While my app downloads and sales are chugging along nicely now, I started out in a boat that many Android developers are likely in: perpetual development˳ I had been working on my grand idea for months but still wasn’t ready to release˳ What did I do to get on the market? I started a second app˳ Three days later I had an app on the market and was amazed at the number of downloads˳ Some things I’ve learned along the way:
- Getting onto the market quickly is good
- Google’s Developer Console has great tools that you should use˳
- You need to have your apps in the right app markets to maximize your exposure
- People are willing to pay for apps˳
- Have multiple streams of income, rather than waiting on one vendor˳
Why do I suggest getting to market early? No, it’s not to “beat the competition”˳ There may be a dozen apps doing something similar to yours but you can still carve out a good space for yourself˳ I suggest getting to market quickly because having a real app visible to the world can be a great motivator to keep you going˳ Releasing my first app helped kick me into high gear˳
The tools in Google’s Developer Console can greatly help you decide what to do next˳ I didn’t know that the version of my app specifically made for Android 1˳5 was actually being used mostly on Android 2˳x devices˳ Hmm, maybe Android 1˳5 isn’t worth as much effort as I thought˳ In addition, I’ve found several rare bugs due to crash reports in the Developer Console˳
At first, my app was just in the main Android Market˳ I didn’t realize how much exposure I was missing until I started looking into other Android app markets˳ I branched out, and now about half of my income comes from sources outside of the main Android Market˳ Some app stores have brought in a lot of downloads and income, and others were a complete waste of time˳ However, the valuable ones have been really worth it˳
I found that people are indeed willing to pay money for a premium app˳ I waited just two weeks after releasing my free app to get a paid version out, and I immediately saw sales˳ I think even just having an ad-free version would generate a healthy amount of sales˳
As an added benefit, the payment from paid app sales came to me long before my first payment for ad revenue˳ For that reason, I recommend having several streams of income˳ All ad vendors take a while to pay up, but some take longer than others˳ I like Admob and MobFox for getting your income quickly˳ By having both paid app sales as well as more than one ad vendor, you can help create a more regular flow of income˳
How do you share ad time between two different vendors? MobFox has a feature called eCPMControl which ensures that if they don’t have high-paying ads that the ad traffic goes to Admob (through their other feature, “backfill”)˳
What would I do if I was starting over again? I would release my first app sooner˳ I would set my ads up from the beginning to go to MobFox, using their backfill feature to send unfilled ad requests to Admob˳ After that I would do things just as I did, creating an ad-free premium version and releasing to several different Android app markets˳
Then sit back and enjoy earning revenue from your Android apps!
Source by https://ezinearticles˳com/?What-I-Have-Learned-About-Developing-and-Earning-From-Android-Apps&id=6397775
