5 Things You Must Know About Creating Your Own iPhone Apps
For the last couple of months (as pointed out in my latest income reports), I’ve been working vigorously on creating new iPhone apps. We currently have 4 available in iTunes, which has grossed us a total of $6798.64 during the first quarter of the year. We’re super stoked to have 8 more apps scheduled to be released in less than a month.
Over the past weekend, 3 of our new apps were completed by our developers and are ready to be submitted to Apple for approval. More apps = more potential passive income streams.
Sweet!
Since many of you (and I really do mean many!) have been emailing me and asking me for more info about creating iPhone apps, I’ll be writing more about my experience in individual blog posts, such as this one.
If you want to get into the iPhone (or iPad) app industry, here are 5 things you should know first:
1. You Don’t Have to Develop Your Own iPhone Applications
“I would love to make an iPhone app, but I don’t know how…”
This is a phrase I hear too many times, and I’m here to tell you straight up: you don’t need to know how to program.
I don’t.
All of the iPhone apps that I’m associated with were developed by other people. These are people who understand programming who can build apps better and faster than I ever could. I just supply the ideas.
There are thousands of companies and individuals out there who make a living by programming apps for other people. It’s still a little weird to me because if I were them, I’d make apps for myself instead. But, they exist – and I know a lot of people who are taking advantage of the opportunity.
For example, Jackie, an SPI reader over at MoneyCrush.com, hired a developer to create her own iPhone app, Pay Off Debt.
Recently, MJ Wolfe, another SPI reader over at ResidulsandRoyalties.com, is awaiting his first outsourced app to be approved (which was done for only $125).
Awesome!
Even if I knew how to program apps myself, I still think I would hire other people to do it for me anyways.
Why?
Because I can multiply my efforts and even get work done while I sleep. That’s exactly how I can have 8 apps on deck for the near future.
2. Any Type of App Can Be a Success Story
Every day, iTunes showcases the most downloaded and most profitable applications, and every day it surprises me.
Some of the top apps are actually useful, some are clever, funny, and some are just plain weird or stupid. But, it’s safe to assume that these apps that become the top downloaded apps are raking in some serious dough.
There is some luck involved, but there’s a lot of other factors involved too, which I’ll save for a later blog post.
3. Getting Your App Made and Approved is Only Half the Battle
The truth is: getting your app approved by Apple doesn’t mean you will make money or even get noticed at all. Developing an app is NOT a “magic button” for success or riches.
I hope you know by now that nothing really is.
Anyways after your app is approved, there is a bit of promotional work that needs to be done in order to give yourself a fighting chance to get noticed and gain some momentum. Also, because the iTunes store is actually a search engine, keywords are important to optimize as well.
How much additional work is needed?
It’s hard to say because sometimes a good app can market itself. Sometimes, all it takes is one person with a little bit of influence to start a huge wave of downloads for you.
4. It Takes Time To Create an iPhone App
The tough part about creating an app is that from the moment you have your idea to the moment your app is approved can take quite a long time, especially when you’re not developing the app yourself and all you’re doing is waiting for the people you’ve hired to get back to you.
One of my apps took over 2 months to get developed. Other apps (more recently), have taken just a couple of weeks.
Of course, it depends on exactly how complicated your app is too.
My advice: get started soon, but be patient.
5. Free Apps Are Profitable
The most surprising thing to me is how profitable FREE applications can be.
For example, we have two versions of one application:
Shake Shake Pop & Shake Shake Pop Lite
One is a “lite” version with only one level, and the other is the full version of the application.
Free applications get downloaded far more often than paid ones because, well, they are free. Because of this, it was our intention to “feed” people from our free version to the paid one, which is a marketing strategy that is used quite often in the app store.
As a trial, we put ads on our free version – just to see what would happen. Surprisingly enough, our FREE version running ads is far more profitable than our paid version. In fact, our paid one earns upwards of $10 a day, while the lite version consistently earns between $30-60 a day.
It’s crazy.
And the “cool” part is that the money coming in from free apps are more residual than the money coming from the paid apps.
Here’s why:
Apple takes 30% for each sale of a paid application. So, with a $0.99 application, you actually keep about $0.69 per sale. After you make the sale, that’s it (unless you have what’s called “in-app” purchases, which can earn you an additional income after the initial purchase, although Apple’s cut still applies).
With free apps that run advertisements, the download is free, but anytime anyone clicks on an ad, you get paid (just like Google Adsense). This means that you have more opportunities to earn money from each download. People can click the ads on day 1, day 2, day 60, etc.
Of course, the advertising companies take their share as well, and ads running on your application do annoy some people, but they can be very profitable.
As you can see in a screenshot on this “How to Create iPhone Apps (With No Programming Experience)” eBook sales page by Free the Apps! (a well-known iPhone app developer team who also outsources their apps), they made a whopping $56,366.69 in Advertising Revenue from Free Apps in ONE MONTH.
Yes – one month.
I had the pleasure of reading through their eBook myself and I’ll definitely be adding it to my resource page, because it’s probably the most extensive guide to outsourcing your iPhone app that you can find anywhere. I even felt the need to leave a nice comment for their sales page as they begin to launch their new eBook too.
(Disclaimer: I was not paid to write about “Free the Apps!” or their eBook, however the link above and on my resource page is an affiliate link for their product.)
Final Thoughts
Am I making enough money from my apps to live off of?
Not yet, but I’m slowly getting there. And who knows, maybe one of the new apps that we’re making hits the top of the charts and we make it big. I’m sure you’ll hear from me if that ever happens!
Overall, it’s been a great learning experience and seriously a lot of fun. If you have any specific questions about iPhone apps that I can possibly answer for you in the comment section, or in a later blog post, please feel free to ask. I’ll do my best to respond.
Cheers!
Posted on : April 12th, 2010
Related posts:
- On Deck Money Making Ideas Part 2 – iPhone Apps
- Our Second iPhone Application Went on Sale Today!
- All Systems Go – Our iPhone App is Finally on Sale
- Our iPhone Projects Unveiled
- iPhone Application Development – Costs and Thoughts
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111 Comments (Click Here to Leave a Comment Below)
As a freelance graphic designer I was looking to graphically design an app and out source to a developer to actually build the app. Are their any good developers/development teams you can recommend ?
There are a number of teams on Elance that are actually very qualified. I’ve worked with about 5, and most have done superb, quality work for me. I recommend checking out elance.com, typing in iPhone applications, and then sifting through some of the providers and reading their feedbacks and reviews
Thanks Pat I will defiently be checking elance out … I look forward to reading more about your app progression and look forward to seeing them do well !
Hi Pat, thanks for sharing as usual. I love the fact this is a totally different form of income compared to your other affiliate and ebook channels – it’s a really varied portfolio (if that’s the right word) so hopefully you’ll be protected if one dries up unexpectedly.
Do you provide the developers with a UI? Or do you outsource the design too?
Do you promote the apps elsewhere, or just leave it to chance that iPhone users will find your apps via the store?
David – diversity is key, and I think iPhone apps are a great channel to work with. I’m hoping none of my current income streams dry up, but I’ll be safe if they do.
To answer your questions, sometimes I give them a UI if I want an app to look a very specific way (and I outsource that as well most of the time), and other times I just leave it up to them to create the UI for me. They do need some kind of guidance though.
Lastly, we do promote on iPhone app review sites as well, which has been hit or miss really.
Well put together, Pat. I was always skeptical about the approval process
. It would be a shame to spend money to develop an app and not get it approved but looks like you have had no issues with that.
It does happen, so one must realize that there are a few things once can do to minimize the chance of being rejected. Even if your app is rejected, Apple will work with you to get it approved. In fact, a couple of our apps have been rejected a couple of times, but after a few minor changes (which the developers are usually willing to do, because they want your app to be approved too), they were approved!
That’s awesome Pat! I have a few app ideas and I’m definitely going to look into developers. Are you going to get into iPad apps? I’m interested on hearing your thought about that.
I was thinking about it, but the market is still new so I’m trying to choose my battles carefully. Developers are charging a bit more for the iPad right now just because of the buzz behind it, so I may get into that later. Definitely not out of the picture though!
It’s not just because it’s new. The iPad is more of a cross between a phone and a laptop than anything else. So apps on the iPad can do more than iPhone apps, and therefore require more work. More work means developers need to charge more for their product.
Thanks for this Pat! It’s because of you I created my first iPhone app, which was released a week ago. (I sent you a redeem code through your contact form.) I appreciate all the info you’ve been providing with the App business.
You should list your app so we can take a look!
Hey Jewelry Secrets (if that is your real name, hehe),
I didn’t want to link to the App because I don’t want to use Pat’s blog to promote my stuff. That said, if you click the link to my Web site it goes to the App description page.
Thanks!
Karol
Karol – thanks, I appreciate you looking out for what get’s posted on my blog, however – feel free to reply with a link. I think it’s relevant enough to the topic, and may provide some inspiration for people. So…you have my permission! Hehe. Thanks!
I did get that email, thank you Karol, and congrats on your first app! I’ll leave you a review once I get it downloaded. Thank you! Cheers!
Thanks Pat, I appreciate that!
The App is called iHeadlines – Instant Blog Headline Generator and more info is here: http://www.ridiculouslyextraordinary.com/iheadlines/
(my server is currently being hit hard by StumbleUpon traffic so it might take a bit for the page to load, sorry!)
I guess that’s good news through, right?
Awesome app – I love the idea, and it’s perfect for us bloggers! Thanks again!
hehe, yeah, it’s always fun when a post goes viral even if the visitors don’t stick around.
Thanks again Pat. And like I stated in the e-mail, I’m writing up a “how I created my first iPhone app” post and I’m linking you prominently.
Fantastic information. Looking forward to learning lots more about iphone app development here as it is something I am keen to get into though there isn’t too much information available.
Thanks Richard, hopefully I can provide you with some helpful info!
I have one comment, though, with respect to bugs and updates. Being an iPhone dev myself, it is vital to be able to push updates as soon as (major) bugs are discovered (by yourself or your customers). Your customers will definitely let you know when something’s wrong with your app (especially when it’s a paid app). In order to respond to these bug reports, you’ll have to rely on the devs you hired as they will be the ones solving the problems and pushing the updates. The question then arises how passive this kind of income is. As Pat said, much depends on the complexity of the app. It is possible to ship a product that is bug free, but with more complex apps this is (virtually) impossible.
It is also important to keep your app ‘alive’. As with many passive income streams, they tend to have a peak or plateau and then slowly die. By keeping your app up to date and adding features over time, you keep the app alive and your users interested, which means a significant extension of the lifespan of your app (and your investment).
Personally, I wouldn’t take the route of hiring a dev to develop apps (no matter what platform) … probably because I’m too much of a control freak
. Besides, iPhone development is awesome and it has an amazing community. Maybe some of you should give it a try 
.
It is interesting to read about app development from an investor’s point of view, Pat. Well done and I wish you all the best of luck with your upcoming apps.
Great tips, Bart. Every point you made is totally true.
In regards to bugs, some developers allow you to contact them after your app is finished after a certain amount of days to have any bugs fixed. Some 30 days, some even 60 days I’ve seen, which is great. The trick is to do everything possible with your app before the end of that time so you’ll know what to fix. If you can, obviously fix all of the bugs before your app goes live. Hehe.
Thanks for your comments Bart, and I wish you the best of luck as well. Do you have a link to your company’s apps on iTunes? I’d love to have a look!
Thanks for the insights into getting an app developed.
I’m curious to know who submits the app to the iTunes store. Do I need to create my own developer account to upload from, in order to have complete control of the app even if I didn’t develop it?
Thanks for your help
Hey Kelly – no matter what, you’ll have to have your own developer account to upload from, even if you didn’t develop it. Some developers, however, are willing to go into your account to upload the app for you, since the process is a bit cumbersome at times.
iPhone app development seems like a great passive income stream. Great tips and resource. I may just check that out! Thanks!
You’re welcome Susan! Let me know if you ever have any questions!
Thanks for the mention Pat! (But you spelled my site wrong – it’s residualsandroyalties.com) It was you who motivated me to make my first app and if this one goes well, I already have a second app planned. If possible, it is also a good idea to get a Google Andriod version made of your app, since there is much less competition on the Android app market. My app should be going live on the Android market today. Best of luck with your apps!
Doh – sorry about that. I made the changes in the post. At least the hyperlink was correct, hehe.
Anyways, I don’t know much about the Android market yet, so I may be contacting you for some help with that. Second app, already? That’s awesome! Keep up the great work, and I look forward to reading more about your projects soon!
As an iPhone-only developer who’s looking into Android, I’d be curious to know how your Android app fares compared to your iPhone app.
Hi Pat! I completely agree with you regarding the importance of outsourcing the developement of an application. Each project needs a part of development, a part of control, communication etc. to be realized. Thinking of managing all these aspects at best is very difficult. One of the things I learned in these years is to focus on their core competencies and skills. “If you are not able to do something, you better make the professionals do it”, people who studied and is 100% focused on the development of a technology. Reaching a professional level in application development requires much time and time is money (something that often is not considered). I always think of how much time (and therefore money) I can save outsourcing to a professional freelancer, while I lay the ground to launch the application, the website or the new product I have commissioned.This is what I’ve learned and I’m putting into practice. Hope it can be helpful!
Great words of wisdom, Alex! I think you’ve got the perfect mindset for something something like outsourcing applications. Good luck with everything!
Thanks for the info. I was alerted to Free the Apps from another friend of mine. Perhaps this is a sign that I should have a look at it and consider coming up with some app concepts.
Based on what I know about you and your creativity, I’m sure you could come up with some great app concepts.
Pat, good stuff! I’m definitely interested in this arena and look forward to it, but I have a few other fish to fry first
That’s amazing that someone made that kind of serious cash in one month, that’s some peoples’ entire salary for a year!
They’re a team of two people, but still. 60k split two ways is 30k each in one month. Crazy!
Thank you Pat. You have given me some great advice here. Things I’ve been really pondering about my own app, and that’s the difference between free and paid. I am so happy you as so open about these things and talk about them and how much they make. Your transparency is wonderful. Now I’m off to revamp my app…
Thanks again! I now feel like I can do this thing.
I’m looking forward to seeing what you come up with! Good luck!!!!
By the way Pat, I tried to retweet this and an error pops up saying “Failed to resolve the URL in the tweet”
Hmm, that’s weird. Is it still giving you that error?
I just tried it again, and now it went through!
Oh technology…how I love and hate you. (But mostly love). lol
Hey Pat, thanks for mentioning my site and app
I’m definitely going to have to check out the free/lite idea, especially now that the app store is becoming still more competitive. Marketing is where my focus is at right now though. What sort of marketing do you do for your apps? I’m trying out a contest right now.
In addition to having Pay Off Debt developed for Apple products, I had a version of it made for Android. I was curious how it would perform there, and so far it’s doing much better on Apple.
No problem Jackie!
Did the same developer create an android app version for you, or did you have to go to somebody else? I heard the language was totally different, so you might have to end up paying the same you would for another iPhone app. Right now, I’d rather stay in the iPhone market, however I’m sure the android market will so blow up. We’ll see I guess!
It was the same development company, although I worked with a different developer within that company.
Android app are built using Java, generally, and Google’s Android SDK framework. iPhone apps are built using Objective C and Apple’s Cocoa framework. They are very different. I’m an iPhone developer currently learning Android a tiny bit, and what I’ve seen so far isn’t very pretty!
great info…will really need to dig into apps and stuff.its a great way to earn residual income…thanks for sharing…
No problem, Mk Akan! Anytime!
Great post! I think everybody is looking for additional income streams and this is an amazing analysis. Thank you!
Thanks PA. Hopefully I can continue to provide useful information about iPhone apps in the future for everyone. Cheers!
I definitely want to get into the iPhone app game. I’m wondering if I need a partner or not. Do you have a partner that you work with Pat?
Hey Jay! Exciting stuff!
You don’t NEED a partner, but I do have one. We split the costs and the jobs we do, which has helped quite a bit. I do know a lot of indy developers who are one man teams, who are just blowing it up! (in a good way, hehe)
Great info, as always. I appreciate giving all of us a peak behind the curtain.
Keep it up.
No problem Ryan – thanks for the comment!
Great information Pat – two questions:
1. Do you use any sort of NDA or contact with your developers to protect your idea or keep them from stealing it?
2. Have you noticed any particular type of app being more popular than others?
Jeff
Hey InfoGuy -
1. Yes – we usually use an NDA “just in case”, but these companies make apps for a living, so it would be detrimental for their business to steal an idea.
2. It’s hard to say, because Apple does a great job of categorizing the apps, and within each category there are different kinds of apps that are popular. And it seems like they come in waves. Once one type becomes popular, other similar apps rise up the charts too. Then another one comes along, and it starts all over again.
Is the NDA that you are using generic or is it one that you have a lawyer put together for each app you want developed? Any other thoughts on this would be helpful.
Games are by far the most popular. Over half the revenue in the App Store is from games, IIRC.
Great share, thanks alot for this post Pat!
And by the way, wonder why nobody told you yet, BUT your “SPHINN-IT”-Link is missleading. You should check upon that!
regards,
Pete from Impress-Girls.com
Ahh – I can’t believe this is the first time someone pointed that out. Thanks Pete! I’ll look into that right away.
Cheers!
You are very welcome!
Looking forward to read your next article!
regards,
pete
Pat,
Great post! I’m still trying to figure out my true passion, but keep dreaming about the apps world. It’s time to take the plunge! Question on marketing the app. You mentioned IPhone app review sites, but have you done any marketing with the app as you would with an affiliate product? Ie: Article, Videos, etc….
It’s tough, because things like Article marketing and videos probably work, but you can’t really tell by how much. You can track clicks over to your iTunes page for each app, but you can’t tell exactly how many of those people actually buy or download your app.
We’ve also tried Social Media, which seems to help create a little bit of buzz too.
Hi Pat,
Great post. Your first point is the idea behind our service NewAppIdea.com (https://www.newappidea.com). NewAppIdea.com is a community where people with creative new app ideas but no programming skills meet and hire expert app developers and programmers.
After reading article-upon-article about people turning their app ideas into app store success stories, we became frustrated with our inability to find a qualified developer to turn our own app idea into a reality. We also sensed that we were not the only people out there with great ideas and searching for app developers. From that experience NewAppIdea.com was born.
App Idea People simply post their app ideas, App Developers submit quotes and compete for the opportunity to develop those ideas, and users can pick and choose which App Developer they want to hire to create their apps.
The NewAppIdea.com Team
New App Idea | App Idea Development
(follow us on Twitter @ newappidea)
Alan,
There was a typo on the link you posted, it picked up the parentheses.
https://www.newappidea.com/
If you wonder why your programmers aren’t just churning out the apps themselves, its probably one or more of these reaons:
- lack of idea. Coming up with good, viable app ideas is not a skill everyone has.
- lack of entreprenuerial spirit. Not a bad things, some people like just doing one thing well and not trying to be the next big success story.
- lack of scalability. When you factor in everything else about creating and selling apps other than the actual coding part (eg research, marketing, customer service) creating 20-30 apps of your own as a coder would probably become burdensome.
Great post as usual Pat. Gets the old mind gears turning
Thanks for the insight, Paul. I think you’re absolutely right. Maybe a partnership between a developer and an “idea person” would be the perfect combo.
I know a lot of people don’t want to believe this, but another reason us iPhone developers don’t churn out apps ourselves is because many, if not most, apps on the app store don’t make money. You hear a lot about all the successful apps because they’re awesome stories to hear. But nobody writes stories about the thousands of apps that haven’t made back the time and/or money invested in them.
This is really a great idea! You may not be earning much from it yet but in time you will. I’m so sure of that!
I’m pretty happy with our earnings from our iPhone apps so far. I mean, a lot of people struggle to make that much in a much, so we’re really happy and feel very lucky to have found as much success as we have – although obviously it’s not CRAZY amounts of money, yet. We’ll see though! Just gotta keep working at it!
Hey Pat,
It’s going to be interesting to see how the free versus paid apps change now that Apple is getting into advertising too. My opinion, I think they noticed all this revenue “leaking” out of the app store and are looking to cash in (and hopefully, also make it more profitable for developers)
Not sure how things will go for 3rd party ad providers though
Yeah – I think you’re right. We’ll see how well the iAds thing works out for developers too, although they’ll probably have a lot more options, and the ads will look a lot better. We’ll see!
I see it’s been mentioned before a couple times, but I would echo that it’s worth porting the apps to Android. It is a much smaller market and there aren’t 385,000 paid apps to compete with like there are in the App store.
Chris – you’re number is a little skewed. There are about 180,000 TOTAL apps (paid and free), right now. But obviously that number is climbing, and I wouldn’t be suprised if they didn’t reach 385k by the end of the year.
That’s not the point though, and I think you’re right. The android market is still relatively small, however it might take twice the amount of money to invest in developers (if you are outsourcing your work), because it’s a totally different platform, and developers have to start almost from scratch with them.
It all depends on both the product and the marketing. I’ve heard of some Android success stories, but most often I hear about how poorly an Android app fared compared to its iPhone counterpart. Now that the Motorola Droid is making such a big splash, however, that may change.
I think when you’re developing iPhone apps, it is always good to try it with VoiceOver. This ensures that people who use this assistive technology would be able to fully enjoy the application you’re selling.
Thanks for the insight, Julius!
Really enjoyed this one Pat, had to comment. I’ve been putting together some business plans to get into the app business and this is a great starter resource. I do have a question though. Is it more difficult to create and distribute an app depending on its type? For instance, would a video game app be more expensive to outsource and sell in the market place, and have you guys ever tried creating and selling any?
Hey Ron, thanks for the comment. We haven’t done video games, because 1) it’s SUPER competitive. Not only do you have the indy developers like me in the market, but you have the big names like Electronic Arts, for example, who are always on the leaderboards. If you were to outsource a video game type app, especially one involving a lot of animation, etc., I would imagine it would be rather expensive. Definitely about $10k based on my experience.
Hey there Pat, I love all your information on your site and really feel like you have gave me alot of insight on things.
I am wanting to create an i phone app.,and I have had ideas for 2 differents ones in my head for quiet some time,but you stated on your blog,I TOO thought you had to know programming .I have looked through e-lance.com, I found someone to do this for me, but I am not sure as a newbie how much $ is a good amount for doing this, and how much is too high?
Also, one it is created…then what? Would you just contact apple and let them know you have an exciting new app.
Thanks so much and will be looking forward to any advice you have to share with myself and other readers:)
There’s no fixed fee for an app because every app is different. I’d take a look at eLance and see what kind of projects are going for how much to get an idea. You should be able to judge from your app’s complexity how much an app on eLance would cost you. Note: I have no experience actually USING eLance. I happen to think that the developers there are selling themselves short.
The creator of “Vision Board” and “Gratitude Journal”, who is not a software developer, had someone else develop those small apps for her. She discusses exactly how to do it in here eBook: http://iphoneappsecrets.com/
I agree with Henning, the app cost really depends on what kind of app you want to get made. I’ve had bids on projects for only $500, and others for above $6,000. You’ll have to compare and contrast with other developers, and make sure you look at their portfolio and feedback as well.
Also, since you’re a newbie, I’d recommend either picking up the book I mentioned, or having your developer walk you through the submittal process. There’s a very specific method thatyou have to go through in order to get your app approved, which is far too long to explain in a post. There’s essential a program you have to sign up for ($99), which gets you a developers license and then access to an iTunes Connect account. From there, you submit your app, and they review it and approve or deny it. There’s more to it than that, but that’s the jist of it.
Hope that helps, and best of luck to you on your project!
Thanks so much for the above information. What is a good price to pay someone to design an app for you? As a newbie going into this I hate to be over charged..
It really depends on the type of app you want to build and how complicated it is. I’ve spent anywhere between $500 and $4000 for an application. If you place a bid on Elance.com, you’ll get a wide range of prices so you’ll know kind of what the average price would be, and can make sure you’re not being overpriced by one particular company.
There’s a difference between designing and app and building the app. The design encompasses the look and the interaction. Often developers taking a design from their client and build the actual iPhone app from the design. It makes the developer’s job much easier when you know exactly what you want in an app, and communicate it effectively. Other times, the design is left up to the developer. In which case, the developer will go back to the client with design proposals that the client will choose from and/or change.
Hey guys thanks for the reply back
I have been brainstorming and have several creative ideas so we will see what becomes of it. I would love to become as successful as Pat ,and some others of you, on making passive income.
I have worked from home the past 3 years, but alot of it is small wages…and I just want more out of working from home
Thanks again for the replies and I will be reading others q and a’s on your site as well.
What you thought of an iPhone app but it’s already been developed. Or there are several of them out there. Do you recommend developing it and being the competition or try to find an app that’s never been done?
That’s a tough question, L. I would approach it like anything else, if you think you can join the market for that type of app, and do it better, than you may have a profitable product. We just released an Anti-Theft Alarm System app, and it definitely wasn’t the first one (I think there’s at least 10 of them), but we’ve still seen good success with it.
As usual with your posts, my brain juices are a-churning. Now I’m thinking about putting together some iPhone app ideas I have bouncing around in my head and seeing what comes out of it. The more income streams, the better.
Thanks for the great post, Pat. Cheers!
Wesley Craig Green
No problem Wesley! Thanks!
I am going to take the plunge and have an app developed.
A question on process – do you engage and have the designers do 100% of their work before the developers even start programming? That would be my guess, but please let me know what your experience has been.
Hey Jared – awesome! Good luck with it!
Usually, it’s better to have the designed done before hand, or at least a major part of it, so that when your developers are ready to add in a design, it’s ready to go. What usually happens is the developers will create a skeleton or very watered down, basic version of the app, and then add in the graphics on top of that afterwards. So, you’ll probably have time if you hire both at the same time, but like I said if you can you should try and get the designs done beforehand.
Two more questions – and I appreciate all the help
1 – I am struggling with finding the balance between keeping the app simple with a core idea, and designing in every possible permutation and use of the the core idea. Any thoughts?
2 – Do i need to decide whether to include space for advertising before the app is developed? In other words, is the advertising something that is developed in to the app or somehow added by AdSense? I have not made up my mind on whether to charge for the app or give it free an rely on advertising.
Thanks again for all your help.
Jared:
1 – I would go with enough functionality to make the app useful and sellable. Then you can add more functionality later. It’s actually good to update the app, because it makes the app more visible in the store.
2 – Ads are something that are built into the app. Depending on how the app is designed, it might be relatively easy or pretty hard to retrofit with ads. It’s a good idea to keep ads in mind right from the beginning, even if they’re not used.
Yep, Henning answered your questions perfectly. However, the more complicated you get with the app, the more money you’re going to spend.
Lastly, regarding your second question, you might want to think about developing both. We’ve submitted a number of apps that have both an ad version for free, or a paid one without ads, and you can make money on both.
[...] you read my post entitled 5 Things You Must Know About Creating Your Own iPhone Apps, you would know that if you want to have a successful iPhone app, one that can hopefully make you [...]
I’m definitely going to have an app developed. I was thinking to do it myself as there are some techniques and programs that you can actually use simple web development languages and wrap it in this X code environment (somehow). The program is called phonegap. Although I think working with pro developers will give more freedom for the creative mind. I’m wandering how much an iphone app dev could cost. Probably it depends a lot on complexity and features but 150 bucks sounds like a great investment.
Thank you for this post Pat. This was the first time I read your blog and it’s really great. 
Hi Szabi – I think $150 is a bit low as far as how much it would take to get an app developed. The cheapest app we’ve done was $500, and our most expensive was $4000. Who knows though, you might get lucky and find a willing developer to do it for you for cheap. Good luck with everything!
Hey Pat,
I think 500 is also very reasonable or even more. I think it also depends on the app. There are some solutions where you can build an app even with simple XHTML etc. I wrote a post backin April about this: http://yourdesignblog.co.uk/technology/develop-your-own-iphone-app/2010/
Maybe dividing the whole process and trying to outsource parts of it and do some on your own can save you a decent amount of money. Anyway I already have some ideas and definitely going to give a try to the iphone app development. Thanks for all the useful info guys you share here.
This may be a question that was already asked (I didn’t read through all 89 comments) but how do you come up with the ideas for your apps?
Actually, no one has asked that question yet. The ideas just come from random things that happen throughout the day. No special techniques, just brainstorming and trying to be creative! Thanks Jonathan!
Actually I think this is a question which can be very important. Because iPhone is just engage users in so many different ways than the “regular” PC-laptop-handheld button pushing old-fashioned gadget do. If you look at it from usability point of view, you have to consider many other factors than usually. Of course it also depends on what type of application you are going to develop. A useful one with some lifesaving features or an entertaining game? Great question Jonathan. I think I’m going to write a post based on this.
[...] Well neither does Brian and neither does Pat Flynn but he is making a steady passive income from 7 iPhone apps in the iTunes store. You need to stop thinking of yourself as the worker in your business and more [...]
[...] that you really can make money online! Huge money! And as Pat Flynn have written in his post about making iPhone apps you don’t even need to be a web or software developer. You may outsource everything to a [...]
[...] experience that document how he earns an income online or teach lessons based on experience like how to earn money creating iPhone apps, for [...]
Pat-
You inspired me to create my create my first iPhone app. This app was more of a test just to see how the process works. After 2 weeks it was approved and is now in the App Store. I run a local beer blog in Austin, TX and pulled in various feeds from our content to the app.
I didn’t hire anyone for this one but have several ideas I have started working out on paper for a revenue generating app in the future.
Thanks for the great and inspiring post. I have made a few Google widgets, but I really want to get into apps. This post will be my starting point.
I got here on Stumble but I will definitely be back!
Oh sweet Brian – I think since you have experience with Apps already (albeit Google apps), you’ll have that much of a head start. Good luck, and hope to see you hear again soon. Cheers!
Hi, I am trying to learn about business apps, There are large companies that have their business apps on Iphones, how are they doing that? Like our local hospitals have an ap that shows E/R wait times, I would like one for my business for marketing purposes. I know those are different than going through the ap store, just not sure the process, thanks!!
[...] Syndication of a single iPhone app to just 100,000 phones at a $.99 cents a piece can be sweet. Pat Flynn from Smart Passive Income also creates iPhone apps as well as Dragos Roua who is a personal development blogger: An iPhone App in 30 Days-The [...]
Pat,
I love your site! It’s very inspirational and motivating.
I wanted to ask you what type of entity did you form for the app dev company and why? Also besides the cost to develop the app, what other set up costs did you have?
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
There are some existing resources on how to develop iPhone or iPad apps yourself. You don`t need programming experiences, just build upon the provided example source code, comments and guide.
Give the following page a chance to show you how…
http://www.iphoneappsmoney.com