Welcome to the 2nd episode of our Appreneur Podcasts.
In this series of podcasts, we’ll be bringing you some of the biggest names in the industry and the brightest app developers on the planet to discuss app marketing, monetization and development strategies with you every week.
In this episode, we site down with Taylor Pierce, author of Appreneur and extract (that sounds painful doesn’t it?) some great tactics and strategies that he’s using right now today. You’ll learn:
• Some of the most pivotal app strategies that taylor has learned over the last 4 years
• A few key highlighted development, promotion, and advertising strategies
• Where the app landscape is heading and what the next “big thing” is we should be watching for
• And some “Appreneur Success Stories” covered in Taylor’s book
Check out the video and leave your comments and feedback below…
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Download Appreneur Appcast Episode 2 MP3
Download Appreneur Appcast Episode 2 Transcripts
TRANSCRIPTS:
Len: Welcome to the second edition of Appreneur Appcast. We’re happy to have you aboard, and we have got a really, really interesting, really short and punchy show today. We’ve got a great guest. We’re also on with my partner and cofounder, COO of AppClover, Matt Lutz. As well as we’re on with Jeff Williams, who is CEO of Weblance. Jeff?
Jeff: I changed my title, by the way, it’s Grand Poobah.
Len: There we go, Grand Poobah of Weblance. I think he’ll have that one to himself for this one as well. Today we have got a special introduction as well, we’ve got Taylor Pierce with us today from Idea2AppStore.com, as well as the new book Appreneur. We’re going to have a really interesting show today with some news, some updates, and we’re going to get a lot of juicy information from Taylor as well on his new book, as well as some helpful hints. Let’s just dive right into it. Taylor, what have you been up to? Give us a little bit of an update about your book.
Taylor: The book has been doing very well. I was actually recently on a news station in Houston, Texas. They did a story over it, which was pretty neat. As such we have picked up a lot more clients, and people are really coming to us wanting our expert advice on everything.
Len: Right. Maybe just give us a little bit of a bio or background as to who you are so that our listeners and our watchers today can get a little bit more about who you are.
Taylor: I’ve been developing apps for about four years now, since the app store opened. I interned at the app store or Apple headquarters in Cupertino for the summer of 2010, and then I opened Idea2AppStore, which is our development company, at the end of 201. Then I wrote my book, Appreneur: Secrets to success in the app store, which was published in July of this year, 2012.
Len: Awesome. What inspired you to write it? Tell our community a little bit about what’s behind the book and what’s in it.
Taylor: Definitely. The idea behind it was actually kind of a funny story. We have been developing really good apps for clients, and we found out that no matter how well we developed the app, they really had no idea how to market them and make them become successful. They had the idea of if you create an app, you’re going to wake up the next morning and be a millionaire. Without the right knowledge and go-to information, that’s not going to happen. You realistically probably won’t even break even. I decided to put together a small little manuscript to give to my clients to kind of push them in the right direction. One of them came to me and was along the lines of, “You know, you should make a book out of this.” I thought about it, and I’ve never really been much of a writer or a book reader. I was like, “Okay.”
I started typing it and it all kind of came together. One of my dad’s good friends is a professional book editor, so I called her and she kind of cleaned everything up. It all kind of fell together. Basically an overview of what the book is and does, is that it is four years of what I have learned, along with what some of the other incredibly successful developers and Appreneurs. When I say this, I try to focus more on individuals rather than these big Fortune 500 companies, because realistically we don’t have seven-figure advertising.
Len: Exactly, it’s a different game.
Taylor: Exactly, you have to approach it differently to compete with the big dogs.
Len: Definitely. You mentioned the four years collecting the data you used in the book. Over that span of time, what stands out as some of the most pivotal strategies you uncovered that our crowd, any app developer really, should know about and be salivating right now?
Taylor: Sure. A lot of people often try to come up with these ideas for games that are similar to Angry Birds or things like that. That is a horrible idea; I want anyone listening to not attempt that, simply because you can’t compete with a company that is franchised like that. They have headphones now, and candy and stuff like that. You need to dig into a niche market, something that you understand and something that really hasn’t been flooded, per se.
One of the examples I go over in my book is say you’re an avid cyclist. If you build an app for cyclists, then you’ll be able to basically know all of the information of that market. You will be able to advertise it in a way that is fairly inexpensive, and that will get to just people who are cyclists. It’s all about reaching the right people and the right market.
Len: The targeting effect actually allows you to be able to spend your money more wisely, and your effort, your time and your energy more wisely — your resources — so that it’s not such a wide market. I hear some people say sometimes, “My product, everybody wants it.” That’s the kiss of death, honestly. It takes a lot of money and energy and resources to reach a wide market. If you have, like you were mentioning your cycling, you have that niche or that community that stands up and says, “Hey, we’re interested in that subject”. There is usually very easy or simple ways to be able to get into that, whether it’s newsletters, or magazines, or other types of joint ventures that you can create with these people. Very good point.
Matt: And like Taylor said, unless you are dealing with a Coca-Cola or McDonald’s-type budget for your advertising, there’s not a lot you can do. You can’t cast that big of a net and just hope to — like you said, I’ve heard it a million times too, and it’s marketing fundamentals when people say, “This product is for everyone.” Yeah, but you can’t talk to everyone at once, that costs a lot of money. Unless you’re one of the big boys, you can’t do it. Then you just have to really chisel down and get targeted focus, just laser focus on your niche, and figure out exactly who it is you’re talking to.
Len: By doing that, just to add, it allows you to be able to also find out the hangouts of that niche, of those people. You have a really slick cyclist – let’s go back to that again. Then you can go, “Okay, where are these people hanging out? What do they read? What do they watch?” All of that kind of stuff that surrounds that community, so that then you can actually start thinking about where to put your message and how to be able to approach them.
Taylor: Exactly.
Len: What are a few highlighted development, promotion, advertising strategies that you cover in this book that readers will learn by reading it, but that will whet their appetite and give them a great sense of why they need to read this book? Maybe you can just give us a few teasers with a little bit of meat.
Taylor: Sure. A lot of people, when they think of advertising they think of the banners you see up in the top of the corner of every website you go to. Realistically, for apps, that’s not the way you want to go. You need to have a very unique advertising scheme that’s really going to interest people. Not only do they have to go from the website to the app to the app store, you really want to build something that is going to make them have to buy it, like, “I need this. I need this now.”
One thing that I have used — and this is something along the lines of specialty applications — is the power of YouTube. People all over YouTube now will post anything and everything, and they will get hundreds of thousands of views and become little celebrities. We’ll go back to our cycling app. I like to find people that are well-known cyclists, and basically go to them and be like, “Hey, I have got an app.” Talk to them about it, let them see what they think. If they like it be like, “Listen, can we throw each other some business? I will be happy to put some of your videos and content in the application if you will talk about my app on your YouTube channel.” And stuff like that. A lot of times you can form a partnership right there, not spend a single penny and have ridiculous returns. We did this with one of our specialty apps, and it broke Apple’s top 200 US overall within a day of doing this. We went from making a couple hundred bucks a day to thousands a day with spending zero money.
Matt: You’re talking to the right guy; Len has basically built his entire career on putting together JV deals and stuff. I will totally let you talk.
Len: It’s great, Taylor, because that is something that hasn’t really been talked a lot about in the app community. Yet, I really believe it’s the best-kept secret of how to grow very quickly with little resources. By reaching out within that community — and let’s use the cycling one again — by reaching out within that cycling community you can get endorsement, testimonials, you can get access to their newsletter. If they have a newsletter on cycling and you have a cycling app, those people in that newsletter are a perfect market for your app. Do a cross-promotion where you may be able to provide value to them in some way, shape or form by exposure on the app, putting them into an advertisement, that type of idea. Or if you have a website, putting their stuff on there, or whatever you can think of doing benefit-wise. What you are getting from them is exposure to that newsletter, which is huge. Thousands of people could be on that newsletter that are all cyclists.
Matt: The other added benefit is like you said, Taylor, if it’s a name that’s recognizable and stuff, just the SEO weight alone. That juice of their keywords, especially if you’re talking somebody huge like a Lance Armstrong or whatever. You’re going to pick up just a huge amount of traffic based off that alone.
Taylor: Another untapped gold mine with what you guys are talking about are these affiliate programs. Let’s say you’ve got a frame company for bicycles. They may come to you and say, “Hey, we want to target your users, offer them a discount. We will give you a percentage of the frames you sell through your app.” We’ve done this a few times. I expected to make maybe $100-$300 a month, and was incredibly shocked that you can make almost a mortgage payment off of some of these affiliate programs if you do it right.
Len: And more.
Matt: To that point, I spent the last few years in the affiliate world. That’s one of the things I love doing. Just kind of a humorous story is recently, we basically are part of an affiliate program and signing people up under us for an app-related service. We just weren’t paying attention to it. I checked in on it last month and I was like, “Oh, that’s cool. We weren’t even paying attention.” We’re talking about a mortgage payment. Just organically with people signing up under us, and clicking our link and signing up and using the service, we’re generating a good passive income off of that. That is a great revenue stream. It’s one that doesn’t take a lot of effort at all. They’re already doing the app; you might as well just integrate as many of these revenue streams as possible. That’s a really good thing. Again, Taylor, you’re right, people aren’t talking about it. They are just not doing it and they should be, because they’re just leaving money on the table.
Taylor: Exactly, and it’s something you can really do with free applications. When people think of free apps, they basically think the only way to monetize them is in-app purchase or ads, and that couldn’t be further from the truth. We had a free application that basically utilized these affiliate programs, and it outsold a couple of the same things that were paid versions. It’s a completely new market that not a lot of people have figured out.
Len: I agree with you totally. Let’s just go a little deeper in that, Taylor. You’ve got a few examples. Are there any other examples that you can think of, of expressing this point to people to give them an idea of how to go out and set these up? We’ve covered targeting; really important. Make sure that, obviously, whatever they do, they have captured and have a trusted relationship with your audience, the same people that would be using your app — whether that’s pranks, whether that’s cycling, whether that’s diet, whatever that is. There are people that already have an audience that are listening to them.
That’s what you want to do is to be able to form an alliance with them, and have them endorse your product to that list or to that audience. Taylor, can we dive a little deeper into it and maybe give them another example, and talk a little bit more about the affiliate stuff as well?
Taylor: Right. Some of the other affiliate programs when you were starting out, if you’re starting small, they may not be able to allow you these 10% to 20% revenue returns. Don’t worry about that, it’s not an issue, because they will be willing to do Facebook shout-outs, the newsletter you were talking about, Twitter shout-outs, stuff like that. I did a few things like this with my book; I basically just had companies with information in there that I used, and I just reached out to them and I was like, “Hey, I used your information in my book. Would you be cool sending a Twitter blast?” Or whatever. Next thing I knew, the day the book went out I had about 800,000 people hearing about it, and I didn’t pay a penny.
Len: It’s a very powerful thing. Joint ventures, alliances — they have been called many, many different things, but that resource sharing in that way, and cross-promotion is absolutely huge. Here at AppClover we do that quite a bit. It buys us a lot of exposure that we are not really paying for; it’s relationship exposure, which is huge. For a small indie developer or Appreneur that are building their network of apps and they’ve got some apps out, reach out to other app developers as well and create other networks. Join forces with others. Really, it’s an acronym type thing that they say, TEAM: Together everybody achieves more. It’s kind of silly in some ways, but for the joint venture side of things it’s really true.
You gain what’s called leverage, which in leverage you do little and the energy or the force that you have with it is quite a lot more, like the mortgage on your house is a leverage point. You pay a little, and you actually are able to capture a lot of value. It’s the same way with joint ventures and alliances; you’re capturing huge value, because these other people have spent time in building up their audience and their trust and relationship with this audience. For you to come in, tap them on the shoulder and say, “Hey, can you endorse my product, or do a review of my app to your audience? I’m sure your audience would love my app. If it’s a paid one I can kick you back some. If it’s not, we can figure out another deal.” That can actually buy you a huge amount of promotion and exposure for no cost.
Matt: The other thing to keep in mind, too, is you do that JV once. If you are building a network of apps, you have got all those people in your network that you can later on advertise all your other apps to, and get them into those as well. That’s huge. It’s like you do a JV with a person once, and then you’ve got their traffic, their list, and you don’t necessarily have to do it again with them, but you are getting the benefit of exposing all of their list to all of your other apps as well. It just kind of keeps growing and growing that way.
Len: The one secret that I can give everybody about this and about building relationships, I have been doing it for over 22 years. I have done every type of joint venture you can possibly think of, and it’s about relationships. Really, how do you want to be treated? Turn around and treat the other person that way first. If you serve first and be able to create the friendship that’s there, show your value of what you can do for them, you have no problem with them coming back and wanting to do for you. That’s really my way of doing it; it’s a lot easier, I feel, than having to ask people over and over and prod them into doing stuff. I just go ahead and do something for them first.
As an example, I sent a lead to one of the partners that we were just bringing on for content for AppClover this week. We couldn’t do anything with it so I threw it to him, and it’s going to be tens of thousands of dollars for this person. Do you think that when I ask him to mail out or to announce us to his list, that there is going to be a problem? No, there won’t be, because we have already served first. That’s what I found to be really, really valuable. If you can think of what that person would want, just find a solution for them, provide value first, you won’t have a problem with them talking about your app or your network.
Taylor, you have been in this landscape for a while. You interned at Apple, so you have got some great experience that you’ve been around. How has the app landscape changed since you first entered into it, and where do you see it heading in the next six months?
Taylor: That’s a fantastic question, and it’s something a lot of people haven’t really changed their mind to. Everyone basically still believes that you can make the flashlight app, and go buy a Ferrari the next day. The truth is, in the last six months, Apple has done a lot of purging of the app store. Essentially those things are not going to be allowed, they’re actually starting to be taken down, things like that. Since we’re at the 650,000th app mark, Apple wants quality. People want quality applications, so you need to be able to deliver a good-quality app.
That being said, paid apps aren’t as powerful now as they used to be. Now people really want the best bang for their buck, and that means free — not to the point where it’s the Android app store where they won’t buy anything, but it has trickled down a bit. There are still plenty of ways to monetize this; we talk about freemium apps, so basically free apps with premium content. That premium content can be delivered through in-app purchases, or through companies like TapJoy where you have pay-per-install kinds of things. There are tons of ways to monetize your app in a free market, the affiliate programs that we talked about that are there.
I think that freemium apps, within the next six months, are really going to take over. If you grab your phone right now and go to top-grossing applications, not one of them is going to be what you think. It’s not Angry Birds or Words with Friends; it’s freemium apps that have either virtual currency or something like that, that are just generating ridiculous amounts of revenue, but the user never pays to install the app on their phone.
Len:That’s where you see in the next six months. We all know that the tide is changing very fast. You mentioned with Apple purging and the changes that they are making. What do you see in the next — let’s put the crystal ball a little bit further. What do you think the next big thing on the horizon we should be watching for in the next year, say, for instance?
Taylor: That’s a really good question. I have some ideas that I’m going to hold myself on that one. You may see that information slip, but there’s going to be some big things coming. It’s going to be one of those things where people that are able to keep up with what’s going on here with expert advice, those people are going to succeed. The people that are willing to see past the curve are going to do very well. The people that can’t get out of the 90s, per se, they’re stuck in the old app store, they are going to tank. It’s going to happen very soon; that’s probably within the next two or three months.
Len: It’s how fast you can swim with the current.
Taylor: Exactly. If you can get ahead of that current, that’s even better.
Len: Right on. Finally, what parting advice from your book, Appreneur, would you give the newbie Appreneur who is entering into the space right now?
Taylor: Sure. It’s all about staying positive. Your first app could be a home run out of the park, or you can just dribble it off your foot. It’s all about what you take from what you learn, and kind of not giving up. You really have to – your application is going to grow. It’s almost like having a child; it’s not going to just be born and be a professional athlete. You really have to nurture it in a sense and get it moving. Just keep your head up and always keep your eye on the prize.
Len: Right on, and it takes work.
Taylor: Absolutely. People really think of apps as, “I’m going to make an app and get paid, and not do anything.” It’s a business like any other.
Len: Awesome, Taylor. Fantastic. I think we may have gone a little bit further time-wise there, so we will catch up with the rest here. I failed to mention who I am at the present as well, at the start I introduced everybody else. By the way, everybody, as a late runner, my name is Len Wright. I’m the CEO and cofounder of AppClover, along with Matthew Lutz, my partner. That being said, I’m going to turn it over to the second segment in the news with Jeff Williams, the Grand Poobah of Weblance.
Jeff: That’s right. There’s actually a lot of stuff that’s come in this week. I’m going to start with some really great news. There has been a 94% increase in mobile development jobs posted this year leading up to March 2012. The need for digital marketing freelancers has developed with a quarterly growth of 24%. That’s like stupid massive. You think about the Chinese economy is growing at 6%, and everybody talking about how great that is. Our industry is growing at 24%. What’s really interesting about this story is that half of that growth has really come out of the UK, which absolutely surprised me.
The other thing that surprised me is although the Android is outselling iPhone, most of the jobs that are created are for the iPhone. There is a heavy push to hire right now for iPhone developers. At the end of the day, our business is growing and it’s stronger. There are tons of jobs out there in our business, which means that there is a lot of business out there. Great news.
Matt: Really quick, Jeff, to that point. You shared a stat with Len and I a little while back, and it was something staggering as far as when you look at oDesk and Elance combined. How much revenue…?
Jeff: You’re going to test my memory here. What’s cool about our business is that you can actually go to oDesk, and they have something called “oConomy,” Elance has a similar one, I can’t remember what it is. They have all kinds of market statistics about the types of jobs and how much money is being put through their system. If you look at the technical side, it’s about 50% of their business. I don’t recall what percentage of that is mobile apps, but obviously it’s going to be a huge portion of that number.
I can’t remember what it is, but it’s something stupid like $40 million a month when you combine all of the job boards for technical. You can go there and check it out; I really don’t recall off the top of my head.
Len: It was huge, though, I remember it was something.
Jeff: It’s just ridiculously huge.
Len: When you mentioned 24%, and we were also talking before about the competition heating up and things changing, you can see that the opportunity is still really, really alive and kicking.
Matt: It’s just starting, really.
Len: Yes, now is the time.
Jeff: I don’t know about you guys, but I get pretty bummed out when I watch the news and I hear about unemployment. To think that there are a ton of people out there with kids and a house and they don’t have a job, and we’re in this business. Taylor was saying keep your head up, stick with it, stay positive. When you look at these numbers, and to know that you’re in this business, not to stay positive would be crazy. If you can’t be positive in the fact that your business is growing at 24% in this economy, get out of the business.
Matt: I’m going to give a plug to somebody that’s not here, because it’s a book that I highly, highly recommend. I’ve read it a couple of times. I met the author and all that stuff, and I have seen him speak. His name is Peter Diamandis, and he wrote a book called Abundance. If you at all feel like the headlines are weighing you down as far as what you see in the news every day about the economy and everything, yes, don’t get me wrong, we’re in a shite state of affairs, I get that. You read this book and you walk away so much more optimistic; it will change your paradigm of thinking as far as what you can actually do and where opportunity actually lies. It’s just a matter of expanding your thinking and looking at things a different way. Everyone knows, every entrepreneur or Appreneur knows that on the flipside of every single hurdle or issue or problem lies opportunity. it’s just a matter of switching the way you think. This industry is completely evident of that.
Len: Something I always remember, too, during the Great Depression there were more millionaires made than any other time in that history. It can be a really heavy subject by far, but at the same time we’ve got to look at the things. There is a big change going on. I really think that the whole mobile thing is really at the lead of that change and that switch. Do I know where it’s really going? No, but there definitely is change going on.
Matt: Like Taylor said, just to bring it back to him really quick. If you can’t just… wow, my thought just completely left my brain. That’s amazing.
Len: Taylor, did he give that thought to you?
Taylor: I did not perceive it.
Matt: I totally forgot what I was going to say. It was basically about the industry and where it’s going — that’s what it was. The whole idea that you just go into it thinking you’re going to get a Ferrari by throwing an app up there. You need mentorship, you need to consume as much information as possible, you need to educate yourself as much as possible — totally redeemed myself.
Len: There you go, right on.
Jeff: The next story — Galaxy tablet is out. Again, not a big news story, but I always like to talk about the news stories where there is opportunity. It has a pen. How is this an opportunity? Well, we can have different types of games, maybe games that are not released yet that use pens Maybe some games are more fun when you use a pen. Anyway, I haven’t seen the tablet yet, I want to check it out, but that’s something to look at if you’re in the Android space.
I’m going to keep it moving right along to the next story. This has been — probably for the last two weeks, really — lighting up on all the blogs about piracy from China and how that is hurting the developers’ bottom line. They’re pretty much copying, as they always do, everything that is released in America. We’re not talking just versions for China, they’re actually releasing these back into the market. This is becoming a real problem for Google. Already we have a market, Taylor mentioned this earlier, that people just don’t want to spend money in Google Play, whereas in the iPhone iTunes they will spend that. When you throw in this complication of having all of these pirated apps there, if you an Android developer, what can you do to protect yourself? What are some of the things that you can do? I did some research on this, and there ain’t a whole lot you can do.
Matt: You just have to accept the fact that when people copy you and imitate you, it is the highest form of flattery.
Jeff: Right. I was just thinking today, like with this lawsuit between Apple and Samsung. I have a Galaxy, and I love it. It’s a big screen. I liked it better than my iPhone. I’m thinking, “You know? I have absolutely no problem with the fact that they copied iPhone, because I like it better.” It’s only when they make stuff that I don’t like better that I think they should probably lose the lawsuit.
Len: So when they don’t improve or make it better, gotcha.
Jeff: Exactly. When you make a bad copy, you should go to jail or get sued or something. Alright, I love this — FTC. They are accusing Facebook of misleading developers. Last week we had this story about how they opened up their app marketplace to the whole world. They are already under investigation. What they did was they told everybody that they will verify apps that they are safe, that there is no malware and their privacy is protected. They didn’t. It’s just something that you got and they didn’t do anything about it. The FTC is saying, “No, that’s not right.” They said it’s reported the social networking site was paid up to $95,000 in order to give software green ticks of approval. They did absolutely nothing for it.
Matt: You know what’s funny? Facebook is obviously such a behemoth, they’re kind of like the Titanic. When they decide something, it’s a slow reaction time. We saw this when they went public and their stock absolutely plummeted when everyone thought great things were going to happen. We’ll see what happens when all of the actual – when people are allowed to start dumping their stock, we’ll see what happens then. I’m really curious where things are going with Facebook, and now this. They have a really good way of making huge announcements and then stumbling a little bit.
Jeff: Yeah. In this one it’s about them sort of selling nothing. After I watched that movie about — what is the guy’s name that owns Facebook? How come I keep forgetting that?
Len: Mark Zuckerburg.
Jeff: yes, after I saw the movie about Mark and I’m reading this, I’m going, “You know what? The guy I saw in that movie would do something like this. Maybe that movie wasn’t so bad.” Maybe he really is like that.
Matt: Curious how it plays out.
Jeff: Sorry, Mark, I don’t know you. Okay, so just another quick announcement about Jellybean that you want to get updated with. Google posted some style guidelines for developers. If you are making an app for your new Android app, you want to make sure that it doesn’t look like anything that came from Windows — don’t use Windows buttons, don’t use Windows anything. They will not approve it. That seems to be the general theme. Again, Taylor was talking about the quality over quantity. I think that’s not only true for iPhone, but that’s going to be true for Android and it’s going to be true for Windows. They are really protecting their platforms — the user experience, the buttons.
Matt: As a design guy I would never do that anyway, because Windows design and interface are usually really bad.
Jeff: Tell me about it; I can’t stand it. I mean, glossy buttons. Don’t you hate it when you hire a developer, and they send you something and it has a glossy button on it? Doesn’t that make you want to just — you know instantly you made a bad hire. Okay, that’s the news this week, guys.
Matt: Cool. Just to keep things moving along, then, I think we went a little longer than we planned on. Taylor, I just want to bring it back to you and ask you a couple of quick follow-up questions and just kind of tie back to maybe your book a little bit. I know you have covered a lot of case studies and stuff like that, including all of the things that you won’t even talk about of your own. If you could maybe really quick talk about a couple of inspirational Appreneur success studies that really stand out in your mind that you can share with us and our watches and viewers, that would be great.
Taylor: Sure. I’m going to shy away from my own since I had a different experience than everyone else, and I’m a developer. This story, I actually reached out to the guy because it’s really inspirational; it’s really cool. He had no programming knowledge, no background in software or any of that. He just wanted an app built. He went out and subcontracted the work for his app, Photo 365. I think he spent around $2500, which is really, really cheap. Sometimes going cheap isn’t the best route, but this is an exception to that. Anyway, he completely subcontracted all the work for this app, and he was a very smart marketing guy, advertising guy and all of that. His app ended up getting featured by Apple within the first couple of weeks of it coming out or whatever. He broke even in the first day and a half or something like that, and ended up making like $36,000 the first month. He is a great — his name is Benny Hugh with Photo 365. It’s a fantastic story, because it shows that you don’t have to have a fat bank account or this ridiculous amount of programming knowledge to make a successful application. You just have to have a dream and a way of achieving it.
Matt: I think that’s huge, and that’s a really good case study or story to talk about. I think the majority of the time, people look at the headlines. They see the Instagram selling for $1 billion, they see Draw Something for $180 million. The reality is, people don’t really consider that this is not just a hobby. If you want to make it and you want to make it big, it’s a business. There is a lot more history behind both of those headlines of the big app sales and people that sell their companies.
Taylor: Absolutely. In my opinion it’s a fantastic business, but it’s very cutthroat. It has its ups and its downs, and you’ve got to be ready to roll with the punches and really dig in. It’s not as easy as everyone thinks. If you’re willing to work really hard at it, then you will definitely succeed. If you think that, “My app is in the app store, time to kick my feet up and have a beer and get paid.” That’s just not going to happen.
Matt: I think that’s huge. What you said is the exact key right there, this is a business. It’s not a hobby, it’s not a get-rich-quick scheme, it’s not any of that stuff. If you attack it and you approach it like a business, you dedicate your time to it and all that stuff, this isn’t something you can just — this is not a four-hour workweek type thing. Once you get things on automation and stuff, if then you want to check out and just keep things running, sure. You have to have 100 apps in the store before you get to that level where it’s just monitoring and collecting a paycheck. In the meantime, you’re going to have to work your ass off. You’re going to have to put in the time and all the blood, sweat and tears. It just has to happen.
Jeff: Like in any new business, the first people in are the people that are going to tell everybody to get in the business because they can make millions, and they’re going to tell them how to do it. That’s how they do it, but they have never actually done it. One of the things I like about AppClover and the shows that you guys always put on, is the fact that you are always doing it with people who have actually done it. The one theme across the board is it’s like any other business, it requires a lot of work. It’s very rewarding, it’s a good business to be in, but it’s not that it’s any easier than any other business. It requires work, without a doubt.
Len: You’re right, Jeff. The one thing I tell people all the time is it’s not easier, but you do have a little bit of – actually, more than a little bit of help as we go back to that 24% increase. That wave, that current that is going and running. If we are grabbing onto that properly with the proper knowledge and wisdom that backs up, and the resources, then we can have a really, really fun ride. You’ve got to know your marketing.
That’s why Matt and I really started AppClover was we have seen a huge gap in the market where people are throwing these apps out in the market, and then just sitting and waiting, wondering what’s going to happen. When they go and look for information, they just can’t find, “What do I do?” People will say, “Do social media.” Do what with it? How do I do what with – where do I fit in here, and what strategies do I use, and what tactics do I use to be able to actually get those eyeballs and those downloads in the end? That’s why it’s so valuable, people like Taylor coming out with these books and information, and with AppClover and Weblance. These places, plus many, many more are providing resources so that these people can learn.
The one thing, Jeff, and everybody has to realize this, is somebody else can’t learn for you. It’s your business. You have to learn. You have to read, take this information in, and then test it in your own experience with your own apps. Take the information that you learn from AppClover and these podcasts and everything else, and from Appreneur, the book, and then put it into practice. See what works for you.
The marketers that you see out there that are very famous and doing really well are ones that it’s like shampooing your hair — you rinse, repeat. Shampoo, rinse, repeat. Its put it out, test, repeat. Tweak, test, repeat. It’s that way over and over again. With your app business it’s no different; you’ve got to find that path yourself.
Jeff: Which is why they need to get Taylor’s book, right?
Matt: I was going to say, I think that’s a great place to stop. Really quick, because I love advertising history and all that, the whole rinse and repeat thing on shampoo bottles was literally just a ploy to try and increase their sales.
Len: I love that.
Matt: I thought that was funny. I guess at this point, I just want to say the idea is we want to keep creating these podcasts, and keep giving people more information and more tactics on monetization and marketing and all that stuff. That being said, I know we couldn’t get into everything we wanted to, but definitely want to extend the invitation to you to come back at a future date if you want to come out in a few weeks.
Taylor: Definitely, I will be here. I always like talking about apps and stuff like that.
Len: Right on, Taylor.
Jeff: Hey, Taylor, can I get a discount on your book?
Taylor: Yes, sure thing.
Jeff: Okay, I’m going to e-mail you.
Taylor: Sounds good.
Len: To close things out here, you can definitely find out more about Taylor and his book at his website, Idea2AppStore.com, and AppreneurBook.com is where you can find out more about his book. Check out those sites, as well as Taylor is a regular contributor on AppClover.com as well as in our iPad magazine, Appreneur Magazine. It is now available on your iPad in Apple’s Newsstand. Thank you, Taylor, for being on. We really appreciate it, and we really suggest that people go and check you out. Jeff Williams, thank you for being on as well from Weblance. The special offer for the AppClover community is still good, and if you sign up for beta on Weblance.com, you’re going to get premium membership free; it’s roughly a $240 savings. Go to Weblance.com and find out more about that. Of course, last but definitely not least, definitely stay tuned with AppClover.com. Check out what we’re doing also with AppreneurMagazine.com as well. We’re just getting ready, actually, to launch our second issue of that as well, jam-packed with a ton of exclusive information that you can only get in AppreneurMagazine.com
Jeff: Sorry, I just have to interrupt you right there. I know we’re running long, but I did look at your magazine for the first time last week, and it is unbelievable. This thing is as well put together as FHM Magazine. That’s the only one I read, so that’s all I can compare it to. It is a really good-looking thing.
Matt: You can do that interruption any time you want. Don’t apologize.
Jeff: Okay.
Len: I really appreciate that; that was a welcome interruption there, Jeff. Thank you. That’s really what we’re doing in AppClover, is trying to deliver as much value as possible. Make sure you stay tuned, we’ve got a ton of announcements coming out in the next while that you’re going to definitely want to hear about in the app world. With that, we really thank you for being on again, and we will continue with these podcasts, so make sure that you stay tuned with us ongoing. Again, this is Len Wright, CEO and cofounder of AppClover.com, and we thank you for being with us.