1. Tips: Make Money from Mobile Apps
Nikola Mihaylov, Senior SDET, Microsoft
Making enough from 1 app to live in a small studio somewhere in Texas

2. Disclaimer
The views expressed in this presentation are the views of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of Microsoft Corporation.

3. Fantasia Painter

4. Goal
By the end of this presentation you should know some tips that could increase your app revenue by 10-30% of more (4x for me)

5. Sell an idea first: get diehard fans
“A screen that can be anything” vs “tablet with 8GB RAM”
“Paint like a pro, even if newbie” vs “32 brushes and 100 effects”

6. Always Be Honest With Users
Actual valid responses:
“I won’t add feature XX ever, here’s why”
“I’m sorry, but I will not develop for Android” (a hard cut)
“It sucks when you can’t save a picture. I’m so sorry for the issue. Thank you so much for reporting it”
“I was thinking I could fix it, but I’m a slacker” vs “We’ll think about improving this in a future version of our app”
“I’m working on this as a hobby, and I don’t have time for 95% of feature requests. Yours is # 998 on the list”

7. Feature development: Question Everything
Do I need a save button?
NO: “please rate our app, you’ve used it for 2 days already!”
NO!! “Never show this option again” option
Would you like to read the above line again?
80% of time goes to usability testing:
Find a random person at home, the hallway, or the cinema
Give them the app, say “can you paint my pretty face?” (or another common task)
Observe and don’t talk! (100% of the time)
Don’t make faces

8. Admit failure fast ->
Even if you’re 99% done with a feature
If the ratings are low, it’s your fault
If someone is unhappy with your app, it’s your fault
An issue: Anything that didn’t match the user’s expectation

9. Fact: You compete with everything
Windows Phone
iPhone
Android TV
Kindle
Grocery shopping?
Sleep?
Human-to-human communication (“having a life”)?

10. Complementary wins over competitive
Designing apps on limited resources (time, budget, skills)
Large companies can outcode you, outperform you and outskill you
Win by having a unique core set of features that are hard to copy
Partnership
Agility

11. Paid vs Ad-free? Case Study
Free app: 4.5 times more money than paid
Free app: lower rating by 0.2 (out of 5 stars)
Free app: downloaded 10 times more
Raise of price from $2 to $6 dropped the rating by 1.5 stars

12. How did I market my app?
Speculation: most article writers (for money) are lazy?
(or they like free money)
Write a self-praising press release
Send it to as many phone sites as possible (top 30)

13. Summary Sell an idea Don’t take it personal
Be complementary and partnershiply

14. Suggestions for existing app owners
Listen to the next talk
Update your app store description, facebook page to sell an idea
Reply to all of your pending feedback s
Cut features that don’t add value to users
Ask 2 random people to try a task with the app

15. The End
Get my app here:
If you want 