1. What Does It Cost
to Make an App?
If you’re new to the app game, prepare for some sticker shock.
Making an app will cost you, at the very minimum, around $10,000 to $200,000
depending on what you’re making really. This is for a super-simple program —
none of that fancy enterprise or social networking jibber-jabber. Even still,
any app worth its weight in code will likely cost you closer to $20,000.
unless you have some basic design skills, you’ll need to enlist the help of
both a programmer and a designer. And these guys aren’t cheap — particularly
programmers who, thanks to a pronounced shortage of qualified coders, can
pretty much name their prices. (A suggestion for those low on funds: Find some
creative way to come up with the cash. I funded my app through Airbnb income.)
You
can try to offload some of your costs by offering your guys equity; on the
other hand, everybody tries to get free (or close to free) apps by offering
developers equity. So unless you can really sell them on the strength of your
idea (or bring something totally rad to the table, such as a celebrity), you
better be prepared to pony up some cash. Of course, adding in some equity as a
bonus is never a bad idea, so you’ll probably want to dish out some shares too.
This
basic supply/demand dynamic also means that many developers ask for some pretty
insane terms. Some demand deals that involve a huge upfront payment in exchange
for a few weeks (or even just days) of work. And if a decent developer isn’t
already working full time, it’s not unreasonable to assume he's at least a
little commitment-averse. So, if you’re serious about making something beyond a
quickie cash grab, find a developer you are sure will stay with the project for
updates, and not abandon it the second it hits the store.
And
get it all in writing. If you don’t want to hire a lawyer, find a boilerplate
contract online or get one from somebody else who’s gone through the process,
and just swap in your names and numbers.
If you can, you’ll also want to work with people who are local
to you — or at least with people who are willing to join you for regular Skype
chats or Google Hangouts. I had weekly beer
summits with my coder and designer, which proved super helpful as we continued
to fine-tune our app well into its development.
One
more unavoidable cost: Apple charges $100 per year to hold onto
a developer’s account (which you need to publish your app). So be sure to
reserve an extra Benjamin for your budget.
2. What Should You Charge for Your App?
Make is free then after
people see the value start at or near $1.99. It’s premium price, but it’s also
immensely satisfying to get more than a buck per download after Apple takes
away its 30%. And, as with most things, it’s a lot easier to lower the price
later than it is to raise it.
During
the holiday period, we briefly played around with a special promotion that
dropped our app price to $0.99. Predictably, this spiked our downloads, but it
didn’t actually raise our total revenue. Even on Christmas Day — the single
biggest download day for just about everybody — our revenue was actually higher
a week or so later, once we had raised the price back to $1.99.
The obvious exception: If your primary business model involves
in-app purchases, ads or the like, you’ll probably want to give your app away
for free. After all, a quick glance at Apple’s top grossing
charts shows a whole bunch of free apps.
3. When Will You Get Paid?
Applist sends you cash one month at a time, up to 45 days after the month has ended.
So, if your app goes live in January, you can expect your first kickback
sometime in early March. Oh, and Apple only pays you if your earned amount
totals at least $150, so you may have to wait before getting your first
payment. Keep in mind, Apple only pays you through direct deposit.
4. How do you write your iTunes Description?
Don’t
try to rock the boat here. Take a look at a bunch of hit apps, and crib their
formats. If it works for them, it’ll work for you. Typically, this involves a
quickie intro statement, press blurbs and a list of your key features. Then add
some screenshots (the most interesting ones first) and call it a day.
5. What's the Best Way to Beta Test?
Getting an unreleased app
onto your friends’ iPhones isn’t the easiest thing in the world. My developer
and I are in total agreement that the best method is a program called Test
Flight, which makes it very easy to send build updates to registered
devices, over the air.
6. What Happens when you get featured on iTunes?
Getting
featured on iTunes is obviously awesome, but what exactly does it get you? When
Apple included our app on its featured lists, we enjoyed a predictable flow of
downloads almost identical in volume every single day we were parked there.
Especially fascinating, the “New & Notable” list gave us almost exactly
twice as many daily downloads as the “What’s Hot” list. I’m assuming this is because,
when you tap the “Featured” tab on the “App Store” app, “New & Notable”
pops up by default.
