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(Android) Developer Income Report #9
- kreci 16y agoAs usual comments are welcome and very desired!
- gpambrozio 16y agoWhat ad network do you use on your android apps? Very nice reports. Very encouraging. I'm and iOS developer with some paid apps in the app store. Now I'm thinking about some free ad supported apps Keep up the good work
- Derbasti 16y agoWhy is it big news that an Android developer is making some money?
- anthony_franco 16y agoChris has been very open with his earnings since he first quit his job last year (http://www.kreci.net/blogging/i-gave-up-a-day-job-to-make-a-living-from-online-income/ http://www.kreci.net/blogging/i-gave-up-a-day-job-to-make-a-...). It's been inspirational to see how far he's progressed each month.
- kreci 16y agoThanks Anthony! I do not want to argue if it is important news so it is good to know from others that it is not so bad... :)
- Nate75Sanders 16y agoI think the voting system figures this out for us. Your reports are consistently at/near the top of the list for a while, so people are clearly interested. Getting real-world stats on what it takes to make a particular amount of money in a given context isn't terribly easy to get and you make it transparent. Thanks.
- dpcan 16y agoI understand what you are saying. With the growth of Android, and its position in the smart phone market, it is not surprising anymore, and really isn't news. That being said, the popularity of these posts is probably because there are many who would love to make an extra income doing what he's doing, and it is inspiring to see that it is possible month after month.
- yhlasx 16y agoReally like it. Will give it a try this summer. Inspired and encouraged by your income reports :)
- kreci 16y agoThanks. Good to hear that!
- xiaoma 16y agoIt looks like you're slowly, but steadily gaining momentum! I remember seeing your second report when you were making more like 1500. Well done! One thing that continues to amaze me is the performance you get from istockphoto. I always figured that with the number of people out there with digital cameras getting into photography that the prices would fall rapidly for this sort of thing. But it's remained a reliable earner for you.
- ovi256 16y agoSurprisingly, making well lighted, non-cluttered, non-amateurish photographs is something that takes more than having the right camera :) Everyone can download vi and Python. Not everyone can write good software.
- patio11 16y agoYou also have to understand what people who buy stock photos need. (Pretty girl in a headset, yes. Five coeds of a variety of races sitting in a circle on a lawn, yes. Black guy and white guy in similar suits shaking hands, yes. Ethernet cables splayed against a white background, yes. Still life of a banana and a yogurt cup? Probably not, regardless of how beautifully you can execute on that.)
- elliottkember 16y agoIf I were writing a health food article, I might disagree with your last example.
- ja27 16y agoSomething interesting about the iStockPhoto revenue is that it's almost entirely from content that's between 2 and 5 years old. It's hard to imagine a mobile app built today still generating significant revenue 5 years from now - without significant rework, porting, updating, etc.
- mootothemax 16y agoBut as you may see from the numbers I have almost tripled my monthly day job earnings! Purely out of interest, is that before or after tax? I only ask as I'm also based in Poland, and 3,000 PLN (i.e. your original monthly earnings) before tax sounds painful!
- kreci 16y agoIt was my salary before tax. So now it really looks better (it is before tax as well - it is my total income).
- revorad 16y agoHow easy or hard is it to get accepted to istockphoto?
- kreci 16y agoIt looks hard with no any experience (it was my case). I have send them photos edited a few times before getting accepted. But after you will know what can be problematic it does not look so hard any more. It is the same with each added photo as it is being checked each time you add something new.
- nixy 16y agoIt looks like a nice hobby income, but even using your best month ever as an average, you're still only at ~$31000/yr. How much would you make working for a medium-sized or large company in Poland, doing Android development?
- kreci 16y agoI used to make about $1000 minus taxes and had 8 hour work day. Now it is about 3-5 hours per day and income as you see.
- riskish 16y agowhen did you start?
- roel_v 16y agoBut that salary included health insurance, pension and holiday allowance, no? How much are you paying/budgeting for those now that you're self-employed?
- mootothemax 16y agoBut that salary included health insurance, pension and holiday allowance, no? How much are you paying/budgeting for those now that you're self-employed? Be fair - this is a huge pay increase, and by the average standards of pay in Poland is truly gigantic leap. Just for the sake of argument though: health insurance I've seen quotes in the region of 2,500 PLN/year for individuals, and that's for pretty damned decent insurance. That's just under $900 USD at current rates. holiday allowance Call that 20 days/year, essentially a month off. He's earned that this month if he was on his former wage at least ;) pension Default pension payments are close to nothing - maybe a few hundred zł/month, so let's call that $100. I think kreci should be congratulated, by my eyes he's on the path to well exceeding normal paid employment. Keep up the good work!
- roel_v 16y ago"Be fair - this is a huge pay increase, and by the average standards of pay in Poland is truly gigantic leap." I don't know, that's why I asked. Someone going from €1000 in a job to €2500 self-employed here in the Netherlands has made progress, but not remotely as much as it seems at first. Of course it seems that kreci is also working much less, so per hour he's ahead, I'm just trying to make a real comparison. I'm not trying to put kreci down here, I'm just saying that the earnings of a business owners are not even close to the gross profit of the company. "<health insurance 2500 PLN / 900 USD / 630 EUR/ year>" That seems very cheap. http://www.justlanded.com/english/Poland/Poland-Guide/Health/The-Polish-health-care-system http://www.justlanded.com/english/Poland/Poland-Guide/Health... lists the self-employment contributions, for the special discounted rate that is only valid for the first 2 years, at 300 PLN = 108 USD = 75 EUR per month. After that, it's three times that. It's not clear to me either if this includes unemployment insurance. That costs several thousand euros a year in itself, easily (here in the Netherlands, I don't think it's 10 times cheaper in Poland - 50% cheaper at the very best, comparing the other numbers). "<holiday allowance>" 20 days / year is 7% of the total amount of working days, assuming the 20 includes everything - holiday, public holidays, sick days etc. That has an influence on total income, and 20 days including everything is not a lot. "<pension>" http://pension3.com/pl/ http://pension3.com/pl/ says that just under 20% of a persons taxable income is by law required to be put into a pension fund (for employees, that is). Depending on how kreci has structured his business, he may not be obliged to do so (I can't really tell from the page, either). Anyway it's fair to assume that at least 10% (and probably more) of a person's gross earnings needs to be put into a pension fund (or alternative savings vehicle) to be able to get a pension comparable to what employees get (70% of average salary it seems). Quite a bit more than you're implying. Look, I do think too that he should be congratulated. I just don't want to see him think he's rich all of a sudden and then be screwed when the tax man comes around, or when he gets sick, or whatever. But I guess he thought about all of that, he seems like a smart guy - and in that case, I wish he would include those numbers in his reports so that people can get a more accurate idea of his net earnings, rather than his companies gross profit. The two are related but not even close to the same!
- s00pcan 16y agoLots of negative reviews on your apps on the android store, (which is to be expected for "just for fun" apps) but that's pretty much irrelevant so long as you're making money and getting experience. I wish I could say I was doing either.
- chrislomax 16y agoCongratulations, not only on making it a success but having the balls to do it. I had the chance once when I was made redundant and had a hefty payout to go out on my own. I had enough to keep us in food and house for around 5 months so it was a good chance. Alas, I did not do it. I couldn't face risking everything. I had just had a child and couldn't face it if I didn't do it. I am the bread winner as they say, if I hadn't found my market soon enough I would have failed. I presume you had the distinct advantage to plan your move into working from home though, I was forced with only really two weeks to get something sorted and rolling. Anyway, not to detract your success, well done!
- ja27 16y agoIs the Android ad income growth just a result of more users/traffic? Or did you release more apps or do some more substantial marketing of your apps?
- wildmXranat 16y agoWspaniałe wieści! Getting into paid apps on Google market might the next big source of income. Is it still unavailable in Poland? If you would consider a proxy publisher/partnership in North America pm me and we can always discuss it. cześć.
- danssig 16y agoThe blog has a comments section, why do we need to see every single report here? Are Android developers who make money really rare or something?
- 18pfsmt 16y agoWhat's rare is someone who is willing to share this information over the course of time. It's the detail and consistency that count. For those of us that have been following along (I've only read the last 3 reports), it is fascinating.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- ajhai 16y agoInspired by these reports, I started learning android this January and successfully released two apps (Picpuzz and SmartCat), both small puzzle games. While I totally enjoyed working with android SDK and coding these apps, they failed to attract the users . Here is a quick list of reasons why I think my two apps failed (in the context of games) - There are not many levels in the game - Hard to finish the puzzle / user gets bored before finishing the puzzle - UI is not great. You'll need a decent UI when developing games - No regular updates. Important way to increase downloads is to push regular updates. With an update, app appears in the "Just in" section of the android market and gains visibility And not to mention with such less downloads, the ad revenue is pretty bad ($1.52 so far). Even though the total number of impressions that are being served on both the apps together is between 1k-2k per day, there are only 1-3 clicks per week. My best guess is that this has something to do with the way I place ads in my apps. Almost all the free apps (games) that I'd seen till date place ads over the game distracting users. I hate that. So, during game play, I'm diving the screen into two parts, one that displays the game and other displays ad impressions. This won't draw the attention of players and I think is the main reason for the low CTR
- tomjen3 16y agoGoogle has developed Google analytics to help you answer questions like that. It is up to you to deside if you feel it is too icky to use.
- dpcan 16y ago1) Your screenshots need to show what you actually do in the game for picpuzz. You have a screenshot of your main menu and some pictures. No screenshots of the puzzle being played. 2) Why on earth does a game like this need to modify SD Card storage? Be VERY cautious of the requirements your app needs. Remember, your user is going to wonder right away why a simple puzzle game that hasn't been downloaded very much wants to access their SD Card. If it's to grab pictures from your phone - have a screenshot that says "Use photos in this game right from your SD Card". That explains the permission, and shows a feature all in one. 3) You have a big icon that looks like a cat cut into puzzle pieces that is awesome, but for the smart cat app, you have a creepy looking distorted cat that makes your app look like app-spam. I wouldn't even look at the details of the app after seeing that icon normally. 4) The smart cat game is a derivative of a game that's been around for a long time. It is a really fun game by its nature, so are you coming up in the right searches? 5) I have learned from experience that a key to getting found is coming up in searches people actually use. 6) Do the Titles of your games say enough about what they are? 7) Are you writing long descriptions for your apps so they come up in a ton of different searches? You get 4000 characters now, you can really go to town. 8) Do your games give a really nice "how-to" tutorial before the first time the user plays so there's no question about what they have to do? It's not just about updating. It's about improving.
- kahawe 16y ago> Working at home is not as easy as it may seem as you have much more other things in your head that often sounds a lot more interesting than a work. While working at home or in a secluded office is amazing for getting something done, don't forget all the social interaction, communication and contacts you are missing. Do you account for that somehow and monitor how that develops over the months? How do you counter it?
- jbverschoor 16y agoSomehow, our game www.damianfiligree.com only makes about 20usd revenue per month.
- acangiano 16y agoThis shows the advantage of living in a relatively inexpensive country. I make between $3-6K/mo extra through technical blogging in my spare time, and I couldn't afford to quit my day job as a result of that revenue alone (not that I want to). Conversely, if I was living in Poland, I'd be king of Warsaw. :-P That's the beauty of income from the Internet. It can be virtually independent of where you live, so if you reside somewhere inexpensive you can acquire a ridiculously good lifestyle for much less money and effort of your North American peers.
- dpcan 16y agoTher are MANY great and beautiful places to live in the U.S. where $3-6k per month is a substantial living. Check Spokane WA or most of Idaho.
- patio11 16y agoCentral Japan, too, FWIW. It isn't a life of absurd luxury but sure looks like that to any salaryman.
- thibaut_barrere 16y agoSame here in France. For the record, we reduced our expenses to one third of what we did before, by moving from Paris to a small village.
- patrickaljord 16y agoWhat village do you live in and how much do you spend each month more or less if I may ask? How much is needed to live comfortably? I'm thinking of going back to Europe but I'm afraid I may have got completely spoiled at how cheap life is over here in Arequipa, Peru.
- thibaut_barrere 16y agoI'll reply by email!
- heliodor 16y agoMaking significant money off mobile apps is a little more complicated than just releasing a clean app. Here's what comes to mind to be able to produce a decent advertising revenue: - the app needs to be useful on a daily (or so) basis - the app needs to provide regular notifications to remind people of the app's existence and to draw them back into the app - the app needs to have inelastic, strong demand. To give you an example of what I mean, I built the 'Spy Camera' app. That's the kind of product that has a strong demand. I've been charging $6 most of the time, and people buy it! I've made $25K over two years without have any of the above elements. Strong demand goes a long way. But this works for selling apps, not for advertising revenue. The revenue from the ads in the free version of Spy Camera is barely noticeable. Click-through rates are much higher when the user starts the app on his own as opposed to getting there via a notification. Quantity vs quality. Also, if you take a look at the OG's apps, he places the ads right next to the buttons. That kind of stuff won't fly in Google Adsense. It does on mobile, for the moment. Google will fix that in AdMob, then every other network will do the same or risk losing the advertisers. Nobody wants fake clicks. Finally, notice the OG's profitable apps are random catchy stuff that appeals to the general population. Clearly, the OG has done his homework. Don't think money will land in your lap by just releasing a shiny app.