How we didn't earn a million on an iPhone app.

This article is about the most important mistakes of the four backend developers who decided to make money on the iPhone application without having any experience in the development of mobile applications and even more so their promotion.

It all started with the fact that just over a year ago we got together and decided to write a small but useful application. Small, because there was no experience, but I did not want to delay the release for an indefinite period. Useful, so that each of us would like to use it. We decided to work on the application in our free time. As a result of long disputes, we had an idea that suited everyone.

Mistake # 1 - Idea

Without bothering to conduct a thorough analysis of the market, we decided to write an application for making a shopping list. A distinctive feature was to be smart sorting with the ability to quickly make a list and beautiful design. But as it turned out, this was not enough to conquer the market, which was already so full of similar applications.
')
Conclusion: the next time, first a very serious analysis of the market, then a search for people ready to buy an idea, and only then a product.

Simultaneously with the search for ideas, we dealt with organizational issues: the registration of a company and the opening of a bank account. Fortunately, with the registration of the company there were no problems, the whole process is described in detail here . But with the opening of the account I had to tinker, since not many banks want to cooperate with offshore companies.

Next - development. It was the most enjoyable and most predictable part of the process. Within a few weeks, we sketched out a simple prototype that minimally met our requirements — swipe management and a visual list of products with a search.

Then they began to look for a designer who could give color and shape to our brainchild. Searched among friends and in social networks. We found the designer and uploaded work for several weeks. Evolution of design:


It was the turn to deal with localization. And here began the problems that we least expected.

Errors # 2 and # 3 - Localization.

The first mistake was that we decided to support 9 languages, although even two - English and Russian would be enough to test the market. The second mistake - we ordered the translation in the translation bureau.

The most striking disadvantage of working with a translation agency was that it was necessary to work not directly with translators, but with a contact person at the agency. As a result, all the clarifications and corrections of the translation took a lot of extra time. Another drawback was that the final language was not native to translators and they often made mistakes that looked very silly to native speakers.

Having suffered from a translation agency, we decided to find translators-native speakers and communicate with them in English. This approach is good because you can find a person with an iPhone, ask to install the application and, for an additional fee, make proofreading of what he himself translates. A short skype interview was enough to weed out inappropriate people. We searched for people through https://www.translatorsbase.com/ and bargained to the level of 7-8 cents per word for all languages. Paid after the end of work through PayPal. The whole translation process, starting with the search for people and ending with clarifications, took about 3 weeks.

Conclusion: not to take too many languages ​​at the start, there is enough native and English to test the idea. It is possible and necessary to work with translators directly.

After all the translations were ready and the application began to take on a grocery look, we began to look towards marketing. We had the idea to create a promotional video.

Mistake # 4 - Promo video.

After watching several commercials of popular mobile applications, we were confident that this was a prerequisite for success. Everyone got so excited about this idea that everyone wrote their own script for the video, which in terms of scale would not be inferior to Hollywood blockbusters ... But everything turned out to be much more prosaic - the budget was limited, and shooting a commercial was not cheap. Therefore, we forgot about our ambitions and quickly, the day before the shooting, we sketched a new script and in half a day we filmed all the material. Next were: installation, sound and download on vimeo and youtube.

Practice has shown that the video did not bring us almost any users. It is for this reason that we abandoned a paid account on vimeo. Another obvious disadvantage of the video clip for the iPhone application is that the App Store, unlike the Play Market, does not allow adding video to the description.

Conclusion: shoot a video only if the application started to gain popularity.

It seems that everything was ready - translations, design, video, it only remained to test the application well.

Error # 5 - Testing

We gave the application for testing our friends and acquaintances. This was another mistake of ours. As it turned out, friends and acquaintances are not a representative group at all. All our testers said only good things about the application and not a single bug was found. We learned about all the shortcomings and bugs after the first release.

Conclusion: for testing it is better to choose third-party people who are professional in their work.

Mistake # 6 - Market Trends

Next - release. In order for the release of your application to attract attention, you must constantly monitor the market and understand the trends. Unfortunately, our release, sharpened for iOS6, was released on iOS7. We expected that the new axis will be released at the end of October, and before that we will have time to release the version under the six. But Apple released a new version earlier than expected, and we made a difficult decision to postpone the release and finish the version for iOS7. With testing, it took us another month.

During the first two weeks after the release of the seven, all media published lists of programs optimized for the new axis. The developers who followed the trends skimmed the cream.

Conclusion: if you follow the trends and prepare for them, you can get trend reviews in the media.

As a result, we unreleased, opened iTunes and there we were waited by another small but unpleasant surprise.

Error # 7 - Application Name

As it turned out, the title was not fully shown in iTunes. The part that was shown did not reveal the essence of the application:
ShopIt - simple and handy ...
Therefore, we still had to change the name to
ShopIt - grocery shopping list without typing
so that the user, without going into the description, could understand what the application is about in the first four words.

As we understood with time, the problem was not only in the full name, but also in the very word ShopIt. For English-speaking people, this is the same as calling the shirt brand "Shirts". Agree, it does not sound very much.

Conclusion: you need to very carefully work out the name, especially if the application is intended for a foreign market.

And then about hard marketing.

Error # 8 - Facebook and Google Adwords Campaign

For several days and $ 200, Facebook provided us with a bunch of some subscribers who are not really of any real value. It seems that for all these companies are used "dead souls". Therefore, in this direction we decided not to move anymore.

Adwords for $ 110 provided us with 6800 transitions to the app page on the App Store. We did not see any increase compared with the subsequent period of the same duration.

The real value was represented only by reviews on the well-known thematic portals. 2 reviews on medium-rating resources gave us from 50 to 100 downloads each. One of the reviews was paid, and at a price of $ 150, he did not beat off the investment.

Conclusion: simple advertising campaigns on Facebook and Google Adwords are not suitable for promotion of the application, but articles in the readable press work.

On this list of our errors smoothly came to an end. Bonus - information about the costs in US dollars up to the moment when the application began to fully cover the costs:

Company registration	1400
Opening a bank account	400
Video clip	1900
Designer	1600
Localization	800
Marketing	450
Licenses, test iPhone 3GS and more	350
Total	6900

Total:

• good list of mistakes that we are not going to repeat
• worked team
• own company
• desire to succeed in a new project

We are optimistic about the future and wish all startups to learn from the mistakes of others and achieve success!