4 ms·

My first bootstrapped startup has launched (iPhone ads). Prayers/Advice please

4 points by msencenb 16y ago

After spending about 5 months on this and a little over 1k (I'm a student... every bit hurts haha) I have a little piece of expensive paper that states I own a company and a working non-traditional advertising site specifically targeted just for the iPhone (at least for now). Any moral support, advice, or just general questions would be awesome! Thanks HN www.adsreloaded.com

deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
sabj 16y ago
Neat idea! I think it would help if you had some more answers to FAQs; maybe if there was a walkthrough with some photos showing just how easy it is? For instance, it is not evident to me from looking HOW it would payout, or when, etc. Also, the contact link is a dead-end at present. Other idea that could be helpful: including easy ways to spread the word about your site, since it's the kind of thing that people would want to share. (At the same time, be sure to work hard to avoid the appearance of scammy-ness, as that can happen too easily with 'make money quickly online' schemes.) But it looks like a cool start, I'd try it out if I had an iPhone. Good luck!
- msencenb 16y ago
  Thanks for the feedback! I have an FAQ in the forum but its not great at the moment. From a users perspective a walkthrough makes a lot of sense. Forgot about that... put up a temporary page with my e-mail address in it. I'll throw up the "have a blog" page soon too.
DannydeWit 16y ago
Interesting idea. But if you pay the user for installing, what does that do for the business model of the developer? When will he make money?
- msencenb 16y ago
  This is an interesting point that has been brought up several times. Often times I hear from developers that they think their app is good but there are just too few people that know about it. By paying for install you are essentially trying to capture that "word of mouth" marketing and hopefully send your app on an upward spin of sales. That being said I can see the concern. My question for other app developers is whether they make money on current mobile advertising platforms such as adMob, Quattro, Google etc? It seems to me that if you get 5 downloads for a $50 dollar campaign that it would be more worth your while to spend that $50 dollars on a campaign that guarantees downloads and puts your app into users hands. One of my original motivations behind the idea for adsReloaded was all the stories behind the terrible conversion rate for iPhone advertising so I am very interested in developer feedback on this particular point.

4 points by msencenb 16y ago

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

sabj 16y ago

Neat idea! I think it would help if you had some more answers to FAQs; maybe if there was a walkthrough with some photos showing just how easy it is? For instance, it is not evident to me from looking HOW it would payout, or when, etc. Also, the contact link is a dead-end at present. Other idea that could be helpful: including easy ways to spread the word about your site, since it's the kind of thing that people would want to share. (At the same time, be sure to work hard to avoid the appearance of scammy-ness, as that can happen too easily with 'make money quickly online' schemes.) But it looks like a cool start, I'd try it out if I had an iPhone. Good luck!

msencenb 16y ago
Thanks for the feedback! I have an FAQ in the forum but its not great at the moment. From a users perspective a walkthrough makes a lot of sense. Forgot about that... put up a temporary page with my e-mail address in it. I'll throw up the "have a blog" page soon too.

DannydeWit 16y ago

Interesting idea. But if you pay the user for installing, what does that do for the business model of the developer? When will he make money?

msencenb 16y ago
This is an interesting point that has been brought up several times. Often times I hear from developers that they think their app is good but there are just too few people that know about it. By paying for install you are essentially trying to capture that "word of mouth" marketing and hopefully send your app on an upward spin of sales. That being said I can see the concern. My question for other app developers is whether they make money on current mobile advertising platforms such as adMob, Quattro, Google etc? It seems to me that if you get 5 downloads for a $50 dollar campaign that it would be more worth your while to spend that $50 dollars on a campaign that guarantees downloads and puts your app into users hands. One of my original motivations behind the idea for adsReloaded was all the stories behind the terrible conversion rate for iPhone advertising so I am very interested in developer feedback on this particular point.