(Android) Developer Income Report #9
kreci.net
kreci.net
- There are not many levels in the game
- Hard to finish the puzzle / user gets bored before finishing the puzzle
- UI is not great. You'll need a decent UI when developing games
- No regular updates. Important way to increase downloads is to push regular updates. With an update, app appears in the "Just in" section of the android market and gains visibility
And not to mention with such less downloads, the ad revenue is pretty bad ($1.52 so far). Even though the total number of impressions that are being served on both the apps together is between 1k-2k per day, there are only 1-3 clicks per week. My best guess is that this has something to do with the way I place ads in my apps. Almost all the free apps (games) that I'd seen till date place ads over the game distracting users. I hate that. So, during game play, I'm diving the screen into two parts, one that displays the game and other displays ad impressions. This won't draw the attention of players and I think is the main reason for the low CTR
2) Why on earth does a game like this need to modify SD Card storage? Be VERY cautious of the requirements your app needs. Remember, your user is going to wonder right away why a simple puzzle game that hasn't been downloaded very much wants to access their SD Card.
If it's to grab pictures from your phone - have a screenshot that says "Use photos in this game right from your SD Card". That explains the permission, and shows a feature all in one.
3) You have a big icon that looks like a cat cut into puzzle pieces that is awesome, but for the smart cat app, you have a creepy looking distorted cat that makes your app look like app-spam. I wouldn't even look at the details of the app after seeing that icon normally.
4) The smart cat game is a derivative of a game that's been around for a long time. It is a really fun game by its nature, so are you coming up in the right searches?
5) I have learned from experience that a key to getting found is coming up in searches people actually use.
6) Do the Titles of your games say enough about what they are?
7) Are you writing long descriptions for your apps so they come up in a ton of different searches? You get 4000 characters now, you can really go to town.
8) Do your games give a really nice "how-to" tutorial before the first time the user plays so there's no question about what they have to do?
It's not just about updating. It's about improving.
It is up to you to deside if you feel it is too icky to use.
One thing that continues to amaze me is the performance you get from istockphoto. I always figured that with the number of people out there with digital cameras getting into photography that the prices would fall rapidly for this sort of thing. But it's remained a reliable earner for you.
Everyone can download vi and Python. Not everyone can write good software.
I make between $3-6K/mo extra through technical blogging in my spare time, and I couldn't afford to quit my day job as a result of that revenue alone (not that I want to). Conversely, if I was living in Poland, I'd be king of Warsaw. :-P
That's the beauty of income from the Internet. It can be virtually independent of where you live, so if you reside somewhere inexpensive you can acquire a ridiculously good lifestyle for much less money and effort of your North American peers.
1. Do you make $3-6K from writing to other blogs or from your blogs? Compete tell me that you aren't far from my little Qr Code generator (http://siteanalytics.compete.com/math-blog.com+programmingze...) that doesn't generate even $50/month.
2. Does your wife work? Because I think $6K, coupled with some freelancing in the side can make the cut in Toronto, no?
My own blogs.
> Compete tell me that you aren't far from my little Qr Code generator (http://siteanalytics.compete.com/math-blog.com+programmingze...) that doesn't generate even $50/month.
Compete statistics for my sites appears to be completely off. And I don't mean off by a factor of x. Randomly off, even when comparing my own sites to each others. That said, having a good amount of traffic definitely helps, but it's only one part of the equation. Monetizing that traffic is an art in itself.
> think $6K, coupled with some freelancing in the side can make the cut in Toronto, no?
OK, technically I guess I could live off that extra income even in Toronto, but the high cost of living would definitely grant me a lifestyle that pales in comparison to cheaper places, particularly overseas. Of course, one could argue that dedicating myself full time to this I could probably double or more my revenue. But it's not something I'm pursuing at this moment, as I love my job.
Even if it's off by some margin, I don't think you have enough traffic to score $6K from ads like Adsense. I'm definitively interested to know how you do it. I already took the survey, but I think you should register people who are looking to know more about the book and not only affiliate marketers.
> But it's not something I'm pursuing at this moment, as I love my job.
That's totally another thing!
Indeed. Not by a long shot.
> I already took the survey, but I think you should register people who are looking to know more about the book and not only affiliate marketers.
I agree with you. When I designed the survey I was mostly checking out if there was any interest in the book. Now that I know I'll go through with the plan of writing the book, I'll create a dedicated landing page and mailing list for people interested in it, even before the book is ready.
Purely out of interest, is that before or after tax? I only ask as I'm also based in Poland, and 3,000 PLN (i.e. your original monthly earnings) before tax sounds painful!
Here's what comes to mind to be able to produce a decent advertising revenue:
- the app needs to be useful on a daily (or so) basis
- the app needs to provide regular notifications to remind people of the app's existence and to draw them back into the app
- the app needs to have inelastic, strong demand. To give you an example of what I mean, I built the 'Spy Camera' app. That's the kind of product that has a strong demand. I've been charging $6 most of the time, and people buy it! I've made $25K over two years without have any of the above elements. Strong demand goes a long way. But this works for selling apps, not for advertising revenue. The revenue from the ads in the free version of Spy Camera is barely noticeable.
Click-through rates are much higher when the user starts the app on his own as opposed to getting there via a notification. Quantity vs quality.
Also, if you take a look at the OG's apps, he places the ads right next to the buttons. That kind of stuff won't fly in Google Adsense. It does on mobile, for the moment. Google will fix that in AdMob, then every other network will do the same or risk losing the advertisers. Nobody wants fake clicks.
Finally, notice the OG's profitable apps are random catchy stuff that appeals to the general population.
Clearly, the OG has done his homework. Don't think money will land in your lap by just releasing a shiny app.
Be fair - this is a huge pay increase, and by the average standards of pay in Poland is truly gigantic leap. Just for the sake of argument though:
health insurance
I've seen quotes in the region of 2,500 PLN/year for individuals, and that's for pretty damned decent insurance. That's just under $900 USD at current rates.
holiday allowance
Call that 20 days/year, essentially a month off. He's earned that this month if he was on his former wage at least ;)
pension
Default pension payments are close to nothing - maybe a few hundred zł/month, so let's call that $100.
I think kreci should be congratulated, by my eyes he's on the path to well exceeding normal paid employment. Keep up the good work!
I don't know, that's why I asked. Someone going from €1000 in a job to €2500 self-employed here in the Netherlands has made progress, but not remotely as much as it seems at first. Of course it seems that kreci is also working much less, so per hour he's ahead, I'm just trying to make a real comparison.
I'm not trying to put kreci down here, I'm just saying that the earnings of a business owners are not even close to the gross profit of the company.
"<health insurance 2500 PLN / 900 USD / 630 EUR/ year>"
That seems very cheap. http://www.justlanded.com/english/Poland/Poland-Guide/Health... lists the self-employment contributions, for the special discounted rate that is only valid for the first 2 years, at 300 PLN = 108 USD = 75 EUR per month. After that, it's three times that. It's not clear to me either if this includes unemployment insurance. That costs several thousand euros a year in itself, easily (here in the Netherlands, I don't think it's 10 times cheaper in Poland - 50% cheaper at the very best, comparing the other numbers).
"<holiday allowance>"
20 days / year is 7% of the total amount of working days, assuming the 20 includes everything - holiday, public holidays, sick days etc. That has an influence on total income, and 20 days including everything is not a lot.
"<pension>"
http://pension3.com/pl/ says that just under 20% of a persons taxable income is by law required to be put into a pension fund (for employees, that is). Depending on how kreci has structured his business, he may not be obliged to do so (I can't really tell from the page, either). Anyway it's fair to assume that at least 10% (and probably more) of a person's gross earnings needs to be put into a pension fund (or alternative savings vehicle) to be able to get a pension comparable to what employees get (70% of average salary it seems). Quite a bit more than you're implying.
Look, I do think too that he should be congratulated. I just don't want to see him think he's rich all of a sudden and then be screwed when the tax man comes around, or when he gets sick, or whatever. But I guess he thought about all of that, he seems like a smart guy - and in that case, I wish he would include those numbers in his reports so that people can get a more accurate idea of his net earnings, rather than his companies gross profit. The two are related but not even close to the same!
- If you are full-time employee in a company then health insurance is relative to your salary (no matter how big it is). The system for calculating it is complicated, but to give you an impression - if you are earning $3000/month, you would have to spend around $230 from it for health insurance.
- If you are self-employed you can pay a minimal amount specified by health department. During first 2 years you have a privilege to pay only 50% of this amount. So if you have started a company in 2010 and you are earning $3000/month, then health insurance will cost you $90.
- Freelancers working on contract basis can pay either a fixed amount of ~100$ (when working exclusively on "umowa o dzielo" contracts) or 9% of the total cost of service (when working on "umowa zlecenia" contract type). By mixing two types of contracts, it's possible for an independent contrator to pay as low as $10/month for health insurance with incomes exceeding $3000.
Hrm, either that's wrong, or the company I work for has screwed up massively ;) I earn in that region, and my health insurance costs 70-odd zł/month, of which my company pays 50zł, and I pay 20zł. 70zł is around $25, so no idea.
Just accept the fact that in Poland that is actually a very good salary.
(and yes I do accept that it's progress, and I'm rooting for him - but I'd rather cheer on actual accomplishments than cheering on collective self-delusions).
Plus, he's got plenty of products that he can make more money on without more work (i.e., intellectual property).
I like his odds.
I've never understood how so many think it is LESS risky working for large companies. At any moment, of any day, your boss could walk in and say "you're fired". How is this not a huge massive risk? When I work for myself, nobody fires me, if I need to make more money, I go and make it.
I presume you had the distinct advantage to plan your move into working from home though, I was forced with only really two weeks to get something sorted and rolling.
Anyway, not to detract your success, well done!
Very nice reports. Very encouraging. I'm and iOS developer with some paid apps in the app store. Now I'm thinking about some free ad supported apps
Keep up the good work
While working at home or in a secluded office is amazing for getting something done, don't forget all the social interaction, communication and contacts you are missing.
Do you account for that somehow and monitor how that develops over the months? How do you counter it?
For those of us that have been following along (I've only read the last 3 reports), it is fascinating.
Getting real-world stats on what it takes to make a particular amount of money in a given context isn't terribly easy to get and you make it transparent. Thanks.
That being said, the popularity of these posts is probably because there are many who would love to make an extra income doing what he's doing, and it is inspiring to see that it is possible month after month.