So our first iPhone app, iPopit! was not a flop – but we don’t really consider it a success either.
Although our company, LOLer Apps, met it’s original goal of being able to outsource an entire iPhone application and sell it in iTunes (which was definitely NOT easy), our sales haven’t been as good as we had hoped. To give you an idea, iPopit! has been on sale for about 50 days, and we’ve sold exactly 500 units, grossing us a total of $319.41 (after apple’s cut).
We did put out a free, “lite” version that has limited features and advertisements on it, hoping to get people excited about it and buy the full version. Surprisingly, over 23,000 people downloaded it, and we’ve grossed $446.48, just from the advertisements (from Admobs, which kind of works like Google Adsense for mobile applications).
It’s kind of sad to think that our little “lite” version has earned us more than our full version. But, we’ve grossed $765.89 in less than 2 months, which isn’t bad at all. We’re still in the red with this application, because we did spend about $3000.00 to outsource it’s development. We’re not giving up on the iPhone just yet…
Our Second Application is On Sale!
After many months of development (again, outsourced), our second application, Baby Maker, went on sale yesterday. This time, we were smarter and put it in a category where it would have maximum exposure: Photography. Here’s a short description of what the application can do:
Basically, you can combine two “parent” photos (taken with your iPhone or from a picture in your existing library), and it creates a baby!
(As you may or may not know, my wife and I just found out we’re expecting! Kind of ironic, huh?)
This isn’t your typical baby prediction tool like you see in the arcades where you take a photo with your partner in a booth and it spits out a random baby photo. This one actually combines the facial features of the parent faces! Of course, the results aren’t a real prediction of what the baby might look like, rather, it’s creates a hilarious combination of the parents’ facial features. Here are some examples straight from the app:
Yes, that last one is between two guys (you can create baby combinations with any two photos). And yes, that’s me in the upper left photo. The other guy is my business partner, Quoc. Good times.
So far, within 24 hours, we’ve already had a lot more exposure than we did with iPopit! Because we placed it in the Photography category, it’s still the #1 “newly released” app in that category. iPopit! was in the “newly released” part of entertainment for only 6 hours. Also, we noticed that Baby Maker has already crossed the top 100 top paid apps in the photography category too. Actually, right now it’s #61. We never cracked the top 100 with iPopit.
So, things are already looking up. Since it’s climbing the rankings, we know it’s selling. Furthermore, this application is priced 3 times higher than iPopit was (at $2.99). I’ll update you with the results in a week or so, but right now, it’s pretty exciting.
Will it make $100,000…who knows. We definitely won’t complain if it does…
Oh, and one last thing. Have you heard of that iPhone application, “Baby Shaker”? It was an app that was SOMEHOW approved by Apple a couple months ago that was seriously disturbing. You can read more about it here, but it was basically an application that showed a picture of a baby and produced the sound of a crying baby. In order to stop the baby from crying, you had to shake the iPhone, at which point two x’s would cover the eyes. Seriously disgusting. It got a lot of media attention and caused all this drama in the app store and with apple. The app has been taken down, but our slogan for “Baby Maker” plays off of this incident. What do you think?
“Don’t SHAKE Babies, MAKE Babies!”
Get “Baby Maker” for Free!
I’m giving away two copies of Baby Maker, priced at $2.99, to the first two people to leave a comment below who have an iPhone. Just let me know if you’re interersted and make sure you type your correct email address along with your comment. I’ll send you a promo code which you can use to d/l it for free.
You can also purchase “Baby Maker” by clicking the link below:
Thanks everyone!
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{ 15 comments (Click Here to Leave a Comment Below) }
It seems you are on the right way with your iphone apps. Maybe in the next months I will join the iphone community. It is very interesting to read about your iphone business.
Let me know if you plan to get involved, I’d be interested in following your story too. Cheers!
Pat, what type of advertising did you do to promote the popit app?
We tried some facebook advertisements, but that didn’t go over too well. We also did some promotion on app review sites, twitter, and on youtube, and even have a video contest going to promote it which isn’t going as viral as he had hoped
Glad to see your business growing. The first one paid version may have been beaten by its free version but you shouldn’t look at it that way. Focus on your bottom line. If you are making money from the free version then do more promotion for it to at least break even.
Now with the new app, I see you guys are more focus and its really looking up. Do some promotion on youtube or something to help boost the amount of downloads. Do whatever it takes to reach the #1 spot.
Well that is my view on things. Keep up the good work. Too bad I don’t have an iphone. I would totally have free with that app.
Nice comments Deneil. We might make a youtube commercial or two for this one (there are lots of possibilities here). We’ll definitely do what it takes. Thanks for your words of encouragement!
Nice app, I was curious what your second type of app was going to be. I like the concept and people can definitely have fun with it. It sounds like you have learned a lot from the first app to the second and already things are improving. I am interested in the free DL since i just finally got my first ever iphone. Not sure if I missed the chance yet or not. Let me know.
Nope, you’re the first one, so there’s one more promo code left. I’ll send it to you right now Craig. Thanks!
This actually has a chance of doing ok. No offense, but I could have told you the last one would have flopped… I guess it was a good learning experience. You should make a free version for this one too, but only allow them to make 3 free babies, u gotta pay if u wanna make more.
I’ll be staying tuned to see how it does. Best of luck!
hey Pat and Quoc….great blog and information….Im looking to develop an Iphone app pretty much the same way you did….I’d like to outsource the work but I have no idea where to start….are there companies that do this? …if so how do you ensure they won’t steal your idea for themselves….any information you could give me would be great..
…thanks
Hi Kenneth,
Thanks! Check out this post here:
http://www.lolerapps.com/so-you-have-an-iphone-app-idea-but-dont-know-how-to-program
It will tell you about Non-Disclosure Agreements and how to keep your idea safe.
Also, there are several companies that do this kind of work. You can find them on http://www.elance.com, or even doing a google search for iphone developers. There are other posts on the righthand side of the lolerapps site that will explain further.
Good luck!
I’m #2. I have an iPhone. (And I, too, have iPhone apps called Wait Watchers™…it’s not about weight loss, it’s about waiting less; get in touch with me and I’ll send you a promo code for one of mine.) My apps tell you the wait time for all the rides in a given theme park (Disney and Universal). My buddy, who helped motivate me to make this/these apps turned me onto your blog. I wish you much success.
brent
Not everything needs to be a homerun– base hits are good too.
My feeling is the baby app will outstrip the soda app because the soda app is a one-trick pony. The baby app can have multiple outcomes and endless combinations . . .
Hey Pat!
I’ve been following your blog for quite some time. Found you on eHow where I also was writing to earn some passive income. Congrats on your second iPhone app release! I have a couple pretty solid (I think) ideas for iPhone apps but have no idea where to start. Do you know of any companies that purchase ideas that have not been developed yet or how to develop the idea on a budget? Any insight would be appreciated.
Thanks, Melissa
Interesting read. With the App Store getting more crowded every day, I am wondering if you have any suggestions about marketing. In other words, how do you make sure that you get noticed?