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Amazon recently launched a new app store that pays developers by the minute in lieu of all other monetization techniques, it's great if you can come up with eng

Amazon recently launched a new app store that pays developers by the minute in lieu of all other monetization techniques, it's great if you can come up with engaging apps. https://developer.amazon.com/public/solutions/underground https://developer.amazon.com/public/solutions/underground

slig 11y ago
One success story of a small company on Amazon Underground - https://medium.com/@PuzzleBoss/actionable-steps-to-make-money-on-android-4ada61d127ed https://medium.com/@PuzzleBoss/actionable-steps-to-make-mone... TL;DR: they have a Jigsaw Puzzle Android App and make shitloads of money on Amazon Underground.
- benologist 11y ago
  That's me. I now have a Sudoku app launched too, and a new 1200 piece jigsaw to launch this month, and a word search next month.
  - swah 11y ago
    Thanks for writing that post!
wtracy 11y ago
Am I understanding correctly that Amazon is only monetizing Underground through interstitials at app launch time? If so, I'm impressed.
- benologist 11y ago
  For now yeah that's all they do, and the 'underground app' itself is tied in with your amazon.com searches advertising stuff you've been browsing.
chc4 11y ago
"it's great if you can come up with engaging apps" ...and the Amazon app marketplace has a miraculous recovery and somehow because a legitimate revenue source. It probably speaks volumes how badly their device sales are on how likely that is.
- benologist 11y ago
  It's not an App Store where someone could get a billion downloads, probably not even a million except maybe dragged out over a year. But I netted $8k last month on Underground against 38k downloads, that's pretty decent.
  - jackfrodo 11y ago
    Pretty decent indeed! How many apps made up that 38k?
    - benologist 11y ago
      It's a line of jigsaw puzzles, an engine packaged with distinct content as separate apps. On average about one a week gets released.
tdaltonc 11y ago
I love the symmetry with AWS. I pay them for one minute of compute, they pay me for one minute of eyeballs.

slig 11y ago

One success story of a small company on Amazon Underground - https://medium.com/@PuzzleBoss/actionable-steps-to-make-money-on-android-4ada61d127ed https://medium.com/@PuzzleBoss/actionable-steps-to-make-mone... TL;DR: they have a Jigsaw Puzzle Android App and make shitloads of money on Amazon Underground.

benologist 11y ago
That's me. I now have a Sudoku app launched too, and a new 1200 piece jigsaw to launch this month, and a word search next month.
- swah 11y ago
  Thanks for writing that post!

wtracy 11y ago

Am I understanding correctly that Amazon is only monetizing Underground through interstitials at app launch time? If so, I'm impressed.

benologist 11y ago
For now yeah that's all they do, and the 'underground app' itself is tied in with your amazon.com searches advertising stuff you've been browsing.

chc4 11y ago

"it's great if you can come up with engaging apps" ...and the Amazon app marketplace has a miraculous recovery and somehow because a legitimate revenue source. It probably speaks volumes how badly their device sales are on how likely that is.

benologist 11y ago
It's not an App Store where someone could get a billion downloads, probably not even a million except maybe dragged out over a year. But I netted $8k last month on Underground against 38k downloads, that's pretty decent.
- jackfrodo 11y ago
  Pretty decent indeed! How many apps made up that 38k?
  - benologist 11y ago
    It's a line of jigsaw puzzles, an engine packaged with distinct content as separate apps. On average about one a week gets released.

tdaltonc 11y ago

I love the symmetry with AWS. I pay them for one minute of compute, they pay me for one minute of eyeballs.