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I built a company that develops iOS apps. My most successful app so far is http://www.tinypiano.com/ http://www.tinypiano.com/ with 6 million (free) downloads (

by ronyeh 14y ago

I built a company that develops iOS apps. My most successful app so far is http://www.tinypiano.com/ http://www.tinypiano.com/ with 6 million (free) downloads (launched Feb 2012). The app is monetizing via ads and in-app purchases. I do this full time. My goal was to make an app that achieves 10 million downloads. It looks like it should hit that mark sometime this year. Another goal was to make enough money to buy a house. Assuming all goes well, that should be possible in a couple of years.

coryl 14y ago
You mean buy a house in cash? Or afford a mortgage on your own?
- bogdans 14y ago
  He most likely means buying it in cash.
- ronyeh 14y ago
  Good question. I guess I meant that I'd be able to pay off enough of the mortgage such that my monthly payment would be close to my current rent. :) If it turns out that I do better than expected, then I'll pay for it in cash. If not, then I can work longer. In any case, the app is doing well enough that it's now my full time job.
lscott3 14y ago
What catapulted (if anything) you to achieving so much success with tiny piano? Especially with getting to 6 million free downloads? - Was it something that people naturally search for? - What types of marketing/advertising did you do? - Do any of the other apps help supplement income?
- ronyeh 14y ago
  The first big jump I got was in March 2012, when I added iPad support (universal binary) and also translated the app store description to Chinese (钢琴). It turns out that people will search for their native word for piano! ;-) Then it grew slowly over the next 8 months. I continued to add song packs and improve the app. I did some marketing on FB, https://www.facebook.com/tinypiano https://www.facebook.com/tinypiano including a raffle where I gave away $50 iTunes GCs to generate more "likes." In November, I also got a big bump due to Apple's iPad mini launch & piano commercial (Heart & Soul). In December, I actually made about as much money as I made the rest of the year. Download #s were high, and AdMob/iAd eCPMs were also at their peak. It was a good month. Relative to Tiny Piano, my 5 other apps are failures.... Collectively, they make about $50 a day. And that's probably because people who like Tiny Piano search for & download my other apps. Here's an old blog post with some numbers: http://blog.squarepoet.com/post/35196629175/tiny-piano-sales-quadruple-due-to-apple-commercial http://blog.squarepoet.com/post/35196629175/tiny-piano-sales... While my daily revenue is now below the $3K I cited in my post... it's still good enough to pay me an engineering salary every month.
  - lscott3 14y ago
    Nice! I am gonna check out the post now. It excites me to hear stories like yours - it installs a little hope in all of us :p.
dear 14y ago
Do you feel lonely as a solo?

by ronyeh 14y ago

coryl 14y ago

You mean buy a house in cash? Or afford a mortgage on your own?

bogdans 14y ago
He most likely means buying it in cash.
ronyeh 14y ago
Good question. I guess I meant that I'd be able to pay off enough of the mortgage such that my monthly payment would be close to my current rent. :) If it turns out that I do better than expected, then I'll pay for it in cash. If not, then I can work longer. In any case, the app is doing well enough that it's now my full time job.

lscott3 14y ago

What catapulted (if anything) you to achieving so much success with tiny piano? Especially with getting to 6 million free downloads? - Was it something that people naturally search for? - What types of marketing/advertising did you do? - Do any of the other apps help supplement income?

ronyeh 14y ago
The first big jump I got was in March 2012, when I added iPad support (universal binary) and also translated the app store description to Chinese (钢琴). It turns out that people will search for their native word for piano! ;-) Then it grew slowly over the next 8 months. I continued to add song packs and improve the app. I did some marketing on FB, https://www.facebook.com/tinypiano https://www.facebook.com/tinypiano including a raffle where I gave away $50 iTunes GCs to generate more "likes." In November, I also got a big bump due to Apple's iPad mini launch & piano commercial (Heart & Soul). In December, I actually made about as much money as I made the rest of the year. Download #s were high, and AdMob/iAd eCPMs were also at their peak. It was a good month. Relative to Tiny Piano, my 5 other apps are failures.... Collectively, they make about $50 a day. And that's probably because people who like Tiny Piano search for & download my other apps. Here's an old blog post with some numbers: http://blog.squarepoet.com/post/35196629175/tiny-piano-sales-quadruple-due-to-apple-commercial http://blog.squarepoet.com/post/35196629175/tiny-piano-sales... While my daily revenue is now below the $3K I cited in my post... it's still good enough to pay me an engineering salary every month.
- lscott3 14y ago
  Nice! I am gonna check out the post now. It excites me to hear stories like yours - it installs a little hope in all of us :p.

dear 14y ago

Do you feel lonely as a solo?