250.000$ within two months

Developing an app can be really profitable. Steve Demeter, the developer of trism, has received 250,000$ within three months for his game. He made that money in 2008 when the app store was released. There weren't as many iOs devices as now. So today, there are more potential buyers. But there is also more competition in the app store.

But you have to be realistic. Not everyone's app will become enormously succesful. That's why you don't have to develop solely for profit. You have to enjoy developing, and love making apps to become better. In the infographic, you can see that 60% of the iOs-developers don't make any profit but 12% of the developers earn $50,000 or more. So if you become succesful, you will get rich.

And in the next infographic, you can find a summary of developing succesful apps.

You can find more info here.
Do you know any developers? Are they succesful or not really? What kind of apps have they developed?

Contest: place a comment and win a promocode to get iConvertCal for free

What can you win?

a promocode for iConvertcal. So you will get this iOs-app for free if you win.

What do you have to do?

-place a comment on a post somewhere on my blog.
-send me an e-mail with an answer to this question: How many people will have visited my blog at the end of the contest?
(tip: I have been blogging since 9 october.)
You can send me an e-mail by clicking on the green icon at the left side of my blog.

The contest will end on Wednessday 21 november at 9 pm CET.

The five persons how have made the best guess, will win a promo code. These persons will receive an answer at their mail a couple of days after the end of the contest, with a promo code.

Good luck!

Your e-mail won't be used for other purposes.
You can participate only one time. 
If you have send more e-mails, only your first e-mail will count.

What's in an icon?

"What's in a name?" is an important quote. I think icons are really important in the digital world. That why I say: "What's in an icon?"

An app icon isn't just an icon. The users get their first impression of your app with looking at the icon. I think we can say it's one of the most important things. If your icon isn't beautiful, users won't take a further look at your app and you won't sell your app to all these persons who don't like your app icon.

But what is a great app icon? An amazing app icon has got some key elements. These are simplicity, recognizability and uniqueness.

Your app icon has to be simple. Don't use a lot of colors, but focus on just two or three colors. Don't use too complicated designs. Try to summarize your app functionality into your icon. In that way people will instantly know what your app is about. For example the mail-app has got an enveloppe. If users see the mail-icon, they know that it's the e-mail app because of the use of an enveloppe in the design.

Your app icon has to be recognizable. Even if your icon is really small, users will have to recognize it. In the search-section of iOs, you can search all things, even apps, but the icons are really small in that section. Your icon needs some contrast in colors and a simple design in order to recognize it in the search section.

Your app icon has to be unique. Don't copy a design, or make a little change in an existing icon. Your app icon will be associated with your app and you can't really differentiate your app if you use the same design (with some tweaks) from another app. Try to think outside the box.

Finally, don't make the glare yourself, iOs, will do it for you. In Xcode you can simply set use app gloss to yes and your app will have the well known iOs-gloss.

Here you can find more information. This is an official Apple Developer document.
Here you can find more tips concerning icon design.

What is you favourite app icon design?  Why do you like it?

Why loving your own app is the key thing in marketing

Have you ever seen a salesman who doesn't like the product he is selling? If he doesn't like his product, he won't sell anything. As a salesman you have to be enthusiastic, you have to know your product and you have to be confident.

It's all the same for selling apps. If you aren't proud of you own app, why would someone else like your app. If you don't know why you have made the design decisions, why you have add that feature or removed another feature, people aren't going to buy it. You have to know your product and to love your product.

That's why Steve Jobs' presentations were great. He did know every single detail about his products and he really loved them. He was very enthusiastic and passionate about it. 

Have you ever seen someone who isn't enthusiastic about the products he was selling? 

Coding an app for iOs isn't rocket science

What do you need for coding an app?

-A cheap mac (an old core 2 duo mac mini is fine)

-A good portion of motivation

-Enough time and patience

Learning to code is difficult but in my opinion everyone can. You just have to know the right sources. I have learned coding iOs-apps using just two books. One to learn the language and another to learn how to use the different functions of an iOs-device in your code.

The first book is Learning programming in Objective C. Stephen Kochan has written the book. He explains everything in detail. Objective C is an object-oriented language and he gives the most important ideas and concepts. There are some exercises that you can make. In that way, you can check whether you understand the key ideas and concepts. You can also find a key on his website

The second book is a book about Cocoa Touch. Aaron Hillegas is a good author who explains everything very clearly. But you can also use this book that's quite fine. These books show you how apps have to behave in iOs and how you can use several features like autorotation.

If you have read these books very thoroughly and know every concept, you will be able to build your own app. Just experiment with some things, and begin with simple things. In that way you will gain more experience and build more advanced apps. The most important thing is patience. Put a lot of time and effort in it and everything will turn out great.

Have you had some experience with coding? Or have you already learned programing for iOs?

How do you get a great idea?

There are lot of ways to get a good idea. I will explain some of them. It is something personal and of course there a lot of other things you can do.

-Brainstorming

I think everyone knows it. You have to think of a problem for example “How do you make public transport more attractive” and you search for some very creative solutions. Everything is possible. Especially in small groups, this is really productive. After you have written a lot of ideas, you should select the best ideas.

-discussion

Some people really like to discuss on several issues. Sometimes they will find an innovative solution for an issue. These solutions will come spontaneous. 

-find a valuable missing feature in an existing app

In that case, you can develop an app that has the same idea but with the feature you miss in the other app. Don’t make your app look like the other app but use a different lay-out in order that you won’t have problems with the developers from the original app. 

-get inspiration from an update

Some people get their inspiration from an update. For example, a lot of people have developed a public transport app. Since the release of iOs 6, Apple has rewritten the maps app and they allow the integration of public transport apps from third party developers.

-an idea that comes spontaneously

It is fantastic and undescribable to have that feeling. Maybe some of you have had that experience, others may have not. You just have to think of a problem and then think and think and think and may be it will come spontaneously, may be not. Some people have it when they awake. In that case, you have to write down the idea because you will forget it, if you fall back asleep.

Why do we make apps?

There are different reasons to make apps. For the big companies it is really clear. They want to generate revenue in order that they can make profit. But not everyone does it for the profit. Some people build apps to learn something new, to have a challenge, to make their dreams come true or maybe for the sports club.

You can see that there are a lot of reasons to build an app. But the most important thing about building an app is to have a great idea. Amazing ideas are innovative. They create something that a lot of people describe as usefull. You can use an old idea and improve it with some awesome new features or you can create something entirely new.

The big challenge is to translate our idea in an app that will stun everyone. If you are able to meet that challenge, you will be able to gain success. And everyone can! Even people like you and me. 

But first things first. Before you can make profit, you have to focus on creating your app. You have to love your idea before you can sell it. If you make your app amazing, others will love it too, and then you will make profit.