Indy 500: 4 years as indie (app) developerDIOGO CARDOSODIOGOCARDOSO89@GMAIL.COM@DVD_PT

• Indie App developer (ImaginationOverflow)

• Freelancer

• Game Developer (wannabe)

• Teacher (wannabe) at ISEL

@dvd_pthttp://blog.imaginationoverflow.com

Agenda• The process

• Technical aspect

• Marketing & Users

• Making Money

• The numbers

• Tips

The Process1. Idea

2. Research

3. Naming and Branding

4. Development

5. Testing

6. Release

7. jmp 4.

Inception

Research

Initial Marketing andBranding

AppDevelopment

BetaTesting

AppLaunch

Maintenance

FeatureEnhancements

BetaTesting

AppUpdate

The Process - Idea• A necessity

• Something cool

• Technical challenging

The Process - Research• Can it be done?

• Can it be built?

• Am I motivated?

• Are there enough users to justify building it?

• What is the competition?

• CAN IT MAKE MONEY?

The Process - Naming and Branding• Social presence, twitter, facebook, domain, etc

• Name, should be something related to its purpose• Should contain 1 search keyword

• Iconography• Consistent in all mediums• Visual appealing

The Process - Development• Design centric

• UI first, code after

• User experience > (code quality + feature count)

• Code is not importantTaken from http://goo.gl/h3p3X

The Process - Testing• Beta test program

• Offer your testers something

• Unit Tests

• Development Tests

The Process - Release• Choose the release date carefully

• Let the press (Blogs, sites, forums) test your app first

• Make soft launches

Technical aspect• Architecture

• Codebase

• Localisation

Technical aspect - Architecture

Technical aspect - Codebase• Make your app a set of Micro services

• Storage• Settings• Navigation• Error handling• etc

• Reuse as much code as possible

• DRY (Don’t repeat yourself)

Technical aspect - Localisation• Always support multiple languages

• No magic or explicit strings

Marketing and Users• Know the media

• Users

• Analytics

Marketing and Users – the media• Create a relationship with the media

• Know trend setters

• Press Kits

• Press releases

Marketing and Users – Users• Feedback Channels

• Store Review replies

• Media Comments

• Treat them like princesses

• Act quickly

Marketing and Users – Analytics (1)

• Track and get familiar with:• Retention• Churn rate• User Lifetime Value (LTV)• Average Revenue per user (ARPU)

• Vanity (Motivation) metrics:• Downloads• Sessions• Clicks

• Know the when, what and how.

Marketing and Users – Analytics (2)

Example:

How many users click on the Unlock Features and how many actually purchase something?

0.3%

Purchases By Events0.0003%

Purchases on View12%

Income +/- 507€

Marketing and Users – Analytics (3)Issue: Low click rate on the unlock features:Possible Causes:

◦ User don’t know it exists◦ User doesn’t need to acquire anything for it’s regular usage

Possible Solutions• Create a better call to action.• Use periodic popups• Add more premium features

Admitting1% clicks

Purchases on View12%

Income +/- 1576€

Making Money • Premium

• Freemium

• Ad Supported

• Subscription

Making Money – The choice• How many times will your users open the app everyday

• How long will the users stay on the app

• What kind of content are your giving your users

• What kind of feature set is your app going to have

• The platform that you are targeting.

Making Money – Our ChoicePremium + Freemium (Ads + In App Purchases)

Advantages◦ Two apps on the market, double the visibility◦ Three sources of income, Ads, IAPs, Direct Sales

Disadvantages◦ Store ranks divided◦ User confusion◦ Harder to manager

The numbers• Vanity

◦ Downloads◦ Sessions◦ Crashes◦ Interactions

• Earnings◦ Premium◦ In App Purchases◦ Ads

The numbers - Vanity> 7MDownloads

> 60MSessions

> 500kCrashes

> 23kEmail Replies

> 12kFacebook Messages

> 2kTweet Replies

> 7kUserVoice Votes

3Skype Calls

> 230kStore Reviews

> 200Reviews/Blog/Site Posts

7App Awards

1.5Persons

> 100kLines of code

Tips (1)• Deploy Early, update often

• Aim low

• Shotgun effect

• Take it as a business

• Keep the Motivation

• Expect nothing

• Have fun

• Learn one thing every day

• Work smart

Tips (2)• Users are people not € bills

• Let the users develop the app

• A submitted app is no longer yours

• Fix what’s wrong

• Brake what is right

• Make a work schedule

Questions