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Two years ago, when we started Steamclock, we spent our first two months building a niche iPhone app. We've done point releases but not added much, yet today it

by apike 14y ago

Two years ago, when we started Steamclock, we spent our first two months building a niche iPhone app. We've done point releases but not added much, yet today it pays our rent. http://www.steamclocksw.com/weddingdj/ http://www.steamclocksw.com/weddingdj/ We haven't done any serious research or marketing for it. We simply focused down and built the highest quality app we could build, and it worked.

AVTizzle 14y ago
Awesome icon. >>We haven't done any serious research or marketing for it. It could be a personal taste question, but why not any marketing? With enough traction to be paying rent based solely off word-of-mouth and organic, you certainly seem to be creating value for people. There are easy/free/cheap ways to market apps, definitely at least some amount of money being left on the table. Congrats either way, good stuff :)
- apike 14y ago
  Thanks! Icons are huge on the App Store, an excellent one is a must have. We've done some experimenting with marketing, but couldn't figure out any strategy that could convert a bride or groom for $3.50 (the amount we net after Apple's cut). We tried and abandoned Google ads, Facebook ads, and advertising on wedding blogs. Virtually all app-marketing services focus on free apps, and most of them are grey hat in some way. For a general-purpose app (like our upcoming Party Monster, a more general music app) you don't need to be targeted, but for a wedding app you need to target engaged people, which is expensive!
  - ecaradec 14y ago
    You may try to contact zankyou or some other website that manage wedding list. I used them for my wedding and they also promote other products. I think they might be interested into your product. Their users are the perfect fit for you : engaged and with an inclination for technology.
lessnonymous 14y ago
This app is an AWESOME idea. I wonder if there's any other verticals that it could be adapted to. Maybe conferences? Funerals? Religious services? How about fitness? I do fun-runs and I would KILL to have playlists for warm up, first 1km, middle run, last 500m, victory and warm down.
- apike 14y ago
  Thanks a lot! We have two projects in the lab: - Party Monster, a general casual DJ app with crossfade, queueing, etc. - Event DJ, a more generalized and pro version of WeddingDJ that could be marketed to conferences, small theatres, etc.
w1ntermute 14y ago
You're practically giving that app away at $5. Wedding-related businesses are extremely high margin, simply because it's super easy to rip people off when they're really happy (same applies for funerals, except people are too sad to care in that case). You could probably sell this for 5x as much and still make more money - the bride will want everything to be perfect for the wedding and will be willing to spend whatever it takes.
- rytis 14y ago
  I suppose this is business common sense, but, man, it sounds awful from a moral perspective when you put it this way... Really, praying on vulnerable. Just my very subjective opinion.
  - pyre 14y ago
    The same thing happens to parents in general, but specifically, first-time parents because they have 0 experience.
    - w1ntermute 14y ago
      Yep, baby products are another good example. Initially, the parents are happy, but soon enough they become stressed out, for the long haul. Both emotions play in the retailers' favor. There was a controversy a while back about how Target figured out a teenage girl was pregnant before her dad did (based on her purchases) and started sending her ads for baby products. The reason why they did this is because people don't shop around for the best deals on everyday items, not really. People think they're getting the best deal, but they're actually trapped in their habits. One of the few times when these habits are reshaped is when a baby is born, because newfound parents suddenly start buying a lot of new stuff, but don't have a lot of free time to research the options. By detecting customers who will become parents in the near future and sending them specially targeted advertising/discounts ahead of time for new products that they'll need, you can snag them as customers for years to come.
- kaptain 14y ago
  People are willing to pay a lot for wedding-related /services/. A lot of people that want to save money on a wedding would buy this because they DON'T want to pay for a wedding planner who will ensure that the music is 100% perfect. If you price this at $25, you'll lose that group of people that were looking to save money, (you could argue that at $25 it's still cheaper than a wedding planner). Not every bride is foolish enough to think that everything will be perfect. The more money you have the more 'perfect' it can be. Those on a budget will opt for a $5 DJ that can get them as close to perfect as their money will allow.
interg12 14y ago
great app idea. Would you be offended if someone made a bar mitzvah version?
- apike 14y ago
  Of course not - we have competition already as a matter of fact. I'd be interested to know what would be different about it other than the marketing.
  - gyardley 14y ago
    Something specific for the candle lighting ceremony, perhaps? Usually there's a snippet of a song played for each candle - something themed to the party lighting the candle, played just long enough to let them make their way to the front of the room. For this I could see a 'fadeout after X seconds' setting or a 'fadeout when I press a button' setting. Since the snippets are short, I could also see people wanting to cue up a spot in the middle of a track - the chorus, not the opening. Otherwise I can't think of much of a difference.

by apike 14y ago

AVTizzle 14y ago

Awesome icon. >>We haven't done any serious research or marketing for it. It could be a personal taste question, but why not any marketing? With enough traction to be paying rent based solely off word-of-mouth and organic, you certainly seem to be creating value for people. There are easy/free/cheap ways to market apps, definitely at least some amount of money being left on the table. Congrats either way, good stuff :)

apike 14y ago
Thanks! Icons are huge on the App Store, an excellent one is a must have. We've done some experimenting with marketing, but couldn't figure out any strategy that could convert a bride or groom for $3.50 (the amount we net after Apple's cut). We tried and abandoned Google ads, Facebook ads, and advertising on wedding blogs. Virtually all app-marketing services focus on free apps, and most of them are grey hat in some way. For a general-purpose app (like our upcoming Party Monster, a more general music app) you don't need to be targeted, but for a wedding app you need to target engaged people, which is expensive!
- ecaradec 14y ago
  You may try to contact zankyou or some other website that manage wedding list. I used them for my wedding and they also promote other products. I think they might be interested into your product. Their users are the perfect fit for you : engaged and with an inclination for technology.

lessnonymous 14y ago

This app is an AWESOME idea. I wonder if there's any other verticals that it could be adapted to. Maybe conferences? Funerals? Religious services? How about fitness? I do fun-runs and I would KILL to have playlists for warm up, first 1km, middle run, last 500m, victory and warm down.

apike 14y ago
Thanks a lot! We have two projects in the lab: - Party Monster, a general casual DJ app with crossfade, queueing, etc. - Event DJ, a more generalized and pro version of WeddingDJ that could be marketed to conferences, small theatres, etc.

w1ntermute 14y ago

You're practically giving that app away at $5. Wedding-related businesses are extremely high margin, simply because it's super easy to rip people off when they're really happy (same applies for funerals, except people are too sad to care in that case). You could probably sell this for 5x as much and still make more money - the bride will want everything to be perfect for the wedding and will be willing to spend whatever it takes.

rytis 14y ago
I suppose this is business common sense, but, man, it sounds awful from a moral perspective when you put it this way... Really, praying on vulnerable. Just my very subjective opinion.
- pyre 14y ago
  The same thing happens to parents in general, but specifically, first-time parents because they have 0 experience.
  - w1ntermute 14y ago
    Yep, baby products are another good example. Initially, the parents are happy, but soon enough they become stressed out, for the long haul. Both emotions play in the retailers' favor. There was a controversy a while back about how Target figured out a teenage girl was pregnant before her dad did (based on her purchases) and started sending her ads for baby products. The reason why they did this is because people don't shop around for the best deals on everyday items, not really. People think they're getting the best deal, but they're actually trapped in their habits. One of the few times when these habits are reshaped is when a baby is born, because newfound parents suddenly start buying a lot of new stuff, but don't have a lot of free time to research the options. By detecting customers who will become parents in the near future and sending them specially targeted advertising/discounts ahead of time for new products that they'll need, you can snag them as customers for years to come.
kaptain 14y ago
People are willing to pay a lot for wedding-related /services/. A lot of people that want to save money on a wedding would buy this because they DON'T want to pay for a wedding planner who will ensure that the music is 100% perfect. If you price this at $25, you'll lose that group of people that were looking to save money, (you could argue that at $25 it's still cheaper than a wedding planner). Not every bride is foolish enough to think that everything will be perfect. The more money you have the more 'perfect' it can be. Those on a budget will opt for a $5 DJ that can get them as close to perfect as their money will allow.

interg12 14y ago

great app idea. Would you be offended if someone made a bar mitzvah version?

apike 14y ago
Of course not - we have competition already as a matter of fact. I'd be interested to know what would be different about it other than the marketing.
- gyardley 14y ago
  Something specific for the candle lighting ceremony, perhaps? Usually there's a snippet of a song played for each candle - something themed to the party lighting the candle, played just long enough to let them make their way to the front of the room. For this I could see a 'fadeout after X seconds' setting or a 'fadeout when I press a button' setting. Since the snippets are short, I could also see people wanting to cue up a spot in the middle of a track - the chorus, not the opening. Otherwise I can't think of much of a difference.