Comment by VonLipwig | Hacker News Reader

Comment by VonLipwig | Hacker News Reader

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I sympathise with the developers plight and this is a reason why I haven't wanted to get into App development. If your not battling people cloning your games, you have a constant axe swinging above your head that the app store may find fault with your App and remove it. You then have changing rules and requirements in the App Store..

The thing that bugs me a bit though is how the developer is asking for money. "Save my house." Its been 14 days since this revenue stream was compromised and the guy is apparently in financial trouble. This doesn't sound like Apples fault. This is a lack of financial planning.

I am by no means well off. I get by. My partner, my child and I were struck down by a bad virus last month. For 3 weeks I couldn't work, I could just about roll out of bed to get to the loo. I am a freelancer, I have no sick pay, no payment protection etc. For 3 weeks I earned nothing. My family is on a budget for the next month but we are fine. We have savings to get us through 3 months of joblessness.

If 14 days of near zero income pushes you over the edge and risks you loosing your house then you probably need a career change. That or its time to spend less and save more. For many profession's this isn't possible. Some people need several jobs to make ends meet. However, for a I expect fairly talented developer there are plenty of jobs and opportunites to get you on the right track.

As someone making a living from an App Store (though not Apples one), 14 days are enough to turn your emergency alarms. You need to know that

1- You get paid a month later. (and apparently, he is not going to for January) 2- If that's your dependable income, you'll need 3-4 months until you find a job or figure out a different revenue stream.

So if he is not getting paid for January, that's already 2 months of non-pay. But I agree on the lack of financial planning. Before jumping (and dropping from college) into this market (small products + freelancing), I saved 1 full year of expenses. Yes, you read it right, 1 full year.

My first aim is to guarantee the next year spendings. It's 70% done now (my year began on September, though). After that, I can spend/invest/save or whatever.

This site is good because it pokes Apple into action. However this seems like a temporary problem. It was pulled because of a problem on Apples end. There are a lot of companies who want an app in the app store or help with something. Its not difficult to find a temp job for a couple of weeks to tide you over.

Obviously it isn't ideal but you do what you have to do to keep going. If your revenue stream dries up you contact Apple to try to reestablish it. How long does that take? Maybe 1 email and 2 phone calls a day. Lets be generous and say this takes an hour each day. That then leaves 7 hours of thumb twiddling.

I have been in similar situations and have just nabbed a job on Guru. Its horrible BUT it brings in that little bit of money to keep the lights on until more work comes in.

Its horrible BUT it brings in that little bit of money to keep the lights on until more work comes in.

I agree on it's horrible, but I don't agree that it brings money. You are very likely to land a $500 job that takes over 80 or 100 hours of work, and the buyer may end up rating you badly or not paying you.

Hi Von, you are right abuout financial planning. Sadly, many live day to day or month to month. This is sometimes true of startups trying so hard to build a business from scratch. I feel for Bryan in the article. He took time to build something and allowed Apple to share in the revenue and used their forum to sell it to the public. Sadly, there are so many horror stories when a big entity is controlling markets. I know of many stories where Google sandboxes websites and they are no longer able to be in the natural search results. I also know personally of Google choosing not to allow ads. In one instance the ads were going to compete against AT&T who is one of their largest ad spenders. Is it a shock Google did not "allow" the smaller and less funded company? Ebay also knocks down and kicks out many smaller sellers. I know these large companies don't always mean hard but they many times hurt the little guy. How about in China where a site can be shut down for no reason except the government chooses they don't like it. If you are a creator you need numerous income streams and cannot rely on one company be it Google, Ebay, Microsoft's Bing, Apple or anything else. Always be on your toes and never take things for granted! This is a huge business lesson learned in the hard knocks of real business.

further, if Apple has an issue, why does begging for donations become his first option? If he's a freelancer, can't he get a short term gig? Or a short term job? Seems a bit weak...

Can he not setup a another developer account, and submit the app again?

That would most likely be a violation of their ToS and would give Apple a real reason to ban him.

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