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But what about marketing? I assume you built an ios app - how did you market it among the herd of other apps?

seibelj 10y ago
This is where business sense comes in. If you want to make money, your number one goal isn't to have fun and learn something. If you want to work on something fun, then build what you want to build but don't expect to make any money. If you want to make money, you need to build what the market needs. If your enjoyment and the market intersects, that's amazing, congratulations. However, this is unlikely. Once you accept that you are building a business, not a fun side project, you can start to think about how one lonely developer can make money. Preferably with spending as little money as possible to reduce risk. So to answer your question specifically - you target a market that people organically search for in the app store, with zero (or totally inadequate) options currently available. You will then immediately rank #1 or close to it, users will find you, and you will dominate without spending anything on marketing. How do you find a niche like this? I could keep writing, but really this needs to be in a long blog post to summarize all of the different pieces of the "successful one-man side software business" puzzle. It isn't impossible but it's much harder than you wish it would be. No one pays money for something that is easy.
- zodiac 10y ago
  > you target a market that people organically search for in the app store, with zero (or totally inadequate) options currently available) How did you go about finding such markets?
  - seibelj 10y ago
    You want to build something that people find and continuously use. So even if you only get 5 new users a day, after a few years you have many thousands of users. What do people continuously use over years? Think tools, things that improve their productivity, things that help them. Monetization is pretty easy, as mobile ads pay well, and you can charge an SaaS subscription to remove ads, or consumables to get extra features. A free install is critical or no one will use it, charge on upsells within a free app. This is an inexact science. This is inherently a risky endeavor, with a high probability of failure. You need to be mentally prepared to fail. Good luck
jt2190 10y ago
I believe that these are his apps: * Lending Club Order: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/lendingclub-order/id1046114132?mt=8 * Prosper Invest: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/prosper-invest/id1093002241?mt=8

This is where business sense comes in. If you want to make money, your number one goal isn't to have fun and learn something. If you want to work on something fun, then build what you want to build but don't expect to make any money. If you want to make money, you need to build what the market needs. If your enjoyment and the market intersects, that's amazing, congratulations. However, this is unlikely. Once you accept that you are building a business, not a fun side project, you can start to think about how one lonely developer can make money. Preferably with spending as little money as possible to reduce risk. So to answer your question specifically - you target a market that people organically search for in the app store, with zero (or totally inadequate) options currently available. You will then immediately rank #1 or close to it, users will find you, and you will dominate without spending anything on marketing. How do you find a niche like this? I could keep writing, but really this needs to be in a long blog post to summarize all of the different pieces of the "successful one-man side software business" puzzle. It isn't impossible but it's much harder than you wish it would be. No one pays money for something that is easy.

zodiac 10y ago
> you target a market that people organically search for in the app store, with zero (or totally inadequate) options currently available) How did you go about finding such markets?
- seibelj 10y ago
  You want to build something that people find and continuously use. So even if you only get 5 new users a day, after a few years you have many thousands of users. What do people continuously use over years? Think tools, things that improve their productivity, things that help them. Monetization is pretty easy, as mobile ads pay well, and you can charge an SaaS subscription to remove ads, or consumables to get extra features. A free install is critical or no one will use it, charge on upsells within a free app. This is an inexact science. This is inherently a risky endeavor, with a high probability of failure. You need to be mentally prepared to fail. Good luck

jt2190 10y ago

I believe that these are his apps: * Lending Club Order: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/lendingclub-order/id1046114132?mt=8 * Prosper Invest: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/prosper-invest/id1093002241?mt=8