AppStore comprehension path or how much experience?

Always loved to read developer stories. I liked to recount their victories and incomes, but especially - to present myself in their place. Did not pay attention to stories with a sad ending. He walked forward with burning eyes and thought that this would be enough.

Below, I described the path from the dream of creating an application and a huge income to the harsh reality of all indie developers.

Foreword

In ordinary life, I am a flash-game developer. I do not play games myself and do not understand why people need it (maybe because of my profession). Taking time from people is unbearable for me, but to give it is a real joy. From the beginning of my activity as a developer, I wanted to realize my Idea and searched for it in all corners every minute ... A year passed - I was exhausted and completely upset. "Apparently, this is not mine," I thought, and resigned. A week later, ideas came from everywhere. I did not have time to process one, as a new, even more “cool” one arrived. For six months, none of them has ever been published. Then I collected my thoughts and said: "STOP!" We must take one idea and make it a masterpiece.
')

Market

During my work, I realized that it was difficult to work with clients in my native Belarus. Everyone wants a Ferrari for $ 300. I turned my attention to the mobile app market. Then I still had an old Samsung on Android. Perverted with eclipse and was pleased. Once a friend came to me with a newer Samsung and I decided to test the application on it. Oh God! Everything jumps in different directions (although on simulators everything was in perfect order). My patience is exhausted, and I threw this thing.

Apple

I came across the image of Maveric on Windows. Long pored to deliver - and then he wound up. I put Xcode and was amazed that even on a virtual machine it works better than eclipse on Windows. I didn’t have to deal with the interface, because everything is clear. Then I realized that I wanted to develop on iOS. A couple of times virtualka refused to compile the project. After that, I decided to go further, and bought a used MacBook.

Idea

My wife asks the same question every day: “What is the weather outside? .. What should I wear in this weather?” I look out the window and see: the grandmother in a fur coat goes to the market, and the guy in the shirt plays football.



Then I got the idea to create an application that will show exactly what to wear at the right time in a particular place.

I found a couple of similar services. One of them was associated with some celebrity, the others took the clothes lightly, the others took photos of the clothes and did not quite successfully match them.

Before me was a difficult task, but then I could not stop.

Search for like-minded people

Since the idea was not entirely new, I was not afraid that it would be stolen. On the contrary, he began to ask everyone questions. And gained from this great benefit. People looked at my plan in different ways, and I managed to get valuable advice from all opinions. If I kept the idea in myself, then the errors would be revealed only from the comments in the Store. It saved a lot of time and effort.

Development of structure and design

The design was developed and improved throughout the time while the application was being developed. I wanted to find something really worthwhile. In the end, the formula was derived: "The simpler, the better!"



Initially, I displayed all the information on the screen. Adhered to the principle of "good does not happen much." But after the layout number 1 began to receive comments "The screen is overloaded with information," I decided that I needed to change something.

Then the understanding came that it is necessary to reduce the number of blocks of information. Another case sent me to this side. When I gave a friend an app and asked for a poyuzat, he had such a moment: the app showed a temperature of + 10C and a wind of 12m / s. Looking at the character, he said that we need to dress warmer, as the big wind. Although the application showed an adequate set of clothes, because it initially used the effective temperature formula, which combines air temperature, humidity and wind speed. But my friend knocked this figure. Then I realized that everything that distracts the user from the main thing - clothes for the weather - should be removed. This is how we reached and settled on structure number 3.

The icon has been developed for quite a while. There were many options, but by the majority of votes the first version was chosen:

Careful localization!

The application has been translated into 15 languages. But when I was published, I was very disappointed: the description, screenshots and keywords can be translated only for the main languages ​​(which means that there is no Ukrainian, Belarusian, Polish, Estonian, Hebrew and Arabic). If you are going to do localization, check before that whether it supports AppStore the languages ​​you need. Here is the current list:

Choosing a monetization model

After all the pros and cons, the paid application model was chosen. Since, in my opinion, we have created the highest-quality application among analogs, but the target audience is much smaller than that of games, and in the category of free to get into the top is unrealistic. Moreover, no other normal way of monetization, except advertising, was invented.

Screenshots

Screenshots were subject to mandatory processing and, in my opinion, turned out good.

Landing

Here I decided to creative in full. I did not want to buy a template on Wordpress, as anyone can do it. I created a 7-second video that tells what the application does. However, so far failed to assess its effectiveness.

Publication

Finally, the application was tested and published at a price of $ 1.99. We chose a soft launch: get the first feedback and possible bugs, then fix everything and invest in getting to the top, being absolutely sure that everything is fine with us.

I wanted to give myself a break after a whole year of work. Get the first batch of my brainchild. But it was not there…
Immediately after publication, we waited for the application to appear in the "new" in the "weather" category. This would allow to get the first jerks of downloads in the top of the "new". But it all did not appear. Later I found it deep (after clicking “see all”) inside the new ones. This means that this section is formed not from the date of publication, but from some other parameters unknown to me. It was the first disappointment. On the same day, I asked a friend from Moscow to buy the application.

We are in the "top"

The next day I found my application on the 4th place in the top paid in Russia in the category "weather". I would like to rejoice, but I understood that this is very bad. This meant that the category of weather is so small and so little purchases are made in it that one is enough to get to the top. So there is no movement there. Day we hung in the top weather and did not receive a single download. Plans were broken. It is necessary to raise the bar and take the top AppStore.

Preparing for a jerk

In preparation for the promotion, we studied tons of information. After in-depth analysis, a general plan was formulated:
1. Exit reviews. Among all the thematic sites, the choice fell on w3bsit3-dns.com, appledigger.ru, app-s.ru, macdigger.ru and planetiphone.ru. Reviews paid for, in general, spent $ 500. (Another dev story was sent to the site iphones.ru, according to the plan it was supposed to be released on the very day of publication of all the reviews.)
2. Support position in the top with ads on Facebook. I created several ads and connected an account.

It only remained to wait for the intended number ...

Promotion

The first day

Reviews began to go out at 11 in the morning. But the picture of this day turned out to be quite strange. In total, 35 purchases were made on this day. At 17-00 we got to the Top 3 weather and the Top 300 of the entire AppStore. “We were denied publication of the dev story on iphones.ru. Plus, there was a delay in the release of the review on macdigger.ru for 1 day, ”I thought. But this could not be an excuse for the situation.

Second day

After the release of the delayed review, we have already reached the Top 150 of the entire AppStore. 31 purchase. I tried to include ads on Facebook. But having spent $ 13 on 8000 ad impressions, we have not received a single installation.

From the comments under the reviews, I realized that people are not willing to pay for something that is understandable, since no one was wrong in choosing clothes. Perhaps ^ this is also because "the road is a spoon for dinner": the goods must be offered when they are needed. The selection of the wardrobe for the day occurs at 7 am with "eyes closed", when it is not up to the AppStore and reviews.

The third day and the next ...

I found copied reviews in Vkontakte groups. After being published in a group of 500,000 people, after 3 hours I found the application on the 1st place in the Weather category and on the 65th place in the top of the entire AppStore. During this time there were 10 downloads.

Recalculation of ratings is done every 3 hours. After analyzing all the download statistics, I can say that the position in the top is mainly determined by downloads for the previous 3 hours. It was after such jerks that the position of the application flew up sharply.



After 3 hours again fell to the bottom. Draw your own conclusions.

Few numbers

Six months the idea was in my head, and the year was developed application. During this time spent:
$ 150 - design (no icon);
$ 150 - localization (15 languages);
$ 3,500 - approximately 500 hours of my work at a rate divided by 2;
$ 500 for reviews;
$ 13 - on Facebook;
$ 200 hours of insomnia - the app did not let me go day or night.

50 days after the publication without promotion, we received 70 purchases and earned almost $ 90. For the week after the promotion earned another $ 200.

findings

First you need to study the market. I punched the number of purchases of applications when xyo.net. He gave me a very large charge of energy, showing that he was not the best analog released for Russia and not even optimized for iphone 6/6 + received 8,000 purchases ($ 0.99 each). And he did not even appear in the top 50 of any country. It is possible that without seeing these numbers, I would not continue to develop the application. In reality, this service can only be used to raise the spirit, but not for a business plan.

The product turned out to be unique, but even after everything I heard in our address, I find it useful. It’s just for him to find his own individual method of promotion and monetization.

Regarding the promotion - here we have gained tremendous experience for the minimum period.
1. Do not rely on information 1-2 years ago. AppStore develops and changes its policy.
2. All traffic channels should be launched at a time. Delay can break all plans.
3. Do not consider the best outcome. Think over the worst and your actions with him, because most likely he is waiting for you.