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Don't fool yourself, once your app is off the charts — sales are virtually zero, there's very little trickle revenue. It will become increasingly difficult to l

by pxlpshr 18y ago

Don't fool yourself, once your app is off the charts — sales are virtually zero, there's very little trickle revenue. It will become increasingly difficult to land (and hang on) to top chart positions as the appstore triples in size this year, especially since the charts are governed by sales within 24-hour period. I did a little research because I keep seeing that quote posted (which is from Dec. 08, before another 10k apps were on the store). I found his company and products: http://www.ethanproductions.com http://www.ethanproductions.com Mostly random saying generators, annoying sounds, picture shows, and a bunch of useless shit that's just not sustainable in the long-term. It's obvious to me his #1 intention was to rush a bunch of junk to the store simply to turn a sale, and nearly every app is rated 1 or 2 stars. He may have been getting $10k a month off unsuspecting customers in the past, but I highly doubt he'll see annualized sales over $100k. And I doubt he's still getting $10k in revenue. If this is something that "inspires" you, then maybe you should reconsider your priorities if you have hopes of being the type of entrepreneur/hacker that wants to make a meaningful impact in the world.

wallflower 18y ago
The idea of building a suite of modest revenue-producing apps is what inspires me, not necessarily the implementation. Thanks for taking the time to do the research to find his AppStore alter ago. (Yes, I double-posted the quoted comment again). I think inspiration does not always have to take 100% of the original story - part of it can do it (e.g. it's hard to replicate someone's exact formula) - this reasoning is along the lines of if you compare yourself to another person - you should compare everything, not just the job, etc. (e.g. making it logically absurd to compare yourself to another human being).
- pxlpshr 18y ago
  We've bootstrapped our company since August of 08, so I can absolutely relate to the desire of wanting a healthy, low maintenance revenue stream; sometimes I'm awoken at night by nightmares of raising money. One of the reasons we are bootstrapping this is because 1) we generate cash immediately, and 2) the upside is a VERY NICE revenue stream (no dilution) if we can manage to make, maintain, and keep our place as a premium app developer. This is something that takes time to build and structure for true sustainability, period. You have to plan for more than a years worth of work if you're really interested in having that type of stream from the AppStore as it matures and pollutes. There will be cases of one-hit wonders for indie shops (especially in video games) and the major blogs will cover it, but make no mistake about it — it takes work. The developer who was making $10k a month is likely no longer making that amount. He also has a reputation of producing 'junk' applications by his former and future customers (star ratings mostly 1-2), and will have an extremely difficult challenge in the coming months IMHO. So in a sense, his greed and desire to cut corners has poisoned his long term sustainability. My company and partners are looking at the upside of our product revenue across 3-5 years, not 3-5 months. We're maintaining 4 premium apps (+ 1 junk app), and have roughly 4 new apps we'd like to introduce this year. Our existing products have features that will take over a year to build in and mature, but we're in this for the long haul. This seems to be in line with the thought and actions of the companies that inspire us such as TapTapTap, AppCubby, Polar Bear Farm, Tapbots, Tapulous, and Smule to name a few. It's two different approaches to building a revenue stream, I know our approach will last longer once it's well established.
cubicle67 18y ago
Actually, this is the stuff that inspires me. It's the high level of crap that keeps me going; I have to be able to do better than that.

by pxlpshr 18y ago

wallflower 18y ago

The idea of building a suite of modest revenue-producing apps is what inspires me, not necessarily the implementation. Thanks for taking the time to do the research to find his AppStore alter ago. (Yes, I double-posted the quoted comment again). I think inspiration does not always have to take 100% of the original story - part of it can do it (e.g. it's hard to replicate someone's exact formula) - this reasoning is along the lines of if you compare yourself to another person - you should compare everything, not just the job, etc. (e.g. making it logically absurd to compare yourself to another human being).

pxlpshr 18y ago
We've bootstrapped our company since August of 08, so I can absolutely relate to the desire of wanting a healthy, low maintenance revenue stream; sometimes I'm awoken at night by nightmares of raising money. One of the reasons we are bootstrapping this is because 1) we generate cash immediately, and 2) the upside is a VERY NICE revenue stream (no dilution) if we can manage to make, maintain, and keep our place as a premium app developer. This is something that takes time to build and structure for true sustainability, period. You have to plan for more than a years worth of work if you're really interested in having that type of stream from the AppStore as it matures and pollutes. There will be cases of one-hit wonders for indie shops (especially in video games) and the major blogs will cover it, but make no mistake about it — it takes work. The developer who was making $10k a month is likely no longer making that amount. He also has a reputation of producing 'junk' applications by his former and future customers (star ratings mostly 1-2), and will have an extremely difficult challenge in the coming months IMHO. So in a sense, his greed and desire to cut corners has poisoned his long term sustainability. My company and partners are looking at the upside of our product revenue across 3-5 years, not 3-5 months. We're maintaining 4 premium apps (+ 1 junk app), and have roughly 4 new apps we'd like to introduce this year. Our existing products have features that will take over a year to build in and mature, but we're in this for the long haul. This seems to be in line with the thought and actions of the companies that inspire us such as TapTapTap, AppCubby, Polar Bear Farm, Tapbots, Tapulous, and Smule to name a few. It's two different approaches to building a revenue stream, I know our approach will last longer once it's well established.

cubicle67 18y ago

Actually, this is the stuff that inspires me. It's the high level of crap that keeps me going; I have to be able to do better than that.