Every morning I worry I F’ed things up, and go to sleep knowing I did — or — 2nd year as indie.
So its time to summarize 2nd year as an indie developer. A lot has changed — one thing remained constant: Every morning I worry I F’ed things up, and go to sleep knowing I did. So let’s start with some numbers, last year I “made” $102K (I put that in quotes, cause a lot of that went back to Apple to pay for Search Ads and some other stuff listed below) and I had 412K app downloads across my various apps. Interestingly enough number of downloads only rose 31%, while revenue growth was 527% vs last year. I attribute that to an advice I got from a friend of mine (@genadyo) to raise prices :)
If you wonder if paid apps are dead let me tell you they are not- at least not from my experience, almost 65% of my revenue comes from paid apps and paid bundles. Rest is coming from freemium versions of the same apps, where the split is 15% from subscriptions, and 85% from one time in-app purchases.
I would love this to be different, subscriptions are the best tool to keep the business going, and make sure we have less abandonware in the App Store, but I don’t think every app can make it work. None the less I’m going to try… before this year ends (and in a very unlikely scenario — before WWDC), I’m going to transition my paid app to a freemium model, and eliminate the free one that I have right now. I placed the necessary stuff in place to make this as frictionless as possible for users, and I’m going to do it… (unless I will chicken out).
But enough about that… let’s talk about how I spent that revenue I “made”. Based on the data from Search Ads website (quick note- I thought it’s impossible to create a worse website than iTunes Connect, but Apple proved me wrong), I have paid $21K for the ads. But it’s not all bad — I must say that Search Ads, when used properly, is the best type of ads you can buy, and I have tried it all, Facebook, AdWords, sponsored blog posts. ROI vise Search Ads rock. The website sucks and causes me countless hours of grief, but ROI makes it all worth it.
I have mentioned sponsored blog posts and its hard to measure exactly how good they are for sales, but data from Apple affiliate program makes me think that I need to stop spending money on them. Sure it’s nice to see your app featured on the website you enjoy to read, but from my experience, it ends there. Sure I saw an increase in sales, but I don’t think it was enough to even cover the cost. The greatest increase was when LifeHacker wrote about the app, but it was in January so who knows, maybe it was the season and not the post itself.
So my “net” revenue before taxes is around $70K for this year, and it’s still less than I would have made working as an employee. And every morning I wake up to check the sales of yesterday, and in the recent months, I’m not surprised for the better. So to cheer myself up, I decided to go to WWDC (and spend some more money doing so). Maybe I will return with some crazy idea, less esoteric than creating an app that allows people to control their Mac using iPhone or iPad while they veg out on the couch.
To end on the bright note- I fully realize I’m doing fine, my app got some exposure (LifeHacker, MacLife.de), and it also usually occupy some place in Top 100 Paid Utilities in US, UK, and other countries. And things could have been much much worse, like me going to interviews or god forbid working from 9 to 5 (well actually here in Israel it’s more like from 8 to 7 or worse). Instead, I’m doing what I love, on my own schedule.
