◦ Sessions◦ Crashes◦ Interactions
• Earnings◦ Premium◦ In App Purchases◦ Ads
The numbers - Vanity> 7MDownloads
> 60MSessions
> 500kCrashes
> 23kEmail Replies
> 12kFacebook Messages
> 2kTweet Replies
> 7kUserVoice Votes
3Skype Calls
> 230kStore Reviews
> 200Reviews/Blog/Site Posts
7App Awards
1.5Persons
> 100kLines of code
Tips (1)• Deploy Early, update often
• Aim low
• Shotgun effect
• Take it as a business
• Keep the Motivation
• Expect nothing
• Have fun
• Learn one thing every day
• Work smart
Tips (2)• Users are people not € bills
• Let the users develop the app
• A submitted app is no longer yours
• Fix what’s wrong
• Brake what is right
• Make a work schedule
Questions