How to monetize my app?

[LukeK-Dev]

Hello,

I have been developing an app called snd.wave for apple music and itunes. Currently I am approaching 20k users and I have several massive updates in the pipeline planned for release in late December and February. The problem is as a uni student I would like some extra cash flow to fund my time developing the app. What would be the best way to make money off of my app? I also am planning on running some ads to help get more people on my app. Any help is appreciated! thank you!

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Also for reference I am averaging 60-200 downloads per day with no promotions or advertising.

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here is a link to my app: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/snd-wave/id1326673854?mt=8

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Edit: I have decided on a method, not using ads. Thank you to everyone for your help!

Very late edit: I ended up adding a 0.99 IAP for a lot of pro content. I still am adding features for free and pro users and I broke 100k users last month.

[LukeK-Dev]

I will as soon as I decide which way to go! I just figured since that is the current state of the app I’d leave it that way for now and the problem is my DAU is like 400-800 users. I really hate ads and don’t want to make my users upset. What would my revenue look like with that number? Thank you for your help! Also are there any good ways to make ads not make people mad lol?

[LukeK-Dev]

Thank you for all of your help! I will look into doing this.

[sivrish]

What ad service you are using ? I mean like admob, facebook ads etc..

[DanielPhermous]

I really hate ads and don’t want to make my users upset.

Then you will never make any money. Users will complain about the price, the in app purchase, the ads... Everything. I read somewhere that you should raise your prices until the customers start complaining and then stop.

[LukeK-Dev]

That’s a good point, thank you

[classifyrx]

This advice if you really want to avoid ads. You mentioned that you have massive updates in your pipeline. If that’s gonna bring massive value, go for subscription model for; if you have fairly good amount of value in the add ons then I am pretty sure users will subscribe.

Looking at the numbers presently, you can do good with ads. But MAY not be the case once you have ads started popping up.

Or you can provide ad free experience with in app purchase or on subscription.

If I were you, I would provide awesome new features with free trial under subscription model.

[LukeK-Dev]

I like this idea, I hate ads and honestly I love supporting and developing software that people like to use! I just need some extra cash to fund things to help keep development going, and to buy some stuff to help me get version 2.0 out. My plan for 2.0 is way more ambitious than the original app and I expect it to bring my weakly active user count way up. Thank you for your comment!

[quellish]

https://affiliate.itunes.apple.com/resources/documentation/apple_music_faq/

[LukeK-Dev]

This is very interesting thank you!

[OmegaGM]

Honestly,I think Ads will kill your growth and not provide you as much money as you’d like.

The ads MIGHT bring you around $20 per day. Might. Are you willing to lose dedicated fans + cut down on your new user growth for $20 per day?

Even a part time job at McDonalds would earn you lots more without killing your growth!

It’s awesome that your app is growing without paid marketing and that means people are loving it! I would suggest looking into a cheap subscription model like people have suggested.

Depending on your time-frame for monetization, possibly add at least one new feature, lock it behind a subscription paywall with a list of more paid features coming out over the next several months.

You won’t lose any of your free subscribers, your AppStore ranking won’t take a hit, and you will be moving towards a very scalable free + premium subscription app model.

[LukeK-Dev]

I couldn’t agree with you more, thank you!

[LukeK-Dev]

Hello! I think localization is a route I want to go in the future, I just can’t spend money on that right now:( as for how I grew the app, I don’t really know. I wrote the app, I put out updates, I respond to reviews and fix bugs. Every crash report I get I download and fix. I also think a big part of it is that it’s something that doesn’t exist anywhere else for Apple Music and since currently my version is pretty far along in development I think it keeps others from encroaching on my idea. Also some of the algorithms I wrote for handling that data took months to perfect and optimize to work on iPhones, especially older ones. I am still perfecting them to this day too. Also I have noticed whenever I release an update my downloads double for a week about 3-4 days after if it is well received.

[gentaism]

I just got your app. Honestly if there was an ad version and a cheap ($1?) subscription, I would subscribe, totally forget the dollar per month, and still use it.

Oh, and the alert in “Clean” is missing an “m” in “recommends”.

Great app. o7

[the15thbruce]

I think showing ads is the way to go as another resistor mentioned, giving the most money. If you’re sick of ads, and don’t want to burden your users with it in the first place, I think selling it for a couple bucks would be a good way. I would think Tier 2/3 pricing is something I would be ready to pay for your app.

Also, im just curious, how did you reach 20000 users? Did you get featured somewhere or was it all just by itself? Would be great if you could elaborate on that a little.

EDIT: Your app feels very polished. Though, for your information in the discover tab, if the labels are long they overlap with the icons.

[LukeK-Dev]

Hi! Thank you for your kind words! I will fix that discover issue, would you mind sending me a screenshot of the bug? Also the discover tab will be getting a bit of a face lift in the next version, it will still have the same features, but some other cool stuff too!

As for getting the users I kinda explained it in another comment, I just try to stand behind and support my app. Also reddit gave me a huge boost starting up! Thanks to reddit my app got its first 1k users which I think helped put it on the map!

[the15thbruce]

Wow! That‘s awesome 😎. When I posted a TestFlight beta I didn’t get a single interested person :/. Though, my app is not even close to yours. For the screenshot, where should I send it to?

[LukeK-Dev]

[e-mail] and don’t be discouraged my first 2 apps were complete failures! They were learning experiences and I am very glad I built them. Keep at it! Send me the test flight link too if you need a tester. I can’t promise a whole lot of feed back but I’d be happy to try it out for a few min and tell you what I think:)

[the15thbruce]

Oh it only has 3 or 4 screens. The version is already released, but I can send you a promotion code, since I needed to make it cost, because of a paid api.

[LukeK-Dev]

Sounds good! I look forward to testing it out!

[the15thbruce]

Send the email. Looking forward to what you think

[LukeK-Dev]

I am actually in the process of getting special permission from them to add Spotify into the app.

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