I want to see success stories of B4a devs!

2013 has seen me travel to both Australia (July) and Canada (November) wrapping 3rd party libraries for a couple of clients.
Prior to 2013 i'd never even left the UK!

Profit has been good when work comes my way but there's been plenty of times when i've had no work for weeks at a time.
All in all i'm happy .

Martin.

Warwound, your graphic does look like a koala bear on acid

You got to go to Australia and Canada!!!

Leaping lizards!

Oh, I posted this in the wrong forum, please someone move it:
http://www.b4x.com/android/forum/threads/the-art-of-making-money.35266/

warwound said:

2013 has seen me travel to both Australia (July) and Canada (November) wrapping 3rd party libraries for a couple of clients.
Prior to 2013 i'd never even left the UK!

Profit has been good when work comes my way but there's been plenty of times when i've had no work for weeks at a time.
All in all i'm happy .

Martin.

Click to expand...

let me know when you are back in Canada and where maybe we can meet and drink a beer .... until we look like this ..

Putting an application on Google Play is a great way to showcase what you can create with Android (and B4A )
I created an automotive app that generated $25 a month.....then an automotive OEM saw it and gave me a contract job (1 1/2 years later, I am still working for them). They didn't send me to Australia....... sent me to Detroit. Oh well the pay is much better than $ 25 a month and I like being in the R&D division.

I know I posted somewhere else on the forum a while back, but thought I'd post an update here as to my progress to-date with apps developed with B4A. So, I have Yahtzee! Free, Yahtzee! Paid (99c), Yahtzee! Plus Free, Yahtzee! Plus Paid (99c) & BallBuster!

Yahtzee! Free is by far the best performer with almost 60,000 downloads since August 2013 - of which almost 34,000 are still installed (so over 50% retention rate). I am still seeing daily net increases of 500-700 installs, with it going to over 1,000 per day for a few days over Christmas (in fact on Christmas day, it was downloaded 1,992 times! - I guess a lot of people got Android devices from Santa...). This app is being played about 45,000 times per day & generating an average of about $30 per day in advertising revenue. Yahtzee! Paid has sold a little over 500 copies, while Yahtzee! Plus Free & Paid have around 3,500 & 60 installs respectively. BallBuster has been a bit slow to take off & has been downloaded about 1,200 times in a couple of months, with a retention rate of only about 30% - but it's a bit of a silly app.

So overall I'm pretty happy that an app I originally wrote about 15 years ago for Windows is now played by 30,000+ people & is making me close to $1,000 per month - although I must say that I have put considerable time into developing it & increasing functionality & playability since its initial release.

- Colin.

Great Job

in August 2013 was the first released?

very nice !!

ilan12041981 said:

Great Job

in August 2013 was the first released?

very nice !!

Click to expand...

Thanks! Yep - August 2013 for the Android version. I first wrote it for my wife & I to play on Windows back in about 1999.

- Colin.

I have published my first app on Play (Radioactive@Home Map) for long time ago... Now made above £4k for commercial app for my customer
(Job list, details, description, DRS and vehicle tracking based on Nexus 7 tablets for 42 crews around UK, everything remotely updated)

krzyszp said:

I have published my first app on Play (Radioactive@Home Map) for long time ago... Now made above £4k for commercial app for my customer
(Job list, details, description, DRS and vehicle tracking based on Nexus 7 tablets for 42 crews around UK, everything remotely updated)

Click to expand...

"SELL YOUR APPS"

Computersmith64 said:

I know I posted somewhere else on the forum a while back, but thought I'd post an update here as to my progress to-date with apps developed with B4A. So, I have Yahtzee! Free, Yahtzee! Paid (99c), Yahtzee! Plus Free, Yahtzee! Plus Paid (99c) & BallBuster!

Yahtzee! Free is by far the best performer with almost 60,000 downloads since August 2013 - of which almost 34,000 are still installed (so over 50% retention rate). I am still seeing daily net increases of 500-700 installs, with it going to over 1,000 per day for a few days over Christmas (in fact on Christmas day, it was downloaded 1,992 times! - I guess a lot of people got Android devices from Santa...). This app is being played about 45,000 times per day & generating an average of about $30 per day in advertising revenue. Yahtzee! Paid has sold a little over 500 copies, while Yahtzee! Plus Free & Paid have around 3,500 & 60 installs respectively. BallBuster has been a bit slow to take off & has been downloaded about 1,200 times in a couple of months, with a retention rate of only about 30% - but it's a bit of a silly app.

So overall I'm pretty happy that an app I originally wrote about 15 years ago for Windows is now played by 30,000+ people & is making me close to $1,000 per month - although I must say that I have put considerable time into developing it & increasing functionality & playability since its initial release.

- Colin.

Click to expand...

Hi.

Can I ask you two questions?

1) what kind of "advertising method" you used?
2) Have you used a method to check the number of installations of your apps (in addition to the data that Google provides to you)?

Thanks and compliments

LucaMs said:

Hi.

Can I ask you two questions?

1) what kind of "advertising method" you used?
2) Have you used a method to check the number of installations of your apps (in addition to the data that Google provides to you)?

Thanks and compliments

Click to expand...

1) I display a single interstitial ad at the end of each game. I was using only TapforTap until this week & am now alternating between TapforTap & Leadbolt - so I display one after one game & the other after the next. I intersperse that with a dialog box request to buy the paid version every 14 games & a request to rate it every 20 games.

2) I don't have any method for tracking installs & retention other than the Google Developer stats - so it's conceivable the numbers could be wrong. I do however know how many games are played per day because of the way I show ads - assuming of course that the numbers coming from TfT & LB are correct.

- Colin.

Many thanks, Colin

Hi guys
I just want to spare my 2cents,
first of all, thanks a lot Erel, I owe you so much that you might not even realize that your creation indeed made a difference in one person or more's life. It is indeed possible to made money in android if the strategy is right.

So far I had around 150 live wallpaper thanks to B4A LWP library, this feature indeed safe my financial life. The app are submitted in google play, samsung app store and other smaller market (but recently I only focused on the big two)

during 1 year and 7 month of my indie dev life, I roughly manage to earn around 20.000 - 25.000 USD which in a third country like mine (Indonesia) is considered a lot of money.

and up till now, I still manage to earn steady daily income from 50-70 USD per day and around 1500-2000 USD per month,
back in the day using only 1 ad network was still profitable, but after recently google play developer ads policy changed, many things has changed and this affect most major ad network, so that is why, considered using more than 1 ad network so that your earning didn't fluctuate a lot.

since B4a need java library wrapper and the nature of ads SDK that are so dynamic, I always stumble upon this issue since I'm not capable to code in Java, luckily there are a several people in basic4android community that are kindly enough to be willing to help making library for me either free or paid, I'm forever in debt for your help.

let me know if you had any question.
the conclusion is that making money in android is still possible even now with the saturated market, just never give up.

warmest regard
uswin
woodenboxlwp

Gives me pleasure to you (even in the rest of the world, earn $ 1500-2000 per month with an app is not bad ).

Indeed, I have a question, or rather two:

1) what kind of advertising and how you made it
2) 150 wallpaper in a single app? (i have seen)


(they seem 3 questions )

not bad... 1500$ - 2000$

i did last month "only" 420$ from my apps....

LucaMs said:

Gives me pleasure to you (even in the rest of the world, earn $ 1500-2000 per month with an app is not bad ).

Indeed, I have a question, or rather two:

1) what kind of advertising and how you made it
2) 150 wallpaper in a single app? (i have seen)


(they seem 3 questions )

Click to expand...

for now currently, i still loyal to using airpush and startapp and i try some network like mobilecore and widdit,

the strategy come to play, for any build on google play, never try to use any ppd and out of app ads, this will surely suspend and ban your account this is true story, only use in app ads only like interstitial and banner, and also make sure you didnt use exit ads in home button, this surely trigger system interference by google

as for other store you can combine with other more innovative ad network that having out of app ads.

my strategy is trying to spread across several ad network because if the ad network combination is right they will spread out nicely, lets say if 1 ad network give you 10dolar a day and you join 4 company, you already collect 40 bucks a day.

i really wish i can try all of the ad network but since they mostly dont have b4a wrapper yet, it will take more time to find some guy who are willing to help you.

Thank you very much for your explanation that... I did not understand , because I have never been interested in the free app, and then in banners and the rest .. I'll have to inform me.

Thanks again, congratulations and good luck

I'm not going to tell you a success story despite I'd like to (personally, all of my softwares have been failures, and this will probably be also the case of my current project combining card game, exploration and strategy), but a story that never ceases to make me wonder about the rules of the Android market. A priori, the Gaspard game had everything to be a hit in France. A well-known actor for the main character voice, many very positive reviews in the french newspapers and magazines, a high quality app made by professionals, excellent graphics and animations, entertaining and educational mini-games, translated in many languages... My kid loves this app, as probably all kids playing it, and adults can win tablets on the web site. It looks like the game could have a tremendous success... but it is a flop. Look at the number of paid downloads on the Play Store. The game was released in June 2013 and, at best, the company earned 9415 euros until now. You cannot pay an actor, hardware, premises, and a team of artists and developers with that (even a single artist and a single developer). Even if we wish them to have much more sold their version for iPhone and iPad, I think they have not earned the triple on this other market, which would be a minimum to pay all the bills, taxes and wages. In short, you can combine "recipes for success" and "wide support from the media" on the Android market without any guarantee. It's not an isolated case, just a very obvious one (when I was thinking about the price to set for My Playground I looked at many other apps and found easily a few other cases). Add to this the high numbers of cracked versions (I read, again, recently the report of a french developper saying that more than 80% of the players of his game use a cracked version) and the final picture is very depressing (not really for me as I don't earn my life on this market). Flappy Bird and number of crap** app (these games that I am able to write blindfolded, one hand in the back, a day where I have flu, in less than one day) with huge success remind us that luck and word-of-mouth are uncontrollable factors that can make all the difference. So my question is: are there rules on this market? Rules that we can play with.

I am sure that there are "rules", the trouble is I do not know them.

I am sure because otherwise I would not see a famous footballer advertise on television a free app

(Informatix, the actor in question is perhaps G.D.? Russian citizen for not paying taxes in France? )

For Android it has to either be Free or Freemium. There are some decent paid for Apps, but they need to offer a significant benefit over free or Freemium ones.

OBD Apps are a point in case for Paid For Apps, one of them is _very_ good and has sold a lot.

I think the rules are different for iOS. More are happy to pay for Apps and of course Freemium works well there as well.

Freemium would be the way to go, but the product must be good, really good and linked to either Facebook or similar so that it actively encourages you to compete against friends and beat their scores.

I still like the Free and Paid For model. Someone can try out the Free version, with advert support and if they really like it they can upgrade to the Paid For version. The only thing is I've only put out Free versions with advert support. This has generated a bit of money, but I would like it to generate more!