don't worry Montessori is used extensively in the App Store since 2 years. On my side, I've got a friend who is montessori teacher, and he test all my apps and give me feedback. There is a lot of discussion in the Montessori world about the good/bad usage of screens
Ironic that I get more money than an educator ? Yes it is in a way. But it is the world we are living, no ? (and we should not start to talk about bankers)
On the other hand, there is no comparison between a software developer and a educator (I teach nothing except to my kids)
When I began doing apps, I was inspired and motivated by such posts. They gave me the motivation to try and do it. So I thought I could give back. I did the same post last year, and I'm sure I have new competitors because of this post but that's OK for me. I'm here to build great apps and competition is very good for that !
that's a good point, and I will add this in the report. I work at home so my expense are only a little bit of marketing, some devices and I've made a trip to a conference this year in california, and a very important thing is that I have to give some royalties back to the speech engine company for the word wizard app.
So according to my files, it is about $35K. I would say that marketing is not very expensive but takes a lot of times (anyway buying ads don't work well)
EDIT: updated the expense (bad euros/dollars conversion before)
don't believe everything that is written in the newspapers, it's only for the super-rich :-) I think that France is a good place for authors (Ireland is the best one I think) Indeed there is a specific status for authors in France and tax rate is much better that if it was a salary. So actually I'm considered as an software author in France because I sell nothing, I just give to Apple the right to sell my apps and they gave me royalties. I don't even own a company.
To give you a number I think I pay 35%/40% of taxes, and for me I'm really happy to pay (honestly if you pay a lot of taxes it is because you earn a lot). Note that it includes social security and retirements. The issue with some people that have a lot of money is that they don't realize how others people live and they always want more. I did not have a lot money 3 years ago so for me it's really OK to pay.
don't believe everything that is written in the newspapers, it's only for the super-rich :-)
I think that France is one of the best place for authors (Ireland is the best one I think) Indeed there is a specific status for authors in France and tax rate is much better that if it was a salary. So actually I'm considered as an software author in France because I sell nothing, I just give to Apple the right to sell my apps and they gave me royalties. I don't even own a company.
happy to know that! Yes that's a long road and the experience you gain help you to know what you have to do . You can be more or less lucky (I was pretty lucky with the education market) but most of all you have to be persistant and learn from mistakes (I think I've already heard that somewhere else...)
and actually for the Word Wizard app, I can't release a single app with all languages because it uses a text to speech engine and each voice is 90M ! In addition, due to the contract I have with the text to speech company, I can't release an app with several languages...
another point for localization : I can sell an app at a higher price in France (tier 4) because of the euros rate. tier 4 in france is a little bit like tier 3 in the US (eg 3$ in the US and 3.5 euros in France - it was 3 euros before Apple updated their price). In Sweden, where there is less competition I can set the price to tier 5.
In the English market (which is 73% of my income), all the apps are $3 (except today).
I remember that the original idea was to create white/yellow page online (it was very costly to print all these white pages). Then came commercial services. You were billed according to the number you dialed (from free -3613- to very expensive service -3617-).
That was my first online experience and that was magic :-) There was also a hacking scene on pirated servers where you can meet a lot of people (and it was on the free number of course).
Let's say that for me it was profitable last January and I began to work on iOS in March 2010. Of course it really depends on what you need. You can check the figures in the post to see details.
PRmac.com (you have to do it if you've got an app and it's cheap) and 3 times I used prweb.com which is much more expensive (and there is a lot of discussion to know if it is profitable but it is more professional). For the ads I went to theiphonemom.com and bestkidsapps.com. Honestly I don't know if the ROI is enough for ads on these sites - I've stopped advertising there but I looking for new place (or will come back to these places) to put ads because I have to
what do you mean exactly ? I just wanted to say that it was an investment because I did not work as a contractor or employee while creating apps. But in a sense, I could estimate the cost because for the first 8 months I was not profitable and have to use some money I've have in the bank.
actualy, it was great way to be motivated ! I always look for ways to do things with my kids that they love and I love, and I also thought it was a great way to show them what is "working"
I just worked hard (and time is money!) + some money for hardware and some Press Release and ads (about $2500 I think). I've done everything myself so far.
I will add this to the post, thanks the comment
Journalist in big blog or newspaper cannot be reached directly (I think they should receive hundred of mails everyday!). So you need to have a nice app and make some noise and perhaps they will hear about it. I was very lucky for my first app (check the previous post on my blog), but for the second it was easier because people knew about my apps already (it was through Children's Technology Review that I've got an article for Word Wizard)
For the App Store, it is still a mystery but of course you need a great app and with great artwork (I noticed that all the featured app have georgous artwork).
decx, if you want to check others voice (you can do it online) you can mail me at pierre@lescapadou.com. Thanks
I really love to make it better for UK people. This is small market compared to the US but as you can see in my post, small market (like France) can be profitable as well. By the way, I've also have a lot of request to use a UK voice for Montessori Crosswords and that's something I want to do as well (in this app it is a recorded voice)
I really don't know. The issue is for people to find your site - so it is SEO. In addition, I've never found very good data about how people find apps (I've seen some generic data but of course I'm looking for data about parents looking for apps for their kids). Do people look for apps on google ? You should also look at your keywords on the app store (of course)
it's something I have to look seriously but unfortunately my time is limited. I wanted to do this myself but a framework could be interesting. I imagine also there are some opportunities for cross-marketing.
please check the post. But actually everything is good to promote your app, you have to try and see the result. The difficulty in promotion is that most of the times difficult to evaluate to ROI and it is a kind of weird thing for software engineer - you don't know if it works or not (except if you've got a mention in a major blog/newspaper). But mentions in major blogs or newspaper don't appear by magic, you have to make some noise about your product.
So You just want that your app is visible to everybody. If, by magic, everybody was aware of my apps I would sell 100,000 units in one day I think !
Yes in word wizard the UK voice is not great as the US one. I rely on an expensive library for voice synthesis (acapela) and I can't do a lot things to fix it. However there are others UK voices available I have to check- so thanks for the feedback.
I Mainly target US market and thats why the QA is better for the US but I will take care of UK in next versions
Yes of course there is some risks but you cannot succeed if you don't try. I just put some targets according to the money I've got in the bank. It was OK because we (family) have had enough money for more than one year without income.
When my first app was mentioned in the NYT, I realized that there was a market and it was possible to do a sustainable living. I also realized that promotions was the key once you've got a good product - OK everybody know that but when you are an indie with a software engineer background it's not easy to do it because you are reluctant to do it.
biggest challenge : designing innovative apps and doing the promotions (then artwork)
my family was a great help to stay motivated. My most important issue was money and being able to feed my family, but My wife told me that it was better if we didn't have a lot of income and I was happy with my jobs and stayed at home with her and the kids. She was so right. Doing something that you enjoy (and of course where there is some money) is the key to stay motivated (for me and I think for a lot of people).
Thanks Guys ! As I've said in the post, it's a pleasure for me to share after all I read on hackers news and others places. if you have questions don't hesitate to ask.