successful indie app development

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Successful Indie App Development Michael Szumielewski

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A 25-minute talk about "Successful Indie App Development" by Michael Szumielewski.

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Page 1: Successful Indie App Development

Successful Indie App Development

Michael Szumielewski

Page 2: Successful Indie App Development

Structure• Indie Development

• App Creation

• App Marketing

• Long-Term App Success

• Q&A

Page 3: Successful Indie App Development

About me

• App Developer since 2013

• Working on own apps only

• Health & fitness apps

• 17 apps on the App Store

Page 4: Successful Indie App Development

Indie Development

Page 5: Successful Indie App Development

Source: http://www.developereconomics.com/reports/developer-economics-q3-2014/

Page 6: Successful Indie App Development

Why go Indie?• Complete autonomy over product development

• Constant learning, you never get bored

• Awesome, cutting-edge industry

• Great financial potential

Page 7: Successful Indie App Development

Indie Development• Be sure, it’s a long-term decision

• Be ready, don’t quit your job (yet)

• Have a great work environment

• Eat healthy and work out

Page 8: Successful Indie App Development

App Creation

Page 9: Successful Indie App Development

App Ideas• You don’t need a great, revolutionary app idea

• Look for proven app ideas with real customer demand

• Build evergreen apps with long-term value

• Search for ideas with profit in mind

Page 10: Successful Indie App Development

App Market Research• Pick a category to limit the search

• Go through the charts and categorize app ideas

• Thoroughly analyze the competition

• Evaluate every idea based on development effort, competition & earnings potential

Page 11: Successful Indie App Development

App Development• Requirement: Deep understanding about apps

and how to develop

• Write clean, reusable code with best practices in mind

• Comment your code. Seriously!

• Don’t reinvent the wheel, use frameworks

• Test thoroughly, use your own apps daily

Page 12: Successful Indie App Development

App Marketing

Page 13: Successful Indie App Development

App Launch• The moment of truth

• Do ASO from the beginning for maximum effect on launch

• You get an ASO bump for the first 7 days

• Watch your analytics and bug tracking

• Get 5 reviews as fast as you can to get a visible app rating

Page 14: Successful Indie App Development

ASO• ASO = App Store Optimization

• Improves your visibility and discoverability

• Huge factor for apps with no brand and/or limited marketing budget

• Key elements for iOS apps: title & keywords

• Not a one-time thing: continuous testing & improvement required

Page 15: Successful Indie App Development

Customer Support• Great customer support makes a

huge difference

• Actively ask for feedback

• Answer every message, don't ignore a single mail

• Always be nice & friendly

• You will get a better understanding of your users & new ideas

• You will get better app reviews

Page 16: Successful Indie App Development

App Reviews• You absolutely need a 5-star app, if not, something is

wrong

• Reviews are extremely important for ASO

• Ask your happy users politely for reviews, it works

• Don’t cheat the system, it’s lame & Apple is watching

• Prevent 1-star reviews (Examples: crash on start-up, forced login, ads after the app has been ad-free, …)

Page 17: Successful Indie App Development

App Network

• Build more then one app

• Interlink your own apps

• Goal: Existing users download your other apps

• Techniques: nag alert, more apps view, house ad campaigns

Page 18: Successful Indie App Development

App Localization• Potentially huge impact on downloads

• Not all languages have the same effect

• Check your analytics and the charts first

• Quality translations only

Page 19: Successful Indie App Development

App Updates• Every update should improve your KPIs

• The big problem: you loose your ratings

• Avoid small, bug fix updates

• Optimize ASO on every update (title, keywords)

• Don’t f*ck up your app updates!

Page 20: Successful Indie App Development

Long-Term App Success

Page 21: Successful Indie App Development

How to Make Money• Ads are not evil! Ad-based apps allow users to try

apps for free

• Free apps have far more downloads then paid apps

• Users want free apps, but some are willing to pay for premium features

• Test your pricing, analyze your competition

• Adapt your business models if needed

Page 22: Successful Indie App Development

Success

Page 23: Successful Indie App Development

How to be Successful• You need more then one app

• Set clear performance goals and review them periodically

• Be in it for the long-term

• Winning daily habits: read news, learn new stuff, do market research, check your analytics

Page 24: Successful Indie App Development

Final Thoughts• Always create great products with users in mind

• Get better every day

• Get out of your comfort zone

• Success doesn't come over night

Page 25: Successful Indie App Development

Thanks!Michael Szumielewski

[email protected]

http://visualhype.net

@visu