Does mobile app development really works as “cool side income”? | Hacker News Reader

Does mobile app development really works as “cool side income”?

24 pointsnouveauuser12 comments

Hi,

I'm a (math/CS) Ph.D Student and I'd like to earn a little more money than I do ( particulary with the ski season approaching :) )

We're all amazed by Flappy Bird's story (some milions for two days work ?) but it's obviously rare... On a more "common" basis, do you think it's a good idea to go into app development to earn a nice income with not-so-much work ?

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This guy[1] earns 7 figures from just one free iOS app, enough for him to go buy a cool sports car[2].

I do think it works. I don't have any data, but I suspect iOS devs make a lot more than Android devs.

[1]: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/17lwcs/iama_a_person_i...

[2]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0LqXtKajqQ

Ah Mr. Allen Wong, He was able to get into the game early and to prove that it was not just a one hit revenue generator, he also created more apps that were successful. Considering the other issues he had going on in the beginning family wise, he is a great example of what can happen when you put in the time to improve your craft and do not give up when things get hard.

There are also many stories of devs earning recurring income this way, right here on HN [3].

[3]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8629919

Yes it is worth putting in the time and effort to create great mobile apps and games. If the people like what you have created and it is properly monetized (Free, free with in app purchases, paid and priced at a point to where you will make a decent profit on sales) then you will be rewarded very nicely for your work.

The main issue with many that fail to make sufficient income from their mobile apps is normally down to the experience that is being offered to the user. Your application might be amazing but if it is annoying the end user with ads, buggy, receives slow updates or new features that are implemented are not properly tested then eventually any success a successful application had will die off. Then there are always the short lived applications that are great at first but does not have enough variation of content to keep the user coming back over a long period of time.

It has been proven time and time again that anyone that can create a product that people love to use repeatedly over time that adds substantial value to their lives (fun, top quality advice, doesn't bore them, gives them that uncontrollable smile (oh man this is awesome, or mmm just one more level, or let me check appname for that) etc.) has ended up becoming a very nice return on investment for the developer of the application if they own all or most of the IP for the app or have a very good royalty contract setup.

Target the Enterprise. The 16% of App Developers who target the enterprise are 2x's more likely to earn over $5K per month. And 3x's more likely to earn over $25K per month.

http://www.visionmobile.com/product/developer-economics-q3-2...

I would go with iOS over Android if you're going to give it a go . . . app store is a lot like the lottery . . . except the ticket cost is a lot more expensive . . . none of my friends who are iOS devs have even covered their time creating their various apps on the app store . . . but they are all employed as iOS developers and make very good incomes and do improve/polish their skills creating their own apps.

If you're going to give it a go I would track down some podcast interviews of successful iOS app developers and use their tactics for marketing, launching, etc. To give you the best shot at success. Good luck, enjoy the ski season.

I have experience of Android development unfortunately Development environment of android is very slow as compared to IOS. Keeping in mind "Cool side income" i recommend you to start with IPhone development.

Met a guy in an interview that had, "Slang for tourists," as an app. Pretty simple, made him a few hundred dollars per month, Android only.

Another option is, given Math / CS, self publish an ebook. I make a few hundred from fiction, and on a good month, enough to buy lunch or more via my non fiction tutorial style ebooks on Amazon and elsewhere.

Scrivener to create, Amazon KDP and Smashwords to distribute (plus own website, etc) and you're golden. A technical book can sell for $100+ bucks per month at ten copies, $10 each, and if it's enough to save somebody 1/2 hour of work, it'll probably do very, very well.

App development for the sake of app development is unlikely to pay off except in better skills. It will be far more work than many other possible investments. That said there is a sort of serendipitous value to creative work. You'll eventually see benefit but maybe not in the way you expect.

What other investments, for example?

Consider someone who buys a small property and rents it. That is about a 10 hours a week for a month to purchase it, a few weeks of work to get it ready to rent, and then just a day or so every few months for maintenance. That person will probably pull in a few hundred extra per month and gain equity in the property.

Other than apps, there are content markets, framework plugins, code libraries, coding for small companies, tutorial videos, etc. These things don't require the huge amount of time that an app will take before yielding any returns.

Slow, grinding, yet easy, parallelize with other projects, and eventually profitable and comfortable SaaS.

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