Monday, April 9, 2012

Can I Make a Living with Android Apps?

Action is the foundational key to all success.
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My plan to make a living from home, with Android app development


Many people dream of making money from home. Some try to do it the easy way - which is seldom successful (check out Son Tran's 'Five Stupid Get-Rich Quick Scams (People Still Fall For)' if you fancy a laugh) - and some people do it from scratch the hard way.

I put a lot of effort into developing Android apps, and I hope that this blog will eventually become an Android developer success story, to inspire others who want to earn money with Android apps.

About me and my business


My name's Mike, and I'm a Technical Support Engineer working for the NHS in Manchester, England. I do like my job, but my dream is to quit working full time for somebody else, and go it alone. My real passion is programming, and so Android development seemed the perfect choice for me to set about making my dream a reality.

I developed and published my first Android app, 'Computer and IT Quiz', in 2010 under the developer name 'Spiderdog Software', and today it's still my most popular app. I spend most of my development time working on both the free and full versions of this app.

How do I make money from my apps?


My apps are offered for download in two ways:
1. Free version with advertising (either third party ads, or ads that point to the paid version of my app).
2. Paid version with no advertising, and some extra features. It's the paid apps that I am expecting to earn the most money with.

How much money do I need to earn from my apps to quit my job and work from home?


Note: I've taken a few things into consideration here such as Google's cut from sales, income tax etc., as well as the expenses I have in my current job (fuel used driving to work and so on). The numbers below are what I would like to earn in app sales before those deductions.

If I can make money from Android - enough money to live off - then I will have achieved my ultimate goal. My target is $1650 per month, which roughly matches my current income.

"Whoa!", you may be thinking. "Mike, $1650 is a lot of money to earn from an app!"

Well... for a month $1650 does sounds like a lot of money for an indie developer like myself, but when you break it down it seems perfectly achievable. $1650 over 30 days is $55, so that's my daily target. If I were to price my apps at $2 and could sell 30 downloads each day, I'd hit my target easily.


My Apps


Computer and IT Quiz - The first app I published and the one that I've spent the most time developing. A multiple choice quiz related to computers, technology and communications. You can see screenshots for this app on the right.

Simple Calorie Tracker/Counter - This is the second app I published. Although the app does have positive reviews, it has enjoyed few downloads and does not make much money on the Google Play Store.

My goals


I've set myself some mini 'stepping stone' goals, which you can see on this page (or you can click 'About me and my goals' in the links section on the right). I'll keep this page up to date with which of the mini goals I've achieved, and the date each was achieved.

Starting point - Downloads and Earnings


I'll be sharing the number of downloads of my apps each month. Here are the starting figures:

Computer and IT Quiz (Lite):
Total installs 16,146
Active installs 1,658

Simple Calorie Tracker/Counter:
Total installs 1354
Active installs 272

My current revenue for all apps is less than $5 per month, and currently I only have third party ads for revenue generation.

Note - these were the only apps I had when I started this blog

I will constantly be improving the apps I have now, and  building new ones to boost revenue.

Thanks for reading, it would be great to hear from some of you who are starting out - even if you just post to say 'Hi!', so please leave a comment, and if you're interested in following my journey, you can subscribe below. Thanks.

All the best.
Mike.

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