Critics are always saying that you can’t make money from Android apps
and that iOS is a better market for making money. But I think that
depends on your app and understanding the two markets.One developer questions how to be expected to make a living through ad revenue alone.
To the developer mentioned in the post, and to all others with the same dismal outlook, we say: Get creative. Get strategy-savvy. We’ll tell you exactly how you can make money, in actionable steps no less.
So here’s the situation: It is more difficult to monetize in the Android market. This is the case because the Android market lacks the concept of in-app purchases, which has worked out so well for Apple. But guess what? There’s a work-around, and it involves strategy:
1. Create a quality product.
The characteristics of a great application are constantly in flux, so don’t just turn to what’s at the top of the charts now and mimic them. Take pride in your app.
2. Have a freemium strategy.
Most of you developers seem to have already taken this advice to heart—for the free app part of the equation. According to Distimo’s August 2010 Report (app store analytics), Google Android Market has the largest share of free apps available at 60%, versus 29% for iPhone.
3. Get downloads; increase your user base.
Do your research: time your sales well; know when to go for a price cut, and more importantly, when not to; investigate the cause of a surge in interest in your app; react to trends; publicize your app across social media channels.
4. Convert free users to paid; generate revenue.
OPTIMIZE USER EXPERIENCE. We can’t stress this enough. You cannot do this without proper analytics. You need to know how the user is engaging with your apps, both free and paid, and where the user is dropping off. To get this level of information, you would need a user-centric funnel that spans from your free app to your paid app. Once you have this information, you can appropriately place a link in your free app to a paid version. You will then be able to track this link’s performance, and adjust placement accordingly.
The Angry Birds franchise is a great example. On iOS they sell their apps to customers for 69p each. But on Android their apps are free on the Play Store. The reason for this is that in some countries customers can’t buy Android apps, they can only download the free ones. Rovio, the devs behind Angry Birds, realised that. They also took into account that if they did sell the apps on the Play Store they would be pirated hugely. So instead on Android they implemented in-game ads. These ads run whenever you play the game. Also with them being there forever, Rovio keep making money every time a person opens an Angry Birds game. This has meant they make over $1 million a month from Android alone just from ads.
Sure there is a one a million chance of becoming as popular as Angry Birds but Android users don’t buy apps as much and like their free apps. So one of the best ways to monetize on Android is to use in-game ads.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSevlUA1CMA
