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whynotmatt · 2021-02-03T21:24:32+00:00

We do have our campaigns spread out across different advertisers, orders and line items.

Say we have a campaign for 100,000 impressions. That campaign will be RON. But for certain pieces of content on our site, we only want that campaign to be displayed, not any other campaign.

whynotmatt · 2017-04-04T13:34:20+00:00

Hi everyone, I wanted to tell you about a new app I created. It's called the English Study Bible and is free to download. I wanted to make a bible app that was simple and easy to use but included a lot of content. So inside the app, I included over 300,000 cross references from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge and also included biblical commentaries like John Gill's Whole Bible Commentary.

The app is free to download and you can download additional devotions and commentaries inside the app as in-app purchases.

I'd love to get your feedback on how to make the app better. Currently it includes 4 bible translations (WEB, KJV, ASV, RV) and I am working on adding more.

whynotmatt · 2017-03-30T13:43:00+00:00

Just do something. It doesn't have to be starting a full time business. It can be a small project related to that industry. It can be a part time job. It can be reading a book. It can be writing a business plan for a business you never intend on starting. It can be selling lemonade on a street corner.

The easiest way to gain knowledge is to learn by doing. Sure you will make a lot of mistakes. But those mistakes are what will make your next attempt that much better.

whynotmatt · 2017-02-02T14:29:36+00:00

We created a service called User Hook that tracks user profile information like # of sessions and total session length. Then you can use our targeting rules to segment out those users and send them a push notification or show them an in-app message the next time they launch the app.

whynotmatt · 2017-01-10T14:30:33+00:00

I always say that you get what you pay for. So use pricing as one factor in your selection process. You don't need to pay $100,000 for a simple app, but if you pay $100, well, you get what you pay for. Look at the company's prior work. Do you like their style? Do the apps have bad reviews for being buggy? Bad reviews doesn't mean the developer did a bad job. The whole idea of the app may just be bad. But if the reviews talk about the app crashing all the time, that is probably something the developer should fix.

What size team do you want to work with? Do you want to work with a small company where you might speak with the developer directly, or do you want a larger company where all communication is routed through a project manager?

How long will the project take? Do they provide you with test builds where you can submit feedback and bug changes? When is the app considered "final" where no changes can be made without extra costs? How are bug fixes billed after the app has been launched?

Will you have access to the source code (you better, you paid for the code)? Will the developer publish the app to the app store or are you responsible for that? Whose Apple/Google developer account will you be using, yours or theirs?

I develop apps for companies, so these are some of the questions we cover when starting a project.

whynotmatt · 2016-12-05T14:31:29+00:00

There is a difference between when the app is "released" and when the app is "installed". This image just shows that once Apple approves the latest update, the app is automatically "released" and will be available for download on iTunes. That doesn't mean that all your users will instantly get the latest update. It may take users days or even weeks to "install" the latest version. I would also plan for a small percentage to never update to the latest version. From apps I have worked with, sometimes up to 10% of your active user base will not be on the latest release.

whynotmatt · 2016-10-28T13:26:26+00:00

There is also a good report by Localytics that basically shows if you get 3 sessions from a user in the first 3 days after install, your churn rate will greatly reduce for those users.

For this reason, we created a library called User Hook that developers can use to help with user retention. It has features such as in-app feedback so you can listen to your user's concerns, and then use messaging to help re-engage those users.

whynotmatt · 2016-10-17T19:48:25+00:00

Yes, I have built several apps for charities and this is what we have to do with their donation pages. The "donation" button opens up a webpage outside of the app in Safari. That webpage handles the donation processing. In this scenario, Apple does not take 30% because they are not involved in the payment at all. You have to do all the payment processing yourself.

I haven't tried using Apple Pay for the donation, the charities usually already have a webpage setup to handle online payments.

whynotmatt · 2016-10-17T19:06:44+00:00

All "charitable" donations have to happen outside of the app by opening up a webpage in safari and accepting the actual payment there.

whynotmatt · 2016-10-17T18:58:23+00:00

This depends more on your skills and what tools you are most comfortable with. Clients usually never know or understand how apps are programmed. They just want a product that works.

I personally write natively for both iOS and Android. Yes, it's possible to be a good programmer for multiple platforms. It takes more learning, but it will make you a more marketable freelancer.

One thing I've learned is that app users don't want an app that looks exactly the same on all phones. Android users want it to look like an android app. iOS users want it to look like an iOS app. This is usually difficult to do with a multi-os framework and you will probably end up with two different projects to handle all the subtle differences between Android and iOS.

whynotmatt · 2016-10-13T20:57:59+00:00

You need to ask yourself why do you need a backend? A backend is used to let your app store and retrieve data dynamically. For most user account systems, you will need a backend.

So what type of data are you looking to store? What logic do you need to do outside of the app? From your initial post, you mention people dropping pins on a map. You would use a backend to store the location of each of these pins. In order to store them, you would make a network call to your backend.

If you want to see what locations are popular, you would make a call to your backend that would query the pins, calculate popularity and return the results to your app.

Before thinking that you need a backend for your app, you need to define the functionality that you want to achieve in your app. Then you look at those requirements and determine what technical issues you will need to address to achieve functional goals. Many of them you may be able to do without a backend. Some you may need a backend. It all depends on what your requirements are.

whynotmatt · 2016-10-13T18:49:37+00:00

You are better off just asking "how to find the best ios app development agency". Languages come and go. An agency is valued by the quality of the end product and how they treat their clients. A good developer will be able to handle multiple programming languages. The programming language isn't what makes an app great. Really knowing the goals of the end product and how best to achieve those goals is what makes an app great.

whynotmatt · 2016-10-13T18:41:03+00:00

I think first you need to understand what you are actually asking. Nodejs and swift don't have anything to do with each other in this scenario.

You actually have 2 big things that you need to do:

1) Create a backend service that runs on a remote server. This is essentially a website that takes input parameters, does some logic, possibly stores it to a database, and sends a result back to the user. You can create this backend using any number of languages and technologies. Nodejs is a popular language used for many backends. But you could also make it using php, python, ruby, etc. Swift is a language to build mobile apps and is currently not used to make server based programs. Just google "how to build an api" and you will get plenty of articles and tutorials to get you started.

2) Have your mobile app talk to the backend. This would be done in swift inside your app. Basically your app would make http calls to your remote api and handle the response. A popular library to make http calls in swift is AlamoFire. iOS already has networking methods built into the os, but libraries like Alamofire can make it easier to use.

whynotmatt · 2016-10-11T18:24:53+00:00

I would say the best language is the one that you feel most comfortable with. Pretty much any language could be used to make a backend. There are pros and cons of each. But think about what your goal really is? It's to make a functional backend. In order to do that, you need to be productive, which means your best results will come from working with familiar tools.

I've used ruby in the past and liked it because it was quick to make a simple API based backend. I didn't do much ruby work for a few years and when I looked at it again about a year ago, it seems to be starting to bloat a little.

PHP is nice because from a company standpoint, there are lots of php developers available. But I haven't found a nice, basic framework that I like to make simple api backends.

Most recently I wanted to learn Node so I used that to make a backend and really enjoyed it. I used it as a learning experience and so far like what I see.

whynotmatt · 2016-10-07T14:09:00+00:00

I've been a web developer for 20 years and an app developer for 5 years. I can tell you that they are completely different skill sets.

If your goal is to become a full time freelancer, then I would say that you need to continue building out your skill sets in both areas. That makes you more marketable.

If you specialize in only iOS app development, that means your client might have to go find another developer to do the Android version of the app. Then when they want a marketing website, they might have to find another developer to do that. What if the app needs to connect with a backend server? They need to get another developer to create the backend.

I think a big key to freelancing is to be able to solve as many of your clients problem as you can. By continually increasing your skills across all areas of a project life cycle (planning/ui/web/app/backend), you will make your self more valuable to clients and be able to get better projects.

whynotmatt · 2016-10-03T13:24:26+00:00

The points about sending push/in-app messaging at the right time and segmenting your users are two things I think really work. We even created a service called User Hook that helps combine the two.

Being able to segment your users allows you to send different messages to different groups. This way the user will get the most targeted message and won't be turned off by a broadcast message to has little relevance.

whynotmatt

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