The way to go to gain invaluable experience in mobile development
Hi, Habr!
It's time to take stock of 2016. Here we will talk about the second attempt to repeat the success with the educational application “Russian language - literacy”. ( we wrote about another attempt earlier )
The end of spring ... Suddenly, due to successful circumstances, we manage to find a partner who has wonderful content on the Russian language. And it remains a month before the first CT (centralized testing, we did not have time for the USE). There was some doubt in the deadlines, but programmers think optimistically and for a long time without thinking, brew strong coffee, stock up on chocolate (With this, it’s time to tie, at least stop wondering why my stomach grows faster than the project compiles on gradle in Android Studio) and a business.
')
We managed to cope with these tasks in 3 weeks, literally one week before the first Russian language test.
I spoke about my mistakes earlier . Here I will add all the previous.
We decided that it is worthwhile to open only a few courses at once, and everything else is revealed for coins, which can be obtained in open courses, answering correctly or buying for real money. The more questions in the course, the more expensive it is.
For all the time of 64,000 (15,000 currently active) installations, as many as 9 purchases were made!
We did not manage to feel the difference between income from the Android version and iOS.
But alas and ah. The version for the Apple Store, we released November 16, 2016.
For all the time, with 10,000 users there were absolutely 5 purchases!
The questions in the application are not organized in an appropriate way, sometimes they resemble “pasta”, and it is very difficult to find something concrete without searching. Our courses are located in a list with three levels of nesting with advertising banners between the elements. And to remove from the list of courses such names as: “Final training 1”, “Final training 2” did not reach the hands.
When it comes to such content as “The Russian Language”, there are a lot of opinions, both erroneous and true, in which some argue that the question is incomprehensible, the answers are incorrect and they all write in reviews, underestimating the rating of the application. One of the successful solutions I saw in Duolingo, where you can see the discussion of the issue with other users, and the answers of experts, as well as leave your comment.
Everyone benefits from this.
We were limited in time, so the simplest option seemed to be a completely online application. All user statistics are stored on the server, questions and even purchases. This solution accelerated the development time, but it was not without jambs when the server suddenly went to bed. The number of bad comments on this issue has increased, many have expressed displeasure on this score. Of the benefits is the constant synchronization with the server, which allowed us to quickly correct errors in questions, solve problems with coin purchases
Conclusion: The CIS market is huge, as is the competition in Google play. We did not conduct global research on what users want to see in such an application, what courses they would like to repeat, and perhaps it was worth doing in advance. Judging by such applications, the most simple content is popular. We tried to make our questions as simple and friendly as possible, but we still have to work on this. As for the monetization model, it became clear that for this type of application it does not suit us, so it was decided to make all courses completely free and open for use, and leave only advertising inside the application.
It was possible to agree directly with the General Director of the site on the publication of the publication on their website. I wrote a review on my own. As it turned out, the site helps young developers right up to completely free placement or various discounts on publications. The number of installations has increased significantly.
The application has appeared in many tops. Undoubtedly it is worth using such advertising, but only together with as many other sources as possible.
Result: 18,600 views
Clicks: 3592
Cost: Free
Comments: 22
How: An individual letter to the mail specified in the contacts
Review paid, to negotiate discounts could not, but still wanted to know what we can get the exhaust. Ordered the tariff "Complex". Write your review for you, coordinate it with you and publish it at your chosen time. However, as can be seen from the result, he was not the most effective. A total of 8,677 readings, of course more was expected. This method of distribution takes place, but it is more efficient to use it simultaneously with other sources to achieve the greatest effect and to get to the tops.
Ps iOS version did not receive a large increase in traffic from the article. Only Android version. (It is worth considering this)
The cost for the transition came about $ 0.10
The article was published on December 2
Coverage: 155,382 (unique users who saw the announcement).
Reads: 8,667 (users interested in the materials).
Transitions: 2348 (transitions to the market).
Comments: 47
Cost: $ 250
How: section for developers
The first big resource was tut.by, the article on which we published immediately after the release of the application. The article was faintly visible on the site, because of which such a small coverage. About 1000 people came from the article.
Coverage: 10,400
Clicking on the link: unknown
Cost: $ 400
Android Blog (1.7 million audience)
For the first time I decided to go directly to the owner of the group. Here you can save and find a common language, it is possible to get an additional discount on the publication.
Coverage: 30,000
Follow the link: 457
Likes: 238
Repos: 11
Comments: 17
Cost: $ 15 with discount
How: Through contacts
Further groups through the exchange:
Group: “Reality”
Followers: 1,800,000
Coverage: 13,400
Clicks on the link: 48
Cost: $ 8
Group: “Woe from Wit”
Subscribers: 360 000
Coverage: 14,500
Clicks on the link: 130
Cost: $ 5
Group: “Flea market Minsk Belarus”
Followers: 193,000
Coverage: 7,000
Follow the link: 88
Cost: $ 5
Group: “EGE OGE Russian language”
Subscribers: 123,000
Coverage: 3,300
Follow the link: 65
Cost: $ 4
Group: “Motivation”
Followers: 910,000
Coverage: 13,400
Follow the link: 80
Cost: $ 7
5.1 Push notifications from another application
As I mentioned above, we have the Quick Brain app, with a monthly audience of 120,000 active users. I sent a notification for Russian-speaking users (not everyone, of course) with a link to the Russian language app.
Number of opening notifications: 10%
Approximately 50% of those who opened the notification installed the application.
5.2 Link to the list of applications in your other applications.
On the main page of "Quick Brain" there is a button that opens the entire list of our applications in Google play. This results in some traffic, but much less. (It’s hard to say the exact figure)
5.3 Update topics on popular forums.
I constantly use the following forums:
The most important thing is to update your posts, otherwise they will simply be lost and stop producing results.
I also tried the following sites:
- reddit
Apparently, it is difficult to promote your product here, links in the form of advertisements are removed quickly or negatively. The normal option is to fill yourself with a rating, actively participating in discussions or posting something interesting, but not advertising. Then you can find a profile subreddit and try to write there (for example, AndroidGaming ), as I could understand, advertising should be less than 10% of your main activity.
- pikabu
An extremely specific site for promotion, but with the right approach can be extremely effective. I unfortunately failed to make effective advertising on it, but I managed to get something from it.
The essence reminds reddit, only easier. With a small rating, you can publish up to one publication per day, I began to raise myself rating by creating different comic posts. Then I tried to push my application, from which I grabbed a bunch of minuses right away, which is why I deleted the post. The next post was already a story about how important it is for me to make such games, what experience I got, what I came across. This post met more rosy, but not without jambs. But comments from some users will be extremely helpful.
PS Earlier, in past publications, I talked about using Firebase Notifications for pushing notifications, but from my own experience I was convinced that it is not flexible enough and easy to use. I switched to onesignal and am still pleased with the results.
Attempting to create a useful application for our market turned out to be a good experience for me, great costs and valuable connections. May I say that I am pleased about this - undoubtedly.
“What did I get out of it all?” - next time, I will test the application more thoroughly, try more real users, work out the UX component of the project better (returns to the application, quality, stability, average session) before starting advertising campaigns. Before that, I will prepare the maximum possible amount of texts, information. I will create advertisements on the main sites, try to go to the same resources with reviews. I will also approach the application and its distribution from the point of cold calculation, and not emotional. The CIS market is large, but to get good benefits from it, you need to think carefully and try monetization. I still plan to continue working on this application and I want to make it more popular and in demand. All you need is to learn from your mistakes and not allow them to repeat.
As a result, about $ 1000 was spent on everything. Income of $ 50 (dirty). An expensive experience for me, but for you it's free.
Thanks for attention!
Respectfully,
Alexander
It's time to take stock of 2016. Here we will talk about the second attempt to repeat the success with the educational application “Russian language - literacy”. ( we wrote about another attempt earlier )
Introduction
“My mistake was that I expected fruit from a tree that could only bring flowers.”
Honore Mirabeau
The end of spring ... Suddenly, due to successful circumstances, we manage to find a partner who has wonderful content on the Russian language. And it remains a month before the first CT (centralized testing, we did not have time for the USE). There was some doubt in the deadlines, but programmers think optimistically and for a long time without thinking, brew strong coffee, stock up on chocolate (With this, it’s time to tie, at least stop wondering why my stomach grows faster than the project compiles on gradle in Android Studio) and a business.
')
Briefly about the creation.
- Brew coffee.
- We consider the proposed database of questions (in XML).
- We are considering ways to use (Awesome how many questions, more than 50 000).
- We select the necessary pieces of courses.
- Brew a second cup of coffee.
- We buy and set up a server.
- Create a database.
- Parsim selected questions from XML to database.
- We do API for the client (Android / iOS).
- In parallel, create an Android version.
- Fix bugs.
- Fill in Google play.
We managed to cope with these tasks in 3 weeks, literally one week before the first Russian language test.
"The clever learns from the mistakes of others"
I spoke about my mistakes earlier . Here I will add all the previous.
New experience
1. New monetization model
We decided that it is worthwhile to open only a few courses at once, and everything else is revealed for coins, which can be obtained in open courses, answering correctly or buying for real money. The more questions in the course, the more expensive it is.
Screenshots
For all the time of 64,000 (15,000 currently active) installations, as many as 9 purchases were made!
2. Repeating unsuccessful monetization model in iOS version of the application
We did not manage to feel the difference between income from the Android version and iOS.
"Android installs apps more actively, but iOS users spend a lot more money."
But alas and ah. The version for the Apple Store, we released November 16, 2016.
For all the time, with 10,000 users there were absolutely 5 purchases!
3. Little time was spent on content.
The questions in the application are not organized in an appropriate way, sometimes they resemble “pasta”, and it is very difficult to find something concrete without searching. Our courses are located in a list with three levels of nesting with advertising banners between the elements. And to remove from the list of courses such names as: “Final training 1”, “Final training 2” did not reach the hands.
4. Spied on solutions from popular applications, but did not use
When it comes to such content as “The Russian Language”, there are a lot of opinions, both erroneous and true, in which some argue that the question is incomprehensible, the answers are incorrect and they all write in reviews, underestimating the rating of the application. One of the successful solutions I saw in Duolingo, where you can see the discussion of the issue with other users, and the answers of experts, as well as leave your comment.
Everyone benefits from this.
Duolingo example
5. If you have the opportunity to make the application working without the Internet - better do it.
We were limited in time, so the simplest option seemed to be a completely online application. All user statistics are stored on the server, questions and even purchases. This solution accelerated the development time, but it was not without jambs when the server suddenly went to bed. The number of bad comments on this issue has increased, many have expressed displeasure on this score. Of the benefits is the constant synchronization with the server, which allowed us to quickly correct errors in questions, solve problems with coin purchases
Conclusion: The CIS market is huge, as is the competition in Google play. We did not conduct global research on what users want to see in such an application, what courses they would like to repeat, and perhaps it was worth doing in advance. Judging by such applications, the most simple content is popular. We tried to make our questions as simple and friendly as possible, but we still have to work on this. As for the monetization model, it became clear that for this type of application it does not suit us, so it was decided to make all courses completely free and open for use, and leave only advertising inside the application.
Experience spread.
1. Appleinsider
It was possible to agree directly with the General Director of the site on the publication of the publication on their website. I wrote a review on my own. As it turned out, the site helps young developers right up to completely free placement or various discounts on publications. The number of installations has increased significantly.
The application has appeared in many tops. Undoubtedly it is worth using such advertising, but only together with as many other sources as possible.
Result of the article
Result: 18,600 views
Clicks: 3592
Cost: Free
Comments: 22
How: An individual letter to the mail specified in the contacts
2. w3bsit3-dns.com
Review paid, to negotiate discounts could not, but still wanted to know what we can get the exhaust. Ordered the tariff "Complex". Write your review for you, coordinate it with you and publish it at your chosen time. However, as can be seen from the result, he was not the most effective. A total of 8,677 readings, of course more was expected. This method of distribution takes place, but it is more efficient to use it simultaneously with other sources to achieve the greatest effect and to get to the tops.
Ps iOS version did not receive a large increase in traffic from the article. Only Android version. (It is worth considering this)
The cost for the transition came about $ 0.10
The article was published on December 2
Download Schedule November November - December 2016
Coverage: 155,382 (unique users who saw the announcement).
Reads: 8,667 (users interested in the materials).
Transitions: 2348 (transitions to the market).
Comments: 47
Cost: $ 250
How: section for developers
3. Tut.by
The first big resource was tut.by, the article on which we published immediately after the release of the application. The article was faintly visible on the site, because of which such a small coverage. About 1000 people came from the article.
Coverage: 10,400
Clicking on the link: unknown
Cost: $ 400
4. Social networks
Android Blog (1.7 million audience)
For the first time I decided to go directly to the owner of the group. Here you can save and find a common language, it is possible to get an additional discount on the publication.
Coverage: 30,000
Follow the link: 457
Likes: 238
Repos: 11
Comments: 17
Cost: $ 15 with discount
How: Through contacts
Further groups through the exchange:
Group: “Reality”
Followers: 1,800,000
Coverage: 13,400
Clicks on the link: 48
Cost: $ 8
Group: “Woe from Wit”
Subscribers: 360 000
Coverage: 14,500
Clicks on the link: 130
Cost: $ 5
Group: “Flea market Minsk Belarus”
Followers: 193,000
Coverage: 7,000
Follow the link: 88
Cost: $ 5
Group: “EGE OGE Russian language”
Subscribers: 123,000
Coverage: 3,300
Follow the link: 65
Cost: $ 4
Group: “Motivation”
Followers: 910,000
Coverage: 13,400
Follow the link: 80
Cost: $ 7
5. Additional ways
5.1 Push notifications from another application
As I mentioned above, we have the Quick Brain app, with a monthly audience of 120,000 active users. I sent a notification for Russian-speaking users (not everyone, of course) with a link to the Russian language app.
Number of opening notifications: 10%
Approximately 50% of those who opened the notification installed the application.
5.2 Link to the list of applications in your other applications.
On the main page of "Quick Brain" there is a button that opens the entire list of our applications in Google play. This results in some traffic, but much less. (It’s hard to say the exact figure)
5.3 Update topics on popular forums.
I constantly use the following forums:
The most important thing is to update your posts, otherwise they will simply be lost and stop producing results.
I also tried the following sites:
Apparently, it is difficult to promote your product here, links in the form of advertisements are removed quickly or negatively. The normal option is to fill yourself with a rating, actively participating in discussions or posting something interesting, but not advertising. Then you can find a profile subreddit and try to write there (for example, AndroidGaming ), as I could understand, advertising should be less than 10% of your main activity.
- pikabu
An extremely specific site for promotion, but with the right approach can be extremely effective. I unfortunately failed to make effective advertising on it, but I managed to get something from it.
The essence reminds reddit, only easier. With a small rating, you can publish up to one publication per day, I began to raise myself rating by creating different comic posts. Then I tried to push my application, from which I grabbed a bunch of minuses right away, which is why I deleted the post. The next post was already a story about how important it is for me to make such games, what experience I got, what I came across. This post met more rosy, but not without jambs. But comments from some users will be extremely helpful.
PS Earlier, in past publications, I talked about using Firebase Notifications for pushing notifications, but from my own experience I was convinced that it is not flexible enough and easy to use. I switched to onesignal and am still pleased with the results.
Conclusion:
Attempting to create a useful application for our market turned out to be a good experience for me, great costs and valuable connections. May I say that I am pleased about this - undoubtedly.
“What did I get out of it all?” - next time, I will test the application more thoroughly, try more real users, work out the UX component of the project better (returns to the application, quality, stability, average session) before starting advertising campaigns. Before that, I will prepare the maximum possible amount of texts, information. I will create advertisements on the main sites, try to go to the same resources with reviews. I will also approach the application and its distribution from the point of cold calculation, and not emotional. The CIS market is large, but to get good benefits from it, you need to think carefully and try monetization. I still plan to continue working on this application and I want to make it more popular and in demand. All you need is to learn from your mistakes and not allow them to repeat.
As a result, about $ 1000 was spent on everything. Income of $ 50 (dirty). An expensive experience for me, but for you it's free.
Thanks for attention!
Respectfully,
Alexander
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/319642/
All Articles