Indie development Tips & Tricks
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Independent developers are increasingly influencing the app markets. Flappy Birds’ creator, Dong Nguyen, is the perfect example of an independent developer who generated more downloads than some big publishers. The lecture will focus on how to take care of all aspects of app development including Rapid development of android apps, Getting the users - how to get many users to download your app with no marketing budget, Making money of your app - We will go over the available monetization options and ways to maximise revenues and Analytics - learn how your users actually use your app.
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Indie development Tips & Tricks
- 1. Indie app developer – Tips & Tricks Nir Orpaz June 2014
- 2. About Me Nir Orpaz Head of Mobile @ Widdit nir@Widdit.com
- 3. Its an indie world
- 5. Its an indie world
- 6. What it takes to be an indie app developer?
- 7. Wear many hats Entrepreneur Developer Project Manager Designer CEO / CTO / COO VP of Revenue Etc…
- 8. Tip #1 Take the bus
- 9. Why? • Greener • Calmer • Gives you time to update! Update yourself with the latest technology
- 11. What kind of application you should create?
- 12. Tip #2 – Create apps that excite you
- 13. A Successful Indie Developer • Develop apps really fast • Effectively market them • Monetize well
- 15. Tip #3 - UI First Methodology • Design • Create UI - MVP • Test on people • See User’s reactions
- 16. Tip #4 - Do Not Re-invent The Wheel • Don’t use non standard & complex UI elements • Create your own infrastructure • Use existing code • Use open-source
- 17. Tip #5 - Bypass Problems • Avoid problems on product level • Avoid server side • If server needed – use existing services
- 18. Tip #6 - Release to Google Play now! • Release once you have a working something.. • Translate your app description • Get users’ reaction • Add / Remove features
- 19. Rapid development • UI first methodology • Do not invent the wheel – reuse your code • Bypass problems • Release to Google Play now! Not tomorrow, now!
- 20. Marketing
- 21. Tip #7 - Cross promote your apps • Use your existing crowd • It’s FREE!!
- 22. Tip #8 - Use “App SEO” • Appropriate application name • Package name • Add “Rate Us” button
- 23. Tip #9 – Manage Reviews • People remember negative reviews • React on reviews
- 24. Tip #10 - “Share” button • Encourage your users to share • Sharing should be clearly visible
- 25. Tip #11 - Create a website
- 26. Tip #12 - Google+ and Facebook Google+ Page Facebook Page
- 27. Tip #13 - External links and articles Cover by authority sites: • Pay them / Buy ads • You are an industry rock-star • You are interesting
- 28. Marketing • Cross promote your apps • Use “App SEO” and “Rate us” button • Manage reviews • “Share” button • Create a website • Use Google+ and Facebook • External links and articles
- 29. Monetization • Ads – Interstitials • Ads – Banners • Ads – Video • In-App purchase • Offer wall • Pay Per download • Freemium
- 30. Popular monetization models 50% 50% 41% 35% 27% 20% 0% 15% 30% 45% 60% Interstitials In-App purchases Banner Ads Video Ads Offer-Wall Pay Per Download
- 31. Developers Average Monthly Revenues Source: Mobile Games Monetization Report 32% 13% 13% 12% 10% 20% <$10K $10K - $19K $20K - $29K $30K - $49K $50K - $99K >$100K
- 32. Monetization vendors And many more…
- 33. Tip #14 - Analyze Your App • DAU / MAU • Registrations • Retention rate • Measure actions
- 34. Tip #15 – Personalize you apps
- 35. Tip #16 - Be cool & creative!
Editor's Notes
- Hello everyone. Thank you for joining me for this session on indie app developers. I’m going to share with you my knowledge about thins world.
- My name is Nir an I am the head of mobile at Widdit I’m a mobile developer for the past 12 In Widdit we create SDK for developers that help them monetize and personalize their apps Former startup CEO Skiller- Mobile social gaming platforms I have worked with many developers, some are indie devs. I also have a number of apps on google play
- If we will see here, many known app are developed by indie developers Flappy bird – korea - Dong Nguyen 2048 – Ilaty – Gabriele Cirulli – age 19 Don’t step on the white tile AI factory, Best cool fun games We can see a lot of information and most of it is not relevant You can see that 40% work alone
- And ofcourse the number of consumers keep growing This draws a lot of developers
- So, should you become an indie developer? In two word It depend. It depends on your skill set.
- So what it takes to be an indie app developer?
- You need to wear many hats. You need to be an entrepreneur, the developer, the project manager That is many hats. And as the entrepreneu you need to have updated information about the mobile industry. That leads us to tip #1
- If you currently work, take the bus
- Why? You will be greener, arrive to work calmer And it gives you great time to update on what is happening in the world of mobile I use twitter for that, but you can use any RSS reader Its essential that you update yourself with the latest technology information For example: google I/O is happening this month and you should watch news and information from there..
- I’m not only preaching I also do it myself That’s me in the bus…
- So what kind of application should you create?
- Whatever gets you excited. Because you are going to work on your application hard (most of the time) It is very important that you be passionate about the kind of application you create It dosent mean that you need to be passionate about the technology, if making money makes you look like this, that that ok too.
- So, in order to be a successful indie developer you should: Developer really fast – speed is your main advantage Effectively market your application Get some revenues to buy some groceries
- Rapid development is actually the most apparent advantage you have as a small developer. You can create apps in a few hour and release them to google play. The more efficient you will be the more chance you have to get more users.
- Start with the UI and the design. In mobile this is the most important part of the application. Keep it as simple as possible. Only after you have created and approved your design, you can start building the functionality.
- Regarding UI element, try to use only standard UI element. If you try to invent a custom UI element, it would take you: Need to design the element from scratch Much time Expose to bugs You can see the example of path that invented the UI element, and on the left you can see WhatsApp UI which includes only standard UI elements, and they are pretty successful. Regarding code, try to use previously created code if possible. And of course use libraries and open-source code to deal with complex functionality You probably not the first one to deal with your current problem
- If you encounter a problem, and you will, don’t try to break your head trying to solve it, bypass the problem. Avoid confrontation with your code. Major problem is usually the need of a server. Try to avoid it. If you need a server to do a certain task, use existing service and SDKs! If, for some reason you need to create your own server its not the end of the world Try to use: Choose your platform – node.js is a good example for simple platform Paas services like heroku
- When you have a working app, release it to google play. If you translate your app description to different languages, you can increase your download by about 30% Get users reaction. Add and remove features by looking at what users are using. Don’t forget to REMOVE features, which is hard.
- So, we have discussed about: UI first methodology Don’t invent the wheel Bypass any problems you might encounter Release quickly.
- Now lets talk bout marketing It’s very confusing subject for developer that likes to create stuff But it’s a very important subject
- If you already have users on other apps, use them. Cross promote your application. Which means, advertise your new apps on your old applications. This might bring you many users on day 1 which makes google rank you higher
- Try to use some “App SEO” techniques. Which means, chose your app name wisely. You have 30 characters for that in play store, Use them! Chose your package name wisely as well. And of course, add a “rate us” button. Google rates the application by the users reaction and what they write on their app review. This is an example of flappy bird..
- Bad reviews are not that good for you so you need to try to change bar into good reviews. You ca reply to those reviews and explain. For example I have a friend with a scary pranks application and one of the reviews was that is was very scary 1* My fried replied that it was the purpose of the app, and the user changed it to 5*
- In order to create a viral effect, make it easy on your users to share the app. Add a clearly visible share “button”.
- You need to get as many external linksas possible pointing to your app. One way is to create your own app. You can use services like wix and easily create website. In this example this developer has a gallery where he have all the link to his different apps.
- Open a facebook and Google+ pages. Google likes developers that has many google+ links to their apps, so try to do this right after to release your app. You don’t have to open a different page to every app you release but remember to maintain you pages and add cool things to them.
- And this is the holy grail of app marketing: articles. If you have a link to your app in an authority site, google will rank you higher. So there are 3 ways you can get an article about you in an important tech blog: Pay them or sponsor them You are Mark Zuckerberg You are interesting for them – the hardest.
- So, we have discussed about: How to cross promote your apps The need of a “Rate us” button and manage reviews Viral distribution and “share button” Get External links from your own website social network or articles.
- And now for the painful part, the monetization. It’s a numbers games. If you have about 500k MAU you can make more than $10k Different monetization options have different appearance and effect on your users. Try to experiment with as many as possible. Many successful developers actually about 3 monetization options in the applications. So the options are: Ads – Interstitials – all the screen Ads – Banners – part of the screen Ads – Video – all the screen for 15 sec In-App purchase – demands special app characteristics and adaptation Offer wall – many ads in one place Pay Per download – the oldest monetization option in mobile Freemium – free and then pay for some use, like WhatsApp.
- You can see that the most popular form of monetization is interstitial, in-app and banner ads. Something you don’t see here is that developers that makes a lot of money often use Video ads.
- And most interesting: how much money can you make? I think that even $15K is something that an independent developer can be proud of. It also very depending on the amount of users you have.
- There are many monetization vendors, try them and see which one works for you. Some work better in different countries.
- Knowledge is power You need to know what is happening with your app and most of the time the Publisher dashboard is not enough. Add flurry or google analytics Important KPI’s you need to follow: DAU / MAU Registrations Retention rate Measure actions that relates to your app. KPI – Key Performance Indicator
- We are different and we like different things. We react to different things differently. Try to use as much personalization as possible. Translate you application. Identify your users and try to adopt their
- Be creative, and try to innovate
- Thank you very much