250.000$ within two months

Developing an app can be really profitable. Steve Demeter, the developer of trism, has received 250,000$ within three months for his game. He made that money in 2008 when the app store was released. There weren't as many iOs devices as now. So today, there are more potential buyers. But there is also more competition in the app store.

But you have to be realistic. Not everyone's app will become enormously succesful. That's why you don't have to develop solely for profit. You have to enjoy developing, and love making apps to become better. In the infographic, you can see that 60% of the iOs-developers don't make any profit but 12% of the developers earn $50,000 or more. So if you become succesful, you will get rich.

And in the next infographic, you can find a summary of developing succesful apps.

You can find more info here.
Do you know any developers? Are they succesful or not really? What kind of apps have they developed?

Contest: place a comment and win a promocode to get iConvertCal for free

What can you win?

a promocode for iConvertcal. So you will get this iOs-app for free if you win.

What do you have to do?

-place a comment on a post somewhere on my blog.
-send me an e-mail with an answer to this question: How many people will have visited my blog at the end of the contest?
(tip: I have been blogging since 9 october.)
You can send me an e-mail by clicking on the green icon at the left side of my blog.

The contest will end on Wednessday 21 november at 9 pm CET.

The five persons how have made the best guess, will win a promo code. These persons will receive an answer at their mail a couple of days after the end of the contest, with a promo code.

Good luck!

Your e-mail won't be used for other purposes.
You can participate only one time. 
If you have send more e-mails, only your first e-mail will count.

What's in an icon?

"What's in a name?" is an important quote. I think icons are really important in the digital world. That why I say: "What's in an icon?"

An app icon isn't just an icon. The users get their first impression of your app with looking at the icon. I think we can say it's one of the most important things. If your icon isn't beautiful, users won't take a further look at your app and you won't sell your app to all these persons who don't like your app icon.

But what is a great app icon? An amazing app icon has got some key elements. These are simplicity, recognizability and uniqueness.

Your app icon has to be simple. Don't use a lot of colors, but focus on just two or three colors. Don't use too complicated designs. Try to summarize your app functionality into your icon. In that way people will instantly know what your app is about. For example the mail-app has got an enveloppe. If users see the mail-icon, they know that it's the e-mail app because of the use of an enveloppe in the design.

Your app icon has to be recognizable. Even if your icon is really small, users will have to recognize it. In the search-section of iOs, you can search all things, even apps, but the icons are really small in that section. Your icon needs some contrast in colors and a simple design in order to recognize it in the search section.

Your app icon has to be unique. Don't copy a design, or make a little change in an existing icon. Your app icon will be associated with your app and you can't really differentiate your app if you use the same design (with some tweaks) from another app. Try to think outside the box.

Finally, don't make the glare yourself, iOs, will do it for you. In Xcode you can simply set use app gloss to yes and your app will have the well known iOs-gloss.

Here you can find more information. This is an official Apple Developer document.
Here you can find more tips concerning icon design.

What is you favourite app icon design?  Why do you like it?

Why loving your own app is the key thing in marketing

Have you ever seen a salesman who doesn't like the product he is selling? If he doesn't like his product, he won't sell anything. As a salesman you have to be enthusiastic, you have to know your product and you have to be confident.

It's all the same for selling apps. If you aren't proud of you own app, why would someone else like your app. If you don't know why you have made the design decisions, why you have add that feature or removed another feature, people aren't going to buy it. You have to know your product and to love your product.

That's why Steve Jobs' presentations were great. He did know every single detail about his products and he really loved them. He was very enthusiastic and passionate about it. 

Have you ever seen someone who isn't enthusiastic about the products he was selling?