“Don’t lose sight of why you are here”
Each day I meet app developers of every type. At GDC 2013
last week, I think every facet of the app developers’ ecosystem was represented
in some way. I met corporate app developers, who only ever deal with very
specific apps for certain companies and industries and have very little ownership
of their product. I met development outsourcing companies, who develop apps for
others, but never own or manage them and have little contact to the app after
it has been completed. I also met the independent app developer, who create and
own their own game and utility apps. Since the final group actually faces adoption
risk and must actually manage a live app, this is the group that I will focus
this post on.
The independent app developer is often driven by different motives than other people. If you ask
engineers, developers – any true creators, really – what their biggest fear is,
their answer would almost always be obscurity. Most true creators are motivated by the fear of obscurity and the desire for relevancy, not by the desire for money. Indeed, if
the phenomena is boiled down, these creators only really want to earn money if
it is as a byproduct of their creation being widely used. In short, they want their creations to solve
real problems and grow in popularity as a result.
This concept drives much of the internet and indeed much of
the inventing that happens today. Often, things are built simply because they
needed to be used. The concept of open-source software is a result of this, as
are countless inventions out in the world today.
The truly creative minds out there that are looking to
create apps will openly shun the concept of making money. In their minds, it is
their job to create an awesome product, release it into the wild, and feel some
satisfaction knowing that people are enjoying it. They hope that it will pick
up a loyal user-base who will evangelize the app, accumulate an audience, and
only at that point will they figure out how to make money.
Unfortunately, the chances of growing an app to any meaningful
scale are really quite minuscule. Many developers
will take regular jobs to supplement their income while they wait for their app
revenue to reach a sustainable point.
At its core, these app developers want their apps to be seen
and heard, and often they don’t have the marketing budget to launch a true
campaign and grow in that manner. As that app grows, it is then difficult to gauge when and how to transition towards earning money –again, the truly
committed creator thinks of earning money as secondary to getting people using
the creation.
We created Appfuel to solve this problem. App developers can’t
always pay for things with money, but they can pay for things via access to the
captive audience that they have. Appfuel’s core function is to give apps
something that they can trade – initially an ad space – and allows that asset
to be traded for either reciprocal ad space within our network, or cash by
hosting campaigns.
If there was one thing that I could have said to many of the
independent app developers that I met at GDC, it would be to remember why they became
developers to begin with. Many apps could truly benefit from a clear, simple,
and intuitive way to grow their user base, and many apps don’t realize the asset
that they have within the app itself. Many app developers that do have a decent
user-base are still confused about how to maintain that audience, and also how
to earn from it.
Stay away from the ‘pay-to-play’ app promotion agencies, and don't listen to them when they tell you that the only way to grow is to spend huge amounts of money. If
your app audience is small, don’t waste your time with hosting mobile ads
directly. Instead, look for the network
that help your app grow organically, and find a way to time the integration of
actual ads so that it isn't disruptive and can be gradually phased in.
Finally, don't forget why you are developing apps in the first place: to get them used and (hopefully!!) to make a living doing what you love.
Finally, don't forget why you are developing apps in the first place: to get them used and (hopefully!!) to make a living doing what you love.
Andrew Boos
